spyware programs

In My Humble Opinion
1

I think I might have a spyware issue with my computer. Right now I have Sunbelt’s CounterSpy, Spybot Search and Destroy, Lavasoft AdAware along with my AVG antivirus program and Kerio Firewall and Hijack This.

Is having two anti-spyware programs overkill? I’m thinking about getting rid of CounterSpy because it takes sooooo damned long to download updates (435 to 437 takes more than a half hour on dialup and it still didnt update? It took 7 minutes for SpybotSD to update!). Are CounterSpy and SpybotSD equally good?

2

With all those disposal/prevention tools around? What makes you think you have spyware issues? (By “issues,” you do mean “infection,” right?)

3

No, two or three spyware programs isn’t overkill. A single code may not have updates for all new forms of spyware as soon as they are discovered.

And if you still can’t get rid of your infection with all that, you may have something like a rootkit. Try a priest. (The one time I had one, I tried everything eventually gave up and reinstalled Windows on a new drive.)

4

Since you have a computer question, can we assume that you have read this first?

5

I’m not asking for help to remove it. I just wanted advice if it was overkill to have those programs.
If I wanted a factual answer I would’ve posted in GQ where your precious link is stickied. I wanted an opinion, thanks for adding nothing. READ MOAR
Hopefully this wasn’t tl;dr

6

OK. So here’s my opinion.

If at all possible, ditch the dialup. More and more programs and data file won’t fit thru that tiny pipe.

Personally, I run AdAware and Spybot scans periodically (alternately, not concurrently). The word on the street and from my experience is they each catch a few things the other one misses. But these are only good for malware/adware, not viruses. I know nothing about CounterSpy.

Always check for and download updates before running a scan.

Hijack This is a special-purpose program and takes some skill to use effectively.

I don’t use anti-virus programs, but I hold AVG in high regard for those that want to use one. It’s less intrusive and has less CPU overhead baggage than Norton and McAfee, but seems to be just as good in protection skills. YMMV.

Now it’s your turn: what makes you think you are infected if all these tools are working? Or are you just being cautious?

7

I’m not a windows user (except VPC), but I’m under the impression that most windows users have AdAware and Spybot, plus the newer Microsoft anti-spyware thingie, whatever that was called. It’s not like having multiple anti-virus programs (which can cause a huge performance hit) or multiple firewall packages (another awful mess); the anti-spyware apps generally don’t step on each others’ toes.

8

I don’t think it’s necessarily overkill, but they won’t help you much if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Personally, I use Spybot S&D for general-purpose scanning and whatnot - AdAware has burned me too often in the past - but I rely upon HijackThis to check my startup items, and ProcessExplorer to check my running programs (and to a smaller extent, Autoruns for startup items and Rootkit Revealer for your generic nasty uninstallable crud.)

The problem is that spyware is constantly evolving, so any general-purpose spyware scanner will be lagging behind. There is no silver bullet solution. The best thing is to be aware of what your system should look like when it’s not infected. Educate yourself. Run Hijack This periodically, and make note of the items that show up suddenly. Same thing with Process Explorer. Keep notes.

That, or change to a decent operating system, or the next best thing, where better software design makes spyware a much smaller problem.

9

A word of caution about that Microsoft program (MS Antispyware or Defender or Asteroids or whatever they’re calling it this quarter): with the default settings, it can slow your machine down as much as a spyware infection can. (There’s also some question as to whether Microsoft accepted money to remove some spyware from its lists.) If you do install this, play with the settings until you find a balance between performance and protection. But like I said earlier, there is no silver bullet.

One other suggestion about protecting yourself against spyware: ditch Internet Explorer. Spyware authors LOVE the dumb blue e - between bad code and bad security, it makes it easy for websites to install crap on your computer without consent or notification. There are good alternatives out there. I use Mozilla Firefox (actually I’m using Portable Firefox), but Opera is good too.