| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Christopher A. Lee" |
| Date: |
27 Jul 2004 11:05:47 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Anybody here had problems with SPORDER.DLL spyware? |
This is a nasty, sleazy bit of spyware that is unethical by even
spyware standards. It hooks into sockets so that if it is deleted, any
application that used to access the internet can't. In the end I
re-installed Windows to get a clean version of sockets.
According to the net.spyware.gurus, the company that started it all
(Webhance) know that it makes systems unusable if you delete it. Yet
they sneak it in via the same techniques other spyware gets loaded.
It doesn't use cookies, but monitors all internet traffic. So it
bypasses all the usual protections.
It sneaks in alongside shareware, or via a contaminated web page. Or
even HTML email (which I never open unless it's from somebody I
trust).
You've never heard of it until Pest Patrol or whatever spyware
detector finds it. And it would never occur to look on webhance's web
site before deleting it.
Pest Patrol found it, and the problems started when I deleted it.
My machine crashed during the first XP re-install from the upgrade CD.
It lost whatever the installer looks for before letting you upgrade.
So it demanded I either buy a full install or give it the install disk
for the previous version. Which it wouldn't take because it was an OEM
version, installed by downloading a drive image. Yuk.
If I had re-installed ME off that I could have installed XP on top of
that. But I had converted to from FAT-32 to NTFS. It would have
formatted the disk and I would have lost everything since my last
backup.
Eventually I borrowed a vanilla Microsoft install disk for ME, from a
friend, just to get past that hurdle.
I re-installed all my applications and it was there again. This time
after I re-installed XP for the umpteenth time, I did a search of
SPORDER.DLL after each application install, to see if it was in the
files downloaded by whichever application.
The offender appears to be McAfee Privacy. It wasn't there before
downloading and installing it, and was there afterwards.
McAfee? If it actually came from them then I am _very_ disappointed.
The whole process sucks.
I'm disgusted with MS for the way they make it easy for the goons to
break your system. And for the way they made the re-install (which I
had to do several times) difficult.
I'm never going to buy anything from a company that uses Webhance's
"service" to target me.
I've heard of an environment called WINE that lets you run Windows
applications under Linux. Is it any good?
Has anybody tried Agent, Turbotax etc under Wine?
.
|
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| User: "Robert Schneider" |
|
| Title: Re: Anybody here had problems with SPORDER.DLL spyware? |
27 Jul 2004 12:18:44 PM |
|
|
"Christopher A. Lee" <calee@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:n2tcg0dcbndg580nitm09u573nau9mrchv@4ax.com...
This is a nasty, sleazy bit of spyware that is unethical by even
spyware standards. It hooks into sockets so that if it is deleted, any
application that used to access the internet can't. In the end I
re-installed Windows to get a clean version of sockets.
According to the net.spyware.gurus, the company that started it all
(Webhance) know that it makes systems unusable if you delete it. Yet
they sneak it in via the same techniques other spyware gets loaded.
It doesn't use cookies, but monitors all internet traffic. So it
bypasses all the usual protections.
It sneaks in alongside shareware, or via a contaminated web page. Or
even HTML email (which I never open unless it's from somebody I
trust).
You've never heard of it until Pest Patrol or whatever spyware
detector finds it. And it would never occur to look on webhance's web
site before deleting it.
Pest Patrol found it, and the problems started when I deleted it.
Never heard of it. With most of the spyware I had to remove, I would also
have to fix my registry settings. Alternatively, you could use Windows
restore feature, if a recent restore point was set.
My machine crashed during the first XP re-install from the upgrade CD.
It lost whatever the installer looks for before letting you upgrade.
So it demanded I either buy a full install or give it the install disk
for the previous version. Which it wouldn't take because it was an OEM
version, installed by downloading a drive image. Yuk.
If I had re-installed ME off that I could have installed XP on top of
that. But I had converted to from FAT-32 to NTFS. It would have
formatted the disk and I would have lost everything since my last
backup.
Eventually I borrowed a vanilla Microsoft install disk for ME, from a
friend, just to get past that hurdle.
I re-installed all my applications and it was there again. This time
after I re-installed XP for the umpteenth time, I did a search of
SPORDER.DLL after each application install, to see if it was in the
files downloaded by whichever application.
