[seaslug44]

Ad-Aware has made me discover that this is actually an epidemic! I spent the day having all of my office staff run the software on their PC's. I then contacted everyone I knew was at home to do the same. Out of 35 PC's, EVERYONE was infested with one or more of the following;

Gator
Admonitor
Doubleclick
Flycast/Flyswat
ValueClick
Alexa

I am familiar with Gator. But who the h*ll are these other parasites???

Here's one even better; Two of the computers we ran the software on were NEVER on the internet before today. How did they get infected? One was a computer that was right out of the box!!!!

[SpaceBandit]

QUOTE]Two of the computers we ran the software on were NEVER on the internet before today. How did they get infected? [/QUOTE]

its because they "test" them before they put them in the box

when i first discovered my cache i found that it was full of porn pages and when i rightclicked and selected "properties" i discovered that the pages where downloaded a couple of months before i bought my pc

two friends also bought brand new pc's at the same time as me, when i told them about my discovery they confirmed the same thing in their cache folders

i would like to know what valueclick and doubleclick are, i thought they where ad networks like cj.com

[Dynamoo]

Alexa is actually quite useful.. see www.alexa.com - it counts as "spyware" because it reports back pages you visit to the Alexa engine for general statistical analysis (such as traffic ranking). Actually Google does something similar. There was a class action brought against Alexa a couple of years ago for privacy violations which Alexa lost quite badly.

[Heyder]

Just because adaware tells you it's spyware doesn't mean it's harmfull spyware.

That program is a tool and you have to be the judge depending on what you want on your pc.

One of either Doubleclick and Valueclick is the ad network for that "shoot the monkey" bannerad/game.

If you've ever shot the monkey you'll have their tracking on your pc.

Porn pages on your computer from dates before you hooked up don't have to mean your pc was infested before you set up. As far as I know the date of modification isn't the same as date of download. The date modified means the date the file itself was modified. For instance you can download any program off the net right now and it won't show as modified todays date rather it will show the date it was modified by the maker.

If you are wondering how you might have gotten porn on your pc and you haven't gone to any porn sites, check your email, all it takes is one email or webpage to set a cookie.

[ecomcity]

I know of several programs that stop adware and spyware. First, lets not get the two confused. Spyware is not just advertiser supported software. Spyware is software which takes information off your computer without you knowing. Including keyloggers, screen shot takers, and more. To get more information on this, goto http://www.sidetracknet.com. Adware can be easily taken care of with ad-aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com. Then there is SpyCop which will wipe out spyware and some adware. http://spycop.sidetracknet.com.

I highly recommend these sites. I have both spycop and ad-aware, and they work great. I feel safe and secure. Sidetrack.net, providing security and privacy info

[Leader]

These anti-adware/anti-spyware programs don't munch cookies, do they?

[ecomcity]

Don't feed the animals!! They injest your cookies and out the backside produce cow pies with their cookies attached.