Anti virus / adware / spyware

[trastevere]

My computer is new (Xmas) and is 'fully' covered by Norton Internet Security 2006. Also Microsoft anti spyware. These are run regularly and always show a clean bill of health in every department - nothing detected! Anyway, recently my Internet Explorer has been abysmally slow so I 'googled' slow connection and was prompted to a free check by SPYWARE DOCTOR. Spyware Doctor found 149 threats , seven or eight of them being really nasty trojan and hijack jobbies. They want $29 dollars to fix it. My question is a) Should I cough up to Spyware Doctor and/or b) Why hasn't my existing protection picked up on these 149 nasties? All replies appreciated

[=rizla=]

I wouldnt pay up, several of these 'free' spyware checkers are about and lots of them seem to be a bit of a con to be honest.

I use spyware search and destroy, lavasofts adaware abd cwshreder for my trojan/spyware scans, all 3 have free versions and seem to offer a decent level of protection. One other thing, remember to update your virus scanners etc on a very regular basis.

I normally find adaware and spybot s&d find different problems so thats maybe why your current software hasnt picked them up, but to be honest 149 nasties with 7 being proper nasties does maybe sugest they arent really there and spyware doctor is maybe trying to convice you to part with $29!!!!

[ajmmac]

i agree with rizla--don't pay out the $29--i know it is not a huge amount but ur better off with the free spybot and adaware programs--just google for these and download them--they are both excellent and compliment each other--u might also look at ewido--this is also good--think it is a free trial with this one then buy if u want to--i have it but can't remember--think i bought it

[Trojanfarce]

Just as a follow up to Rizla and ajmmac, if you haven't already found it, 'download.com' has masses of free spyware, adaware, pop up guards, etc, that you can download to clean up your pc.

[alzheimer]

Dear trastevere...been there , done that and know exactly how you feel. If I were you, I would not BUY the spyware that you have found but look at some of the free to download ones first. There is a good choice of these..eg Spybot Search and Destroy: Lavasoft Ad-aware SE Personal Edition 1.06 and for Antivirus there is AVG Free Edition and Avast 4.6 Home Edition .. to mention but a few.

Computing Which in their Jan edition said "You're unlikely to find a single anti-spyware program that will pick up every niggly bit of spyware"

Their article was very comprehensive and even I (an OAP fuddy duddy novice) could understand it! I followed their advice and got rid of my problems without paying anything. These pay first companies are after your hard earned cash...don't fall for it! And remember - you can have several anti-spyware and anti-virus programs scheduled to run at different times and with luck, between them, they will catch your "nasties"

[barender]

The only thing I would add here is from what I have gleaned from those who know and are very knowledgeable on this (I'm not) but I've been told from very good sources (IT experts so to speak) that Spybot slows down your system over time, as it is constantly running in the background and they have learnt by experience not to use it for that reason. Yes, it works, but it does slow down your system. Adaware comes highly recommended. Hope that helps.

[Cathyhuns]

The reason why Norton didn't pick it up is that they are not viruses and don't behave in the way a virus does. These threats tend to be the ones that record information about you and send it to someone else rather than doing nasty things to your computer like a virus does.

Therefore you need a bot detector and spyware detector as well. Lavasoft AdAware and Spybot are both good.

[=rizla=]

Barender.

You dont have to run spybot S&D in the background, you can use it the same as Adaware just so long as you tick or untick ( i cant remember)the rightbox's as you install it.