Spyware!
Dear Derek:
Thanks for your columns. I have a problem that I'm concerned about. Lately I've been getting a tremendous amount of pop up ads on when I'm on the Internet. In fact, sometimes they just start popping up even though I'm not doing anything. Also, I have a bunch of extra websites in my favorites folder. Do I have a virus?
Ed
Springfield
DEREK:
Ed, I don't think you have a virus, but I do think you have spyware. Yeah, I know. Just when you thought you understood all of this lingo, I throw out something new. What the heck is spyware you ask? Good question.
Spyware is a breed of software that tracks your computer usage. It spys on you. There is bad spyware , worse spyware, and get-this-off-of-my-machine-right-now spyware. Spyware can come in several forms. Some of it will report your surfing habits, name, and software installed on your computer to an ad agency allowing "customized" ads to be displayed on your computer. Some of it will actually record your keystrokes or worse yet, allow a hacker to take control of your computer remotely.
How does this stuff get on my computer? Most of it believe it or not, you've actually installed. Although of course, probably unknowingly. If you're a user of the popular peer-to-peer file sharing program Kazaa& guess what& you have spyware. It came bundled with the program. Yep. Other ways of getting spyware are what are called "drive-by downloads" in which you've gone to a website and it provided you with the program. If you have Internet Explorer set to the default or higher security settings, it will ask you to download and execute it first. Most of us have seen these dialog boxes that ask you to install a program or a plug in when you go to a website. Now you may have spyware.
In rarer cases, these programs take advantage of security vulnerabilities in your system and install themselves. I'm sure none of our readers got them this way, because all of our readers I know have a firewall, antivirus software, and keep their system patched!
Some of the more insidious of these programs are the "dialers." These programs will hijack your modem and dial a toll, 900, or even international phone number to connect to the Internet or just to rack up charges on your phone account.
So what can you do? Easy. Get rid of them. How? Well, some of the latest Norton and McAfee antivirus programs are detecting and trying to rid you of these programs, especially the harmful ones. However much spyware isn't illegal.
A good program that detects most of it and gets rid of it is called Spybot Search and Destroy. The best part is the price. Nothing. Nada. Zip. All he asks is that if you like it, you donate what you thought it was worth. This program even was named PC Magazine's Editor's Choice.
Web Resources
PC Magazine article on Spyware: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111630,00.asp
PC World Article on Spyware: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111630,00.asp
Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/
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Save your Calendar to a Web page
You may not know this, but in Outlook XP you can save your Calendar as a web page. Just save it to your server's directory that is web accessible and it's instantly on the web. (You may not know this, but you can setup your file server to gain access to the files remotely via the web.) Why would you want to do this you ask if you already have access to your calendar and E-mail through Outlook Web Access? Good question.
There are a couple of answers. First, not everyone has an Exchange server so having access to your calendar remotely is sometimes a good thing. You can't write to it, but you can read it. The more often used reason is to provide access to your calendar to people that aren't in your company or for employees that you don't want them having access to your main E-mail account through Outlook Web Access.
Now you can save your calendar t |
