• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

free spyware advice

Lonermon

Lonermon

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okay i do tech support for a living and most of my calls are pay for support calls from people with spyware / hijacker issues . so i thought that id go ahead and and give you all some good free advise

spyware removal

#1 ad-aware se personal edition ( free)
http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm

#2 Adware Away ( 5 day trial )
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/Adware-Away/3000-8022-10342100.html

hijacker removal

#1 cw shredder 2 (free)
http://computercops.biz/downloads-cat-14.html

#2 aboutbuster (free)
http://www.malwarebytes.biz/index.php?page=downloads

virus removal (online scans)

#1 housecall
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

#2 Panda active scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

free anti-virus

#1 AVG
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

#2 Avast
http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=ENG

Pop up Stopper

#1 Pop up stopper free edition
http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html

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if yoru running windows xp and have a high speed connection the best thing to do is boot up to "SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING"

you can do this by tapping the F8 key starting a few moments after starting the computer ( no when in windows ) and you will get the ADVANCED OPTIONS MENU

download the tools and run them in safe mode .

there are some polymorphic hijackers that are nearly impossible to remove . in the end theres a quicker solution than reloading the computer . install another browser

alternate browser

#1 Firefox
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

most people think that the internet is built to run on Internet Explorer . This is jsut not true . Most things are designed to be Mozilla compatable , including Internet explorer . and Firefox is a mozilla client

well hope that this helps you :scatter:
 
Amen lonerman. i know half the computers i work on, the only problem was mainly spyware. some people's single computers i scanned over 800 pieces. they had 20+ active spyware exe's on boot, no wonder why they thought their computer was messedup.

i have found that even using a combination of adaware and mcaffe anti-spyware software cant get it all though. so i would like to ad a tip for anyone reading. LEARN what programs of yours loads with windows and weekly run MSCONFIG and review your startup items. (click run. type msconfig, hit ok, click the startup tab).

pay attention to the filepaths to the exe's. some sypware install themselves to obvious folders ie; c:\program files\webrebates. some folders are just scrambled like c:\Program files\prj6k. some will install into c:\windows and c:\windows\system32 folders

if you find anything thats is suspect you can deactivate the next loading of it by unchecking the box.

also load reg edit 32 (click run, type regedit, hit ok).
goto "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" ,
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce",
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" and
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" sections.
same thing there pay attention to the filenames. delete the entries that you know don't belong there.

also lonerman, you aint kidding about those polymorphic hijackers. i got one on ie that i cant seem to kill, find or anything else. these people are starting to take it a little to far anymore just to make a buck.
 
I've been using Spybot for a year now and I love it. Espesially all the tools it has for editing homepages, Active X, processes and startup items. And the Resident tea timer for detecting registry changes is great.
Thought I should ad that Wintasks is awsome for finding out what all those processes are that are running for the unfamiliar user. It is only a 15 day trial though.

I also tried using the Google toolbar. It's adware-free, takes 2 seconds to download and it has a decent adblocking feature. Works on 95% ofthe ads. And it's free.
 
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