Just thought I would pass this along to you guys as spyware infections seem to be a universal problem. Last monday I somehow found myself infected with spyware (from a website that I had been to before with no problems). At the time of infection I had Norton Antivirus and Firewall running as well as Spybot S&D, it still brought me to a crashing halt. I couldn't use internet explorer at all and my backround had been changed, and they had locked me out from changing it back. Not to mention pop ups and strange error messages. After playing around for several hours on my own trying to fix it I found this website: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php
(they offer totally free Tech support so I dont mind plugging them). Anyway they walked me through the many steps to removing this crap from my system without me losing all my information. It involved several manual deletes (and them knowing what to delete) as well as online scans.
If your curious here is my thread:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index...ue+error+nuker
The second to last post offers some tips on defending yourself from spyware.
I just thought it was awesome that a stranger would take the time to help someone for free like that. Look at the time stamps on the replies some are 5 minutes apart. Half the time you cant pay for service like that...

 

Microsoft has a free Beta bersion of their Anti-spyware.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

 

Ooo, I'm glad someone posted this thread. My computer all of a sudden made some wierd noise last night and the screen shifted colors...very wierd. It's had spyware problems for a few months now. Never knew how to get rid of it!

 

I keep getting DSO Exploit, I can get rid of it by running a spy ware program and manually deleting it. Does anyone know how to block it? Getting sick of having to scan, checking the little boxes, quarantine, and deleting it. I have an idea it is imbedded in my computer, as I've gotten rid of it, signed on and gone no further than AOL links and it's back on the computer!

 

Trust me if you think you have a spyware issue that keeps returning (mine returned regardless of the many different software programs I used to remove it) these guys can hook you up. Just check out their guidelines on how to do your first post and they will reply back with steps to kill the spyware.

Once this crap gets in registry its hard to delete it for good. They first have you run a program that tells them everything your running then they find the bad stuff and get rid of it. I tried to use regedit myself and delete the bad ones but there were hidden strings I couldn't get. Anyway just thought it was a cool site that helped me out, if they help any of you guys it was worth posting it here.

 

Spyware blaster is a good one! Helps prevent it!!

 

Glad to hear it trigger! My new headache is a little something called 180searchassistant. Thanks sis. many issues with that one. It is like an infestation.

 

if your running XP try turning off system restore first before deleting it.

 

AOL is the worst thing for your computer IMHO. It attaches itself to EVERYTHING.
I also have ZoneAlarm that allows me to allow or deny certain programs from having internet access.

 

I go to Tech Support Guy" forums with any similar problems. The people there have helped me a few times.

They will glady help you with getting rid of the "180SearchAssistant".

 

I have been using these steps for a while, http://securitytango.com/tango.php
follow the steps and do it once a week.
Also dump Internet Explorer and download Mozilla Firefox.

 

Yes, MS's ACTIVE X is a nasty thing, IE is the only browser that supports it.