Hey gang,

I'm getting a new Thinkpad (I've been limping along on an old 600 series with a 300 Pentium II) and I want to protect it as best I can from anything and everything out there. I don't mind spending some money either intially for software or monthly. I just want a clean running machine.

I've been using the free version of Ad-Aware 6.0, but it doesn't block ahead of time it just erases what it can which, of course is not everything that's on the HD.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance for the help.

sketcha...

email me. I might be able to help ya...

cigar at 702com.net

Hey,

Goto the Microsoft update site and select the heading that says "Windows Family". On that page they have a link for their "NEW" Antispyware Beta. This thing is great. I run Adaware and Spybot both at home and work. This new one found quite a few hits that Adaware and Spybot both missed.

I really think it works well. Give it a try.

-Chris

I'd go with a vintage Fender "P" and an Ampeg SVT 5PRO head with a PR-410HLF cabinet.

But thats just me

Its only fitting that Microsoft should have the best spyware protection... they create most of this spyware crap! LOL

Nope...they bought the "competition" and are packaging like it's their own!

Go with a firewall and the free Adaware. No pop-ups at all here.

IMO the Microsoft thing will be a loser, with so many updates to fix holes in the software. I plan to avoid it completely. One of the best at blocking and getting rid of spyware is Spybot. Not only is it constantly rated very well, when compared against programs that you pay for, but it's FREE.

Go to download.com, in the search type spybot, do the download now, do the updates, and go through the start up stuff, and then do the immunize, and it will block those nasties before they get on your PC. It may not be as intuitive as other software, but it works very well. Oh, and congrats on the new computer.

There is a program (free)

called Prevx Home

got it at zdnet.com

Works great

I have been using Webroot Spy Sweeper for over a year now with pretty good results. You can download a version free from their website but it will require a subscription to continue to get updates. I think it's about $30

John

what thom said.

I use Spywareblaster and spywareguard together. These as both free programs that provide real time protection to spyware and browser hijackings - they work by preventing spyware from ever installing on your computer (Spybot and Adaware try to clean your machine after an "infection" has already occured). These programs can be found doing a search for the above names (they are on a website called javacool I believe). Since I have been using them, Spybot and Adware scans usally come back clean as opposed to the avalache of problems they used to find. These allow you to use Internet Explorer without having to worry to much about spyware and browser hijackers forcing their way onto your machine. I have not had any problems with either of them and highly suggest them for anybody using the Internet Explorer web browser. Hope his helps!!

Linksys firewall router in addition to software..

JMO

cayman

Decission, decissions, I'm in a similar boat as Sketcha and should get some Anti Spyware stuff, but what really works is a crap shoot from the sounds of it.

Switch your browser to Mozilla or Firefox.

Install Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, and AdAware.

Lot's of good info. here. Thanks guys.

I was hoping to get some kind of consensus or at least a majority vote, but I still learned alot.

Thanks again.

O.K, I got the wireless router configured as a firewall with a 26 digit code. I installed Mozilla, Spyware Blaster, Spyware Guard, Spybot and Adaware. I also downloaded the free version of Zone Alarm from SBC DSL.

Before all of this, I did have to reconfigure my Thinkpad to an earlier date as I seemed to have acquired a virus that would get rundll32.exe burning up my CPU within 15 min. or so of start up.

I've discovered that Adaware has found things that Spybot missed and vice-versa. It seems you can't have enough spyware blocking. But since I did all of this, niether program has found but 1 or 2 items.

We'll see how it goes in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Thanks, everyone for your help. It is much appreciated.

Kendall

SpywareBlaster 3.2

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html 

DD

Thanks, DD. Installed that yesterday as I said above.

Oh yeah, Norton came with my Thinkpad.

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Switch your browser to Mozilla or Firefox.

Install Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, and AdAware.

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I can vouch for Firefox, Spybot S&D and Adaware. The biggest help will be dumping IE and using Firefox, as IE is script-kiddie bait.

www.mozilla.org

You may want to look at Thunderbird also (email client) but the browser is more important. (IMHO) A nice side benefit Firefox provides is the tabbed browsing feature, sweeeeet!