I am posting this becasue I think this article will benefit many people. I have posted this article in its entirety and unmodified, with respecting all copyright info..
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Your Computer May Be Infected. Here's how to check..
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NOTE: Please take time to read on - it may be vital for your PC's security. If you are not in the mood, just save it or print it out for later reference.

A recent research revealed that 80% of the computers today is infected with these dangerous spyware and most of the users are not aware of it. (Your computer could be infected by now too.) The most dangerous fact is, even though the anti-virus software is running, these software can even pass it and take over your PC.

Have you experienced any of the following?
* Awsome popups come out of nowhere, when browsing the web
* Home page reset to some other site

How can this happen?

- The components installed when viewing certain sites, starts up and running as soon as it's finished installing (or after the page is completely loaded) and with every windows startup since then. Their job is to collect information and report (or transfer) it to an external computer.

What is deceptive software? (Reference: www.microsoft.com)
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Spyware and unauthorized adware are two examples of "deceptive" software. Deceptive software includes programs which take over your home page or search page without first getting your permission. There are a number of ways deceptive software can get on your system. A common trick is to covertly install the software during the installation of other software you want such as a music or video file sharing program.

Whenever you are installing something on your computer, make sure you carefully read all disclosures, including the license agreement and privacy statement. Sometimes the inclusion of adware in a given software installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license agreement or privacy statement.

Sometimes deceptive software gets silently installed on your system without any warning at all. If you use Internet Explorer as your Web browser, this can happen if your Internet Explorer security setting is set to its lowest value. Make sure to keep this setting at the medium level or higher. Doing so will help you control what is being installed on your computer.

Have you ever had an experience where you were repeatedly asked to accept a download even after you said "no"? Creators of deceptive software often use such tricks to get you to load their software. If this happens to you, do not click "yes". Instead, try to close the Web page that first asked you to accept the download by hitting the "X" in the corner of the window. Alternatively, quit Internet Explorer and restart it to begin browsing the Internet again. If you visit a Web page that continually displays these tricky pop-up windows, that Web site may not be worthy of your trust.

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Your computer may be infected by now, but you may not know. Just have a checkup with a software specifically designed for it, to know the current status of your computer. You must clean infections once you find it but the game is not over yet. The spyware might reinfect your PC. So it's highly recommended that you run a firewall on your system after the clean up. This will allow you to monitor every single communication occurs with your computer and block the ones which you feel unnecessary. The firewall acts as a barrier between your PC and the external world (Internet / Network).

A good spyware detector recommended by most people is, http://adwarechecker.cjb.net and it shows you all the infections and potential dangers in great detail. It's free to scan but not to clean. It's a good idea to have a scan even if you have no idea of cleaning, since you know the status of your PC in great detail. It also gives the advantage of giving a try to clean it out, provided that the infections are minor and you (or a friend) have a fair knowledge on registry settings, cookies etc. and how to modify them.

You must run a firewall. In many new operating systems(eg. Windows XP), there is a built-in firewall. Google search on how to activate it. Others may try one at http://www.download.com

You may have a question by now. What is the purpose of these spyware? Even though we cannot give an explicit and clear cut answer, we can safely state that every thing boils down to the urge of more profits. How? The spyware collects all your personal information and transfer it to an external computer. The information is reviewed by a software in the receiving computer and then deleivered targeted popup ads to the infected PC. There are many things that spyware does in addition to this.

If you have some technical knowledge on your PC, here's a technical explanation on what trouble does the spyware cause.

1. An extra process is running to monitor and log your activities in your PC.
2. Constant transfer is taking place between your PC and the spyware server. (This is a two-way transfer)

Firstly, the extra process in itself is an unneeded process and it contributes to slow down your PC. Second point is the most harmful. It transfers logged info to the external PC (spyware writer's PC). Then the external PC transfers targeted popups to the infected PC. This, in addition to slowing down your PC because of these extra processes, it also slows down the internet connection, as the bandwidth is shared. In short, PC with a spyware is like a dumping ground for snakes. Once its there up and running, it can do almost anything with your PC.

* NOTE: A useful tip - When you clean up your PC and close the door for those harmful programs with a firewall, you can block many popups. But still, there can be some popups. There are popups integrated to websites you visit, and we need to do something about them. There are many popup blockers available on the net, but I highly recommend installing the Google toolbar, which has a quality pop-up blocker with some other great features, and has many customization options. Get it from http://toolbar.google.com

The most risk is for people who use Internet Explorer, as it is the most popular web browser and that very fact has drawn more attention of many malicious software developers. You and I, and many people reading this article want to make our PCs good and clean. So please spread the instructions found in this message. Please advise about this to your friends. Or more simply, just pass this message on via email, 'as is'.

Happy surfing...

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By: Fahad Hassen - hfahadh @ yahoo.co.uk
(Undergraduate at Staff. University UK, Computing & IT)

thanks for your sharing

Holy thanks for the info, just downloaded the stuff, been looking for something like this and already came up with over 50 files infected that my other stuff never found

to add: can anyone recommend a program like this thats free to scan and get rid of files?

and I heard cjb.net put a tracking cookies to all free sites hosted there, harmless but still it's not a good practice IMO

Spybot S&D is another good freebie - it picks up stuff that Ad-aware doesn't and vice-versa.

Of course the best defense is to ditch Billware entirely and switch to Linux.

At least use a non-MS browser, like Opera - http://www.opera.com or
Mozilla - http://www.mozilla.org

And a non-MS mail client like Pegasus - http://www.pmail.com

Rhys

I would never download anything to clean my computer from cjb.net or any free site. I don't think I could trust that it would be doing what it's supposed to.

Maybe someone knows wich prog is good to clean up your PC for windows problems, I remember win98 had some feautures to clean up your PC but I can only find an error checkor on XP..

Hey!!!! Mods move this thread to the right folder !!!!

Its in the right folder..

Eventhough the address was of cjb.net, when I tried the download, it took me to a different site with a good domain. Not to say I can really trust the software site, but any way it did a good job og logging all infections but NOT cleaning. I'll try the other solutions posted above now.