Too much spyware/adware.

Deer Slayer · 02-17-2005, 12:07 AM

It makes me money, but I'm tired of dealing with it. I don't see how people get hosed so bad, but over the past couple months the ammount of this crap has gotten out of hand. It's gotten to a point where I tell people to get a second hard drive for the purposes of storing their junk, and keeping an image of their OS and programs the way they like it. It's pretty bad when I've just given up and shown people how to restore an image. This is absolutely ridiculous, and with the scanner companies selling out like that, it's almost to the point where you only can go to websites you trust. It's just not right, something needs to be done. This should be put in the same catagory as viruses, and classified as such. They need to make a new classification of virus for all this adware/spyware/malware. Call it a system hijacker virus. It's gotten to the point where you lose internet connectivity trying to get rid of it! It takes over everything, e-mail, your browser, and your network connections. To me, that constitutes a virus, it's damaging the system, but it's not looking to replicate, just install more junk! How does that make money, are people really that stupid to buy based on what that shoves under their nose? WTF, you'd figure an annoyance such as that might trigger enough of a negative response, the advertisers don't want anything to do with it. It's insane, once one gets in, it installs 10 more, and they just keep adding junk. I don't understand why they have to run the computer into the ground, all that does is **** people off. You'd think it would be better to have something covert that pops things in every once in a while. Heck no, they hammer away until the machine needs a full format! My buddy has been tinkering with firefox, and he got hosed by something too. I'm trying to turn other people on to it, but it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Usually they install firefox, play with it for a day or two, and back to IE. What I don't understand is why microsoft does so little to prevent it. They just don't seem to care, but here's IE7 supposed to fix it. We'll see, it's not going to take long before that becomes a revolving door either.

JaGWiRE_abx · 02-17-2005, 12:14 AM

I've had so much hijacking.. Problems with the internet / browsers / etc etc.. It is terrible! I can't surf the web anymore. I must agree it is absolutely ridicoulous. Happend to nto only me.. but my dad! From all the viruses i've had.. This by far beats them all. You can scan everyday.. But there will never be a clean week...

There must be something done immediatly imho.. Even what you install from companies such as hp can be spyware. I installed some hp drivers and software and i got some blackweb stuff i think?

Tapir · 02-17-2005, 12:35 AM

I spent All of sunday loading back everything fresh on my daugter's pc. She picked it up this morning. She has paid version ZA, adaware, pest patrol and avg. I am chatting with her right now. She has started to have problems again. I used for 3 days with no problems. All she loaded was yahoo chat. Her slave drive is full of of large data files - graphic design. Maybe something stayed in there??? All her signs are for spyware. In less than 12 hours.

Deer Slayer · 02-17-2005, 01:09 AM

I took her puter and wiped it. I put a full version of kerio on there, and I'm trying to teach her how to use it. It's difficult to keep her puter clean, she goes for any junk that pops up in her face. That and her sisters send e-mails that have links to places with spyware all the time! It's like I might as well do her puter once a week for the hallobit! She wanted to do online banking, I said H311 NO, you'd be hosed in no time. I'm trying to teach her how to keep everything backed up just in case I have to wipe it, but it's impossible to teach somebody that's too lazy to learn. I'm to the point where all I save are her e-mails and address book. I've given up on keeping her other stuff, because she's so disorganized! It's like keep music here, videos here, and documents here. Everything is mixed together, and she just keeps installing lame programs that come with spyware included. She just clicks yes, so I just don't bother anymore. If it was important to her, she would listen to me.

JaGWiRE_abx · 02-17-2005, 01:12 AM

Slayer, it's funny.. That's happening to my mom too. Only thing is instead of just clcikign on it, she clicks on it, then yells for my help! It's amazing.. Also amazing the junk her sister send sher! She gets like 15 spam emails from her everyday.. it's amazing :|

dbwillis · 02-17-2005, 12:20 PM

Same thing here.

a brand new, 2ghz/512mb/60gb machine I built for a guy wouldnt get onto the internet after 1 week !

about 4 months ago I gave up trying to fix the PC's

1-build/deliver the PC at home
2-make ghost image of PC, as delivered and store it at home, burn a copy to DVD for end user
3-deliver PC, make sure it connects to the net (www.papertowel.com is a good non-cached page to test with)
4-any additional setup tips/drivers/etc/notes I save onto my thumbdrive and take home to put into the folder with there ghost image.
5-hand them the DVD with the ghost image, tell them to not lose it

weeks later, get the call...PC wont work, after some troubleshooting over the phone...
give them 2 options:>
"do you have the DVD I gave you when I delivered the PC"

