New to SpywareBlaster V 2.6

[OneNessWithIn]

Aloha

I just loaded SpywareBlaster V 2.6 and the only thing it said on the setup guide page is to select all Red entires (which there were a lot of them, 512 ) and then click Protect Against Selected Items.

I just loaded a fresh install of XP Home and mostly Microsoft software, a few others and been online checking email and there is 512 of these already, is this common?

Is it really safe to just check them all, I tried to see what they were but this I think is beyond my understanding to know if they are something I need or not?

Why the heck doesn't the window enlarge so one can see the whole line?

Do many or some of these get into my computer from junk mail that I open and the quickly delete?

With this program would it be wise to also get S&D loaded or will this take care of all this stuff?

I have Norton's Internet Security 2003 loaded, is there any problems with this and its firewall?

Thanks Joyboy

[Reverend Ike]

The main window contains a list of what SpywareBlaster protects you against - it is NOT a list of spyware that you have on your computer.

99.9% of the time, a user will want to select ALL the items and then click the Protect button. In rare cases, a user might want to uncheck a particular item for reasons of their own, which is why selecting everything is not mandatory.

SpywareBlaster works passively, by setting "kill bits" in the registry, so it shouldn't conflict with any firewall. It doesn't require much user intervention other than being kept up-to-date.

For the most complete spyware protection, I usually recommend three programs in addition to SpywareBlaster:

» SpywareGuard
» Ad-aware
» Spybot Search and Destroy

SpywareGuard is a companion program, also written by Javacool, that provides real-time (resident) protection while running in the background. Spybot S&D and Ad-aware overlap, but there is always the possibility one program might find something the other misses. If you let SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard run normally, and scan periodically with Spybot S&D and Ad-aware, you should be very well-protected with very little effort. Make sure that each program is kept up-to-date with the latest reference files - checking for updates only requires a couple of mouse-clicks for each program ...

[OneNessWithIn]

Aloha,
I did find some info while waiting to see what was shared here, thanks for you input.

I selected them all and did the protect. I also downloaded S&D and Ad-aware. For beginners is one better than the other, are they both needed, do I need to uncheck any of SpyBlasters ones before I use these other ones?

Joyboy

[Reverend Ike]

Spybot S&D and Ad-aware provide similar protection. Personally, I think Spybot S&D is slightly better. When you plan to run a scan, what I suggest is to scan with Spybot S&D first, clean any parasites it finds, reboot, and then repeat the process with Ad-aware.

Used for on-demand scanning, there really isn't any reason not to have both programs installed. A significant number of security-conscious users have both.

Whether you scan weekly or monthly or whenever is up to your personal preferences and habits.

You should not need to uncheck any of the items that SpywareBlaster protects against.

Also, like I said, I recommend SpywareGuard. There are several types of spyware that use randomly-generated IDs in order to avoid detection, and SpywareGuard is better at detecting such variants than other programs that only use databases.

Four programs might seem like a lot to some people, but they really take very little time and effort to maintain. A few seconds to keep updated, plus the time it takes to do periodic scans with SSD and AA, is quite a bargain compared to how much trouble it is to clean off some parasites once they get dug in. And the programs complement each other in what they do and how they do it ...

[OneNessWithIn]

Aloha again,
I'm just now downloading SpyGuard, I'll give all them a try. Are their things they find that one has to be careful about removing or is it generally safe to select all of whatever they pull up, like checking all the ones in SpyBuster?
Joyboy

[Reverend Ike]

SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard will mostly just stop parasites such as browser hijackers from installing themselves. Everything that SpywareBlaster protects against is a known parasite, and it's very unlikely that SpywareGuard would try to block something legitimate.

Spybot S&D and Ad-aware both have features that allow you to undo any "fixes". If they discover something you are not sure of, you can put it into quarantine or add it to an Ignore list temporarily. Or if you remove something and change your mind later, both programs give you the ability to restore the deleted item.

[OneNessWithIn]

Aloha,
I ran both S&D and AD, S&D came up with these, are their any that one would recommend saving?
1- Alexa Related
5-DSO Exploit
2-Windows Media Player Client ID
1- Avenue A. Inc
1- DoubleClick
2- FastClick

and AD came up with
1-Alexa
4- Others that weren't named as well as S&D but I could see several were about those Click ones.

Joyboy

[Pieter_Arntz]

Hi OneNessWithIn,

The first three Spybot found are Windows installed (minor) privacy issues. (So basically up to you, it won´t hurt to have them fixed)
The last three are tracking cookies and should be dumped.

Regards,

Pieter

[OneNessWithIn]

Kewl, Thanks!