Switched to sygate free firewall and think it let in a cws (cws.googlems.3).... am really messed up... read that sygate may have this (and other) vulnerabilities... Anyone know the latest on that, should I ditch this sygate fw? Was ZA better for me, even with the version 5.x bugs and how my browser didn't play well with it? Will version 4.5 prevent cws if I go back to that? Going EVERYWHERE looking for cws help; most fixes are said at all the best directly related forums (e.g. spywareinfo, wilders) not to be fixes for long, and the trojan is DOS-ing me from some sites on the infected computer... Anyone know bottom line on *truly* eradicating cws? (I won't play to any big extent in my registry btw....) On their site, Pestpatrol's program says it can eradicate... in fact theirs is the only scanner that saw cws on me. Read somewhere else that false positives can happen at scanners too... have browsing and text problems, and apparent DOS attacks, trouble running spyware diagnostics/fixes, and mouse pointer moves by itself... but have had no actual start page hijacking or signs of redirecting..??? Adaware, spybot, trojan scan sites find nothing but I know that means very little and some of them aren't built to find it. CWShredder gave up before my variant, pepikMK's couldn't see it either...

Hi Spoc, Anti-spyware programs are only good if they're constantly being updated. New variants of spyware come out everyday. If you have version 4.5 of zone alarm, I'd suggest using that. I have version 4.5 and haven't had any problems with it.

Stay with Sygate.The latest ZA version 5 update debacle is a good enough reason to do so,IMHO. If Sygate let something in,it's because you allowed it...knowingly,or not.Have you run any port scans,such as the one offered at GRC.com? If you run that test,and all ports are not stealthed,post back and I'll give you detailed instructions on how to do so. ;-) • TheKid •

Latest CWShredders: New CWS fix: http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30521 Newest 7-1-04: http://www.downloads.subratam.org/AboutBuster.zip Remember to run Shredder in FIX, not SCAN, and run it two or three times. Ditto on staying with Sygate. Thresher

Hi people, On the Lavasoft forum, someone was referring to a security article located at the sygate site. I thought the person was saying that the vulnerabilty being discussed applied to sygate's own fw; but since looking around a bit at sygate I think the one he meant was referring to ALL software fws. This article pretty much says all bets are off for being certain things are blocked, but that they lead the attempts to work around it. There are actually a couple ways I could have gotten cws -- including during the window where I was switching and had none. But it was also exhibiting some of the other, possibly unrelated mystery behaviors that I saw people talking about... like icon suddenly solid blue for days after having been every color and pattern but that, prior... people also complain of some "100% CPU" problem. I guess there are a few reasons people are suspecting it, but really I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. But seriously, it doesn't matter now because (unbelievable!!!) I spilled a full glass of water into the keyboard of the afflicted computer this afternoon... and it was a LAPTOP. It appears to be toast. Was told I can only let it dry out upside down (fanned it for hours in a pyramid shape too) for a long time and see what happens, but it's doubtful. Well gee at least now I don't have to worry about spyware, ha (not funny actually of course; I'm still in shock I think). I'm on an ancient, inconvenient old beast now, that I won't be using for pleasure computing much. What a day... : ( But thanks, as always...