malware

[Elaine]

I have recently only been using spybot and the bt yahoo anti-spy software to pick up malware but when I recently experienced random crashes and slow response times I was advised to run another program so I ran adaware. Thsi picked up over 40 issues. Since then I have been really vigilant and run all of them most days. I have a firewall installed and cannot understand whey every time I run them new issues are discovered? What is the point of a firewall?

Elaine

[Mobius1]

From what I know, firewalls generally don't block spyware/adware/malware - at least that isn't their primary function. Firewalls are primarily meant to restrict unauthorised access to your system by monitoring certain data traffic and closing and "stealthing" certain data ports used during Internet usage that would otherwise be open and vulnerable to hackers and unauthorised scripts.

Unfortunately, thanks to the nature of the Internet, a lot of spyware can be accumulated from web browsing and is part of the traffic from the website and, as such, isn't filtered by firewalls. There are steps you can take to help prevent getting spyware and malware though.

Firstly, make sure you're using the removal utilities correctly. Sounds stupid I know, but I've encountered many people, especially those who use Adaware that run the program, find entries but then don't select to remove the entries, so they just stay there until the next scan. (With Adaware you have to make sure the check-box to remove the entries is ticked which you can do by right-clicking a single entry and choosing "select all"). Also ensure to keep all your Spyware programs up to date.

Try also "SpywareBlaster", free from Javacool Software (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/) this program doesn't remove spyware but helps prevent it from initially installing.

If you use Internet Explorer (which is very vulnerable to spyware thanks to its popularity) try using an alternative. Good ones are Firefox and Opera. Neither of these programs use ActivX and, as a result, you'll rarely ever get that box pop up asking if you want to install software.

[OBonio]

The main point of a firewall is to stop unwanted people/worms connecting to your PC. A lot of spy/malware is installed through exploits in Internet Explorer. If the firewall blocked you accessing websites, then it would stop you getting some malware. But that would render your browser useless. Instead, it will stop incoming connections on specified services etc. If you're not already, try using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer ans see if that helps. The only other thing I can think of is is the malware isn't removed properly, then it can sometimes spawn more malware.
HTH

[PatTheRat]

I was always using ad-aware and thought it was great. However, I was asked by a friend to try the microsoft anti-spyware beta. It finds 6 different types of spy-ware that ad-aware werent removing for me. Give it a go.