No - $100 to spend 1 hour with spyware removal or reimage-rebuild the PC at my place
Yes - $25 for me to stop by and reimage your PC at your place

+$25 more if you want me to go through and recover any files in locations other than \Profile\My Documents

The price I paid for a 250gb drive more than paid for itself for storing the ghost images

Trucker61 · 02-17-2005, 12:48 PM

Hmm, I have had these problems before but it seems my current line of defense keeps it at bay. I installed Spywareblaster and keep it updated, this works well to block the little buggers from being placed on my hard drive in the first place. I also use Spybot Search & Destroy and after updating it I immunize, and Ad Aware personel edition for removal.

I use these on my computer and my kids 3 computers, and havn't had a hijacking since.

tha_smokah · 02-17-2005, 01:10 PM

My computer got screwed badly..i let my kids use it for about an hour yesterday morning and when i got back to it..it had so much adware..i had to format it..it was making it lock up ...grrr. my kids are no longer aloud on my machine.

fischyfinger · 02-17-2005, 01:42 PM

I cleaned two friends PCs this weekend that were overloaded with viruses and spyware. One was so hosed I had to reformatt, the other I was able to clean. As soon as you turn it on you see the garbage all over the desktop...all the icons from the crapware that they installed "somehow". These people had no antivirus or anti-spyware programs running on their computers at all! These days that's like walking through the shady part of town with $100 bills taped all over your body, while handcuffed.

What also sucks is that these machines were an AMD K6 500mhz and a Pentium II 266Mhz...What a miserably long time it took to do anything.

My PC has been completely spyware and virus free for months now thanks to Firefox, smart surfing and Trend Micro IS...not a single hit.

PCBruiser · 02-17-2005, 01:53 PM

Current survival time (SANS) is 18 minutes = average time from the first time an unprotected new system connects to the Internet to the time it is almost hopelessly infected with viruses, trojans, malware, etc. That is insufficient time for a newly installed OS to even download updates for the OS that will give some minimal protection.

Edit: Moved to Security Forum with a redirect in the Win NT, 2K XP Forum.

Deer Slayer · 02-17-2005, 11:26 PM

I don't want the responsibility of keeping their ghost images at my house, so I make them do it. I usually charge people about what you said, $25 to restore the image, another $20 to find and save files. Most of the images won't fit on a DVD or I'd do that. I'm trying to teach people to restore images themselves, but that's lost on most of them. I refuse to do adware/spyware removal any more, just takes too long. That and it never quite seems to stay gone, something always manages to sneak by me. I had a computer that somebody paid the local computer shop to "clean" (get rid of adware/spyware/viruses) and it was still badly infested. They went back up there and got their $100 back, paid me $50 to re-install windows, and back up some files. I dunno, this is nutz, even with the anti-spyware/adware software, people get hosed. It's mostly just stupid surfing habbits, they go to the dumbest websites. Then they get mad when something won't work because of the popup blocker or the firewall so they turn it off! It's their computer, they can learn the hard way, and my wallet will grow. It doesn't seem to matter what antivirus they have, or what kind of protection, this stuff is just too nasty. If they would just scan the puter when it first starts acting funny, and catch it before it gets out of hand, things would be a lot better. Then they whine because their antivirus crap didn't do anything, and I tell them like it is. If you don't use your brain, and use some caution when you're on a website for the first time, you're gonna get hosed. I really get a good laugh when people tell me they went looking for porn! It's not even worth trying to clean up after that.

