Spyware: is your computer acting sluggish?

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 9:31 pm

Is your computer full of cookies--uninvited software from web sites that burdons your system and tracks your actions? Perhaps hundreds, maybe a thousand? I just cleaned out my sister's computer today...yikes! What a difference to have a clean system after a couple years of collecting...literally hundreds were removed (for free).

Anti-spyware is becoming as important as anti-virus protection.

PC magazine review: (very interesting)
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,30 ... 576,00.asp

Extreme Reviews.net: (excellent comparison of 4 spywares)
http://www.extremereviews.net/reviews/s ... reroundup/

TechRepublic - Ad-ware 6 Personal vs. Spy Sweeper. (very Interesting)
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6270_11-5074190-2.html

WebAttack.com - List of 11 anti-spyware programs: (with ratings)
http://www.webattack.com/freeware/secur ... tispy.html

Some of the best free downloads are Spybot, Spy Sweeper (free trial I think), and Ad-Aware 6.1. Spyhunter is good with free scan but wants $$$ to remove. None of these will catch them all. I keep several on the desktop and one on guard.

randyo · Post by **randyo** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 9:58 pm

I use Spyhunter, and it's remarkable how much faster my computer got after the first sweep. It found a bunch of stuff - regustry entries, cookies, and even executable programs. That kind of stuff should be illegal!

Spyhunter has an upgrade of definitions, and another of the software, itself, very recently, and if you're registered, you get upgrades for free. I like what this stuff did for my computer!
Randy Orman

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:13 am

I use AdAware AND SpyBot. I use them one after the other because I found that neither one gets them all by otself. What the hell, they're free. You could clean stuff off every day if you wanted.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 8:11 am

Thanks for the tips, folks.

I just installed AdAware and SpyBot, and it's true. AdAware did catch some cookies SpyBot missed.

My hard drive crashed a week ago, and I've been wondering why the Internet (especially eBay) is significantly faster now. Is it because the new hard drive wasn't loaded up with spyware?

Best wishes,
Jerry

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 10:04 am

I tried 4 or 5 different progams and ended up with SpySweeper because Ad-Aware wasn't removing VX2 BetterInternet as it claimed it would. My computer would freeze for unknown reasons (several times an hour) so I disabled SpySweeper (though it's still installed and I can run it when needed) and re-installed Ad-Aware FINALLY removing the VX2 spy on it's 2nd installation.
Both programs are installed but not active and I scan files every other day or after visiting websites that demamd I lower my security levels to surf their site (like Yahoo! movies or online streaming music) So far things are working well this way.

cyberspiff · Post by **cyberspiff** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 11:12 am

A little help for the unknowledgable. If you run Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus do you still need to run the anti-spyware programs?

elendil · Post by **elendil** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:27 pm

my computer doesn't seem to be sluggish...but i do. any solutions?

FireFighterLT · Post by **FireFighterLT** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:49 pm

A little help for the unknowledgable. If you run Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus do you still need to run the anti-spyware programs?

Yes, Norton and McAffe will catch viruses or programs with those signatures. However they will NOT eliminate any spyware programs from your PC.

I use spybot and it seems to do the job, but reading these posts I might give Ad-Aware a shot also.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 1:06 pm

"my computer doesn't seem to be sluggish...but i do. any solutions?" elendil, just stop eating cookies.

I keep four or five different anti-spyware programs and run two or three a day for removal. Reading the links in the top post, you'll see that it takes a subscription for certain programs to analyze the hardrive. That must be why Spyhunter will give my sisters computer about 30 cookies and 73 registry we couldn't remove. But at least it told us there were more spywares installed than the free ones would report.

My brother, who is a systems management operator (services, installs, fixes large complicated computer systems, etc.) and is assistant editor of a medical publishing company, wouldn't at first believe Spy Sweeper (free) would find more spy software in his home computer than Spybot (editors choice) until he installed it and tried it. He removed 82 with Spybot that night (his teenage son uses the internet a lot) and afterwards Spy Sweeper found 15 more files and about 33 more "traces." One of the links above describes what "traces" means.

cyberspiff · Post by **cyberspiff** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 2:18 pm

Thanks for the advice. I installed both SpyBot and Ad-aware and between then they found and removed 150+ cookies and bad files. Amazing since I've run Norton since the day I got the computer and always kept it updated.

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 6:50 pm

I was using Norton and being cheap I refused to sign up for updates when the subscription ran out. I downloaded a free version of Avast. It found 3 viruses that Norton missed. I downloaded a card game once that loaded a muti-meg spy program to my system. The system slowed almost to a stop. The spyware was using more of my resources than I was. Spybot found it and removed it. Then the game wouldn't work so I un-installed it. I run spybot and Adaware every day and Avast at least once a week. BTW I flagged a virus on a MS installation disc. They included it at no extra charge. Who says Bill won't give you something for nothing.

Ron

Childers · Post by **Childers** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 6:59 pm

elendil wrote:my computer doesn't seem to be sluggish...but i do. any solutions?

You must be full of it!

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 10:34 am

cyberspiff wrote:Thanks for the advice. I installed both SpyBot and Ad-aware and between then they found and removed 150+ cookies and bad files. Amazing since I've run Norton since the day I got the computer and always kept it updated.

Norton won't do much about spyware. Most spyware comes in one of two major forms.

The first, active software, is usually built into something else, generally fun or beneficial, that you download -- things like games, clocks, weather or stock ticker displays, and so on. Virus checkers don't usually catch them because technically they aren't viruses. If you read the fine print of the license agreements when you install the "carriers" you would see that you are consenting to the collection of personal information. These programs generally attempt to connect to a server somewhere periodically to report the data they've skimmed from your system. Generally, a decent firewall would detect this but most often people are tricked into permitting the application to access the internet even if a firewall is being run. (This is why so many of these "payloads" are delivered in programs that people logically expect to connect to the internet - stock tickers, internet games, etc.)

"ClientMan" is an example of active spyware. The later versions even come with a license agreement that denies you the right to remove their spyware except by using their "approved uninstaller!" ClientMan is a payload on a number of "free" programs and it is incredibly vicious in its collection of data, its tenacity (it puts itself in your startup registry so it will reinstall its DLLs if you remove them), and its potential harm (it attempts to disable virus checkers, popup-stoppers, and other software deemed "injurious to Odyseius Marketing's interests"). Of course, all of this is perfectly legal because you agreed to it when you installed some attractive bit of "free" software -- lesson - read license agreements!

A slight variation on the above is for the spyware to operate as an extension of the browser -- in that case the only way for a firewall to block the spyware's communications would be to disable the browser's access to the internet as well. You can frustrate a lot of spyware simply by going into internet options and not permitting browser extensions to run.

The other main type of "spyware" is simply the placement of cookies on your machine to track your surfing habits. Again, programs like Norton can't do much about this but you can simply configure your browser to refuse cookies. It's a bit of a pain because then you have to go in and permit cookies for certain sites (such as most forums like this one and most shopping carts). It's worth it though, if you don't like some marketing weenie peering over your shoulder all the time you're online

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 1:44 pm

I've just downloaded Spybot and AD aware,and removed a load of sh*te from my computer.Still a bit sluggish though-things seem to have got worse over the last couple of weeks - I blame it on the snow that we had last week!

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 2:04 pm

Thank you so much for this thread! I just downloaded, installed and ran Spybot and now my computer is so much faster!