ad aware and all those programs are good, but as i understand it, all they do is get rid of spyware, they dont actually block it (correct me if im wrong) ...spysweeper does block spyware, i've got it and it seems to work great, its like 20 bucks at best buy.
I would recommend having Spybot and Ad-Aware in addition to Spyware Sweeper and/or Spyware Blaster. The Blaster program is free and keeps most stuff out and Ad-Aware catches other things, mostly data miners...once your system is cleaned up. It is best to have both Spybot and Ad-Aware...in some cases one will catch what the other will not. Ad-Aware seems to get everthing, have not had a hit on Spybot in some time. Run the programs sequentially, they don't interfer with each other.
Just like your antivirus program, you should take a minute or two each day to search for updates. My Norton Internet Security quite often has updates available everyday. Ad-Aware has updates about every 7-10 days on the average, the other two somewhat less frequently than that. But the key to staying out of trouble is keeping updates current, as bad things are created on the Net every day.
I have been watching this conversation with some interest. I have rather dumb question. I Have Norton Internet security, which seems to have a real good firewall. So, the question is , do I need to bother about installing all these spyware programs - wont the Norton firewalls adequetely protect my machine?
firewalls, anti-virus programs, and anti-adware/anti-spyware are three separate categories of programs... each has its own purpose... and having only one (or two-out-of-the-three) kind(s) won't protect you from what the other(s) are supposed to do.
a firewall allows you to monitor (and permit) which applications on your machine have access to the internet. for example, you must 'tell' your firewall to allow, say, Internet Explorer and your Anti-Virus's
UPDATEprogram to access the internet. But, once you give your permission for these (and other) programs to access the internet, the firewall (by itself) does nothing to monitor WHAT's being transmitted, so yes, viruses can get thru the firewall.
that's why, you MUST run an anti-virus program (such as Norton, McAfee, AVG, or AVAST) to both protect/inoculate you from obtaining viruses... and also, to scan, after the fact, for viruses which have already installed themselves on your system (which can get thru before you have the latest updates)
anti-virus programs can generally catch some other classes of 'garbage', such as "worms" and "trojans"
but there's a completely separate class of programs... going by names like 'malware', 'spyware', and 'adware'... which, in general, anti-virus programs don't look for. that's why you also need the likes of Ad-Aware SE 1.05, SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.3... there are MANY such programs, some of which were listed earlier in this thread.
two more points need to be emphasized:
1) you should only run ONE anti-virus program at a time... running more can cause conflicts, as each one might detect the other as housing viruses. in contrast, it's entirely safe... and in fact, RECOMMENDED to run at least 2, if not more, of the anti-spyware/anti-adware programs.
2) while anti-virus programs are 'protective'... they try to catch things in advance, before you're infected... the '
basic' anti-spyware programs, like ad-aware (
free version) and spybot (
unless you turn on the 'tea-timer' option) do NOT protect against spyware from invading your system... rather, they simply try to remove,
after the fact, spyware that's already 'infected' you. some of the more 'advanced' spyware programs (such as spybot's "
tea timer") can also offer you various degrees of up-front 'prevention'.
by the way, you mentioned having norton internet security... i'm not familiar if that's an entire 'package' of programs (firewall plus anti-virus), or if, as you've indicated, it's simply a firewall.
Thanks, KY331vfor your learned and really helpful input.
You have converted me . I shall download spybot, but thats all, cos one does not wanna use up all 80 gigs of hard drive space, and I am reall anally retentive.
Anyway, to answer the your question, Norton Internat security, is a package containing virus software, firewalls, antipsam software and the like. It seems to do the trick.
joe53
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Posted April 5th, 2005 00:00
To specifically answer your question, yes- Dell does have recommendations for spyware protection,
and they can be found here.