Where can I find free (yet legal) spyware software? (1 Viewer)

[Scott_lb]

My parents computer is currently experiencing some problems, namely countless pop-up ads and taking forever to boot up. My mom was told to get a program called "Spybot" which she installed shortly thereafter. Low and behold, Spybot is telling her that there are 45 "parasites" on her computer. In order to get rid of these little buggers, we need to pay somewhere around forty dollars for the complete version of Spybot. Are there any other free alternatives of spyware that I can download for her to eliminate the problem? Also, if she was to purchase the complete version of Spybot, would I have to eliminate each of the 45 parasites individually, or would it simply take a few clicks of the mouse and the program will do it automatically?

Edit: I realize that erasing the entire hard drive and starting over from scratch is an option for some people. Unfortunately, my mother isn't one of them.

 

[Tekara]

you can get the free version of ad-aware 6 (google it), you might have to hunt around on the website a bit for it but the free version is there.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Or you can get it from the official site.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free

 

[Robt_Moore]

Spybot S&D has never charged anyone for software, nor have I ever come across anything it couldn't fix.

www.spybot.com is NOT the Spybot S&D website, this is:

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=home

Download the latest version, install and update, and it will take care of your problems. Don't forget to use the immunization feature, and if you use the advanced mode, there is a tool that will lock your HOSTS file. This will prevent your web browser from being hijacked.

Bob

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Yes, there are people on the Internet who would sell you something that you can get for free elsewhere on the Internet.

 

[Scott_lb]

Thanks for the replies. I'll download the Spybot software and see how things go!

 

[Scott_lb]

Well, things went well and not so well. I had my laptop over at a friend's house and downloaded Spybot for my own machine. It worked great, and found six spyware files that were removed. However, my mom, being impatient as she is, paid $30.00 for another program instead of waiting until I got back to her house to install Spybot (I wanted to "test it" on my machine first before installing it on hers).

Anyway, now we have another problem:

1. When I hook my laptop up to the ethernet cable coming out of the cable modem, everything works great. However, when I hook it up to one of the ethernet cables coming from the router I can't get on the net at all. The router is plugged in, the power light is on, each "plug indicator light" is on (at least those with plugs actually in them), the line coming from the cable modem is plugged into the WAN input, and my laptop is hooked up to one of the four available cable slots.

2. When I plug the main wire coming directly from the cable modem and into my mom's pc (which worked successfully on my laptop), I can't get on the net whatsoever using her machine. I also cannot get onto the net using one of the wires coming from the router either.

I guess I'm at a loss here. I was on the phone with both our internet service provider and Dell and they couldn't help at all. Any ideas?



3.

 

[Scott_lb]

I figured it out, along with the help of our internet provider. Thanks anyway!

 

[Mike Fassler]

get spybot search and destroy, its the best free spyware remover out there just make sure you read what it flags as
these programs sometimes think things are spyware when they arent especially registery settings.