Well...my computer performance lately has been quite lame. I assumed that it must be adware or spyware that is causing my computer to lag. I searched the net and found the NoAdware program. Is it any good? Also does anyone know where i could download a good firewall program that would be free?

Last question. I used Spybot S&D and accidentally deleted something that was scanned on it. It was something called BackWeb. Now every time I start up the computer, some window pops up and says something like invalid...blah blah.....BackWeb....blah, blah, and application with some numbers after that. Is there anyway to regain it?

EDIT: If I do buy NoAdware, it there any point in keeping Spybot S&D?

Thanks if anyone can help out.

[ 12-01-2004, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: shadowspecter ]

Hi Shadowspecter,
The Backweb program is a piece of evil malware that you want to be rid of. When you get the "invalid blah blah" message, write down the name of the program it's referencing, and get rid of it.

For another good removal tool in addition to Spybot, try AdAware SE at www.lavasoft.com. It's free, and works well in conjunction with Spybot.

For a firewall, try ZoneAlarm, you can get it at www.zonelabs.com.

If you come across things that Zonealarm or AdAware can't get rid of, try www.symantec.com, they often have removal tools for the hard to kill bugs.

Good luck

Thanks for the answering some of the questions, but can you tell me how to remove this BackWeb program? I used Spybot to try and get this program to appear on the search list, but it didn't...Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

If spybot removed the backweb program, it won't show up again, but any program that depends on it to run will complain that it's gone. AFter a shut down restart, see if you still get the message. If you do get it, search for the program or process it mentions in the warning message, and try to uninstall or delete it.
There are a couple of things that I would suggest you try, the first being to install and run AdAware SE. It catches things that Spybot doesn't, and vice-versa. Having at least two different malware detectors is a good idea. If you find another that you like, add it on.
Also, check what processes are running in the background. To see the list, press ctrl-alt-del and click on the Processes tab in the window that comes up. This is a list of most of the things going on in the background, which is where you can identify a lot of malware programs. Check www.processlibrary.com and www.blackviper.com for more info on processes and how to work with them. Getting an idea of what is versus what should be running on your machine will help you to understand and repair the problems. Blackviper has a couple of good guides for tweaking this stuff, and some generally good advice.

You may also want to get HiJack This, which is also free. HJT does a registry crawl, looking for suspicious things. You then need to determine whether they're good or bad... Googling used to be helpful for that, but there are a lot of sites where people post their HJT logs, so you get lots of false positives now :(

What has most probably happened is that the spyware has put an entry into your Startup folder or into the start up entries in your registry.

To fix check the following

1) Look in your start up folder for anything that references the file in your error message.

2) Click Start>Run Type in MSconfig. Click on the start up tab and look for the program referenced in your error message. Untick it and restart your computer.

Hope this helps!

<span style="color: lightblue">And after you remove this stuff, remember: prevention is better than cure. The way to prevent it is simple. Dump IE. Dump Outlook and Outlook Express. Some even go so far as to say dump MS Office aswell. As soon as you do these things you will, ofcourse, need alternatives. Firsly, get a real web browser. Firefox is excellent, Opera has it's fans aswell. There are also quite a few others about that are equally good. Don't get Netscape, though, it's as bad as IE in some regaards, and worse in others.
For a replacement for Outlook or the even less secure "Express" version, look no further than Thunderbird. If you want to go the whole hog and dump MS Office aswell (although it's problems, in my opinion, are more related to feature creep and wizards making things hard than security), download Open Office. All of these programs are free to download.
Although keep your eye out for updates to Thunderbird if you get it. Version 1.0 is due out in less than a week.
You'll find these programs alot better than the MS equivalents in more than just their security. Their features are generally easier to use, and more relevant to what you want to do with them. Firefox and Thunderbird are also extensible and themable, which is quite a bonus.

Lennoncook, don't you think this crusade of yours is getting out of hand?

<span style="color: lightblue">No.

One can never take the quest for security too far. Nor can one take the battle against Micro$oft too far either [img]smile.gif[/img]