Spyware

There are some pretty savvy computer guys here, hopefully one can help! Last night, I got a pop-up ad for Spyware Nuker software offering a free scan for spyware. For the heck of it, I downloaded it and tried the scan. It found some ungodly amount of spyware “stuff” on my computer, and for $29.95, it offered to sell me the full version of the software, remove all the “stuff” I already had on the puter, and monitor for more. My question is, has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing? Is it worth the money to buy the Spyware Nuker (or similar, if anyone has any better programs)? Does Norton Internet Security provide a similar function? Any and all input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I currently use sybot or adaware for removing spyware. These are free downloads from download.com. They do a very good job removing spyware, and are easy to use. The only thing differnt that I can tell between the free shareware programs and the pay programs is this. With the free programs, you have to go out and re download the software to get the latest updates the next time you want to run it (I would recommend running weekly). The reason behind this is because every day there are new spyware programs being written, therfore the programs that remove them must be updated to combat this.

Anyone know of a MAC program?

Greg,

There are several different programs to use out there but I would recommend downloading Ad-Aware 6.0, and Zone Alarm’s free Firewall version 4.5.538. I work on computers all day long and get a lot of opinions on these applications but haven’t had a problem with these apps. You can find them here:

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/2001-20-0.html?tag=zdfd.header5

Do a search for the application’s name.

These are the best free security solutions on the internet that I have found. Easy to install and try to run the Ad-Aware program at least once a week. Also, Norton IS is a very solid security application as well.

Thanks,

JumpNDaBoat

Brian,

The best solution that I have found for the Mac OS 9/X platform is Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus™ 9.0 for Macintosh. Is this the information you were looking for?

Tell you the truth…..viruses for macs are far a few between and hardly cause major damage, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks,

JumpNDaBoat

Norton is good, I have it on my work computer (IBM).

Any your right about Mac viruses, but I’ve found that I will forward a virus infected email without knowing it.

Thanks!

http://www.spychecker.com/ Has download links to both Spybot S&D and Adaware 6.0 I would recommend using both programs once a week and after any updates. Both have update features built into the interface, but it is up to you to click on the update feature. Both have free versions.