Does anybody know anything about the SpyKiller 2003 Software?

Hi Daryl,
It is 'suppose' to check if there are any spywayre applications on your computer. Such things are a result of tricky pop-up ads that want you to install a controller, and banners that place cookies on your system.
If you use Netscape just disable all javascript and java and cookies, or install a firewall like zonealarm to block such items, OR better yet I recall reading that you can enter the ip addresses and\or domain names into your 'hosts' file and this will block all incoming traffic from those places. I need todig for that, but basically spyware checks your system for those types of apps..Adware does the same thing and it is free also.

God Bless,
Will

SpyKiller 2003 is only free for 30 days.

Anyway, which one is better?

Check out adware..thery have a free version which doesn't expire unless they changed that.

God bless,
Will

But how reliable are they?

Hi Daryl,
Well I have used Adware myself and it seemed to be quite effective, but in order to really get into the internals of this it would be good to 'tweak your registry' settings to remove any malware, spyware,or adware which translates to 'corporate trojan horse'. I have a firewall installed with its rules and also modify my browser settings to reject scripts and things like that, and its effective and serves its purpose. You can do things such as disable images,scripts, and applets in netscape, and increse security level in IE, and then customize it. This will give you some protection from such pesky things, but also it never hurts to run a 'netstat -an' from the command prompt and see what ports are open on your machine and block those using a firewall (Zonealarm). This app will filter out all of the above and is highly customizeable, but can be a resource hog. As usual I strayed off topic here, so give Adware a shot and make sure the level of scanning Adware will run is set to deep scan.. all maxed out for maximum house cleaning

God Bless,
Will

The best thing out there right now for removing spyware is Spybot Search & Destroy, which is free (though the author does take donations). It's available at

http://security.kolla.de/


Ad-Aware is also good, and also has a free version, at

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/


After installing either one, it's important to do a web update, so you get the latest definition file. I run both programs on this machine, though if I had to pick one I'd choose Spybot.

So, there's no need to spend any money to rid your computer of spyware.

A good place for spyware-related info is http://www.spywareinfo.com/ -- he puts out a good free e-mail newsletter too.