Spyware battle

How are people approaching the battle against spyware?

I am using a combination of Adaware, Spy Sweeper, and Norton. Certainly is a pain to have to run multiple programs to fight of the nasties.

Thoughts and comments?

 

use Spybot Search and Destroy also...or just don't click on popups/ads.

get a popup blocker (google toolbar) and that with some common sense should be about all you need.

 

I've also used Spybot. I got Spy Sweeper as part of recent PC upgrade, and hoped it would replace Spybot. I also use the Google toolbar, and find it very useful.

 

I use the Google toolbar pop-up blocker, and I just downloaded Spybot S&D (thanks for the tip!).

You have to be careful with the popup blocker -- some websites rely on them to notify you of important information. Case in point: our company FedEx'ed an important package to Arizona using Fedex.com, and scheduled it for a Saturday delivery. When the person who input the order clicked on "confirm," a popup window (tried to) come up, informing us that FedEx does not do Saturday deliveries in Arizona. We didn't know this, of course, because the popup was blocked. The order was automatically rescheduled to Monday, and no one noticed it until Saturday afternoon. I spent Saturday afternoon/evening at work re-copying the material for the package so that a new shipment could be sent overnight for a Sunday delivery. Lesson learned!

 

Make sure to try Adaware at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ . First time I ran it it on my old machine I found over 200 nasties. Removed them, and perform increased dramatically.

Your FedEx example is a good one. I have also had the same issue show up on my mortgage company website, while making account inquiry. Luckily, it is easy to turn on and off.

 

FYI, Netscape has a built in popup blocker and it can give you an audio alarm (ping) if it blocked a pop-up. Then you can just add that URL to an exception list if you want to get the popup (ie FedEX, Vongage).

 

Firefox is indeed nice, and fast! But for right now, roboform (an awesome password/website login management software -- rocks) doesn't work well with it, so I don't use it much.

If you like the tabbed style of firefox but need IE, check out Avant Browser (http://www.avantbrowser.com/)... it's based on the IE engine.

Also, WinXP SP2 includes some better security features to block popups and rogue ActiveX controls from being installed on your computer.

 

Is WinXP SP2 for Professional and Home addition?

 

It's not out for general download yet, but is out in beta. Yes, it will be for both pro and home...probably sometime this summer.