Need some tips, advice, and recommendations

[Scott15]

Before I say anything, I would like to say thank you for taking your time to read this long post. I will start with my experience and then ask my questions

I got Spyware Blaster with its latest updates just recently. I also have XoftSpy 4.22 with latest updates. Frequently I get a live365 cookie XoftSpy says this is some sort of tracking monitoring cookie I think. I click remove and I’m not sure when, but it comes back. I don't want someone watching what I do. So I then come to these forums in search on how to permanently stop this stupid cookie. Finding a solution by blocking 3rd party cookies, I decided to see if there’s any talk about XoftSpy and if it’s any good. I find amazement that XoftSpy is bad!?

I then remembered my past experiences with computer infections.

I don't remember how, maybe it was from a download or an e-mail, (at that time, I did not use firefox) But I got the most annoying Trojan I have ever encountered. It was vbsys2.dll or something. I also had mirar, a worm. XoftSpy detected these infections and claimed it has removed it. But they kept coming back. I also had Norton 2006, but it didn’t fix that either! And then tried a trial on STOP Zilla; it found seven items. Removal required a pay. I had no time for that. I also tried System Restoring. No system restore point worked! This was frustrating me for too long! It led me to a total reformat. That did the trick!

After that incident, I was trying to be extra precautious on my actions. I then got Firefox, kept XoftSpy, Norton, and Spywareblaster. My year protection of Norton 2006 ended, I had to uninstall it. After uninstalling it and restarting my computer, it ram much smoother, and faster. I'm a gaming person and I want my computer to be able to run the smoothest. A firewall makes game play slow.

A few months ago, I was talking to a friend on MSN messenger, nothing else. A file Shell Scrap Object called VBS stages appeared on my desktop. I knew something fishy was going on. I launched XoftSpy and did updates, did a full scan nothing detected! But I knew this was not good.

Doing a Google search, I learned this thing was extremely bad! Luckily I did not open it, I immediately deleted it.

Weeks later I was really onto having my computer top shape and infection free. Carefully reading what XoftSpy scans through. I noticed it scanned through a file called Desktop Snooper and did not say a bad thing about it. I did a Google search, Desktop Snooper has to me MANUALLY installed. What? Impossible!! Searching through the registry and removal instructions there was just no sign of this thing. A week later XoftSpy did not scan by that file, but scanned by a different false file. And another a week later, another false file yet again!

Now I am starting to get this live365 cookie. Ok I’m definitely going to get to the bottom of this. So here I am at this forum. I shall now finally ask my questions.


Is XoftSpy safe?
Should I get rid of it? If so, what anti computer infection software is the absolute best to date?

Because I play games, I don’t really enjoy software that takes up allot of ram. Making my computer slower, is there a program that doesnt use a lot of ram?

Can anyone tell me the best software to use to ensure my safety? Should I turn on Windows firewall again?

I really do not go to allot of websites. Websites that I go to do not have any popups and those websites are safe. My internet browser is Firefox. I now use gmail for e-mails. Do I really need an antivirus program?

But if I do get another infection I want it stopped and not another time consuming reformat. Sooner I catch it the better, Can a system restore act as an anti infection when first caught?

I also request tips :) More information on XoftSpy would be greatly appreciated as well. and please share your recommendations! :)

- Scott

[JerryM]

Hi Scott,

I cannot be of much help, but it appears that you only have XoftSpy and Spyware Blaster as your anti-malware applications.
I do not know anything about XoftSpy, but you do need an anti-virus and at least turn Windows firewall back on.

It might help to know what your OS is, and if you have any other anti-malware applications than the two mentioned above.

If you want to be safe you will have to make some concessions to the system resource usage that will be required by a good AV.

From what I see you are on very thin ice, but I'll defer to others with more expertise in this area.

Jerry

[dah145]

First of all, OF COURSE YOU NEED AN ANTIVIRUS. :-\
Hi, these are my suggestions:
1.Try another antispyware programs such as ewido antispyware and superantispyware anyone of these two is better than xoftspy.
2.There are many good antivirus out there, ( far better than Norton) such as Kaspersky, NOD32, Bitdefender ..........
I suggest you to use NOD32, it does not use many resources, or you can try Kaspersky AV 6, they are similar in resource use and both are great at detection.
3.Turn on your windows firewall, or try another firewall such as Zone alarm.

