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Spyware has become a growing problem in the last few years. The general public is largely unaware of the symptoms and risks of spy-ware and ad-ware. These following tips are general guidelines to protect your self. If you need further assistance with a particular problem Fluid Dragon can help you solve it.

What is spyware and adware?
Spyware is software that is installed without your knowledge or consent on your computer. Its purpose is to gather data and send it back to his controller. Adware is software that is also installed without your knowledge or consent and generally pops up ads while you surf the web and sometimes even when you are not surfing the web but working with other applications. They make using your computer more annoying than it usually is; and can have the added benefit of cleaning out your bank account.

What are the cost and dangers?
Both spyware and adware install themselves on your system without your permission. Both types of programs can search out, download & install other similar programs. All of these programs take up hard drive space and system resources. Your computer gets slower and slower, and more frustrating to use. The computer will pop up ads constantly, even when you are not online. One of the biggest dangers is identity theft, and stolen credit card numbers, passwords, usernames etc. If you have young children in the house they also pop up pornographic ads.

What are the differences between spyware and viruses?
Viruses generally are spread through email and file sharing applications. They exist to replicate them selves and deliver their payload. The results of the payload vary and many viruses disable or destroy your software even hardware in rare cases. Spyware generally is not self replicating. It does not spread through email. Its goal is usually to serve advertisements and gather data you may not want to share. You can get infected by spyware simply by surfing websites. Most viruses have to be activated by the victim, spyware is installed simply from surfing or bundled with free even some paid versions of software. The line between the two can get blurry at times though.

How do I know if I am infected?
When you restart your system you get ads for various products before your system is even done booting. Or it takes considerably longer to boot as time goes on. You get many more pop ups then normal nearly every 15 seconds. Or you get pop ups for competing brands when visiting a web site. Your system runs substantially slower than it used to.

How many computers are infected?
Nearly every computer that uses the internet. Earthlink recently released a study and it found that over 90% of its customers computers were infected. If you are online you are probably infected.

How can did I get infected?
If you use file sharing applications many of these install spyware along with the program itself. If you visit a site that loads spyware you will get infected. Installing freeware and shareware programs, as these often have spyware bundled. Ever wonder how they could offer it free? Somebody has to pay for it.

Beware of scams!
There are many programs out there that claim to be spyware removal tools but are in actuality spyware themselves. If you get a pop up or an ad that says your computer is infected and click her to remove it, and you click it… Guess what? You are now infected. There are a number of companies who trick you into installing their programs. Some of them state that if you want to remove the spyware that you will have to buy the registered version of the software. Never ever ever give out your credit card to these people. They are running a scam and can clean out your account.

Ok I’m paranoid now what do I do?
There are a number of free programs out there that can help you. We don’t get any money from any of them so we will recommend the ones we like best. Again beware of scams.

Ad-aware – This is a free program that works very well to remove spyware. It does not always get everything, but it works better than most. I definitely recommend getting the paid version. It has ad-watch program that protects your computer from getting infected in the first place. I use this personally. I highly recommend getting the paid version, but if your cheap go ahead and use the free version. Please take the time and learn how to configure it, you will get better results, especially if you opt for the paid version. You have to make sure you update the definitions for it to be able to remove the newest spyware applications.

SpyBot Search and Destroy – This is another free program that works very well. I run this after running ad-aware. This gets some things that ad-aware misses. The author of this software accepts donations, so help him out as it is free software that does a great job. No I didn’t write it ?. Again make sure you keep it updated.

Hijack this – For experts only – This program finds all applications that launch when you start your system. Use at your own risk. If you do not understand the windows registry then you should get help in using this. This program has saved my but many times.

Other programs: There are many other programs out there. I try some of them out from time to time. If you use ANY other program to remove spyware please make sure you research it. Find out if it is in fact spyware it self. Some anti virus programs try to find and remove spyware but they do a poor job.

Sometimes a system will get so corrupted from spyware that it can not be repaired. The best course of action at this point is to save your files to disk and format your hard drive and reload windows. No it’s not fun, but if you want to protect your self and get your PC running at 100% again, it is the only way.

If you have any questions regarding spyware or need help removing it feel free to contact us. If you would like a second opinion on your system and weather or not you need a professional to look at it we can give you an objective opinion on your options. We have offices in Central New York and service the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany Areas. We also have offices in Central Florida and service the Orlando, Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Vero Beach areas.

We work with residential customers and small businesses with up to 200 employees. If you need a long term solution to this problem we can help. Or a second opinion we can help.

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Evil programs: Is your Spyware scanner really spyware in disguise? Click here to find out.