Pick of the Ricks website ?
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Rumbush, from my experience, when you've got a persistent infection, especially a self replicating one, you can spend all too many hours running AdAware, Spybot, and multiple virus scanners in what can be a losing battle. I've tried that route many times, especially on neighbors computers, and often found that the machine was too far infected to cure without more extreme measures. Immunization is definitely on my short lists of must do's. AdAware's resident unit from last I tried it was far too much of a resource hog. Zone Alarm and Spybot's Tea Timer seem to be more user friendly these days, knowing that launching your browser and email client are OK. Also, when installing a new trusted program, it's usually a safe bet to allow all suggested registry changes. Other than new installations, I've found that resident registry change blockers don't nag as much as they used to years ago. Keeping all protective programs up to date is a must as well. I'm also of the opinion that going into msconfig and disabling all your startup programs, rebooting, then manually opening your protective programs and setting them to load at startup will help get rid of unknown and unwanted malware. I do, of course, always run 1-3 passes of Spybot, AdAware, Norton/McAfee/Panda/AVG, to see if I get lucky. If I don't, then I do the above mentioned.
If it ain't broke, break it, then fix it.
Can of worms? It's no profound philosophical statement to say that for every PC tech you'll get a unique reponse to the same question. Lame, but true.
JMH, keep in mind we're not talking about trusted programs, we're talking about dealing with an existing problem, then discussing how to prevent additional "infections." If someone were to deliberately install an application, common sense dictates that they'd see and most likely accept any registry modifications reported by Spybot or similar utility (see below for reasons this is bad). I may not have been clear enough, but I meant to say that as a preventative measure an up-to-date immunization database is preferable to the TeaTimer utility in Spybot. At the top of my list, however, is responsible web browsing - that is the best preventative measure.
As someone who is responsible for 600 users at my company's headquarters, with a load of users in our offices in 70-odd other countries, with a number of years of practical experience, and well-honed instincts when it comes matters of the PC, I recommend against users installing anything that monitors & reports changes to the Windows registry as verbosely/technospeakly as Spybot. If such a utility must be installed, then it should be one that targets specific changes, with reference to a maintained database. Spybot's you still have to "train" and that's no bueno. Anyway, my point was that the vast majority of end-users do not have the experience to distinguish between what is and isn't safe and therefore such a utility is too complicated. Stuff popping up all the time looks to Joe User like a warning. That results in confusion and to the less technically inclined, panic.
AdAware's "pro" version with the resident protection is a pay utility which most users won't do so I wouldn't worry about too many people going that route. I've only ever seen it bog a PC when there are already numerous active spywares and the engine gets cheesed off and confused. Not so good.
Incidentally, I never rely on "getting lucky" to remove persistent (or otherwise) spyware/adware/virus infections. Before the proliferation of anti-spyware tools, there was a time in years past where machines were "too far infected to cure." With appropriate tools combined with experience and knowledge that's no longer an issue. I can't even remember the last time I had to wipe a computer because of persistent, hyperactive spyware infection.
MSConfig as a troubleshooting tool is acceptable, however it is insufficient in most cases. Measures must be taken to address the problem, not the symptom. Bypassing startup items, considering the prevalence of the type of infections that encyst into the shell or as activex controls or otherwise, will definitely not do the trick. Although Spybot and Adware are good, they don't fix stuff that attaches to things like shell entries or winlogon entries. That stuff runs as Windows comes up, service-like, before Run keys and Startup folders.
ZoneAlarm is ok but again is another utility that can be moderately troublesome for the normal person who just wants to use their computer without babysitting an application. I would say the best bet is get a router that does NAT and blocks anonymous inbound requests (that's probably ANY router on the market now). If that's not adequate then even Windows firewall is fine, and a lot simpler for Joe.
'nuff said about that I'd wager, whew
JMH, keep in mind we're not talking about trusted programs, we're talking about dealing with an existing problem, then discussing how to prevent additional "infections." If someone were to deliberately install an application, common sense dictates that they'd see and most likely accept any registry modifications reported by Spybot or similar utility (see below for reasons this is bad). I may not have been clear enough, but I meant to say that as a preventative measure an up-to-date immunization database is preferable to the TeaTimer utility in Spybot. At the top of my list, however, is responsible web browsing - that is the best preventative measure.
As someone who is responsible for 600 users at my company's headquarters, with a load of users in our offices in 70-odd other countries, with a number of years of practical experience, and well-honed instincts when it comes matters of the PC, I recommend against users installing anything that monitors & reports changes to the Windows registry as verbosely/technospeakly as Spybot. If such a utility must be installed, then it should be one that targets specific changes, with reference to a maintained database. Spybot's you still have to "train" and that's no bueno. Anyway, my point was that the vast majority of end-users do not have the experience to distinguish between what is and isn't safe and therefore such a utility is too complicated. Stuff popping up all the time looks to Joe User like a warning. That results in confusion and to the less technically inclined, panic.
AdAware's "pro" version with the resident protection is a pay utility which most users won't do so I wouldn't worry about too many people going that route. I've only ever seen it bog a PC when there are already numerous active spywares and the engine gets cheesed off and confused. Not so good.
Incidentally, I never rely on "getting lucky" to remove persistent (or otherwise) spyware/adware/virus infections. Before the proliferation of anti-spyware tools, there was a time in years past where machines were "too far infected to cure." With appropriate tools combined with experience and knowledge that's no longer an issue. I can't even remember the last time I had to wipe a computer because of persistent, hyperactive spyware infection.
MSConfig as a troubleshooting tool is acceptable, however it is insufficient in most cases. Measures must be taken to address the problem, not the symptom. Bypassing startup items, considering the prevalence of the type of infections that encyst into the shell or as activex controls or otherwise, will definitely not do the trick. Although Spybot and Adware are good, they don't fix stuff that attaches to things like shell entries or winlogon entries. That stuff runs as Windows comes up, service-like, before Run keys and Startup folders.
ZoneAlarm is ok but again is another utility that can be moderately troublesome for the normal person who just wants to use their computer without babysitting an application. I would say the best bet is get a router that does NAT and blocks anonymous inbound requests (that's probably ANY router on the market now). If that's not adequate then even Windows firewall is fine, and a lot simpler for Joe.
'nuff said about that I'd wager, whew
Sytý Hladovému Nevěří
I'm sorry, try here
Rickenbackers: 4003 FG, 4080 BG, 4001CS, 4003 DCM, 4080/12 MG, 4003s5 JG, 4004Cii MG.
Others by: Wal, Fender, Warwick & Washburn
Amps by : TC Electronics & Ashdown.
Others by: Wal, Fender, Warwick & Washburn
Amps by : TC Electronics & Ashdown.
One other unobtrusive and free anti-spyware program is Spyware Blaster by Javacool Software:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/index.html
It passively blocks bad web pages, the 'default' settings are fine for the non-technical user, and it has additional features for the technical user.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/index.html
It passively blocks bad web pages, the 'default' settings are fine for the non-technical user, and it has additional features for the technical user.
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. - Seneca
Oh Man,
Looks like Chris has some more troubles!
Now try to gain access from the GOOGLE search!
A GRIM Reaper comes up and says "FATAL ERROR OWNZ YOU"...what the heck is that?!?
Looks like Chris has some more troubles!
Now try to gain access from the GOOGLE search!
A GRIM Reaper comes up and says "FATAL ERROR OWNZ YOU"...what the heck is that?!?
"Freedom of expression is important, but I have learned that people want to know how much you care before they care how much you know."
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
