Thursday, November 18, 2004
Adwares, Malwares, Spywares, Tupperwares
Which is the odd one out above??
I blogged the other day about the Internet Tourbus. I decided to feature them mainly because of the predicament that our PCs were in, in the past few days. We got infected by these adware viruses that changed the toolbars of our IE browser, having lots of annoying porn pop-ups, and really creating havoc in the system. It even resetted (turned off and on) the PC! The Internet Tourbus has a good explanation on what these new pesky viruses are and what it does to your computer - read here.
To fight it, they suggested to use SpyBot and Ad-Aware softwares which are downloadable free! We ran both of it in our PC and it did the trick. Took out all of the hidden viruses and restored sanity in our ancient computer. They had an "immunize" feature which basically prevents all the known viruses from infecting your system ever again. I say "known" because it only shields you from the viruses it knows (at the moment). That's why it's important to download periodic updates for these anti-viruses and for that matter you also need regular Microsoft updates to plug all the numerous security leaks in Windows and Internet Explorer.
Mind you, our PC was infected while I was logged as an administrator and trying out the changes I made to the Norton anti-virus/firewall by surfing to some select website like this blog. Apparently this is a security hole in Norton. So if you've got this brand of anti-virus don't surf the web as an administrator more so in Internet Explorer. Use or create another login ID for your usual computing activities.
Our friends' laptop that my husband has been trying to fix for several days now, was also crawling with viruses of the same kinds. He ran SpyBot and Ad-Aware, cleaned most of it but was still showing signs of infections. So here I am again to rescue (naks! ala Incredibles) to give him the URL for Hijack This. A nifty downloadable freeware that zaps the remaining viruses infecting you registry files. Finally it did the trick - laptop now virus free. Moral of this long sorry story is: use all 3 mentioned spyware removers for slaying viruses, update regularly your Windows patches (if you're using), use an anti-virus software, and as much as possible use web browsers other than Internet Explorer like Firefox (download it free!).
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9 comments:
Actually, got hit by Trojan because of Ad-aware. My e-mail got hijacked and my IP and e-mail was banned by gmail and Ernst & Young and KPMG. This was just very recent. I should know, I got a notice from their administrators. So what happened was somebody was sending e-ads using my dedicated e-mail address. At one point, I was getting 300 e-mails in a day..Well, lesson learned for me is "nothing is free anymore". There's got to be a reason why these Spy bots or Ad-aware, etc. are giving you these free features according to my computer technician. I have upgraded my XP with SP2 which features a firewall and virus scanner. I haven't had any problem since. It does take long to update though..And this is now the reason why I keep my features to my blog at a minimum..
First of all, YES, Firefox is definitely better and safer than IE.
Opposite naman ang nangyari sa blog ko. When I blog less or the periods in between my posts are long, that's when the spam comments began to appear. So now that I'm basically posting everyday, I get less of the spam comments.
As for spyware removal tools, I have 3 that I use. Check out my own post about this on my blog.
Oh, and lastly, about SP2 of Windows XP...I had a lot of trouble when I first installed it. My McAfee Internet Security didn't 'go along' with it very well. I think that I could have done without installing it, really!
Really Ting, you had your virus from Ad-aware? How did that happen? My first one is I'm sure came from Albrine's blog. I went into his blog it was down then suddenly all these small and big windows started popping up. That's when the PC nightmares began. The second one I think came from Tagboard that's why I disabled it already.
Hi Lady C, thanks for your tips - well noted here. Actually right now I'm doing this comment in Linux's Konqueror browser. It's okayish although some buttons look weird and some things don't load up well. I'll see how this goes. If I had money I will switch to a Mac in a heartbeat. We had an old Imac before and we were never bothered by any virus even if we keep on receiving them in our mails. I am also impressed by the MacOs' file management efficiency. It can pack and compress files very well. Our 4 GB hard drive there still has ample space up to now considering grabe kung maka download ng games ang panganay ko. Samantalang etong PC namin na 8GB minsan titigok-tigok na sa space. Ang haba na nito ah I think I should have blogged this. :-p
Getting this kind of virus happened to me twice. Porno sites were appearing We resorted to changing the program.
Hassle din kasi matagal mag-download ng progeam
Cel, Dutchman is the in-house doctor of my laptop, hes a techie so that helps hehe. I however make sure that i download all new updates of norton and run adware every couple of days. With the new winXP you also get added security features.
Dutchman one time showed me using the msdos program how filthy the cyberspace is. He has a 2nd small laptop which he uses for travelling and he tested this by connecting to the net w/o an anti-virus. The machine didn´t even visit any website, just stayed connected. In just a few seconds, we saw germs (viruses, plural yan!) coming in! In just a blink of an eye!
ooopps, that was me MissT!
hi Rolly, so nag reload ba kayo ng Windows OS? Mukhang ganyan ang gagawin ng husband ko sa laptop ng friend namin. Masyadong masama na ang tama.
hello Miss T, quite alarming isn't it? That means it's absolutely suicidal (computing wise) not to have an anti-virus and firewall.
kaka-install ko lang ng bagong yahoo with anti spy and scan my pc, gulat ako kasi more than 10 adware program/virus ang na-scan. Pero di maalis ang tupperware :)
Hi Kikay Daw, naku talaga nanakawan kayo? Ingat kayo dyan, ha?
Hi Tanggers, oo nga yon ang hindi mawala yung tupperwares. Hehehe!
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