The offender appears to be McAfee Privacy. It wasn't there before
downloading and installing it, and was there afterwards.
McAfee? If it actually came from them then I am _very_ disappointed.
Use Norton. I accidently wrecked the OS on my old laptop by messing with
McAfee.
The whole process sucks.
I'm disgusted with MS for the way they make it easy for the goons to
break your system. And for the way they made the re-install (which I
had to do several times) difficult.
I'm never going to buy anything from a company that uses Webhance's
"service" to target me.
I've heard of an environment called WINE that lets you run Windows
applications under Linux. Is it any good?
Has anybody tried Agent, Turbotax etc under Wine?
.
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|
| User: "Callipygian Nullifidian" |
|
| Title: Re: Anybody here had problems with SPORDER.DLL spyware? [OT for sure] |
27 Jul 2004 03:34:00 PM |
|
|
"Robert Schneider" <rss1174@SPAMMENOTearthlink.net> wrote in message
news:U7wNc.322$cK.89@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
:
: "Christopher A. Lee" <calee@optonline.net> wrote in message
: news:n2tcg0dcbndg580nitm09u573nau9mrchv@4ax.com...
[snip]
: > The offender appears to be McAfee Privacy. It wasn't there before
: > downloading and installing it, and was there afterwards.
: >
: > McAfee? If it actually came from them then I am _very_
disappointed.
:
: Use Norton. I accidently wrecked the OS on my old laptop by messing
with
: McAfee.
I use a combination of AVG (free edition) and a couple of online virus
scanners (Panda & I forget the other one) at the moment. John McAfee
is a scumbag. Norton, I hear, has some serious problems....I keep
hearing about how someone installed it, it buggered their computer,
and then they removed it.
: > I'm disgusted with MS for the way they make it easy for the goons
to
: > break your system. And for the way they made the re-install (which
I
: > had to do several times) difficult.
: >
: > I'm never going to buy anything from a company that uses
Webhance's
: > "service" to target me.
: >
: > I've heard of an environment called WINE that lets you run Windows
: > applications under Linux. Is it any good?
: >
: > Has anybody tried Agent, Turbotax etc under Wine?
You could check
http://appdb.winehq.org/appbrowse.php?PHPSESSID=35c6176434d225c9ac3046
011024f9db
A friend of mine recently told me that he's hacked Linux & Windows XP
into some Frankensteinian beast that will run both windows and linux
programs perfectly...and with no "windows directory" to attract virii.
He said he'll burn me a copy pretty soon, so if anyone is interested
(assuming he follows through), I will probably make it
available....unless he specifically forbids it (not too damned
likely).
Any bets on whether the people running Webhance are xians or not?
.
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|
| User: "Richard M Braun" |
|
| Title: Re: OT: Anybody here had problems with SPORDER.DLL spyware? |
27 Jul 2004 07:56:22 PM |
|
|
Christopher A. Lee wrote:
This is a nasty, sleazy bit of spyware that is unethical by even
spyware standards. It hooks into sockets so that if it is deleted, any
application that used to access the internet can't. In the end I
re-installed Windows to get a clean version of sockets.
According to the net.spyware.gurus, the company that started it all
(Webhance) know that it makes systems unusable if you delete it. Yet
they sneak it in via the same techniques other spyware gets loaded.
It doesn't use cookies, but monitors all internet traffic. So it
bypasses all the usual protections.
It sneaks in alongside shareware, or via a contaminated web page. Or
even HTML email (which I never open unless it's from somebody I
trust).
You've never heard of it until Pest Patrol or whatever spyware
detector finds it. And it would never occur to look on webhance's web
site before deleting it.
Pest Patrol found it, and the problems started when I deleted it.
My machine crashed during the first XP re-install from the upgrade CD.
It lost whatever the installer looks for before letting you upgrade.
So it demanded I either buy a full install or give it the install disk
for the previous version. Which it wouldn't take because it was an OEM
version, installed by downloading a drive image. Yuk.
If I had re-installed ME off that I could have installed XP on top of
that. But I had converted to from FAT-32 to NTFS. It would have
formatted the disk and I would have lost everything since my last
backup.
