I built a new unit for my niece as a "new baby" present for her and the family. Four months later I call her to see how things are going. She comlains of crashes, blue screens, crazy pop-ups all over the place, now porn pop-ups are appearing. Two hours Long Distance on the phone with her last night. Talked her through d/loading and installing Spybot and Ad Aware. I had problems even installing them, the pops would interfere, deliberately I think. They finally found and deleted - get this - 170 scumware entrys. Okay, I'm calming down now. I honestly can't understand why these companies aren't sued by individuals with the resources to follow through. After all, they are using our machines to collect their marketing information for profit. And the only thing protecting them is that folks don't have the money to pursue them legally. Thanks for letting me vent. ;0)

No problem! I try to assist seniors with their systems that get attacked by all this bad stuff. It is unbelievable what happens to innocent people that just want to sit down and share email with their family and friends, do a little geneology, get the news, do some surfing and shopping. I feel exactly like you. There was a recent study about how porn spam and popups make women feel insecure using the internet. There are so many negative costs, that one would hope that something will be done about this. Free speech is one thing, but free speech should be a two way street. A person should not have to feel that there are no friends on the internet, only people trying to take advantage of the unsuspecting.

ranchhand, thanks to you one more person is educated and spyware free. She can spread the word also. It is not the most efficient way to get rid of spyware, but for now it has to do. A person is free to speak. WE SHOULD BE FREE NOT TO LISTEN. Companies are twisting the original intent of Freedom of Speach more and more (along with Separation of Church and State, but that is another forum). Things will probably get a lot worse before they get better.

capt: I agree with you. Perhaps like the saying "your right to free expression ends with the nose starting on my face," on the Internet it would be "your right to free speech ends with the private property (PC) in my home." Solarian

Worse, some Ad-ware companies are fighting back. Gator Ad-ware has won settlements forcing one company to stop referring to their junk as Spyware. There are groups trying to get laws passed that allow them to search your system, through the internet without your permission, for their products that you have not paid for. When some person takes legal action against them, it becomes too expensive for them to continue with it and they are offered a settlement to go away. Just a minor "cost of doing business" for the companies. It would help if the AV companies would step up to the challenge and offer an "option" to block such programs from being installed. Your best choice now is to use the Ad-Watch functions built into the paid for version of Adware or the Immunize option in Spybot. But then you have to keep these programs up to date as new threats come out almost every day. (If the economy improves around the world, maybe all those programmers will seek "honest" work.) Just keep pressure on your elected officials about it, and vote those out of office who do not vote for restrictions.

170 is nothing. That is a small fish in a huge lake of very large fish. End user education is needed and folks like AOL and MSN don't help with the problem. They state the internet is just a few steps away and it is. You can blame MS for a faulty web browser that lets some of this happen but I can also blame users for not having the proper basic internet education. Maybe I should start a class that teaches the avg. person about these types of things on the weekends and how to protect their systems with such tools. Maybe I could make some extra money :) Then again, what others don't know keeps me in a job so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. KTTD

Don't forget to get Spyware Blaster. It helps to prevent spyware from getting on and then use the Ad Aware or Spybot to clean up the small spills if necessary. My system runs clean since I use it along with Spybot S & D. www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html