SPYWARE

SPYWARE PROGRAMS ARE THOSE WHICH WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE, CAN USE YOUR MACHINE TO SERVE ADS TO OTHER COMPUTERS, ROB YOU OF VALUABLE RESOURCES AND BANDWIDTH, AND REPORT EVERYTHING YOU DO BACK TO ITS CREATOR SO THAT THEY CAN SELL THE INFORMATION TO ADVERTISERS AND MARKETERS.!

I don't know about you but I surely don't want my system full of programs that use my computer to send out ads and information without my knowlege or consent! Do You?? Not to mention the ammount of resources taken up by these things running in the background where you can't see them.

The point I am trying to make is that as of late 90% of the systems brought to me are loaded with spyware. The owners bring them in because they are running so slow or they can't even connect to the internet. Well, guess what? They WERE connected to the internet. The problem is that all the spyware has blocked the usual programs such as Internet Explorer from reacing the net so that they can use the connection for its own questionable purposes!

Now your next question is "What do I do about this problem?".

My first suggestion would be to get Spybot Search & Destroy to remove the spyware and Trojans from your system. This program is free and does a good job of cleaning. However, no program in itself can possibly cover every possible intrusive program but this one gets about 99.8% of whats out there.

Make sure you have a good virus scanner such as AVG installed and that it is up to date on definitions. Boot up in safe mode and run your scanner. Safe mode wil allow you to clean or remove files that normally can't be removed because they are running in normal windows mode.

Install a good firewall program that not only blocks intrusions from outside but also alerts you when programs on your system try to connect to the internet. This will alert you to any possible spies or trojans trying to send information back to its creator. My ONLY recomendation for a good firewall is Zone Alarm. The free version does a great job as a personal firewall. Should you want additional features such as a mail safe , pop-up blocking and parental control , you may want to consider the Pro Version.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you check your system for these pesky and sometimes downright dangerous programs and remove them from your system! Try these suggestions

Rants & Raves Archive

1. Clean Your Taskbar

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