Adware fact

There might be a possibility that some really skanky anti-spy ware company that offers to run a "free check" on you computer, may in fact put something on there. However, there are plenty of slime-balls that do this to you without you ever going near a spy-ware site.

There are more than enough bad guys around to keep Symantec and McAffe in cash for the next hundred years. Also, there's more than enough ad-ware and mal-ware out there to keep the spy ware companies in the money, as well.

I think it was about four years ago when I heard of spy-ware, found my first checker software, and found not only ad-ware, but also a number of programs that could allow people to come in a back door and mess with my system. A lot of this stuff is traceable back to the offenders, but we're still sorting out how to prosecute these people - and they love that twilight position in the law. Also,all it would take is for one virus to be tracked back to a vendor to shut the doors on a billion dollar corporation forever. I doubt they, their share holders, or their board would take that kind of risk.

There are more than enough bad guys around to keep Symantec and McAffe in cash for the next hundred years. Also, there's more than enough ad-ware and mal-ware out there to keep the spy ware companies in the money, as well.

As ever , you reach the good bits vermin. Major security packages are priced at about the same as the going price for ransom (OK , I only read it , but it was an interview with the woman from sun microsystems.). The priciple is the same as cigarettes and nicotine replacement mediacation - guess what , the price is about the same.They're not guaranteed either. Heads they win , tails you loose.

Somehow () I managed to get Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Version on my machine. It's a brute, it automatically updates itself with the most recent virus info. And I've never seen anything get past it - spy ware, yes, but that's not what it's designed to kill. For something that works this well, I'd pay a lot!

Also, just a word of warning to the innocent: Never click on a URL contained in an email if the end of the URL contains ".exe, .cmd, .bat" If you do, you're guaranteed to pick something up. A lot of what we catch is really our own faults for not practicing safe computer sex.

Good advice. At home I've dumped Symantech in favour of CA Antivirus suite simply because the Symantech software seemed to use up a lot of resources. At work we use AVG with no ad-ware, trojan or malware detectors and no firewall but the only people who ever have any trouble are those that habitually visit dodgy web sites.

Maybe your adware has died but I wouldn't want to rely on it. More worrying is thinking about how it got into your system, this suggests that you are not well protected. are you running anti-virus, anti-spy, anti-adware programmes & a firewall? These are available free if you need them. You can run an on line check using 'shields-up' at www.probemyports.com which will expose any vulnerabilities that your PC has.

Install Ad-Aware & Spybot, both are free downloads that find most of the bad stuff, Spyware Terminator also does a good job!!