Spyware Warrior

[PCPacifistNoMore]

Hi, trying to help my mom. She's running Windows 98, and has had Spybot and Ad-Aware for some time and is good about regular updates/clean-ups (as she is with her antivirus program, I don't recall if it's Norton or other). After reading up on things here, I also installed Spyware Blaster and Spyguard for her, and told her to quit using Internet Explorer; I installed Firefox for her, and things seem to have been going pretty well. She's a pretty heavy user, home office (so no network umbrella protection nor big $$ budget for similar), runs Goldmine all the time in addition to Outlook, etc. Usually has way too many programs running at once but...ok.

She was trying to view a demo with a potential business partner (PBP) and her system started freezing up on her. The three programs she tried to utilize to view the demo were Raindance, WebEx and AT&T WebEx (some installation was req'd for each program, I believe). Her PBP clarified the issues she was having by saying, "It was while you were trying to get access to the webcast programs that your system was freezing." She reached out to me for help, conversation ensued about spyware software etc. I'm wondering if she isn't having some javascript issues related to Firefox...but I'm a newbie so here I am.

Her PBP seems a bit...frustrated & resistant to what he sees her doing to solve her own problems, IMHO (she's a smart cookie but tends to be a bit flustered when having computer issues, so I can see where he's coming from ). He also doesn't have the same view as the experts here on the dangers of Spyware, or on what she should have installed to protect herself against same. I would appreciate your help on solving her webcast software issues and also with any "rebuttal" to PBP's comments on the dangers of spyware, below:

<<from PBP>>

"OK, Spyware Blaster is the removal program for spyware. Spyware Guard is the resident memory program that runs continuously to block spyware attempts.

Spyware is annoying but rarely destructive. At worse, it captures how you use your computer, what sites you visit, what type of software you’re using, etc – just traditional marketing data – and sends it back to the Bot owner.

With that being said, according to the manufacturer’s website, it is not a real firewall. It does attempt to eliminate web browser hijacking. That is a small aspect of any good firewall.

Spyware also doesn’t protect you against viruses. I don’t recall whether you were running a virus protection program.

As I said this morning, I quit running Ad-Aware (competitive to Spyware) because it was interfering with too many things and the real risk was minimal. Instead, we all run Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall.

Norton Firewall can require some configuration to make it work right, but when it is, no-one is getting into your system and it won’t interfere with most programs like Raindance or WebEx. The advantage to those commercial products is that (although they can be expensive), companies like Norton embed into the product rules for all major applications. In other words, it already knows that programs like Raindance or WebEx are legitimate applications and don’t block them.

My recommendation would be terminate Spyware Guard from automatically loading during a boot-up. From all indications, it is. You could still periodically run Spyware Blaster just to clean up those ad Bots that get in.

Then, I would seriously suggest getting Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall and installing them. If you system has enough memory, that should fix the problem." <<end PBP quote>>

[3162]

I'm moving this Topic over into a better Forum for you to receive help.

Thanks for stopping in here
_________________
Proud member of the Chest Zipper Club!

[herbalist]

PCPacifistNoMore,
Mozilla and Firefox do lock up on some pages. Seems as much a Java issue as a Mozilla/Firefox issue. Regarding Ad-aware, unless you're referring to the adwatch component, there should be no interference with anythings operation, save possibly another resident anti-adware program. BTW, the risk is higher than you might think. Much adware has characteristics that can also classify them as trojans, not just adware. Get CoolWebSearch installed one time and you'll see what I mean. Some of that garbage is worse than virus. Do not take this stuff lightly. One machine I worked on was so infected with adware, it took 45-60 seconds to open an average webpage, then another 2 minutes to close all the popups. 3.5GB of wasted hard drive space. Another one I cleaned had almost 5gb of the stuff. Besides wasting bandwidth and disk space, don't underestimate just how many system crashes that junk is directly responsible for. Even old systems like 98, when kept free of adware/malware and equipped with good quality software that uses resources and memory efficiently, rarely crash. Adware, spyware, and malware cause more system crashes and software conflicts than viruses and trojans, and the majority of computers are infected to one degree or another.
Regarding win98, the number of processes isn't really the issue. The load on your system is, and Norton uses a lot of memory and disk space for what it gives you. There are a lot of more efficient and less expensive alternatives for AV and firewall protection. AntiVir and Kerio 2.1.5 both work very well with 98, but then I never liked automatic rule creation.
I looked up what Raindance needs from a system. It requires at least 98SE, 128mb of RAM minimum, 256mb recommended, and a 500 mhz or faster processor. If her computer is 98 first edition, it probably doesn't meet the other program minimums either, especially if she's multi-tasking.
Rick

[PCPacifistNoMore]

Thank you so much, Rick. I intend to visit mom's and drive her machine "live" instead of remotely to test the issues she was having, and am also going to read thru your "Making 98 Better" page for any other ways I can optimize her performance.

As I am new to Firefox, can you point me to a place where I can find some tips on combatting any Java/loading issues? I'm sure someone has already posted a complete "how-to" that you trust to pass along.

Lovin' you all...making my donation today.

[wawadave]

http://www.mozilla.org/support/

might be a good place to look.
_________________
RFID tags! SPYWARE
Tired of proprietary Cor-pirationware?
http://www.openoffice.org/
Installing Vista http://tinyurl.com/2l9qyd

[herbalist]

Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that really helps with Mozilla and Firefox locking up on certain pages. Fortunately, it doesn't do that on very many. Only one that I use. I haven't used the newest version of Firefox but the previous one did the same as Mozilla on those sites. Does she have the latest version of Java? I believe it's version 1.4.2_05 now. Depending on the exact problem, it might help.
Rick