Eventually I borrowed a vanilla Microsoft install disk for ME, from a
friend, just to get past that hurdle.
I re-installed all my applications and it was there again. This time
after I re-installed XP for the umpteenth time, I did a search of
SPORDER.DLL after each application install, to see if it was in the
files downloaded by whichever application.
The offender appears to be McAfee Privacy. It wasn't there before
downloading and installing it, and was there afterwards.
McAfee? If it actually came from them then I am _very_ disappointed.
The whole process sucks.
I'm disgusted with MS for the way they make it easy for the goons to
break your system. And for the way they made the re-install (which I
had to do several times) difficult.
I'm never going to buy anything from a company that uses Webhance's
"service" to target me.
I've heard of an environment called WINE that lets you run Windows
applications under Linux. Is it any good?
Has anybody tried Agent, Turbotax etc under Wine?
Try Search and Destroy Spybot. It is donation ware but I find it very
good. I like it because it not only fixes but it will immunize,
preventing the spyware from being put back on the computer. I have mine
set to check for updates once a month. If it gets an update I fix and
immunize again. The web site and online help goes into much detail about
what to expect and what to do. It does cover applications that use some
spyware and what to do about it.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
.
|
|
|
| User: "Enkidu" |
|
| Title: Re: OT: Anybody here had problems with SPORDER.DLL spyware? |
27 Jul 2004 08:00:13 PM |
|
|
In article <10gdudnj73jgd2@corp.supernews.com>,
says...
Christopher A. Lee wrote:
This is a nasty, sleazy bit of spyware that is unethical by even
spyware standards. It hooks into sockets so that if it is deleted, any
application that used to access the internet can't. In the end I
re-installed Windows to get a clean version of sockets.
According to the net.spyware.gurus, the company that started it all
(Webhance) know that it makes systems unusable if you delete it. Yet
they sneak it in via the same techniques other spyware gets loaded.
It doesn't use cookies, but monitors all internet traffic. So it
bypasses all the usual protections.
It sneaks in alongside shareware, or via a contaminated web page. Or
even HTML email (which I never open unless it's from somebody I
trust).
You've never heard of it until Pest Patrol or whatever spyware
detector finds it. And it would never occur to look on webhance's web
site before deleting it.
Pest Patrol found it, and the problems started when I deleted it.
My machine crashed during the first XP re-install from the upgrade CD.
It lost whatever the installer looks for before letting you upgrade.
So it demanded I either buy a full install or give it the install disk
for the previous version. Which it wouldn't take because it was an OEM
version, installed by downloading a drive image. Yuk.
If I had re-installed ME off that I could have installed XP on top of
that. But I had converted to from FAT-32 to NTFS. It would have
formatted the disk and I would have lost everything since my last
backup.
Eventually I borrowed a vanilla Microsoft install disk for ME, from a
friend, just to get past that hurdle.
I re-installed all my applications and it was there again. This time
after I re-installed XP for the umpteenth time, I did a search of
SPORDER.DLL after each application install, to see if it was in the
files downloaded by whichever application.
The offender appears to be McAfee Privacy. It wasn't there before
downloading and installing it, and was there afterwards.
McAfee? If it actually came from them then I am _very_ disappointed.
The whole process sucks.
I'm disgusted with MS for the way they make it easy for the goons to
break your system. And for the way they made the re-install (which I
had to do several times) difficult.
I'm never going to buy anything from a company that uses Webhance's
"service" to target me.
I've heard of an environment called WINE that lets you run Windows
applications under Linux. Is it any good?
Has anybody tried Agent, Turbotax etc under Wine?
Try Search and Destroy Spybot. It is donation ware but I find it very
good. I like it because it not only fixes but it will immunize,
preventing the spyware from being put back on the computer. I have mine
set to check for updates once a month. If it gets an update I fix and
immunize again. The web site and online help goes into much detail about
what to expect and what to do. It does cover applications that use some
spyware and what to do about it.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Spyware Blaster is good as well, though it does not scan, just immunize.
--
Enkidu
"Go forth, and be excellent to each other"
- Bill & Ted
.
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