Bloody spyware

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:04 pm

Has anyone else run across the nasty little hijacker called 'coolweb' or 'coolwww' or a few hundred other names? It takes over IE (I know, I know, get firefox, i'm gonna) and a few other parts of windows and imbeds to where spybot, ad-aware, and Hijack This can't get rid of it. Man that was hard to figure out how to get rid of. Turns out that I had to download a little app called CWShredder from merijn.org. That was pretty irritating. But on the bright side, I get to have my broadband connection now and I'm loving every second.

So, if anyone else runs into it, go to http://www.merijn.org, or if you are not too great with computers, have someone who is help you.

Sousie

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:36 pm

One problem, it's Microsoft. Any company that builds a virus friendly e-mail program is not on my list of companies for computer protection.

Sousie

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:56 pm

Captain Sousie wrote:...and imbeds to where spybot, ad-aware, and Hijack This can't get rid of it...

Have it. It's good but you still need to have Spybot and Hijack-This.

Sousie

JB · Post by JB » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:00 pm

tuba4sissies wrote:AdWare..

you'll love it.

Did you happen to read the part of Captain Susie's post that said the following?

Captain Sousie wrote:...anyone else run across the nasty little hijacker called 'coolweb' or 'coolwww' or a few hundred other names? It takes over IE ...and imbeds to where spybot, ad-aware, and Hijack This can't get rid of it.

Don't think it'll be all that loved after all.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:09 pm

What's spyware?

What are popups?

(actually, that second question was a legitimate "what the heck??" until I saw a friend using his Windows box constantly having to click & close these windows that popped up out of nowhere.. baffled me why an OS would allow something like that)

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:23 pm

For all who don't know what spyware is, it is a program, similar to a virus, that infects your computer and sends information to a different site so that your progress can be monitored and 'assisted'. It tends to send out info that you would not want sent, it increases popups, and it also slows down your computer, your browser, or both.

You can get rid of it with a few simple free programs. these are

Spybot-Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Ad-Aware SE http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

and Hijack This http://www.merijn.org/downloads.html

Hijack This is a more complicated program and nobody who does not know their computer inside and out should use it. It can remove critical programs so watch out.

Sousie

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:45 pm

Captain Sousie wrote:You can get rid of it with a few simple free programs. these are ..

But those are all for Windows...

(ok, I'll stop taking cheap shots.. lol

)

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:59 pm

True, but I think that merijn.org has linux and mac programs. By the way, what are you running? maybe I could find some programs for you. If you are running linux, why don't you just code your own stuff?

All y'all linux peeepul is compyootuhr jeanyuses aint'cha?

Sousie

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:26 pm

Captain Sousie wrote:True, but I think that merijn.org has linux and mac programs. By the way, what are you running? maybe I could find some programs for you. If you are running linux, why don't you just code your own stuff? All y'all linux peeepul is compyootuhr jeanyuses aint'cha?

Sousie

LOL...

Nah, not on Linux, I'm not geeky enough to know what to do with all the builds & stuff.

Just Mac OSX. There are cookies from doubleclick, but that's it as far as "spyware" goes. No keystroke loggers, no worms, no nothin'. No popups, either.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:53 pm

Captain Sousie wrote:True, but I think that merijn.org has linux and mac programs.

Oh yeah --

I don't see a single mention of Mac, Macintosh, or OSX on his site.

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:09 pm

I can see!...Nope, I was wrong.

Doug@GT · Post by **Doug@GT** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:20 pm

Number of popups since installing Firefox: 0.

Why change operating systems, when a simple (and free) browser change will do the trick?

Firefox is also TubeNet friendly--youc an make the text as big as you darned well please.

Don't just say "yeah, I'm gonna get it." Do it right now. Make it your first priority. You won't regret it.

Seriously, have any of you fellow firefox users out there ever had a problem?

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:47 pm

Doug@GT wrote:Number of popups since installing Firefox: 0.

Why change operating systems, when a simple (and free) browser change will do the trick?

*ding ding ding*

Good answer!

Hey, if Microsoft won't continue to develop IE, then everyone might as well start using a current browser that's actually secure AND follows Web standards.

If Penn State (as an example) tells its students to dump IE and use Firefox, then it must be doing something right.

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:05 pm

Already did, so HAH!

Sousie

Rick F · Post by **Rick F** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:12 pm

There's another useful utility I didn't see mentioned... "CWShredder" looks for CoolWebSearh hijack.

CWShredder Hijack Removal Tool

...scroll down till you see 'CWShredder'. It's a zipped file so needs to be extracted.

"HijackThis" is more for advanced users, so you shouldn't run it without some advice from experts. You can download the program from this website: TomCoyote There's also a little manual about the program on that site. Be sure to read it first before using the program.

Run the program, create a log file and post the log file at the forum (same website). They'll advise you what to do and what you have to remove from the Windows Registry. Another good website to post this log file is: AUMHA FORUMS.

These guys are pretty good at identifying erroneous programs. Hope this helps.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:50 pm

FWIW, the beta of the Microsoft anti-spyware product is pretty good. It picked up two adware packages that both SpyBot and AdAware missed.

(and I'm using Firefox, too)

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:43 am

Rick F wrote:There's another useful utility I didn't see mentioned... "CWShredder"

Check out my original post.

To Bloke. I do not want to insult anyone and I am not anti-microsoft. I am a gamer so I can't be anti the company that all of my games are written for without looking very silly. The Outlook Express program is full of backdoors that allow viruses to send themselves without anything to impede their progress. If anyone remembers, every year or so there is an article by a major computer news source detailing these backdoors but they are too hard to close, and by the time that they are, there is another version or update of the program and the cycle starts all over again. Yes, this is partially due to the widespread use of the product and the recognition that goes with, I will not dispute that, but there are other reasons.

So, since it is late, I will get off of my soap box and call it a night.

Sousie

Bloody spyware

Bloody spyware

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