Does Spybot Search and destroy void warranty?

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@Mee_2 wrote:
I heard that Dell is not supporting users that use Spybot ? Is this true at all ? The issue was that is has been hacked in some way but I can find no record of this on the web ? I dont think my source was confused with the virus spybot- why would Dell not honor a warranty due to a virus infection ? Any help would be appreciated

What hardware or software you use has no impact on your warranty.  Adding hardware or software to your Dell does NOT impact your warranty. Dell allows you to add hardware and software. The new items are not warranteed by Dell, but the rest of your system's warranty is unaffected. Click here to see Dell's official position.

Well that clears up the warranty issue- but the larger one was Is spybot safe. I read one post on another forum that said spybot was "toast". Has it fallen prey to malicious intent of careless coding, or both?

Please excuse my ignorance is this is something everybody already knows

         Spybot S&D 1.3 is a great program, and I recommend it to every PC user.

I hadn't been to the SWI forums in some time, but evidently someone not associated with PepiMK or Patrick Kolla, maker of Spybot Search & Destroy has registered the domain spybot.com and filed a trademark for the word "Spybot".

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=73dbbd586d528e116faa9c6ab06890aa&showtopic=7210&st=0

Spybot S&D (the program) is fine, spybot.com (the web site) is not associated with that program but likely benefits from the name association and in fact used a promise to offer a link to Spybot S&D (the free progran) if people would sign up for a free trial of their own software.

GM

I always download Spybot and Ad-Aware from www.cnet.com.

 

I do realize that it is widely used, I am just wondering if anyone has heard of anything wrong with it ??

Other than a minor bug in the current version related to incorrect detection of a DSO Exploit, I don't recall any other reports of problems with Spybot. That's pretty amazing, considering what it does.

Jim

Again I'll say it - the problem is with the web site that is "spybot dot com". There has been a lot of chatter about it on the security boards and on dslreports in the past month. The problem is that the web site is not associated with Patrick Kolla's Spybot S&D although it tried to market a product there with a promise to provide a link to Spybot S&D after you registered to try another product for a free trial period.

GM

GM- Thank you. I dont mean to be and ignoramus, but my friend who called Dell said the recording stated a security flaw in spybot that allowed viruses to gain access to a computer was the problem I was aware there were legal issues with the domain name, and hence perception of spybot. Has anyone heard the recorded message in question? I have not, so I cant vouch for my friends interpretation of it, which seems to be in error, from what I am not seeing on the internet and what I am hearing here.

What was waid, heard, or interpreted was incorrect. Other than the noted website, there is nothing wrong or insecure about Spybot S&D.

Please forgive my shortness. I also read the "toast" post. I'm not a big fan of that site anyway, and I have found no grounds to support the assumption of the poster. Spybot remains one of the best tools to prevent and remove malware.

The Dell Support Community Virus Information and Removal board refers to Spybot S&D here.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1077228

I would also like to offer the following links which will direct you to sites dedicated to the combat of malware.

http://www.cjwd.demon.co.uk/compsafetyonline.html

http://tomcoyote.com/

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/

http://wilders.org/

And for the news of the day in a bizaar kind of way - http://www.dslreports.com/

GM

Inspiron 8100 / 866MHz PIII M / 815EP Chipset
40GB/5400RPM IBM Travelstar HD / 8x4x24 CD-RW
15" UXGA / nVida Gforce 2Go
Lucent / Orinoco Wireless Mini PCI Card (MPC13A-20)
Lucent / Orinoco RG-1000 Wireless Residential Gateway
Windows ME / Norton SystemWorks Prp 2003 / ZoneAlarm
AdAware / SpyBot S&D / Spyware Blaster / Spyware Guard
Adaptec-Roxio Easy CD Creator / MusicMatch JukeBox Pro 7.5

Message Edited by GreyMack on 07-16-2004 07:28 AM

Sorry ddeerrff, I posted after you but inadvertently cut in front of you.

Message Edited by GreyMack on 07-16-2004 07:32 AM

GM - Thank you

After reactivating spybot and checking the "toast comment" spybot informaed me I was being barraged by spyware, so for a paid service, I think they have a lot to answer for. I am gratefull for all your help.

I run Spybot and Ad-aware. Spybot is a delight because it is so simple . . . even I can understand it. HOWEVER, whenever I run Ad-aware, it frequently finds something that Spybot didn't find. The downside is that I have great difficulty in understanding the findings of Ad-aware. On my computer (a Dell 8300 with a 19-inch screen) the Ad-aware log shows up with VERY tiny text that is quite difficult to read. And as far as I can tell about 60% to 80% of the log output is irrelevant or repetitious, making it difficult to home in on the "good" stuff. BUT it DOES find bad guys!