Hi I have just had a message from telewest saying that many of their customers have been getting infected with spyware and what to do if you get it.
I have noticed that some friends of mine on cable have indeed got spyware on their p c,you would have thought that telewest might have for warned everyone beforehand of the risks.
Just so those with cable know.

Thank for that, Roy. I'm with Telewest, but as yet have recieved no message.

It's MI5 silly....

Everyone who uses a vulnerable operating system (read, Windows) gets spyware regardless of what connection method they use. It's not just cable, it's not just Telewest, and there (http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=55115&messageID=656731) are (http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/antivirusantispyware/a/antispyware2005.htm) warnings (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/honeycutt_spyware.mspx) everywhere (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111630,00.asp)!

Originally posted by spiffymonkey
Everyone who uses a vulnerable operating system (read, Windows) gets spyware regardless of what connection method they use. It's not just cable, it's not just Telewest, and there (http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=55115&messageID=656731) are (http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/antivirusantispyware/a/antispyware2005.htm) warnings (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/honeycutt_spyware.mspx) everywhere (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111630,00.asp)!

Is that Stephen Fry in the photo with a tash!

You can get infected with spyware no matter what internet service provider you use, not just a telewest / cable thing.

Best downloading ad-aware and spybot search and destroy and running them on a regular basis to keep your pc clean of spyware.

Originally posted by royjames
Hi I have just had a message from telewest saying that many of their customers have been getting infected with spyware and what to do if you get it.
I have noticed that some friends of mine on cable have indeed got spyware on their p c,you would have thought that telewest might have for warned everyone beforehand of the risks.
Just so those with cable know.

I hope they didn't give you a link to go to roy!. You can't be too sure if it's some sort of scam these days :suspect: .

No its fine I have just down loaded the spy ware blockind system so it ought to be protected now.

P S spybot is the one that I have down loaded it looks a good one.

I have downloaded adaware onto both our PC's and they have worked fine so far. I just update every couple of days.

Originally posted by Squeaker
Is that Stephen Fry in the photo with a tash!

Either Stephen Fry or Peter Bowles!

Originally posted by royjames
P S spybot is the one that I have down loaded it looks a good one.

I would also recommend installing Ad-Aware as well and running them both at the same time. One will pick up what the other misses :thumbsup: .

Thanks for that Vidster will do that.

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
Thank for that, Roy. I'm with Telewest, but as yet have recieved no message.

They sent out an email to their customers recently

Originally posted by royjames
Thanks for that Vidster will do that.


I think this is the most recent Ad-Aware royjames ;)


http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

Cheers mate will down load this also.:thumbsup:

microsofts own anti spyware software is worth using as well.

Thanks for that also.

Do you want to know the best method of stopping spyware/adware dead in it's tracks ?

One word.................LINUX !!!!!

I used to use windows all the time, but got fed up with numerous spyware junk, yeah, I tried all the usual programs, but, things are now so bad, even they cannot do the job properly, once the little blighters are running on your machine, adaware and spybot cannot remove them, it refuses to remove anything resident or running in the background.

I have also been the victim of malicious browser hijackers, those are a nightmare to get rid of, I ran everything you could throw at them and they refused to shift.

Another thing that shows how bad windows is nowadays, I did a basic install of windows XP Pro on a machine, within 1 minute after install the machine contracted MS Blast, loverly RPC shutdown problems (yeah, I know, shutdown -a in a command prompt, but a pain nonetheless), then, 5 minutes after that, 240 + spyware that was collected while trying to update windows XP so that MS Blast would stop being a problem *sighs*

Believe me, windows is NOT worth the effort anymore, add to the fact that with Crossover Office and Winex you can use more and more windows software on Linux, things are improving.

It really is personal choice, windows xp, with it's viruses, spyware, crashes................or, Linux, with, errrr, with, it's lack of games (which is not so much a problem anymore).

Well, that is my rant and rave over.

