How often?

I am using Spybot, Ad Aware for my spyware. How often should I run the spyware protection? My daughter is starting to use the computer now and I'm not sure of some of her surfing

Thanks,
MRSCT

 

Everyday after she logged out as an limited account user you log into your admin account and clean it out.

let an automated task do it for you

 

I think it would be better to install other programs as well other then Adaware and spybot...get some pro-active (fancy word he ) defences .. make it fun and teach her some stuff what she can do for herself

That would be awesome I Guess

 

Ha Ha,
She can teach me more than I can teach her .
She knows alot about computers, just not about spyware (neither do I )

Is that spyware hard to understand? I need it as simple as possible
MRSCT

 

Hey MRSCT,

Lately I've found that AV/AT's have become much better at handling the trojan downloaders which are typically the first part of a spyware infestation. I haven't found anything on my family systems for months. Just make sure that the AV/AT used is solid, that the the realtime settings are reasonable, and (most importantly) when something is flagged, go with the recommended action (delete, etc.).

As far as understanding it, check out the links here, there's plenty of information to read. I'd particularly recommend many of Ben Edelman's writeups - a lot of the why's behind spyware can be found there.

Blue

 

You could add SpywareBlaster in with those also, to help avoid spyware installing in the first place...
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
SpywareBlaster FAQs
Cheers.

 

Just a guess, but I presume you are on broadband, in which case I also presume you have a firewall and and anti-virus. You also know that spyware exists, and worried about it, which is a good start in fighting it.

I would suggest you download Microsoft Anti-spyware, which is free, and has realtime protection which should compliment your AV (AV's arent very good at all at detecting spyware). Just realise though, that no AS is better than 50-75% effective at detecting spyware at the moment (probably because the spyware industry is growing so fast).

Spywareblaster is a very good free program to have as per the above link, and won't use any system resources

Another free idea that won't use system resources is to use a HOSTS file like http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm . If you use a HOSTS file, it's a good idea to switch off your DNS Client. You do this by clicking on START in your taskbar, then RUN, then type in SERVICES.MSC, and scroll down till you see DNS CLIENT. To the left of it, you can stop the service, and if you doubleclick on DNS Client, halfway down the popup screen is STARTUP TYPE, select DISABLED here. DNS Client isn't a needed service on your computer, and will not effect it if you turn it off, but it can slow down browsing if you have a large hosts file.

if you are interested in reading a very good site on spyware and anti-spyware resources (both free and paid), try this link http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/main-nf.htm

That site also has a guide to making IE more resistant to spyware, although many people recommend just switching browser to Mozilla Firefox as a more secure method of browsing http://www.mozilla.org/ Just be aware that a few select sites (mostly microsoft sites) won't work with Firefox.

When people mention proactive protection here, most of them mean non-signature based protection (which considering the 'effectiveness' of AS applications, isn't a bad idea). Such security programs (not free) include PrevX Pro (much better than the free version), Process Guard, RegDefend, and perhaps Panda TruPrevent.

Some people prefer more extreme measures (not usuable in many cases) and use DeepFreeze or ShadowUser. These two programs will basically 'restore' your system to the exact moment either program was installed, every reboot (so if your system gets infected, just reboot)...this type of protection isn't for the typical home user (although it can be made to work for a home user), because saving data can be tricky (you have to deactivate the programs, which requires a reboot... or alternatively... set up partitions/exclusion folders <and even then with this method, if the changes you make, write to the registry, those registry changes will be undone on reboot>

There's a PG and an RD forum here at wilders, and PrevX forum at Castlecops.com and there's been a few discussions of Deepfreeze here https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=60158

Hope it all helps

 

Thanks alot,
It will be my homework for this weekend. I briefly looked over it, but it got complicated so I will look at it again when I have more time. I am always interested in any information I get here.

Thanks again,
MRSCT