Adware Goliath !

LAST EDITED ON Aug-15-04 AT 07:29 PM (EST)

It seems that nowadays there seems to be an ever increasing amount of rubbish that abounds on the internet ready to attack and take advantage of inexperienced and new users. My wife on Friday downloaded a new 'toolbar' entitled "Websearch" thinking it to be a reasonable search engine to use in finding things and being a new user thought it worked quite well, until the pop-ups started. I did not have the heart to be angry as she was distraught enough at the thought of it attacking her brand new laptop, so I set about to get rid of it.It proved to be very insidious as not only did it damage Norton Antivirus 2004 to the point of being useless it starting downloading additional files and loading pop-ups at a rate of knots that crippled XP so fast it was unbelievable. So I unplug the DSL and reboot the system after uninstalling Norton Anti-Virus and then re-installing it and Spybot as well in order to find the problem. Spybot found nothing, but the Anti-virus found at least 54 separate registry entries and files located in system32. The anti-virus managed to kill all but 5 files which I had to uninstall maually.It turned out to be a new variant of Look2me and Huntbar all bundled up in the same package. The moral of the story is to be careful with what you download, make sure you have a good anti-virus program which is up to date, firewall protection and other measures to protect your data and PC from attack.Off topic I know but just to make you aware of this new one that is around that will catch the unwary.

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RE: Adware Goliath !, Pennsyduplex, Aug-15-04, 07:29 PM, (1) RE: Adware Goliath !, NewEnglandRailFan, Aug-15-04, 07:44 PM, (2) RE: Adware Goliath !, Ben D, Aug-15-04, 08:05 PM, (3) RE: Adware Goliath !, NewEnglandRailFan, Aug-15-04, 09:07 PM, (4) RE: Adware Goliath !, Ben D, Aug-15-04, 09:11 PM, (5) RE: Adware Goliath !, derekmorton, Aug-15-04, 09:55 PM, (6) RE: Adware Goliath !, Cell0518, Aug-15-04, 10:39 PM, (7) RE: Adware Goliath !, cn_bayview, Aug-16-04, 00:17 AM, (8) RE: Adware Goliath !, SouthwestChief, Aug-16-04, 00:35 AM, (9) RE: Adware Goliath !, bnsf1959, Aug-16-04, 01:37 AM, (10) RE: Adware Goliath !, roandju, Aug-16-04, 08:27 AM, (11) RE: Adware Goliath !, Vulcan Foundry, Aug-16-04, 06:09 PM, (12) RE: Adware Goliath !, jgvaughan, Aug-16-04, 07:29 PM, (13)

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Thanks for the heads up! I wil have to make sure my computer and firewall is up todate.

Ding-Ding, chug-a-chug
Pennsylvania Railroad RULES!!!!

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Yea and the other day I got an E-Mail saying 'Pictures I thought You would like'. Well I bought it and opened the E-Mail The text said 'I read your profile and I thought you might like these!' I figured it was one of you guys sending me somthing. After clicking the link it said 'Enter Your AOL screen name and password below, and the pics will appear'. Well the pix never appeared and all of a sudden AOL keeps logging me off and saying someone else is logging on my name.Moral Don't open E-Mails from people you don't know asking for your screen name and password I was stupid enough to do it.-Dave

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That is a big nono. NEVER open up an email you don't know who gave you it.
AOL will NEVER ask for your username and password(except for AOLMail but that's another story). Remember that.I use AOLMail with AIM to check my BJDobson1 address. I'm thinking about dissing AOL but I got my address here and it'll be a real burdon having to change all of my email links on my site to point to my insightbb email address.-BeaverMon is no more, Ben D is here to stay-
-BETA Tester for the PO&N Route-

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Yeas'm I figured that out. I was just too stupid to realize that.-Dave

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Ahh, we all make mistakes. As long as humans roam the earth, there will be low-lives that want to hack into something that belongs to you.-BeaverMon is no more, Ben D is here to stay-
-BETA Tester for the PO&N Route-

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The best way to get rid of spyware is with a program called Ad-aware se version 1.03, available from
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=buttonI have been running Ad-aware for several years and find it amongst the best.
I do run spybot 1.3 as well, but Ad-aware is my main killer.

Derek
EngMod@sgrail.org
www.sgrail.org

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I'd say both are great. Use spybot more often, but I love getting rid of that CRAP.Chris

Visit-> -

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I use both Adaware and Spy Bot.I found Adaware took out more crap ware then Spy Bot, but both of themteamed up removed all the junk from my comp. I too had that websearch, which magically installed its self, and Adaware got rid of it for me and everything works perfectly here. I don't know why people think flooding your screen with pop ups does anygood. Someone may look at one once and a while, but 15 popping up at once doesn't do any good for that company trying to sell a product. But some people get some sick demented joy of harming other peoples computers, especially the less web aware people who do give their passwords out. Those people who enjoy it are low life scum bags who deserve to serve time in prison and have the key thrown away.Rob

TH&B Van #68
www.greatlakesrail.com

Check out my train photos!http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=472

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I found a really great program that gets rid of those pesky adware and spyware junk (especially those lousy tool bars).Go to this link to download it for free.
http://www.spysweeper.com/download.htmlTrust me this one works well and also protects you from them after you sweep. But Ad Aware, and Spy Bot are also good, just thought I'd mention the one I use most often to get rid of that internet junk.
Matt Doti

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/fdoti/index.html

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-16-04 AT 01:39 AM (EST)

You also might want to be aware of "Comet Cursor" or "My Cursor," A little animated pointer for you mouse pointer. I had it a few years ago until I found out it was tracking every site I went. When I downloaded Spybot last year, It told me that "Comet Cursor" was bad news and I quickly deleted it. It took a while to get rid of it cuz it kept coming back for some reasons. I downloaded Zone Alarm (free version) and had it set to block it and now it's gone. Anyway, I finally removed it completely from my system. I check my system weekly for any new unwanted junk with Spybot and Ad-aware in my PC and check my firewall at Norton Anti-virus website's security check.Ken Plaza

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If I am not mistaken, there is a free program to remove websearch.
It is called CWShearder. I can not remember where to get it, just run a seach on goolge, it will find it for you.
I did that for my grandson's PC, awhile back, it works very well.
Good luck
Roger

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You can actually remove most of the .exe files by using an un-installer that the program lists in the Add/Remove programs as Wintools, Daily Horoscope and Websearch Toolbar. Its all the associated registry entries that it produces that can take a while to clear up.Thanks for the advice, I never even knew there was a removal tool specifically for this little nasty other than doing it the manual way. I doubt my wife will be seeing this little nasty again now that I've be assigned to security detail for her laptop.

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Without question you should checkout SpywareBlaster. This program works to stop the adaware/spyware from being installed in the first place. Spybot and Adaware are okay but work mainly at removing items after they have been installed. I have all three loaded but haven't had to use Spybot or Adaware since installing SpywareBlaster.

Jim

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