02-17-2005, 12:07 AM	#1
Deer Slayer Unscanable!!! Tatoo??? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Howell Michigan Posts: 3,847	Too much spyware/adware. It makes me money, but I'm tired of dealing with it. I don't see how people get hosed so bad, but over the past couple months the ammount of this crap has gotten out of hand. It's gotten to a point where I tell people to get a second hard drive for the purposes of storing their junk, and keeping an image of their OS and programs the way they like it. It's pretty bad when I've just given up and shown people how to restore an image. This is absolutely ridiculous, and with the scanner companies selling out like that, it's almost to the point where you only can go to websites you trust. It's just not right, something needs to be done. This should be put in the same catagory as viruses, and classified as such. They need to make a new classification of virus for all this adware/spyware/malware. Call it a system hijacker virus. It's gotten to the point where you lose internet connectivity trying to get rid of it! It takes over everything, e-mail, your browser, and your network connections. To me, that constitutes a virus, it's damaging the system, but it's not looking to replicate, just install more junk! How does that make money, are people really that stupid to buy based on what that shoves under their nose? WTF, you'd figure an annoyance such as that might trigger enough of a negative response, the advertisers don't want anything to do with it. It's insane, once one gets in, it installs 10 more, and they just keep adding junk. I don't understand why they have to run the computer into the ground, all that does is **** people off. You'd think it would be better to have something covert that pops things in every once in a while. Heck no, they hammer away until the machine needs a full format! My buddy has been tinkering with firefox, and he got hosed by something too. I'm trying to turn other people on to it, but it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Usually they install firefox, play with it for a day or two, and back to IE. What I don't understand is why microsoft does so little to prevent it. They just don't seem to care, but here's IE7 supposed to fix it. We'll see, it's not going to take long before that becomes a revolving door either.
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 12:14 AM	#2
JaGWiRE_abx Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,912	I've had so much hijacking.. Problems with the internet / browsers / etc etc.. It is terrible! I can't surf the web anymore. I must agree it is absolutely ridicoulous. Happend to nto only me.. but my dad! From all the viruses i've had.. This by far beats them all. You can scan everyday.. But there will never be a clean week... There must be something done immediatly imho.. Even what you install from companies such as hp can be spyware. I installed some hp drivers and software and i got some blackweb stuff i think?
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 12:35 AM	#3
Tapir Wisdom Will Always Linger Join Date: May 2004 Location: Belize, The Jewel Posts: 3,191	I spent All of sunday loading back everything fresh on my daugter's pc. She picked it up this morning. She has paid version ZA, adaware, pest patrol and avg. I am chatting with her right now. She has started to have problems again. I used for 3 days with no problems. All she loaded was yahoo chat. Her slave drive is full of of large data files - graphic design. Maybe something stayed in there??? All her signs are for spyware. In less than 12 hours. __________________ ************************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** Knowledge: Either you have it or know where to get it! ************************************************************************************************ **************************************************************************** You need to have the right question to obtain the right answer. ************************************************************************************************ **************************************************************************** The greatest right any nation can afford its people is the right to be left alone. ************************************************************************************************ **************************************************************************** BIOSTAR - P4M80-M4, P4-2.8E HT, MSI NX6200AX-TD256 DDR, 2X512 PC3200 MICRON DDR 400, HITACHI 80G & SAMSUNG 40G, LITEON 20XDVDR, MOTOROLA SB5100 CABLE MODEM, 56K V92 AGERE FAX MODEM, X TECH OPTICAL MOUSE, AIR COOLED - 5 FANS, JAUNTY JACKALOPE 9.04 ************************************************************************************************ ******************************************************************************
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02-17-2005, 01:09 AM	#4
Deer Slayer Unscanable!!! Tatoo??? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Howell Michigan Posts: 3,847	Yep, just formatted my mom's machine. I took her puter and wiped it. I put a full version of kerio on there, and I'm trying to teach her how to use it. It's difficult to keep her puter clean, she goes for any junk that pops up in her face. That and her sisters send e-mails that have links to places with spyware all the time! It's like I might as well do her puter once a week for the hallobit! She wanted to do online banking, I said H311 NO, you'd be hosed in no time. I'm trying to teach her how to keep everything backed up just in case I have to wipe it, but it's impossible to teach somebody that's too lazy to learn. I'm to the point where all I save are her e-mails and address book. I've given up on keeping her other stuff, because she's so disorganized! It's like keep music here, videos here, and documents here. Everything is mixed together, and she just keeps installing lame programs that come with spyware included. She just clicks yes, so I just don't bother anymore. If it was important to her, she would listen to me.
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 01:12 AM	#5
JaGWiRE_abx Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,912	Slayer, it's funny.. That's happening to my mom too. Only thing is instead of just clcikign on it, she clicks on it, then yells for my help! It's amazing.. Also amazing the junk her sister send sher! She gets like 15 spam emails from her everyday.. it's amazing :\|
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 12:20 PM	#6
dbwillis Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: CT Posts: 204	Same thing here. a brand new, 2ghz/512mb/60gb machine I built for a guy wouldnt get onto the internet after 1 week ! about 4 months ago I gave up trying to fix the PC's 1-build/deliver the PC at home 2-make ghost image of PC, as delivered and store it at home, burn a copy to DVD for end user 3-deliver PC, make sure it connects to the net (www.papertowel.com is a good non-cached page to test with) 4-any additional setup tips/drivers/etc/notes I save onto my thumbdrive and take home to put into the folder with there ghost image. 5-hand them the DVD with the ghost image, tell them to not lose it weeks later, get the call...PC wont work, after some troubleshooting over the phone... give them 2 options:> "do you have the DVD I gave you when I delivered the PC" No - $100 to spend 1 hour with spyware removal or reimage-rebuild the PC at my place Yes - $25 for me to stop by and reimage your PC at your place +$25 more if you want me to go through and recover any files in locations other than \Profile\My Documents The price I paid for a 250gb drive more than paid for itself for storing the ghost images
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 12:48 PM	#7
Trucker61 Please, hang up & drive! Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: United States Posts: 192	Hmm, I have had these problems before but it seems my current line of defense keeps it at bay. I installed Spywareblaster and keep it updated, this works well to block the little buggers from being placed on my hard drive in the first place. I also use Spybot Search & Destroy and after updating it I immunize, and Ad Aware personel edition for removal. I use these on my computer and my kids 3 computers, and havn't had a hijacking since. Last edited by Trucker61; 02-17-2005 at 01:20 PM..
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 01:10 PM	#8
tha_smokah Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Duluth mn USA Posts: 183	My computer got screwed badly..i let my kids use it for about an hour yesterday morning and when i got back to it..it had so much adware..i had to format it..it was making it lock up ...grrr. my kids are no longer aloud on my machine. __________________ MSI K8N neo2 platinum Athlon 64 3200 939 winchester 10x260 1.55volts Corsair TwinX DDR 3200 LLPT BFG 6800GT 256mb Antec 550 TruePower CoolerMaster Hyper6 HSF CoolerMaster WaveMaster
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02-17-2005, 01:42 PM	#9
fischyfinger Spoooooooooon! Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Long Island Posts: 1,326	I cleaned two friends PCs this weekend that were overloaded with viruses and spyware. One was so hosed I had to reformatt, the other I was able to clean. As soon as you turn it on you see the garbage all over the desktop...all the icons from the crapware that they installed "somehow". These people had no antivirus or anti-spyware programs running on their computers at all! These days that's like walking through the shady part of town with $100 bills taped all over your body, while handcuffed. What also sucks is that these machines were an AMD K6 500mhz and a Pentium II 266Mhz...What a miserably long time it took to do anything. My PC has been completely spyware and virus free for months now thanks to Firefox, smart surfing and Trend Micro IS...not a single hit. __________________
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 01:53 PM	#10
PCBruiser Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 13,497	Current survival time (SANS) is 18 minutes = average time from the first time an unprotected new system connects to the Internet to the time it is almost hopelessly infected with viruses, trojans, malware, etc. That is insufficient time for a newly installed OS to even download updates for the OS that will give some minimal protection. Edit: Moved to Security Forum with a redirect in the Win NT, 2K XP Forum. Last edited by PCBruiser; 02-17-2005 at 02:00 PM..
(Offline)

