Run Ad-aware before/after Spybot?

Johanna "Spybot and AdSubtract Pro (worth the few dollars!) are excellent for detecting and deleting tracking cookies "

Johanna is this program (AdSubtract) free?. What does it do? Could you please educate me? TIA

 

Ad Subtract

I've been using it happily for two years, and I don't see ads. Period. It filters them before Norton does, and when I look at the logs, what one misses, the other catches. Because most of the ads are never downloaded, and I have a very good cable connection, IE is extremely fast. AdSubtract Pro has good "clean up" features, too, clearing temp files, cookies and browse history, at your discretion.

Johanna

 

Johanna thanks for your reply. I am using EZ Armor. I do not see any banners and pop ups. Would this be overkill? What do you think?

 

I've been running Ad-Aware BEFORE SpyBot, but now that we've added SpySweeper to uncover Trojans that neither Ad-Aware or SpyBot doesn't find, what order to you use with these three programs?

 

efinigan,
I'd say if what you've been doing works for you, just keep on doin it.

El Camino,
If you currently don't see any banners or popups, then I would say yes, overkill. Why install something to stop what you don't get?

 

Johanna,

This is a bit 'off-topic' but . . .

I live in SW Missouri and I know how fast the weather can change. One of the tornadoes last May came within 10 miles of our humble abode.

Check out Weather Watcher or Weather Pulse here. As I remember (3 or more years ago), Weather Bug worked OK but it wasn't worth all of the extras that came with it.

Now I use Weather Pulse. I believe it to be much better than WBug and hasn't got all of the extra baggage.

HTH


Mike

 

I really think it is an individual choice on which program you run first. Saying that, I will give a little more information.

I really didn't trust either of the programs to clean up my pc completelly. I just have a thing about free versions, so I did the following.

I purchased "Spyhunter ". Guess what, after running it, I found a couple of spyware cookies that "Ad-Ware and SSD" didn't find. I then downloaded the free trial of "Spy Sweeper ". And it found a few things that the other 3 didn't. The trouble with "Spy Sweeper" is that the software co. wants a yearly fee, just like a lot of antivirus software co.'s want.

Come to your own conclusion, but mine is that, after a few trial runs of running "Spyhunter" first, I have never found anything on either "AW or SSD ", so I feel the $29.95 for Spyhunter was worth it. I will not subscribe to "Spy Sweeper ", but it has been over 30 days and it is still running.

So, now I just run "Spyhunter.

This is just my opinion, but since I have done a lot of expiementing with the 3 programs, I feel that "Ad-Ware and SSD" are okay for free programs, but if you really want to get a near perfect clean, then "Spyhunter" is the way to go. (The $29.95 isn't that much for a more secure feeling in your mind). And if you know what you are doing, even that price can be reduced.

Just and opinion.

 

OK HollywoodBob. I have purchassed Ad-aware 6.0 Plus version. It is really nice program. But Spybot found stuff Ad-aware didn't pick up.

 

That's good El Camino.

I also have Ad-Ware 6.0

All I'm saying is Spyhunter finds things that the other two let slip through.

Download the free version. Try it for 30 days. When you run SSD and it says your system is clean, then run the trial version of "Spyhunter ". I gaurentee that within the 30 day trial, that "Spyhunter" will find things that "SSD" didn't.

Just try it. It don't cost you anything for the trial period.

Later

 

HollywoodBob I did as you suggested. Both Ad-aware and Spybot said system is clean. Spyhunter found the following cookies:

Bluestreak - 1
Centrport - 1
Media - 5
Revenue - 1
Specificpop - 1
Spylog - 1
Whazit - 1

All these were marked as "medium" in nature.

Any comments from participants?

 

El Camino

Glad you tried it. I only delete what I feel I don't want. It will tell you what they are in the parasite box.

You will have to decide for yourself what you want to delete.

I did do a search for the "whazit" on google and here what I found.

Whazit is an Internet Explorer toolbar and home-/search-/error- page hijacker pointed at its controlling server whazit.com.

Some versions of Whazit also install the nCase parasite.

You can do a search on google for just about anything if you aren't satisfied with the explanation in the parasite box.

Hope I was some help to you. If you need any more questions asked, you can pm me or post.

 

SpyBot S&D and Adaware 6 are the most popular
If problem arise then post a hijackthis LOG and get professional help.

spykiller spyhunter are not well thought of and what they find maywell be a false possitive and couse problems

Quote TonyKlein
X - Spykiller = Spykiller.exe > shareware "Spyware remover" of questionable quality and repute. There are better alternatives that are freeware to boot


and I strongly advise you to get rid of SpyHunter. In addition to producing loads of False Positives, it won't detect much of anything at all, and I believe it will charge you $29.95 if you actually want to have it remove what it found...
Uninstall it through Add/Remove Programs!

Both Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D do an incomparably better job, and they're freeware!
Unquote
========
I also recommend SpywareBlaster and SpywareGaurd
and a good popup blocker maybe a hosts file such as from here
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Adding sites\servers to the Internet Explorer Restricted Zone
with either that domains reg or use IEspyadds
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/restricted.htm

IE-SPYAD puts over 4000 sites in your restricted zone so you'll be protected when you visit innocent-looking sites that aren't actually innocent at all.
IESPYAD'S

 

Thanks Lonny.

 

Lonny,

I can appreciate all the information that you posted to this site on the spyware programs.

I can vouch for Spyblaster. It stops the bugs from getting to your pc. ( A lot of them but not all)

Now as to your comment on "Spyhunter ". You might be right on the false positives, but I just ran it after 2 days of not using any spyware program. It came up with one parasite. I checked the location of the parasite and it was there, so it did its job.

I can not say you are right on "Spyhunter giving false positives, but at this point I can't say that you're wrong.

I will just keep a tab on the parasites that it finds and track them down to see if any are false positive, like you point out.

I will say this though. Like I said in another post higher up, I also downloaded "SpySweeper's" trial download and it also found the parasite that "Spyhunter" found.

In closing I will just say this. Ad-Ware and SSD "DID NOT FIND THIS PARASITE THAT THE OTHER DID ". And if it was a false positive, then it shouldn't have been where they said it was. And by the way the parasite was "Wild Tangent ".

It is a tracking company that uses info for there R & D for gaming. They even have a web site that tells you what this cookie does.

Oh well, to each there own.

Thanks for the info on "Spyhunter ". I will keep my eyes open to see if any of those false positives come up.

Later

 

I've been using Spybot and Ad-aware for almost a year now, and have always found them do to a good job of cleaning up. I've double checked with various other spyware removers after cleaning and have never found anything left over of importance. I do have them both configured for highest scanning priority, and I feel that's necessary. For those reading this that may not know how, I'm posting instructions for doing so.

Spybot
On the start menu>all programs>spybot>select 'advanced' mode. On settings tab> select settings, scroll down to scan priority, select 'highest'. Scroll to 'expert settings', make sure the first 3 are checked. Always update before scanning. *Note; It may be necessary to close Spybot then reopen for updates to load.

Ad-aware
From main window, click "Start" then " Activate in-depth scan "
Then......
Click "Use custom scanning options>Customize" and have these options on: "Scan within archives" , "Scan active processes ", "Scan registry ", "Deep scan registry" , "Scan my IE Favorites for banned URL" and "Scan my host-files "
Then.....
Go to Tweak>Scanning engine and tick "Unload recognized processes during scanning" ...........then........ "Cleaning engine" and tick "Let windows remove files in use at next reboot "
Then...... click "proceed" to save your settings.
And of course, always update first.

Hope this helps.