surfing in shark infested waters

[Randall Twede]

sadly, the internet is becoming an unfriendly place for neophytes. today i helped my mom get her PC set up. i got her a hotmail account and at first it seemed they didnt have free ones anymore. they had arranged it so that even when you click on download free version it looks like you have to get the deluxe account. i finally saw the obscure link that let me bypass the billing info form. furthermore, everyone has a bunch of checked boxes saying "i want spam". only a seasoned veteran would know to uncheck them. there are forms everywhere asking for info they really dont need. last but not least is the proliferance of ads. my mom was looking at one and said am i supposed to type in that box? no mom that is an ad

[Michael Ernest]

Sounds like General Computing matter to me, but I'll let a concurring moderator move it.

[Cindy Glass]

No Michael, I think that it is just a rant .

[Randall Twede]

yeah i was just ranting. i thought of more too. all these programs that insist on running at startup. my mom had 10-12 of them starting up including msn messenger, aol messenger, and yahoo messenger. her system resources before actually starting any program herself was below 50%

[Michael Ernest]

I'm guessing, if she is a true neophyte, that resource consumption wasn't a concern of hers.

[Nanhesru Ningyake]

The 'free' software I have come to utterly dislike is Real player.
First, like with Hotmail, installing the free version requires hunting for the obscure link at
the bottom of the page.
Second, the Typical install steals all file associations and sets them to Real player.
Third, they pop up these annoying messages whenever the player is closed.
Why does monopoly cause greediness?
Another grouse: CNN has now teamed up with Real audio - and they want you to pay to watch news related videos on their website. Damn them.
[ October 22, 2002: Message edited by: Nanhesru Ningyake ]

[Ashok Mash]

Gator is one big Internet virus that some how crawls into your machine! And its buddy - BonzyBuddy!
I wonder how many unsuspicious Internet users would be storing their passwords in Gator and getting heavily shafted with popup adds matching their details! Also what if some one hacks Gator server and misuses all that credit card information?
Last year I installed BonzyBuddy in my machine and in a matter of 4 days of NO NO to the pop ups and additional patch installation offers - even after denying them all - that cute little monkey had grown to a an enormous King Kong in my hard disk occupying 120MBs!
[ October 22, 2002: Message edited by: Ashok Manayangath ]

[Randall Twede]

ashok,
i used a free program called "ad aware" to get rid of gator and his buddies. it gets rid of other pesky spyware too. you can get it at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

[Randall Twede]

nanhesru,
i had a hard time finding the link to the free version of real player as well.

[Ashok Mash]

Thanks for the tip Randall.
In fact, I had a 6-months old version of Ad Aware installed and scheduled to run every Friday evening. It even used to come up with one or two spyware components now and then and I felt so confident about my supremacy over these ads.
It was only today I noticed a slight delay in IE start-up and a strange popup add from nowhere. Immediately I installed the latest version of Ad Aware, and oh god, 51 bl**dy spyware entries in my registry, 3 folders and many many more files!! Yeah Mr. BonzyBuddy was there, hidden this time!
And the fact is I hardly use IE at all. I normally browse with Opera, and thank god, its definitely a lot better. I lately installed and uninstalled Kazaa and iMesh, and they might have been the culprits.