OT: PC Pit stop, WOW!

[Magpel]

PC Pitstop

 

Really impressive, thorough, free diagnostics and tune-ups for PCs. The results of the test are as deep as you want to go and full of recommendations, auto-fxes, step-by-step tutroials, and links to other sources and utilities. I'm so thankful when I find a service like that I feel obliged to proselytize a bit. Check it out.

[Steve Deming]

Can you say Spyware?

[Magpel]

Originally posted by Steve Deming:

Can you say Spyware?

Steve, please tell me if you know something I don't! Part of their process is to test fro spyware and adware and tell you how to remove it from your system. They also have a whole section of the site devoted to Gator, a spyware-peddling company. But please! Tell us if PCPitsop are known purveyors or Spyware!!!

[Magpel]

I mean, I really want to know before I give them anymore word-of-mouth.

[ITGITC]

It's not spyware. PC Pitstop is a great site for doing a quick check of your PC. I use it all the time. And, as you mentioned Magpel, it has a section that checks spyware on your machine. And if you DO have spyware installed, they'll help you remove it or point you to an application you can purchase to remove it.

 

Nope, not spyware. They get their revenue from ads on their site. They also collect statistics regarding which processor folks are running, video resolution, amount of RAM and hard disk space, etc. - but nothing of personal interst that I am aware of. They probably sell these statistics to hardware/software developers and get some revenue from that.

 

If the gathering of this type of information is troubling - don't go there. PC Pitstop does not install any spyware on your computer that I am aware of. If they did, I wouldn't use it and I would have heard about it from the tech guys at the software development company where I work.

 

Run PCPitstop - the full suite of utilities. Look at the details of what applications, utilities and processes are running on your system. If you are not familiar with any of them, type the name into GOOGLE and see what you find. I do this - often. To date I have not found any spyware that PC Pitstop has installed on my PC.

 

I also use Ad-Aware by Lavasoft, Norton Antivirus, and a few other utilities. Norton has an automatic update process - but I don't think they collect any personal information.

 

If you're really curious, download a copy of ZoneAlarm and run it. It will report when any application attempts to send or receive information over the internet. A firewall will stop intruders from getting in, but ZoneAlarm will stop information from being sent out without your knowledge - and this is exactly what spyware does.

 

PC Pitstop is fine. Worry about something else.

 

Is There Gas In The Car?

[Llarion]

AdAware is really good; but I prefer SpyBot...it's more thorough, more compact, and faster. It also has a built in utility that locks your registry down, and alerts you when any program tries to change it, tells you the change, and lets you decide to allow or disallow. Very slick, and totally freeware.

 

Zone Alarm is the best freeware firewall out there, I heartily recommend that you run ti if you don't. A hardware firewall is better, (I use Symantec's little one) but if you don't have one, Zone Alarm is as thorough as it gets. It spoofs your TCP ports, rather than just locking then, so instead of having to block port scans; the scans simply don't find you.

 

By the way, SP2 of Windows XP is in beta (well, RC2 actually), and it's wonderful. I've been running it for 3 weeks now with zero problems. The built in firewall is WAY more robust. It's like a 280mb download, but well worth it.