Microsoft Antispyware Beta

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stephen Glynn
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Stephen Glynn

I've recently had to reinstall Microsoft AntiSpyware Version 1.0.501 on
my Windows XP (Home edition) service pack 2 pc. It's working OK except
that it now can't detect an internet connection to download updated
definitions, which it could always do in the past. I don't think it's
a firewall issue; it's on my firewall's list of allowed applications
and the filepath etc are correct.

Anyone got any ideas about what might be causing the problem?

Steve
 
I believe you'll find if you reinstall an app, that requires internet
access, a second entry will/should be made to the firewall allowable list.
Try deleting the app, in the firewall list, see if its then found.
or explicitly allow it.
 
DL said:
I believe you'll find if you reinstall an app, that requires internet
access, a second entry will/should be made to the firewall allowable list.
Try deleting the app, in the firewall list, see if its then found.
or explicitly allow it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've just tried that, but no luck. I've even tried disabling
the firewall altogether but Antispyware doesn't seem to be trying to
connect to the internet (nor has it tried to, according to my firewall's
log, since I reinstalled it).

Steve
 
If you turned off the firewall, then tried Antispyware to 'update now' and
it doesn't connect, perhaps its a configuration or installation issue
 
I meant to add if this is your correct email, you are posting to a usergroup
where your mail add will be harvested by the spammers.
Munge your add.
 
FL, I'm pretty new to using newsgroup and have only post a few things but
straight away have noticed an increase in unsolicited emails, phising etc.
Sorry to be thick and please bear with me group but when I post how do I
ensure that I isn't giving a big green light too spam?

thanks

john
 
Munge your address for the newsgroups.

| FL, I'm pretty new to using newsgroup and have only post a few things but
| straight away have noticed an increase in unsolicited emails, phising etc.
| Sorry to be thick and please bear with me group but when I post how do I
| ensure that I isn't giving a big green light too spam?
|
| thanks
|
| john
|
| | >I meant to add if this is your correct email, you are posting to a
| >usergroup
| > where your mail add will be harvested by the spammers.
| > Munge your add.
| >
| > | >> DL wrote:
| >> > I believe you'll find if you reinstall an app, that requires internet
| >> > access, a second entry will/should be made to the firewall allowable
| > list.
| >> > Try deleting the app, in the firewall list, see if its then found.
| >> > or explicitly allow it.
| >> >
| >>
| >> Thanks. I've just tried that, but no luck. I've even tried disabling
| >> the firewall altogether but Antispyware doesn't seem to be trying to
| >> connect to the internet (nor has it tried to, according to my
firewall's
| >> log, since I reinstalled it).
| >>
| >> Steve
| >
| >
|
|
 
In
John Lord said:
FL, I'm pretty new to using newsgroup and have only post a few
things
but straight away have noticed an increase in unsolicited
emails,
phising etc. Sorry to be thick and please bear with me group
but when
I post how do I ensure that I isn't giving a big green light
too spam?
Click to expand...


You are posting using your real return address. That is exactly
"giving a big green light too spam."

Use a false address, either completely false, as I do, or
slightly altered with instructions in your signature to unalter
it.
 
John said:
FL, I'm pretty new to using newsgroup and have only post a few things but
straight away have noticed an increase in unsolicited emails, phising etc.
Sorry to be thick and please bear with me group but when I post how do I
ensure that I isn't giving a big green light too spam?

thanks

john
Click to expand...


While it's not possible to completely eliminate spam (unsolicited
commercial email), there are some precautions and steps you can take to
minimize it's impact:

1) Never, ever post your real email address to publicly accessible
forums or newsgroups, such as this one, as you have done. For years
now, spammers have been using software utilities to scan such places to
harvest email addresses. It's a simple matter to disguise your posted
email address so that these software "bots" can't obtain anything
useful. For example, insert some obviously bogus characters or words
into your reply address, for example: "(e-mail address removed)."

2) Never, ever reply to any spam you receive, even to "unsubscribe" or
"remove" yourself from the spammers' address lists; you'll only compound
the problem. If spammers had any intention of honoring the your desire
not to receive spam, they wouldn't have become spammers in the first
place. When you reply to a spammer, all you're doing is confirming that
he/she has a valid, marketable email address.

3) Be especially leery of any offers from websites for free software,
services, information, etc, that require your email address, or that
require your email address so you can "login" to access the offered
service and/or information. Many such sites are supplementing their
income by collecting addresses to sell to the spammers. For instance,
subscribing to CNN.COM's Breaking News Service will garner you a lot of
additional spam. (Of course, not all such sites have under-handed
motives; it's a judgment call. If the offer seems "too good to be
true," it's most likely a scam.)

4) DO forward any and all spam, with complete headers, to the
originating ISP with a complaint. Not all ISPs will make an effort to
shut down the spammers, but many will. One tool that makes forwarding
such complaints fairly simple is SpamCop (http://spamcop.net).

4) Another useful tool is MailWasher (http://www.mailwasher.net). This
utility allows you to preview your email before downloading it from the
server. Spammers can even be blacklisted, so that any future emails
from them will be automatically deleted from the server.

5) Within Outlook Express or whatever other email client application
you use, add any spammers to your Blocked Senders list, so the their
messages are automatically deleted from the server without being
downloaded to your PC.



--

Bruce Chambers

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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
I would try using Ad-aware and also Spybot for spyware removal tools. Both
are free, and are better than MS anti-spyware, which is still beta anyway.
 
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