Re: OT: A-Squared Anti-Spyware

Most everybody has heard of Ad Aware and Spybot, here is another free
Anti-spyware program called A Squared
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
IMHO it works better than Ad Aware and Spybot.

A mini-review based on a test I did yesterday...

a2 forces you to register before it will allow you to use it, whereas
ewido does not. Having registered for a free account for a2 many months
ago, a2 would only run following the initial installation, and refused
with a cryptic error message after that.

a2 picked up on VNC and a password recovery util - ewido did not -
although i'm undecided whether VNC should be reported at all.

In comparison, PestPatrol detected "lots" - many of which I have
reservations about - reporting some apps as being "confirmed" infected,
yet do not attempt to access the internet, are not running as resident
apps, and only run on demand. One such app was CDDA Xtractor from
http://xtractor.sourceforge.net which had numerous "warnings" against
the various encoding libraries.

Personally - Spybot S&D*, SpywareBlaster, using Firefox instead of IE, a
firewall (ZA) and a virus checker (Avast) are sufficient to make me feel
fairly confident about my security at present - supplemented by monthly
or bi-monthly scans with Sysclean from Trend.

*a new version is due out shortly
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Computer restarting
    ... As per your mention of Spybot, ... View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP ... Software Environment/Windows Error Reporting. ... hardware and software/Hardware/Update and Troubleshooters. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Puzzled: EVERYTHING tries to get out to internet
    ... I've run both Spybot and Hijack This to see what's running; ... threats (lots of glitches in the registry with missing/deleted files, ... exist) for the hardware and/or software apps installed on this 'puter. ... they're denied internet access and aren't getting out there. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Sound disappears in WinXP Home
    ... There are a number of free, recommended, apps that deal with spyware. ... Previously I had the Counterspy registered for each user account which I ... Free trial of Mailwasher Pro - effective email spam filter - (commission ... I also use the free ones - Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and one from my ISP. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: OT: New Trojan
    ... >Anyone come across this potentially nasty one? ... >but will check later whether SpyBot has it in its register yet. ... >Trojan holds PC files for ransom ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Panda Active Scan Pro trial?
    ... thousand Spyware entries (after a clean run from Spybot, Ad-Aware, and ... that your installed AV was not reporting. ...
    (alt.comp.anti-virus)