OT: Agent Newsreader

"pas" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Greg do you know anything about
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/ This one?

I tried it. Didn't appear to work as well as AdAware + Spybot. In fact,
didn't appear to do a whole lot.
Hit scan, and [censored], it's done, reporting only the Windows Media Player GUID
log. (Not a real problem)
I can't imagine that it scanned all 200GB of my system in under 2 seconds.

Spybot 1.3 reported a bunch of bad actor cookies, and AdAware 6 the same.
Both of those take some minutes to run a full scan.

I'm behind a Linsys router/firewall and an IpCop linux firewall, so I'm not
really too worried.

I have a spare machine around that I may load up with some known spyware to
try this thing further.

Pete

Pete said:

"pas" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Greg do you know anything about
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/ This one?

I tried it. Didn't appear to work as well as AdAware + Spybot. In fact,
didn't appear to do a whole lot.
Hit scan, and [censored], it's done, reporting only the Windows Media Player GUID
log. (Not a real problem)
I can't imagine that it scanned all 200GB of my system in under 2 seconds.

Spybot 1.3 reported a bunch of bad actor cookies, and AdAware 6 the same.
Both of those take some minutes to run a full scan.

The above one probably only checks common places for spyware to run from
like Hijack This does, i.e., run key in the registry, Startup folder,
registered dlls, installed ActiveX controls, etc. It makes scans quick
and for spyware I don't think you need to do a full system scan a la
AdAware and Spybot.

Greg

--
Destroy your safe and happy lives
Before it is too late
The battles we fought were long and hard
Just not to be consumed by rock'n'roll

"G.T." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pete said:

"pas" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Greg do you know anything about
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/ This one?

I tried it. Didn't appear to work as well as AdAware + Spybot. In fact,
didn't appear to do a whole lot.
Hit scan, and [censored], it's done, reporting only the Windows Media Player

GUID

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

log. (Not a real problem)
I can't imagine that it scanned all 200GB of my system in under 2

seconds.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Spybot 1.3 reported a bunch of bad actor cookies, and AdAware 6 the

same.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Both of those take some minutes to run a full scan.

The above one probably only checks common places for spyware to run from
like Hijack This does, i.e., run key in the registry, Startup folder,
registered dlls, installed ActiveX controls, etc. It makes scans quick
and for spyware I don't think you need to do a full system scan a la
AdAware and Spybot.

Greg

A bit of a test:
Secondary machine sitting around (PII 400/Win2000 - haphazardly patched)

Nothing else loaded on it besides the operating system

Installed various known spyware/adware programs.
Bonzi
CometCursor
Gator/Gator eWallet
WeatherScope (from GAIN)
BlazingTools Perfect Keylogger
Actions Monitor

Surfed around to a few suspicious sites to enable cookie placement.

Bazooka Spyware from kephyr.com scanner only found what was resident in
memory.
Bonzi, Comet, Gator, WeatherScope.

Did not find existence of other malware. Actions Monitor or BlazingTools
keylogger.

Didn't find any of the cookies, or any reg entries
It also does not actually remove anything. It only gives you instructions on
manually removal. Regedit, etc.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with it. Not inclusive enough, and doesn't
actually remove anything.

Pete

Slacker said:

sittingduck said:

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-06-18, kantspel penned:

> Don't even get me started on how much better Firebird is over IE, I
> absolutly cannot use IE anymore.

Mmmmm firebird. Come for the popup blocking. Stay for the tabs.

Indeed! Firefox kicks ass, I use tabs constantly, its a great way to
read forums and browse links on a site. It helps to learn the KB
shortcuts too, here is a page full of them:
http://texturizer.net/firefox/keyboard.html

Have just tried Firefox the last couple of days since reading this. It's
FAST, easy to migrate to and I like the skins. It also has a better layout
than IE when your display res is higher. I run mine at 1024x768.
Haven't quite figured out what difference tabs versus New Window make to my
life yet.
Am having trouble selecting text on pages and in the google bar, and
positioning the cursor. Very haphazard whether or not it goes where you
want it to. Curious. I like it overall but the selection problems are a
pain.
Next step is to try XNews.
--
Westie
(Replace 'invalid' with 'yahoo' when replying.)

On 2004-06-20, Westie penned:

Quoted message said:

Have just tried Firefox the last couple of days since reading this.
It's FAST, easy to migrate to and I like the skins. It also has a
better layout than IE when your display res is higher. I run mine at
1024x768. Haven't quite figured out what difference tabs versus New
Window make to my life yet. Am having trouble selecting text on pages
and in the google bar, and positioning the cursor. Very haphazard
whether or not it goes where you want it to. Curious. I like it
overall but the selection problems are a pain. Next step is to try
XNews.

Tabs are wonderful if, like me, you tend to have 15-20 sites open at a
minimum. You can group pages by browser instance to find what you want.
Also, you can bookmark them as a group.

Not sure about the selection issue, but here's a tip you may find
interesting: if you right-click on an email address, one of the options
is to copy the email address. Same with right-clicking on a link; it
offers to copy the address for you. (Actually, this is even better than
copying the straight text in many cases). I also adore the "copy image
location" feature.

--
monique

Jon Bond said:

I'd love to see a virus scan of your computer. One of my friends here
who works for our school's online service (which mostly handles virus
removal and prevention) thought he didn't need a virus scanner because
he was too smart to fall for virus stuff. He's a damn smart kid too -
double major computer and civil engineering, and doing well.

