Does anyone know of any good FREE spyware sweepers?

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notebooknewbie · #1 Post by **notebooknewbie** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:19 pm

I'm having a huge problem with spyware recently and was wondering if anyone could suggest any good spyware sweepers they know of (preferably free) that they might of had experience with? Thanks!

selvan777 · #2 Post by **selvan777** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:36 pm

Lavasoft Ad-aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and PestPatrol. I wouldn't surf without them and I do believe they are all still free.

JHEM · #3 Post by **JHEM** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:41 pm

Spybot Search and Destroy is considered to be among the best and it's free.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

A "donation" can be made in any amount for the software but it's not required, although I feel that it's worth at least $5 (or more)!

You can also get a free version of AdAware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ from LavaSoft and most folks believe it's best to run both.

Regards,

James

#4 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:04 pm

Spywareblaster is good to ward off future infections also. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Dominix · #5 Post by **Dominix** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 10:20 pm

I install spyware blaster on all my systems and the systems I repair. It is a dose of prevention.

I use the combo of adaware and spybot s&d to clean anything that does get through.

I get pcs all the time that won't boot correctly, or the cable modem is slower then a 14 baud modem. I install these 3 items run them and clean off between 400 to 1600 different items of malware. After that everything is a ok (as long as the owner updates and runs them from time to time.) With this setup and regular updates I may have 10-15 things to clean up bi-weekly.

Elhabash · #6 Post by **Elhabash** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:46 pm

With this setup and regular updates I may have 10-15 things to clean up bi-weekly.

Do you use MS Internet Explorer?
I never have any problems, I am not sure if this is thanks to using Firefox, but it certainly is not a bad idea...

teknoT42 · #7 Post by **teknoT42** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:19 pm

spysweeper is by far the best
ad-aware and the rest are pointless

selvan777 · #8 Post by **selvan777** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 2:26 am

Ad-aware and some others are free, there's no comparison. And in the freeware arena, Ad-aware is excellent.

waterside · #9 Post by **waterside** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:15 pm

Yet another vote for Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/)

While no single tool is 100% effective, both of these are considered among the best in many forums related to this topic.

One good source for information is Broadband Reports Security Forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/security. In particular this one item from the FAQ is invaluable: http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/8463

selvan777 · #10 Post by **selvan777** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:56 pm

In fact, I've found that Ad-aware finds tracking cookies left in IE Cache whereas Search & Destroy, Pest Patrol, and even Spy Sweeper don't. I run all these and fix all and then run Ad-aware and there they are in IE Cache found by Ad-aware.

I've searched and searched to see if it's a pilot error, me being the pilot, but can't find any info at all.

namezero · #11 Post by **namezero** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 12:47 am

waterside wrote:Yet another vote for Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/)

While no single tool is 100% effective, both of these are considered among the best in many forums related to this topic.

One good source for information is Broadband Reports Security Forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/security. In particular this one item from the FAQ is invaluable: http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/8463

You've just saved me from retyping links to those software. Thanks.

(in case you don't get it, yes.. my vote is on both Spybot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-aware)

k3vb0t · #12 Post by **k3vb0t** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:19 am

namezero wrote:
waterside wrote:Yet another vote for Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/)

While no single tool is 100% effective, both of these are considered among the best in many forums related to this topic.

One good source for information is Broadband Reports Security Forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/security. In particular this one item from the FAQ is invaluable: http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/8463
You've just saved me from retyping links to those software. Thanks.

(in case you don't get it, yes.. my vote is on both Spybot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-aware)

Ditto. Use them both on my computer and my roommate, who knows little of computing. By far the easiest solutions available.

karn · #13 Post by **karn** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:46 pm

JHEM wrote:Spybot Search and Destroy is considered to be among the best and it's free.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

A "donation" can be made in any amount for the software but it's not required, although I feel that it's worth at least $5 (or more)!

You can also get a free version of AdAware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ from LavaSoft and most folks believe it's best to run both.

