So I did a bad thing and downloaded Kazzaa (I know, I know). And it of course loaded my computer with ads and spyware, so I then removed it because it could not find what I wanted. then proceded to remove that ads and spys. and I found out that there is a newer version of spybot 1.4 (I have been using spybot S&D) since I use firefox I rarely get ads or spies, so I never checked fo an up date

spybot1.4

if you think about getting kazza look at this

And that's why you should of used the lite version, the one that's had all the spyware junk removed.

If you were looking for music files and movies, I think that Winmx is a much better (cleaner) choice than Kazza.

no not music nor movies and win mx is now dead. trying edonkey

Why do you use Kazaa? (Strong)DC++ is a much more popular program. Certainly I've never used it, but I know people who do.

By the way, I suppose a disclaimer is needed. On BWL forums, discussing of anything illegal is prohibited, and thus you cannot discuss the downloading of any software you illegally download via the aforementioned programs (e.g. programs that are not freeware or shareware.)

I use Limewire, clean, easy and a nice search tool.

I forgot that DC++ requires you to share a nice amount of data, and that's why Kazaa might be preferred to DC.

Kazza should only be preferred over sticking a fork in your eye! I am still trying to get some of that stuff off my comp. it is worse then than the last time (years ago) when it was half way decent.
I'll give limewire a shot.

You know, I recently aquired a trojan for my PC. I've been running Norton every day for the past week. Every time it finds some infected file and repairs it, but the trojan horse doesn't want to leave the system. This probably means that I would not be sending anything for upload until my PC is free of that manace.

Aw, it's a pain, I know. Try Avast.com - I have it at home, it is free and seems to work well, too.

balduran-- are you using Norton with Windows XP?

If so... DON'T. There have been many complaints that Norton Antivirus is somewhat incompatible with Windows XP, because of the way it runs files. Norton is fine with any other operating system ('95, '98, '2000) but from what I've heard (and experienced!) I would say get rid of it ASAP and get something like Lavasoft Ad-Aware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Those are the ones I use, and they work brilliantly.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware misses nasty stuff, confirmed. I dumped it and purchased Agnitum Outpost Firewall, instead.

Ouch, does it? I've never had any problems with it... Will look into some other anti virus software, then. Thanks Kulyok

everything misses something. i've found a combination of lavasoft's ad-aware and spybot search and destroy (combined with the XP SP2 firewall) catches pretty much everything on my work machine.

for my laptop i purchased a copy of the zonealarm pro firewall, which by itself (well, with it's integrated spyware scanner, and a proper anti-virus program) catches pretty much everything too - i only occasionally run ad-aware or spybot on my laptop.

so ad-aware wont catch everything on it's own, but in combination with spybot, it's quite solid.

I have WinMe with Norton 2003, although I upgrade it all the time with the new definitions. Actually I managed to get rid of the trojan. I noticed that it was resident in the same two files over and over again, so last thursday I decided to format my hard drive and reinstall everyhting. Now I have no problem, except for the fact I can, for some reason, no longer compress my video files the way I did before. But that isn't really a problem.

I find that Kaspersky AV catches almost everything, (I even broke down and bought a 2 year sub to it ) the older nortons wouldn't get spyware/adware because they weren't viruses, the newer ones will get some spyware.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/ if you view the comparative page in mozilla it will be messed up just click view-> character encoding -> reslect the current encoding, it will straighten out.

Use Linux.....


I only boot into windows to play BG, although it plays on linux just fine, i find its a bit quicker on windows. Everything else I need for daily needs is available on Linux without the fear of viruses, spyware or adware.

ronin

well for the past week I have been trying to get rid of the worst virus I have encountered much like the one balduran got hit with. A replicating multiplying one it started as spyware but it kept loading a new virus once the old one was gone. so I had to format (and format again) got win xp loaded then thought why?? or why not take on Linux?

since most of what i do with a computer is win dependant I never wanted to try it before, but since getting my new comp I use this old one 90% just for internet so I installed ubuntu it has a bit of a learning curve but is functional

Basically Linux based PC is a good choice for internet connection, but it doesn't necessarily mean you won't be infected if you transfer a deseased file to the WinXP system. I've had that happen some time ago, when I burned a CD on my work PC, which has Gentoo.

*edit* I guess the file I downloaded was already infected, otherwise it'd be some sort of a mutant multyplatform virus;)

There is a common misbelief (at least there was) that Linux can't be infected. It's, of course, nonsense. (It's another matter that there were probably less malicious programs for Linux executables than for Win32 ones).

And balduran is right, SK. In other words, if your virus "returned" even after a reformat (you used this word), then the malicious file could come in again, because your protection wasn't proper. Maybe you visited the same site or something like that.

Basically, it must be malware which downloads trojans and other things to your machine. Unpleasant stuff.

yeah, that is what it was doing downloading trojans. the second format was to delete all software that was still on here since the first did not get rid of it all (probably my fault)
I was running norton AV that did not pick anything up till it was already on this computer. So I ran kaspersky and a couple of other maleware scanners. but I had to manually delete files and reg. values
as far as linux goes a MS virus probably cant do too much on a linux machine. hell it is tough for me to install software on here and I know the root pasword

but a linux machine is no more secure than a hardened MS one. the big difference is that linux is 'out of the box' is way more secure than a MS 'out of the box'. saving me countless hours locking down (harding) windows.
there is a 38 page debate on this on the ubuntu forums I read it all (skipping the flame war), feel free to search there for it.

all in all I feel this machine is more secure using linux and a firewall since less things are open (what these things are I do not know and having them closed to start with, to me, is better)

balduran this machine only will accept files from my new one (not the other way around) and that does not spend more than 3 mins a week online