8)

[JerryM]

Here is a review of xoftspy. I do not know how good the tests are, but it does not look good.
~snip~ Removed link to rogue site - snapdragin

I personally use SuperAntiSpyware, but you might also trial the others mentioned by dah145.

On my own system I use an AV, Anti-trojan, anti-spyware, LooknStop firewall, and several other applicationsl

I use Kaspersky AV6, but NOD is an excellent one also. Others will no doubt make suggestions, that you should consider if you want your system to be secure.

Best,
Jerry

[Scott15]

Thank you for the replys, I am going to tryout superantispyware and look into Kaspersky becasue I have heard of Kaspersky quite often. Aswell, I have turned on windows firewalls and checked 'dont allow exeptions' for my games

- Scott

i just ran a full scan using superantyspyware and 0 there are 0 infections :) i feel much better

[the Tester]

I tried XoftSpy in the past.I believe it was safe.
There are better choices available.
You could try SpyWare Terminator.It's a beta and it's free.It's been stable for me.
SAS,Ewido,A-Squared are also good choices and a huge improvement over XoftSpy.

You need a good av and a good firewall also.
Depending on your system resources...I'd use Comodo Firewall.
Regarding antivirus programs and the need for one....Vba32 detected 2 javascript virus while I was surfing with Opera today.I'd definitely use an antivirus.

[Ned Slider]

See here for info on XoftSpy:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#xos_note

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "See here for info on XoftSpy:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#xos_note" }-
Indeed, XoftSpy has an obscure past.
Do you still need to buy XoftSpy to remove the detected threats, which is typical for rogue softwares ???

[Ned Slider]

-{ Quote: "Indeed, XoftSpy has an obscure past.
Do you still need to buy XoftSpy to remove the detected threats, which is typical for rogue softwares ???" }-

I don't know - but given it's past, I'd just steer clear of it as there's plenty of very good totally legit products that do free or trial versions. I'd rather use something I know I can trust.

[cacherlady]

I also need some tips & advice! I have two things discovered by Spyware Detector that I can't get rid of....I'm using the free version, so they won't remove them.

They are: Instantaccess (registry value)
Instantaccess (registry key)
and:
ACX install registry value (active X controls?)
ACX install registry

Any idea how to get rid of this stuff?

Thanks,
Cacherlady

[lodore]

Hi your first step is to make sure there not false positives the best thing to do is run kaspersky online scan. then run ewido and eiether counterspy or superantispyware

[cacherlady]

-{ Quote: "Hi your first step is to make sure there not false positives the best thing to do is run kaspersky online scan. then run ewido and eiether counterspy or superantispyware" }-

Okay, but....do those programs intefere with my NOD 32, as I don't know how to disable NOD in order to run them.

Where do I find Kaspersky & Ewido?

Thanks,
cacherlady

[cacherlady]

-{ Quote: "Hi your first step is to make sure there not false positives the best thing to do is run kaspersky online scan. then run ewido and eiether counterspy or superantispyware" }-

I ran the Kaspersky & it found nothing, so I didn't run the other antispy programs.

My situation is this: Whenever I use Internet Explorer, I get the popups & popunders from the WinAntispyware continuously, even though that file is deleted by NOD & I manually deleted another time.

Then, if that isn't enough, I get more pop-ups & unders, some almost porn related & I have NO IDEA where those are coming from. I am getting popups on sites I never got before, such as my clearwire web mail. I have 3 pop up blockers & none are taking care of the situation. I'm wondering if something is attached to I.E. that's not being dectected by any of the programs I've installed?

I forgot to mention: this doesn't occur if I use Firefox browser.

Thanks,
cacherlady

[dah145]

-{ Quote: "I ran the Kaspersky & it found nothing, so I didn't run the other antispy programs.

My situation is this: Whenever I use Internet Explorer, I get the popups & popunders from the WinAntispyware continuously, even though that file is deleted by NOD & I manually deleted another time.

Then, if that isn't enough, I get more pop-ups & unders, some almost porn related & I have NO IDEA where those are coming from. I am getting popups on sites I never got before, such as my clearwire web mail. I have 3 pop up blockers & none are taking care of the situation. I'm wondering if something is attached to I.E. that's not being dectected by any of the programs I've installed?

I forgot to mention: this doesn't occur if I use Firefox browser.

Thanks,
cacherlady" }-

Hey, :ouch: run the the two antispywares , they might find something. :)

[JerryM]

I would run either a-squared or Ewido, and one of the anti-spyware on-line scanners.
Jerry