OT but Did Anyone Try AdAware?

I like Win2K and XP, myself... NT kernel and compatible with everything I want to run. I guess I'll be sticking to Win2K for a long time.

 

Me too. Even on those occasions it does crash, it recovers much more gracefully. I've seen a lot about XP being mmuch faster and would like to know if anyone has first-hand experience.

I actually bought a licence for 2000

 

I'll stick with 98. If it was good enough for my grandparents, it's good enough for me. :smile:

 

I wouldn't know that, but I have two housemates running it and they seem to be happy with it. We also use it on our in-house movie server. Runs just fine. I'm still sticking to Win2k though, because as a rule, I don't upgrade until I have a damn good reason to do so.

 

Me too, but the way some games run on my machine, a bit of extra speed would be a damn good reason ... now which of these babies will convey just the right sense combo of exasperation tinged with hope ... hmm ... this one! :frownyes:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sheriff Fatman on 2001-12-09 16:40 ]</font>

 

Neither do, that's why I'm still running Win98...mainly because it's still the best gaming platform out there..

 

I actually used to have a Linux-based firewall / connection sharing box that some other dude made for us. Then I fried the mobo. Then I thought, "gee whiz, I'll just transfer the harddrive and network cards to another computer and get it to work! How hard can it be?"
End result? Nuked linux install. It wouldn't even boot anymore. Under pressure from my housemates I formatted the harddrive and just used Win95 + WinRoute.

 

Windows 95 is the tool of the Devil!

WinRoute is the tool of the Devil!

Actually, how's that working out at the moment? As good, better or worse than a linux box?

 

That's the true evil of Linux - being an expert in Windows platforms doesn't qualify you in anyway to tinker with it.

I reckon Linux is for those people on the outer margins of the nerd bell-curve, who have so little life they can spend every spare momemt reading open source material, and still have enough ability at some skill that stands a chance of getting you a decent job.

*looks around at the 1.45am Fatman bedroom and realises where the 4 hours he's just spent perusing TA puts him on the nerd curve*

Bugger.

 

Hmm... Maybe I'll try the dedicated linux box as a firewall thing after I upgrade. I have an old P120 that's just gathering dust...

Anyway, I ran Ad Aware and installed the free version of Zone Alarm. So far as I can tell, the only programs disabled by the removal of spyware is KaZaa and Real Player.

Zone Alarm is cool. I'm still learning what some of the stuff is or does, but I'm slowly getting the hang of things. You were right by the way, Fatman. ZA is blocking connection attempts at the rate of 1 every 3-5 minutes! All coming from 12.236.*.* range of IPs. And for some reason, my lexmark printer app wants to set itself up as a server on startup. Still haven't figured that one out.

I went to http://www.grc.com and my system passed it's ShieldsUP and PortProbe tests.

Heh, here's another one now:

A question for all you ZA users out there: Do you just deal with these boxes popping up every five minutes?

 

Uptime-wise it's almost as good as the Linux box. It works just fine. I just miss my old Apache webserver... and the in-house mail server... and everything else that was cool... *sniff*

 

• Open the ZA console (double click it in the systray).
• click the "Alerts" button (top-left)
• Uncheck the checkbox marked "Show the Alert pop-up window"

You'll still be able to read through your alert log, so you'll not lose anything.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sheriff Fatman on 2001-12-09 17:08 ]</font>

 

Great, Fatman, thanks.

 

Sorry, Milo, I missed your post, somehow. Seems like you have it all figured out, thanks to SF. How's it going? Did you get rid of all that nasty spyware?

 

Most of it. I think. That "Double Click" one is a dirty bastard. I get rid of it, restart my comp, and there it is again. I don't know how it keeps installing itself. Note that this was before I installed Zone Alarm. On my next reboot, I'll try ad aware again and see if it's still lingering.

And since you're here, can you (or anyone else) suggest a non-spyware version of KaZaa? Or at least clue me in to how invasive the KaZaa spyware actually is. It might be one of the ones that actually might be worth keeping around because of all the stuff I download from it. Can I safely run it even with the spyware, meaning will ZA block it if it tries to connect?

Thanks for helping me out here, guys. I appreciate it.

 

You're welcome.
I think ZA will block it if you tell it to. You can give yourself the option of letting ZA allow access only when you OK it.
But I think a better fix is to switch to WinMX. It's free (or at least it used to be) on CNET, and I've never had a problem with it.
If you can isolate KaZaa and run AdAware on it, I can probably recognize the spyware, and describe how nasty it is. But you can still run it as long as you let ZA access it.
Did you run a deep scan with AdAware? That's what I use.

 

I haven't been downloading mp3's (giving you the benefit :winknudge: ) since Napster was so cruelly castrated, but the guys at work swear by Morpheus, which is available from CNet or its makers, http://www.musiccity.com (although I think they shunt you to CNet anyway)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sheriff Fatman on 2001-12-09 17:34 ]</font>

 

I tried Morpheus, but I didn't care for it. WinMX is more user-friendly and accesses the same servers as Morpheus... including Musiccity and more. Personal preference, really. Try 'em both, but read the user reviews first.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Feldon Kane on 2001-12-09 17:39 ]</font>

 

I think the more pressing question there is what application uses Port 2246? Maybe you have some virus that's trying to connect to a certain server? That's just a guess though.

Imesh is a pretty decent files-sharing app. Don't know if it has spyware though. It eats up a fair chunk of system resources as well...

 

Milo, I just read through your post again. Regarding the printer trying to act as a server, I had the same situation. I just told ZA not to let that happen. I've had no problems.