Thanks for keeping DG free from spyware

for keeping DG and BGI Spyware free.
I never really thought about it before till my ISP offered Spyware protection recently.
After being in just three sites tonight I did a scan and found 5 Spywares which I removed. I went back to the sites and did a Spyware scan after each one and this is the results:
DG- 0 Spyware
BGI-0 Spyware
"other" garden site- 5 Spyware found.
After reading about the found Spyware I think I've found at least part of the reason for all the spam I've been getting.

Spyware can really slow a computer down. Our home computer was on cable & like molasses. My daughters had been on game sites & dropped our firewall. We had 221 Spyware programs running constantly ! I run Spybot every week on both computers to clean them up.

Hmmmm.......this is interesting! My son tells me that we download it unknowingly.....now what I'm curious about what it does on my machine. My son also tells me that you will get a lot more annoying pop ups if spy ware is on your computer. We do have a firewall....man there is so much I still need to learn about this.

Not only pop-ups.. Spyware is tracking your viewing habit & sending the info to from 1-4 computers who then process it & send the info to advertisers or hackers. They can figure your age, interests, how many in house,income, everything . You get more spam & junk mail in your mail box.

It also makes you open to "trojan horse programs" sent in to use your computer to attack other websites or to record your email. All of these programs & running & tracking you & slowing down your computer.

My business Firewall blocks 5-6 hits a day bounced off our website of "Trojan Horses" wishing to gain entrance to my computer.They could steal almost anything off my database including credit card numbers & customer information.
Many of these programs originate in foreign countries.

Scary, huh? Download free Spybot & run it once a week to block & kill parasite programs.

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

It also doesn't hurt to use a different browser than Internet Explorer. IE is the one that has all the security bugs that allow these criminals to install their software on your computer. Switch browsers and you will be safer (not completely, but a definite improvement!)

I recommend Firebird (it's free software), and know many people who happily use it. It's available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. (And, since I use it, DG looks best on it! :)

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/

dave

After I downloaded a free firewall, Zone Alarm, I found out that Message Apps tries to contact 3 different IP addresses (about 15 times per hour!) This is a Dell thingy.

Real Networks wants access to the net even when their player's not in use. My Microsoft IntelliMouse also tries to phone home. Wonder what sort of info they were transmitting before I blocked their access?

Dave is a browser the same as a home page? I started out with MSN as a home page and then went to Yahoo. Now if I send response to mail through Outlook Express, the receiver recognizes me as Hotmail and not Yahoo mail. Or am I confusing the issue?

Golddog, a browser's the program you use to view the web. Netscape and Internet Explorer are browsers, as are Mozilla, Firebird, Opera, etc. They're just windows through which you see the web.

I just downloaded Firebird. It may take a little getting used to, but if it is better than IE, I'm for it. Thanks Dave.

Dave, is Firebird better than Mozilla?

tiG: same thing. :) Firebird is built by the Mozilla team and is intended to be the new browser for all Mozilla users to use. It's based on the Mozilla code. (Actually, it embeds Mozilla's engine into it). It's a -very- nice browser (not as nice as the one I have, but mine is only available on Linux.) :-)

dave

I think I've got my computer down and then I put my head back in the sand. Thanks Wanda & Dave. Now Dave, I'm a windows person by checkbook,:) I never knew I could install or even use another web browser.........please tell me more.

I'm like you Sue. For a long time I thought we used what came with whatever ISP or other software we were given (or sold). However, I thought I saw that some folks here have TWO browsers on their system and can flip back and forth from one to the other (as in from IE to Netscape).

Am I correct on that? Anybody?

I have IE and Firebird. No special reason for having both except that I just got Firebird today.

I have IE as a backup and use Netscape. Sometimes websites won't work properly on anything but IE (bad programming) I use Netscape unless there is something not working. I have an ancient IE program..5.0 I think...anyway, it's rarely used.

I'm guessing you can download any number of browsers and use them..am I right?

Quite correct. You can install as many browsers as you want. Just the same as you can have more than one word processing program, like Microsoft Word and Word Perfect, and use whichever you want for different jobs.

argh, just found a bug on a page I wrote. page won't display in Firebird correctly. thanks dave! LOL!!

Ok, so I can understand....most people have more than one web browser installed on their puter? What is the preferred browser? Please, lets poll!! Should we start another thread? :-D Just another reason why I love Dave's Garden so much...SO MUCH INFO!!! You are all the best!

I think we've crossed these waters in another thread -- anyone remember where it is? If it's like the rest of the world, IE is probably the winner, just because it comes free and installed with Windows. I keep IE and Netscape on mine, but I think I'll switch to the stand-alone Firebird browser since I don't really need the whole Netscape/Mozilla suite.

