Spybot Search & Destroy

[hilo_kawika]

G'day,

Everyone has computer issues at some point, some folks more than others.

Some time ago, I found a great freeware program called Spybot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

This software looks for nearly 350,000 types of malware (software programs which intentionally try to do you harm). The program is free, but they do accept donations, large or small.

I run the program weekly and update the program check list every Thursday. Recently, when I checked a friend's computer for them, they had nearly 250 (!!!) instances of bad programs on their computer. Ouch!

The worst types of malware (to me) are key-stroke loggers and those programs which use your computer to send spam and malware programs to others. Key stroke loggers literally record every keystroke and periodically send the information back to a central computer which then scans the data for credit card information, etc. Ugly...

Please consider using this or another such program to protect yourselves.

aloha,

Dave Hurd

[Craig]

I use it too Dave. Seems it's not 100% protection , but it sure helps

[kiwigeo]

Will it get rid of the worst piece of Malware ever written.......MS Windows???

[sebastiaan56]

I use it and another called "Spyware Detector". I find that different programs search for and identify different kinds of spyware. One will find stuff after the other has finished.

[joel]

I use Adaware, Spybot S&D, and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

The Anti-Malware one was the only one to pick up a nasty piece of work that was preventing Windows update, and a few other programs from even running.

The only problem with Spybot is it doesn't seem to want to work with many antivirus programs out there, requiring you to uninstall Spybot to install or update your antivirus.

You can't be too safe these days.

[Hesh1956]

Get a Mac and kiss these troubles goodbye....

I run both a Mac and a PC and every morning I turn both machines on. The Mac is up and running in 30 seconds - the PC (primitive computer.... ) takes about a minute to boot and then goes through about 5 minutes of updating the virus definitions, checking for updates, and asking me a plethora of annoying questions.......

My Mac also has VISTA on it too running on a virtual machine named Parallels. When I feel like being abused I boot-up VISTA...... VISTA reminds me of Stevie Nix - you can't understand a single thing that it is saying.....

Interestingly about a year ago one of the rags tested VISTA and XP on Mac's and found that Macs actually run these operating systems faster than PCs do. Go figure.......

Also both XP and VISTA have Microsoft's spyware protection built in as well.

I used Spybot for years and liked it but what really improved my on-line experience beyond measure was getting a Mac.

Last month my Mac laptop was 2 years old and in that time nothing ever went wrong - nada. Comparing it to what is available today and it is still 90% as fast as the newest Mac making upgrading not necessary. My Windows computers were always obsolete by the time I got back from the store.....

[Bob Connor]

That's because Macs run off a Unix subsystem Hesh.

If you want a real operating System use Solaris or Free/Open BSD.

Trouble is it's not too easy to use and Solaris is quite particular about the hardware it runs on (although it is getting better)

If and when both Unix/Linux or MAC OS become as popular as Windows you will see people writing malware for them as well.

A few years ago it was kids writing virii much the same as they would graffitti a wall. It was just for kicks or bragging rights.

Nowadays it's for monetary gain largely driven by Russian mafia. ie keystroke loggers with an inbuilt SMTP engine, trawling for your banking details.

I use Spybot plus Adaware as they'll both be aware of different malware and in tandem they seem to keep my machine clean.

I'm a Vista user. Not because I like it but I have to be reasonably au fait with it's operations because I teach it (I actually teach more of the Server side of things but you still have to join 'em on to domains etc.)

Windows Seven should be interesting because it's essentially a makeover of Vista, fixing most of the things that people hate in Vista (including turning off User Account Control by default)

[hilo_kawika]

Hesh, I've had considerable success speeding up my Vista startup time by using Codestuff Starter

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Syst ... rter.shtml

in combination with a current listing and description of a number of startup programs and what they do:

http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html

Starter is particularly useful after installing a new program to make sure that it isn't automatically in your startup listing when you don't want it to be.

aloha,

David

[Paul B]

When I was in the US back in early July (and the oz dollar was worth $0.98 ). I bought a new HP Pavilion laptop for $528 (same one was going for like $1600 here). It runs Vista. I didn't like it at first but it boots up in under a minute, and I've gotten used to it now.

It ain't a mac, but it's gotta be the next best thing.

[kiwigeo]

I have HP to thank for making me buy my first Mac. The laptop I had at the time was a total design ^^^^ up...mother board kept overheating. After three new mother boards I gave up.....what really p**ed me off was having HP suggest I reload the OS everytime I phoned them up.

The Powerbook is now 6 years old and hasnt missed a beat. G4 chip and it happily runs latest version of OSX.

[Allen]

My first Mac didn't need to rebooted for over 2 1/2 years. Just log in, log out. No worries. No virus scanner. No problems. And a no brainer.

Can't say I ever had that success rate with any version of MS Windows I ever used. And I used them all up to NT2000 Server.

[Paul B]

I should point out that my first 4 computers (beginning back in '92) were all macs. Love em, but too many higher priorities these days to justify buying one, they're just too damn expensive.

Had to bite the bullet and go to a PC about five years ago, hated them until this new HP laptop came along.

BTW, back in '92 to buy a modem I had to go to the 23rd floor of some office block in the city to get one. The IT sales guy looked at me suspiciously and asked what I wanted it for. I said "to access the internet!", he said "what's that?". I just shook my head and walked away. True story.

[kiwigeo]

A common misconception amongst non Macheads. A Mac might cost a bit more than a PC but the Mac will not need upgrading as often as a PC.

When you consider long term cost the Mac is cheaper than a PC. In my PC days I was having to upgrade to a new machine to every 18 months....the PC either cratered or the hardware wasnt up to running the latest OS. I mentioned my aging Powerbook (800Meg G4 processor) happily runs the current mac OS (OSX)....my brother in law has an ancient Emac (at least 10 years old) with 512meg of Ram that hes got running OSX. Ive gotta say I was gobsmacked when I saw the machine happily chugging away at a respectable speed. Thats a bit like running Vista on a 486....

Horses for courses of course...the Mac versus PC argument is like arguing about which style of music is "the best".

I should point out that my first 4 computers (beginning back in '92) were all macs. Love em, but too many higher priorities these days to justify buying one, they're just too damn expensive.