02-17-2005, 11:26 PM	#11
Deer Slayer Unscanable!!! Tatoo??? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Howell Michigan Posts: 3,847	Well, at least I'm not the only one. I don't want the responsibility of keeping their ghost images at my house, so I make them do it. I usually charge people about what you said, $25 to restore the image, another $20 to find and save files. Most of the images won't fit on a DVD or I'd do that. I'm trying to teach people to restore images themselves, but that's lost on most of them. I refuse to do adware/spyware removal any more, just takes too long. That and it never quite seems to stay gone, something always manages to sneak by me. I had a computer that somebody paid the local computer shop to "clean" (get rid of adware/spyware/viruses) and it was still badly infested. They went back up there and got their $100 back, paid me $50 to re-install windows, and back up some files. I dunno, this is nutz, even with the anti-spyware/adware software, people get hosed. It's mostly just stupid surfing habbits, they go to the dumbest websites. Then they get mad when something won't work because of the popup blocker or the firewall so they turn it off! It's their computer, they can learn the hard way, and my wallet will grow. It doesn't seem to matter what antivirus they have, or what kind of protection, this stuff is just too nasty. If they would just scan the puter when it first starts acting funny, and catch it before it gets out of hand, things would be a lot better. Then they whine because their antivirus crap didn't do anything, and I tell them like it is. If you don't use your brain, and use some caution when you're on a website for the first time, you're gonna get hosed. I really get a good laugh when people tell me they went looking for porn! It's not even worth trying to clean up after that.
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