Intelligent does not always equate to smart.

Quoted message said:

He lasted about a month
before he got kicked off the network for spreading viruses - he had more
than 5 on his computer when we checked it over.

I rest my case. It takes some going to attract 5 viruses.

Quoted message said:

I'd love to see an adaware check too. I never install stuff I don't
know what it is, and yet I always pick up spyware here and there - it
just happens.

Either tighten up your settings and / or use a different browser.

Quoted message said:

[censored] happens man, ESPECIALLY if you're running windows. And yes, a lot
of that [censored] slips right by most firewalls

If you think "[censored] slips right by most firewalls", then you have a poor
understanding of what firewalls actually do.

Quoted message said:

- my school is behind a
firewall, plus filters email for viruses (viri?)

Viruses. Viri is the Latin for 'men'. If the plural were virii (as some
people write it), then the singular would be virius.

Staying virus-free is actually pretty simple, provided you know what
you're doing and you take some precautions. I've not used AV software for
years, and surprisingly have remained virus-free, even whilst using M$
machines.

The problem is, as you've just demonstrated, that AV software is viewed as
a panacea, when in reality, it's actually not that good. A little bit of
common sense is far more effective. YMMV.

"bomba" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jon Bond said:

I'd love to see a virus scan of your computer. One of my friends here
who works for our school's online service (which mostly handles virus
removal and prevention) thought he didn't need a virus scanner because
he was too smart to fall for virus stuff. He's a damn smart kid too -
double major computer and civil engineering, and doing well.

Intelligent does not always equate to smart.

Quoted message said:

He lasted about a month
before he got kicked off the network for spreading viruses - he had more
than 5 on his computer when we checked it over.

I rest my case. It takes some going to attract 5 viruses.

College network with a LOT of very stupid people downloading viruses. Plus
drunken browsing tends to lower your guard a bit... and the boy was rushing
a frat at the time, so he did a lot of drunken browsing... (and drunken
puking, and drunken homework, and drunken....)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'd love to see an adaware check too. I never install stuff I don't
know what it is, and yet I always pick up spyware here and there - it
just happens.

Either tighten up your settings and / or use a different browser.

Just 'cause I use swiss cheese... er, excuse me, IE....

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

[censored] happens man, ESPECIALLY if you're running windows. And yes, a lot
of that [censored] slips right by most firewalls

If you think "[censored] slips right by most firewalls", then you have a poor
understanding of what firewalls actually do.

I don't pretend to be a firewall expert - I do know, however, that we had a
firewall (hardware, not software - although we experimented with those too)
set up on my home network, and although we never got any of the MS-exploit
worms, we did still get a couple viruses - granted, my mom is completely
clueless when it comes to not downloading files ("but its from somebody I
know!"😉.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

- my school is behind a
firewall, plus filters email for viruses (viri?)

Viruses. Viri is the Latin for 'men'. If the plural were virii (as some
people write it), then the singular would be virius.

Yeah, was too lazy to look it up, but thought viruses was right. Note the
"7:18AM" post time - that wasn't me waking up early. Damn sleep
disorders...

Quoted message said:

Staying virus-free is actually pretty simple, provided you know what
you're doing and you take some precautions. I've not used AV software for
years, and surprisingly have remained virus-free, even whilst using M$
machines.

The problem is, as you've just demonstrated, that AV software is viewed as
a panacea, when in reality, it's actually not that good. A little bit of
common sense is far more effective. YMMV.

I've also, on my personal computer, have never gotten a virus. A ton of
annoying adware, yes, but never a virus. Only twice has my antivirus
software popped up, and that was on downloaded email messages that had a
virus in their payload (but needed to be run to activate it). Except for
their potential to hog system resources, it just seems like a smart thing to
do. Nah, its no panacea, no silver bullet - but it allows me to not worry
about whether that file I accidentally downloaded at 6 or 7AM for a free
trial of something quite possibly had a virus in it - peace of mind is worth
the fairly reasonable subscription price to me.

Jon Bond

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 10:36:23 -0600, "Monique Y. Mudama"
<[email hidden]> scribbled:

Quoted message said:

On 2004-06-20, Westie penned:

Quoted message said:

Have just tried Firefox the last couple of days since reading this.
It's FAST, easy to migrate to and I like the skins. It also has a
better layout than IE when your display res is higher. I run mine at
1024x768. Haven't quite figured out what difference tabs versus New
Window make to my life yet. Am having trouble selecting text on pages
and in the google bar, and positioning the cursor. Very haphazard
whether or not it goes where you want it to. Curious. I like it
overall but the selection problems are a pain. Next step is to try
XNews.

Tabs are wonderful if, like me, you tend to have 15-20 sites open at a
minimum. You can group pages by browser instance to find what you want.
Also, you can bookmark them as a group.

Unless you accidentally click wrong and close the whole freaking
group, rendering all your web surfing moot. 🙂 (doh!)

[snip]

-Slash
--
"Ebert Victorious"
-The Onion

On 2004-06-21, Slash penned:

Quoted message said:

Unless you accidentally click wrong and close the whole freaking
group, rendering all your web surfing moot. 🙂 (doh!)

I usually take that as a sign that I should be doing something more
worthwhile, anyway =)

--
monique

sittingduck said:

Quoted message said:

Unless you accidentally click wrong and close the whole freaking
group, rendering all your web surfing moot. 🙂 (doh!)

LOL! Been there done that!

Fortunately, Opera saves your sessions.