Netscape/Mozilla suite? YOu mean they are the same? or come as a package?

No, I mean that I don't need the e-mail application, web design stuff and the other bells and whistles that Netscape and Mozilla come with, that's all. Firebird is a browser only - no e-mail or other stuff. It is lean and mean, not taking up much disk space.

I have IE, Netscape and Mozilla's Firebird all available. I usually use Firebird (my system is set to default to it); I use Netscape if for some reason I have problems with Firebird, and IE is my "last resort" option.

This is gettin' good. Gardenwife...please expound on Firebird...or please anyone else. I really want to make the most out of computing and if a different browser is going to make my life happier or easier I sure would like to know! Thanks again! :-D

Well, my website views great on IE, but doesn't show up as intended if viewed with Mozilla/Netscape/Firebird...Maybe I'm not the best to ask! ;)

ducking for cover

Me thinks I shall wait.:)

IE gets picked on because it's used by the most people as default browser. When the hackers want to run their scams, they want to effect the most people to enhance their hacker status. Hence, IE gets targeted. Some hackers even create & unleash a virus,worm or trojan horse, then send a copy of it to Norton & challenge Norton to break it!

A worm got into my business machine that steadily destroyed & mixed up my photo files. (I have an art business). This might be funny to a hacker, but it was a diasaster for me! It also randomly deleted data that I entered on past days. At first, I thought I was getting forgetful or just going crazy. The info would be there for 2 weeks, then I'd go in to that customer & find the info gone! Help! I ended up having to wipe my entire drive & start over . Lost a week of work getting it up & running again. Not very pretty!

Oh, that's awful, Wandasflowers! You just reminded me that I need to do a backup - I have multiple gigabytes of my photos on here, and need to do another backup.

In addition to my work database, I scan & collect photos for our High School Choir Memory Book & Photo CD. I sorted & stored over 1200 last year. Over 500 kids are involved with lots of trips & competitions. I try to show as many kids as I can from the different choirs & events. It's pretty tricky. Last year I had the added fun of storing over 400 photos from taking the Concer Choir kids (148) to New York City & Washington DC. 10 days with no sleep.

Help, I downloaded Firebird, and am running it now. It seems to work fine, except it won't let me play pogo. I get really cranky if I can't play games, just like any other 2 year old. What am I doing wrong?

I am able to play games at Pogo using Firebird 7. You may need to install Java. If you just unzipped the Firebird folder onto your hard drive (instead of using their Windows installer program), you need to run a registry setting. Look here: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/phoenixwin.html

I closed mine down the other night and now it won't reopen. it wants me to make a new profile, won't let me choose default. help, I love it and want it back!!

tiG, make yourself a profile, then! :)

I did, had to lose all the bookmarks I'd already made though. but it's worth it, I love the tabs and using something lighter on the system.

Tabs!! I love tabs! They changed the way I browse the web, for sure. Trish was a little unsure when I introduced her to the tabs, but today neither of us can imagine browsing the web without them.

As I type this, I have 4 open windows, each with at least 5 tabs (making a total of 20 loaded webpages and not at all cluttered!)

Sigh....I can't get the hang of tabs, and wind up closing the window instead of the tab. One of these days I'll convert over, I'm sure!

Okay okay...what's a tab?

I remember reading this thread when it first came up. Even went to the link and kept thinking I'm gonna mess something up. (I'm computerly-insecure, ya know.)

By loading this Firebird, I'll still have a chance to use IE, right? And won't lose Favorites, or will I have to re-select my favorites all over? And re-join website, email sites, etc? Or does Firebird let you still access all the sites your normally do (DG, Hotmail email, Seed order site, etc)?

I like tabbed browsing, too. I use the FTX Browser on my Pocket PC and it makes things so nice, even when reading Avantgo content offline.

Shoe, yes, you can use both - simultaneously if you want to. Tabbed browsing just opens new pages in a tab. The tabs are shown at the top or side of your browser window (like when you go to a dialogue box with tabs for the different functions - think Display Properties, which has tabs for Desktop, Settings, etc.).

Instead of opening a new browser window for each new page, you just open a new tab.

Great! Thanks!

I'll check it out then. If I mess up tho, I'll be on the phone at midnite again! (Now just WHO would I call that late at night!?) Hmmmm....ô¿ô

Hmmmmmmm....Actually, it's funny, since I was sick at the beginning of the year, I've actually been in bed asleep at 1am a few times. Most of the time we're still up until 3 or 4am, though.

Don't worry...was just messin' with ya!

I bet the Firebird is easy enuff for me to figger out.