spyware questions

I downloaded a bunch of spyware, as suggested by this forum, and I just wanted to be clear on a couple questions.

What do I do with them? Or do they basically look after themselves and just tell me when there is a problem?

From what I understand SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard don't need tending to. They tell me when something is up.

SpyBot S&D and AdAware 6 I'm not sure of. Cookiegal gave me a bunch of instructions when setting up AdAware...click this, click that etc... The others I just installed them. Should I be doing something with them or are the settings that the company provides, fine. Does AdAware and Spybot need to be run everyday?

 

i run them weekly unless i think i have been to a site i don't trust

 

LOL ... anti-spyware, thank you very much.

SpywareBlaster doesn't "run" per se ... it sets killbits and only activates if something tries to plant itself on your computer. The only routine housekeeping is to periodically check for updates, and download them ... then re-set the protection. All of that is done from the main start screen.

SpywareGuard is a small program that runs in the background ... it also provides browser hijack protection. It is rarely updated. It runs automatically on start-up, and you should see a red SG in the lower right of your screen.

Ad-Aware is a removal tool. It only runs when you want it to run ... nothing is in the background. You need to run the webupdate tool each time before you scan, to make sure you have the most recent reference file installed. Here is a reference guide that may help you understand the product a little better: http://forums.techguy.org/t164245/s.html ... as a general rule, I run a full custom scan whenever a new reference file is released. The smart scan is fine for routine checks after you have been surfing.

One other thing that you didn't mention that you might want to consider installing ... IE-SPYAD, a registry file that adds thousands of known "sites" to the Restricted Sites of your Internet Explorer: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource.htm ... it is updated frequently to add additional "sites" as they are discovered.

 

Ok, ok. I spelled a boo boo. You know, what I wrote IS funny.

I'll take a look at where you suggested.

The other thing you suggested is IE-SPYAD. Wow, that is a lot of stuff that I have downloaded on my computer. Not too long ago someone told me that "all of this ANTI spyware is not necessary on the computer. All it does", I was told, "is take up space, freeze up programs, and is probably not compatible with each other. Which is why your computer always freezes."

I'm anxious to hear a comment on that particular statement.

I'm assuming that one is better than my spyware slip up.

 

That's a really funny ...

FWIW ... I have Blaster, Guard and ie-spyad installed on all of my machines ... plus a firewall, anti-virus, etc. At times, it seems I have more prophylactic software installed than "productive" programs. However, the World Wide Web is like the Wild Wild West now.

 

SpywareBlaster doesn't take up resources on our computer...it sets a "kill bit" so that spyware won't install. Ad-aware and Spybot are on-demand scanners. No resources used until YOU run them. Someone's misled you. Don't heed their advice. Stick with TSG and you won't be led astray. Just my two cents.

 

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll stay and drive you guys nuts with all of my tedious questions. Questions that I should know some answers to over the years, but really never payed attention to.

Winchester...If I added IE-SPYAD on top of my other stuff..wouldn't that be, like, overkill, or not really? I notice you said you didn't have adaware on your computers.