It's not XP that is at fault, it's Internet Explorer, I use XP and Firefox with no problems at all.

Your right, but, unless you have a copy of firefox on CD to install immediately, your gonna get hit with problems, and MS Blast is inevitable no matter what you do.

And besides, how many people have the knowledge and intelligence to swap over to a decent browser such as mozzy ?

I have been on Linux (Gentoo Distro) for over a month now and I have a dual boot xp/linux system (just in case something requires XP) and I hardly ever touch windows, Linux does everything I need it to.

Originally posted by Kry10
And besides, how many people have the knowledge and intelligence to swap over to a decent browser such as mozzy ?


If they can install a game they can switch to Firefox, it's a doddle, you just download it and run the install program, it does everything else for you.

But, as I said, if you haven't got firefox to start with on a CD, your in trouble, you have to open a browser to download it, and tadaa, spyware.

You only have to look at a windows machine for spyware to take over, lol.

Maybe I am part of the minority

But I did a fresh installation of windows a few weeks back, downloaded the updates from the internet, I developed no viruses or spyware immediately. You only get spyware from browsing, so unless you go somewhere other than the main software sites you will probably pick it up, but who wants to do that until you have some security in place.

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Maybe I am part of the minority

But I did a fresh installation of windows a few weeks back, downloaded the updates from the internet, I developed no viruses or spyware immediately. You only get spyware from browsing, so unless you go somewhere other than the main software sites you will probably pick it up, but who wants to do that until you have some security in place.

It was while getting the updates that the spyware got collected, and that is from Moronsofts own website, as I said, with windows, there is always the risk of a virus or some spyware getting shoved on, a lot of the time without the users knowledge.

Windows unfortunately does not come with any form of security when doing a fresh install, so, you get MS Blast from the start, then additional problems thereafter, you are possibly very lucky, but, I have been working in computers for nigh on 20 years, and I have used a variety of operating systems, and as I said, my own personal opinion is that windows has gone from bad to worse, I have used Linux now for a while and not had ANY problems at all, it works 100% of the time, and that is what makes me happy with it.

Originally posted by Kry10
You only have to look at a windows machine for spyware to take over, lol.

That is only because there is no economic benefit in targetting linux users yet.

Originally posted by Kry10

But, as I said, if you haven't got firefox to start with on a CD, your in trouble, you have to open a browser to download it, and tadaa, spyware.

No you can use windows explorer to ftp direct to ftp.mozilla.org and download it that way.

here to be precise
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/.mirrors/ftpinter/rsync.mozilla/firefox/releases/1.0rc2/win32/en-US/

Have been using Firefox for a few months now (I like the tabbed browsing) but I get equally as much spyware as I did when using IE.

Don't think there's anything inherently safer in that respect except that Firefox appears immune to browser hijacks (mind you, only had 1 in 6 years of using IE).

And Kry 10, I don't honestly believe you'd get spyware from visiting Microsofts website - nor would you get it from Mozzilla website if you went there to download Firefox.

I've never got spyware from anywhere except the more, shall we say, disreputable sites.

Well I just down loaded firefox from the site that Phan gave and I will use both internet explorer and firefox.

Originally posted by Kry10
But, as I said, if you haven't got firefox to start with on a CD, your in trouble, you have to open a browser to download it, and tadaa, spyware.

Which is why all installations of essentials are stored locally (on a seperate partition) on all our Windows machines, ie full windows installation, ZAP, NAV, SpyBot, SUN Java, AdAware, AVG, FireFox, ThunderBird etc.(all updated on a regular basis).

Any updates are stored locally also (where available as a seperate DL). This way, all updates can be applied before connecting to the internet for only the latest updates/critical patches etc. should a re-format be required (not needed such an extreme measure thus far;)).


I've also given FireFox the IE icon on the kids machine, and removed access to IE on that machine (unless by me). They were confused by the new interface for about 4 seconds;).

(with)Outluck (spelling mistake intentional) is totally gone from the kids machine.