If not Spysweeper, what?

I am a Spysweeper user who is getting to the point when I'd like to dump it for something as good but of course lighter on its feet. I have it turned off and I only use it for on demand scans. As everyone knows it takes a while to load, and then will update its definitions. If I leave it run it will do a decent job, but slows down my pc a little. I notice it the most when it takes twice as long to shut the pc down. As a NOD32 user, I didn't appreciate how they included their AV in version 5.2 to just take up disk space.
My question is, what does every body consider the BEST alternative anti-spy app with none of the SS problems. Thanks for your responses in advance!

 

NOD32 is excellent in real time antispyware protection and I personally run only NOD32 as resident protection .

If you want something else to back it up , I suggest AVG Anti-spyware (formelly Ewido) . Very good !

 

superantispyware
I was thinking of dumping spysweeper myself and still want to but my dad said he liked it and renewed it yesterday ugh!
mainly i use superantispyware and a squared as backup scanners and onlu use spysweeper sometimes since it really annoys me.
Do you mean that it takes you double the time to shutdown your pc even with all the shields off and and the run at start up tick box unticked?
so its just the spysweeper.exe running?
lodore

 

SUPERAntispyware.
I would trial that and compare it against your experiences with SS.

 

Hitech boy - I am running AVG antispyware 7.5 with NOD that does a nice job picking up crap. I only keep SS and AD-Aware in case the others miss something.

lodore - When I had SS running I had all shields up except 2. I also had it run at start up.

The tester - Thanks. I see Superantispyware alot in the forums. That has HIPS doesn't it? If so, my comodo will have HIPS in version 3 due out at any moment. If not, it's on my list.

 

superantispyware free version is a free ondemand antispyware scanner.
the pro (payed version) has realtime protection, more custom options for scans, more repairs and autoupdates.
i have turned off all the shields for spysweeper because my pc is slow slow if its running.
i even hate openning it to do updates because when i close it again it says it has a problem and do i want to close the application restart and one other option.
its really annoying that my dad just renewed it.
my das only trusts my judgement when he fells like it.
he knows i know quite alot about pc's but he still thinks spysweeper is good and didnt even give me a chance to say ive got a squared and superantispyware as on demand scanners.
lodore

 

Personally I only use NOD32 and the XP firewall, I just migrated my roommate over to NOD32, she also uses Windows Defender for her Antispyware, both seem to work well together and in my opinion would provide more than adequate protection.

 

dont see the need for a spyware ap, havent had any real spyware since I dumped IE 3 years ago and started using judgment when allowing javascripts to run (FF w\noscript extension) of course Im also using a HIPS.

Now that Im using (on various boxes) Sandboxie or VMware workstation (beta) I see even less reason for it.

As mentioned use NOD32

also employ Thunderbird with allow HTML temporary and judgement

 

i haven't had spyware in 2 years since i found out looking for crack serials was a bad idea i used to look for nero 6.0 serial codes. in the end i brought a real key.
i used to be a stupid teenager that didnt care where he went on the web and wondered why at the time i used norton and the pc was so slow and didnt detect anything.
no one knew about spyware in 2004 so it was ok.
then i got my new pc and it was so fast and never crashed.
thats when my dad's friend introduced us to an app that was called spysweeper 3.0.
in the end i ran it on my old pc and it found over 200 spyware infections.
later on i tryed some anti virus programs on it and it found tons of trojans as well.
so i learned my lesson and now i worry to much about secuirty lol.
now im one of the safest surfer there is and have no sympathy for people who go to the dark side of the web and then come here and ask how to get rid of some dangerous Trojan/malware.
do you think i should make a website on my story of how i came from being a dangerous surfer to becoming a really safe surfer who hangs put in secuirty forums?
lodore
lodore

 

There are lots of good optionds available, some even free. You could go with:

1. Spyware Doctor. Probably most like Spysweeper. It runs lighter on my machine that Spyware Doctor with comparable if not better protection/detection/removal.

2. You could probably be plenty protected simply running your browser inside a sanbox program like Sandboxie

3. Spyware Terminator with Acitve Protectiona nd HIPS enabled is pretty silid protection

4. Super antispyware seems to be pretty solid as well.

5. Both Counterspy and AVG slowed down my machine. So although I think both are very good, not sure I would reccomend them. Particulalry if you are dumping SS because of slow down problems.

Many, many good options available.

 

do you know what DNS poisoning is?
Cross site scripting?

as I recently pointed out in a different thread
the web is like quantum physics not newtonian physics
its all probabilities of being where you think you are
not definitive reality. You likely havent been to the "bad side"
but its impossible to rule it out. (easily)

phishing is all about redirection & misdirection,
and its not always about stealing logons, passwords and private data
sometimes its malware injection as well,
its hard to definitively know where you are
spoofs can be damn near perfect
(I used to click on those email scam links and having a public addy I got lots of em,
dozens of nearly perfect spoofed Banks, Paypal ect.)

Ive actually seen the value in trialing software illegally on occassion
some very expensive packages dont offer cripplewear demos.
And slumming in the underworld has its own learning value.
Of course with Firefox staying ahead of in the wild exploits over the last several years I still didnt catch anything,
now of course its done w\ virtualization or sandbox

 

does DNS poisoning redirect users to other sites?
because once my sister was on her laptop and she kept on getting redirected to sedoparking.com even thou i gave her a link to lego.com.
all websites where doing it.
that day the internet had only just come back after being off for around 3 days.
and the next day the internet worked fine again and the laptop was clean all the time.
so im guessing some sort of attack that was later fixed.
ok back to the main point,
i dont click links in emails unless i know that they are safe.
i put my mouse over them to make sure.
the amazon scam recently was rubbish since it didnt hide the address even an idiot could of spotted that.
how can you not notice the address have tons of random numbers.
lodore

 

Hi, folks: If you have made up your mind of ditching SW, your next step,IMO, is to enlist the following: AVG AS-on demand-free-good for antitrojan and antispyware; SuperSpyware-on demand-free-good for anti-big-spyware; And a sandbox/virtualization app-better than realtime scanner. Then you will, all of the sudden, discover that your routine maintenace time has been reduced by x fold.

 

Thanks again to all for every ones input. I made a command decision and uninstalled Spysweeper. That was the quickest it ever was. I have installed Superspyware free addition and did a scan finding 5 data miners that SS missed. I like it so far. It has a 128 mb RAM requirement as opposed to SS that needs 256 mb of RAM. Alot less BS in it too.

 

yup there are a couple of different ways to misdirect or have insecure communications
Pharming, Source Routing, Man In the Middle, ARP Poisoning

and lots of variations with various social engineering ploys

 

well how good is windows defender at real-time protection?? i am thinking of installing it for quite some time now...

 

used spysweeper before and cured my pc from 2 infections
if u use IE keep it.

 

Hello,
You could try Ewido / AVG 7.5 or SAS.
Mrk