Regards,

James

Yep SPYBOT was voted the BEST Spybot software in 2004 over crappy Norton and adtwist etc plus it's not $69.95 IT"S FREEEEEEEEEEEE

selvan777 · #14 Post by **selvan777** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 1:38 pm

Has anyone tried CounterSpy by Sunbelt Software, looks interesting.

Aramitz · #15 Post by **Aramitz** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:06 am

CWShredder is a must in addition with the others antispies

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/x ... -8114.html

selvan777 · #16 Post by **selvan777** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:01 pm

PeerGuardian is another winner in my books, it's also free.

Methlabs
http://www.methlabs.org/

EDIT:

My preferred run at start-up:

ZoneAlarm Pro, NAV Auto Protect, Ad-Watch, FreeRam XP Pro, Spybot SD Resident, PeerGuardian, and PestPatrol.

soarer · #17 Post by **soarer** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:53 pm

best cure is prevention.

dump that IE.

that is the problem.

i switched to opera for about 6 months now. never had a single spyware ever since. zilch.

Leon · #18 Post by **Leon** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:57 pm

Aramitz · #19 Post by **Aramitz** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 7:24 am

soarer wrote:best cure is prevention.

dump that IE.

that is the problem.

i switched to opera for about 6 months now. never had a single spyware ever since. zilch.

+1

Opera is more friendly, faster'n much more secure than IE.
The new Beta 8 works perfectly

Nabeel · #20 Post by **Nabeel** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:29 pm

search on google for microsoft anti-spyware beta 1, they bought giant antispyware, and theyre hte same thing. its free, i'm running it now, its awesome. giant was voted #1 also

ibmuser · #21 Post by **ibmuser** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 12:23 am

selvan777 wrote:PeerGuardian is another winner in my books, it's also free.

Methlabs
http://www.methlabs.org/

EDIT:

My preferred run at start-up:

ZoneAlarm Pro, NAV Auto Protect, Ad-Watch, FreeRam XP Pro, Spybot SD Resident, PeerGuardian, and PestPatrol.

Note this though:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.leonar ... htm?asdasd

selvan777 · #22 Post by **selvan777** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 2:38 pm

ibmuser wrote:Note this though:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.leonar ... htm?asdasd

It's kinda hard not to since it's displayed every time a "blocklist update" is done.

ibmuser · #23 Post by **ibmuser** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 4:04 pm

Right you are - just thought I'd mention it.
Question: I've been trying Peer Guardian, but get a path error when used on a limited account - any way to configure this??

selvan777 wrote:
ibmuser wrote:Note this though:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.leonar ... htm?asdasd
It's kinda hard not to since it's displayed every time a "blocklist update" is done.

selvan777 · #24 Post by **selvan777** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:15 am

Not sure what you mean but it sounds like a windows thing, try installing it again for all users. I'm using PG Lite while I wait for PG2 to be released.

Darkfire01 · #25 Post by **Darkfire01** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:22 pm

Use the mircosoft anti-spyware beta.. its acctually good. they bough a company called giant who was one of the biggest (pardon the pun) names in antispyware. plus its free

ibmuser · #26 Post by **ibmuser** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:58 am

selvan777 wrote:Not sure what you mean but it sounds like a windows thing, try installing it again for all users. I'm using PG Lite while I wait for PG2 to be released.

my mistake - got it working.
by the way try this:

http://www.abtrusion.com/Downloads/appersonal.asp

great program - let's you control what's executed on your system.

selvan777 · #27 Post by **selvan777** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:26 pm

Thanks for the tip but I already use ZoneAlarm which pretty much provides the same protection.

hkhalil · #28 Post by **hkhalil** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:00 pm

Here's the link to the Software Darkfire mentioned

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

Let's you get pretty deep into the OS

HK:)

ibmuser · #29 Post by **ibmuser** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:13 pm

somewhat off topic to be sure, but if anyone's interested, looks like eztrust antivirus and firewall can be downloaded for free here:

http://store.ca.com/dr/v2/ec_main.entry ... &sid=35715

Does anyone know of any good FREE spyware sweepers?

Does anyone know of any good FREE spyware sweepers?

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