I’m a mellow, non-violent person, but I want to beat the crap out of the people who market adware and spyware. After using two anti-spyware programs (one I bought, and one I downloaded for free), I think I’ve managed to control the worst offenders, but I still get stuff popping up.
If you are in market or in a position where you can influence your company’s decisions, take note: the best way to get me to NOT do business with you is to place your ad on a pop up.
My legal mind has tried to come up with ways to thwart these bastards. Since the software actually resides on my computer, this is, IMO, a clear trespass onto private property. Don’t know if that theory would succeed though - e-commerce has its own rules and regulations.
Ditch internet explorer and use e.g. mozilla as a browser. It is free, has a built in pop up blocker, and is immune from the microsoft vulnerability of the week.
I’m all for changing browsers, but when I used Opera (the free version) and Netscape, certain sites, including this one, did not always work. I’ll try mozilla.
One point I should make here, is that the companies that produce Adware are driven by advertising sales from large corporations. You’d think it was all off-shore casinos or porn sites, but big names are purchasing this new advertising space. Bank of America, Sprint, Motorola, Verizon, and Orbitz have all participated in pop-up advertising (to name a few).
On one hand, I think it’s killing the messanger for the message. But on the other hand, the hostile, virus-like behavior of these adware programs are what really piss me off.
Advertising is really out of control, in general. You can’t even take a piss without seeing an ad posted above the urinal.
I’ll give another recommendation to Mozilla. But instead of the normal Mozilla distribution try Firefox, it’s much leaner and meaner and nicer to use.
I agree that there are some sites that have trouble, but that is also true of IE… you just don’t notice it if IE is the only browser you use. And after using Mozilla for a while I feel that any browser that allows a site to throw up unsolicited advertising windows is defective and displaying the site improperly… When I open one window, isn’t getting three or five I didn’t ask for a bug? So I guess it’s a matter of perspective. Another thing to keep in mind is that Mozilla and Firefox are still very much works in progress and constantly improving. They are excellent now, easily, hands-down better than IE, and will only improve.
I also use adaware from Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) for the occasional sweep for spyware, and between the two of them I stay trouble-free.
Changing your browser seems to be a drastic measure. I’m not against it, but I personally like Internet Explorer. Also, you’ll find yourself falling back to IE when certain web pages just aren’t right.
Most of this stuff is installed through seemingly innocuous “Security Alert” IE Window message that reads;
Do you want to install and run “Upgrade your browser now, click yes to continue.” Authenticity is guaranteed by (certificate provider).
Just say no. Other entry points are piggy backed on Ad supported programs such as Kazaa or Bearshare. So assuming the entry point is IE only, just say no to all Security Alert windows.
I also recommend using Ad-Aware 6.0. It’s not perfect, but its close and free.
[quote]BrentM wrote:
Changing your browser seems to be a drastic measure. I’m not against it, but I personally like Internet Explorer. Also, you’ll find yourself falling back to IE when certain web pages just aren’t right.
[/quote]
Well, no more drastic than downloading any other ~5MB program and installing it… Maybe I’m jaded from working in software, but it doesn’t seem like that much trouble to me. Firefox is free btw.
The last time I needed IE to view a page I was having trouble with was about 3 weeks ago. The rest of the time, when I wasn’t using IE, I was using a much better piece of software with much less hassle. Seems like a deal and a half to me.
IE is easily the worst browser available today. Why is this? Microsoft buried Netscape, won the browser war, and is no longer obligated to make the effort to give people a reason to use their browser, because everyone just uses it and doesn’t ask questions. What was the last non-microsoft browser you used? For most people the answer is gonna be none or Netscape 4.something (which was a turd).
The other browser developers have actually had to work to get people to switch to their products. And they’ve done a damn good job. Mozilla and its derivatives feature tabbed browsing (which is awesome), pop-up blocking, and fined grained control of java-scripts that does away with a lot of the little annoyances web sites can throw at you. They also have a decent integrated download manager, and a plugin architecture that lets people put together some really useful add-ons. And it’s not just a matter of simple conveniences or one thing like the pop-up blocking- I’m used to enough of Firefox’s features that I just feel totally brain-dead when I have to use someone’s computer with IE, it sucks so bad.
I’ve been able to convert a number of friends and family to Firefox, people who aren’t computer nerds but just want to get rid of the pop-ups. I even got my mom using it. People like that, if they have trouble viewing their favorite sites, they don’t put up with it. So we are talking about a product that is more than good enough for 99% of your surfing. Most people are sold when they realize that they haven’t seen one pop-up in the last 10 minutes. Then they learn about tabs, or some other cool feature and are really sold.
I agree with mikethebear. The people that make and market this crap, spyware, adware, pop-ups, bad scrips, and lets throw in spam for fun, are cocksuckers, and they agrivate me to no end. I don’t know how you could do this as your job and live with yourself. I know you have to make a living and most of these people are just doing their jobs, blah, blah, blah, but at some point you have to decide if it’s worth it. I’d rather sell drugs, at least you’re being honest, “I sell drugs to people who want to buy them, I don’t sneak into their house when they’re asleep and feed them drugs when they don’t know it.” The people who make, use and enable this stuff fuck up something that is pretty cool(the internet).
Just a quick FYI, this site is tested with Mozilla primarily. Only occasionally do I bother booting into Windows to use IE (mostly to make sure my javascript works in their broken implementation of the DOM).
Your issue with the preview function is one to do with proxy servers, firewalls, and cookies, not Mozilla I preview all the time with Mozilla and have no problems.
Let me also mention that Mozilla has a killer email client. It has the most intelligent spam filters I’ve ever used, a woderful layout, it’s clean and fast, and oh yeah, did I mention virus proof?
I agree completely that spyware/adware should be illegal. However, these programs are malicious, written by people who want to steal your time and money. They won’t go away through legislation. WHY can’t Micro-Soft simply integrate protection into their OS and browser that won’t allow these assholes to install applications and modify your registry without your permission???
I use AdAware6 and SpyBot and both find hundreds of problems which are cleared only to re-install themselves after every reboot. I’m screwed because I neglected to save a clean copy of my registry after my last reload of the OS.
My advice is to get a firewall and virus protection, and then make sure you load SpyBot which can set your registry back to square one after the inevitable crap starts appearing. Also, someone above mentioned that you can just say NO to the install. Keep in mind that the “NO” or “CANCEL” button may be programmed to install the crap anyway, just in stealth mode. Always close the window with Alt-F4 or use cntl-Alt-Del and shut it down with the task manager.
One new thing I have to laugh at is all the new adware popping up offers to protect me from adware! How stupid do these jerks think we are??
Somethine wierd just happened when I tried to preview with Mozilla. In case my last message didn’t post, the basic message was I’m using Mozilla and like it.
I was fairly impressed with Adaware/Lavasoft until I installed SpyBot. It caught more than 40 files that Adaware hadn’t. I HIGHLY recommend using more than one anti-spyware application just to cover your ass. Unfortunately you have to be tenacious about it since your system will get tagged with shit everytime you access the web. What a pain.
I preview all the time with Mozilla and have no problems.