"Guard-IE"

If you hate those fucking pop-up ads and are concerned about leaving behind traces of your internet activity, you might want to try Guard-IE (Internet Explorer only ... if you use Netscape or something else you are out of luck). I've used it for about a month, and it completely blocks pop-ups and clears all your Internet Explorer tracks when you exit your browser.

I have to say it's pretty good. So far it has not allowed a single pop-up through, and it does not destroy or hinder my web browsing.

The problem with most pop-up blockers (including Opera's built-in blocker) is they hinder your surfing because they block the few "good" pop-ups you actually want or need to see. They can also cause havoc with style sheets and the like.

When Guard-IE blocks a pop-up, it notifies you with a sound (which you can turn off) and by briefly turning the cursor to a skull and crossbones. It also blocks websites from opening a new window when you click on a link, but if you want to see it, all you have to do is either click the link a second time, OR hold shift and click the link. You can also easily set the control-panel to allow pop-ups/new windows from certain sites where you need to see them.

I would have bought the software just for the pop-up blocking alone, but Guard-IE also completely clears your internet tracks automatically when you exit your browser. This is good for work computers or for those of you with nosey wives. You can set it to clear all or some of the following: Typed URL's, Password History, Form History, Browser History, Temporary Internet Files, and Cookies (you can even set it to save certain cookies you don't want deleted). Of course, you can do all of this manually in IE, but it is complicated ... this software does it all automatically.

The software also does some other good stuff, such as blocking those horrible Yahoo/Geocities "drop-down" ads (the ones in the upper right hand corner of your screen), preventing websites from resetting your homepage, preventing sites from moving or resizing your browser windows, and a bunch of other crap I don't really have a use for but some might.

The software is available on cnet.com or guardwall.com and you can try it for 20 days free.

I'm pretty happy with it, as my sanity was being seriously affected by all those fucking pop-ups.

-Superman-

"Ad-Aware"

Ad-Aware is free software that finds and removes all traces of "SpyWare" from your computer. Spyware is basically either software that "phones home" without your knowledge (if you don't have a good Firewall), sending who-knows-what information back to it's homebase, or things like cookies that track your movements all over the internet (Doubleclick cookies for example). There are now also some Javascripts like hbe.js that are Spyware as well.

Morpheus, regular Kazaa, Bearshare, and AudioGalaxy are all examples of software that installs spyware, and a lot of freeware and shareware installs it as well.

Ad-Aware is free and can be downloaded from lavasoftusa.com

You can also get the "refupdate" software that will keep your Spyware files up to date.

-Superman-

"ZoneAlarm 3"

This is the best personal firewall available, and comes in a free version or a pro version.

Why do you need a personal firewall? Because hackers are constantly doing "port scans" to find open ports on your computer. Windows leaves mucho ports open by default, and if a hacker finds one, he can EASILY take over your system via the internet. ZoneAlarm hides these ports so hackers will pass right by. This is not a great concern with dial-up connections, but if you use an "always-on" DSL or Cable connection, you are foolish if you don't have a personal firewall installed.

ZoneAlarm also notifies you when a new program tries to access the internet ... for example, if you have a Trojan or SpyWare installed on your computer, ZA will notify you when it tries to phone home without your knowledge.

Many people don't have a clue as to how vulnerable their computers are. A great place to find out for yourself is at http://grc.com where you can run the ShieldsUp! test to probe your ports and check for security vulnerabilities.

ZoneAlarm 3 also added new ad-blocking, cookie-blocking, and pop-up blocking features, but I have found them to be pretty useless and actually think they hinder surfing.

ZoneAlarm is available at Cnet.com or zonealarm.com

-Superman-

"Kazaa-Lite"

This is simply a hacked version of the Kazaa file-trading software, with all the ads, Spyware, Brilliant Digital Crap, and pop-ups removed. It also removes the search results limit and the 128-KBPS mp3 file size limit.

Kazaa is great for finding movie files, pictures, and 128-KBPS mp3's. It suffers with Mp3's over 128-KBPS, because not so many people use Kazaa-Lite with the limits removed as use regular Spyware-infested Kazaa.

Available at www.kazaalite.com

-Superman-

"WinMX 3"

This is my favorite file-trading software. You can get pictures, videos, movies, mp3's, programs or whatever else you want with it.

Unlike Kazaa, there are no limits on MP3 size, so you can get MP3's at whatever bitrate you want. WinMX 3 added the ability to download your files from multiple users at once ... so if more than one person is sharing the same file, you can download it from all of them at the same time, which greatly speeds up your downloads (Kazaa has always done this).

WinMX also allows you to find and open lists of "OpenNap" servers, which greatly increase the number of files available to you.

winmx.com

-Superman-

Superman, I am a long time user of the various incarnations of WinMx. The program keeps getting better and the number of users has increased dramatically of late. Probably everyone from Audiogalaxy migrated to WM after AG was shut down by the courts. The only gripe I have is that the number of songs available to download is only a fraction of the total number of hits. It seems like 90% of the users are filled up.

Right now I have 3 uploads going with another 15 in queue. Most of those waiting are not going to get anything from me and will get tired of the wait. I ran a search on a song by 3 Doors Down and got 18 replies. 8 of them are ready for a download right now while the rest have a waiting list. This is actually a pretty good moment as yesterday I was looking for something for a friend (female stripper) and could not get a single open slot even though there were plenty of hits.

Ad Aware is a must for anyone. Period. Everyone knows about cookies and how to get rid of them. Spyware is much worse and some of it likes to hide in parts of your hard drive where you will probably not spot it. This crap doesn't just send information about you to unknown sites. It also uses up memory, runs hidden programs that slow your speed down, and sometimes will actually change settings and erase important files.

Morpheus and Zazaa are famous for the spyware that they install on your computer when you download their file sharing prgrams. But it is also mainstream media that is doing the same. The other night I downloaded a news article that was a short video. The assholes hid 9 commands inside of my registry which Ad Aware instantly spotted and allowed me to delete.

Another good ad buster program is AdSubtract. The free version does not stop popups but does get most of the annoying ads that fill your typical page and slow the download. You can turn on the sound and it will ZAP everytime it nails an ad. Some sites, and not just the porn ones but major news or home sites, will sound like a machine guns firing in rapid bursts. You can set certain sites off limit all together. To remind you to upgrade to the pay version they will tell you how many hours of download time they have saved you.

My current session, 3 hours, looks like this:

Nacion.com 8 ads
Nacionadserver.com 11 ads
Netscape.com 3 ads
Prodigy.com 18 ad
X10.com 1 ad
XE.com 7 ads
Yahoo 57 ads (wow!)
Yimg.com 12 ads

Total ads since installing the program: 33758
Estimated time saved: 22 hours 40 minutes

Now here's a really smooth piece of software ... Ghostzilla. Based on the Mozilla open source browser project, it effectively cloaks itself inside any software program. I used it all day today inside Microsoft Excel. Nobody was the wiser.

I am normally loathe to recommend any browser other than Internet Explorer (cuz it's the best), but if you want to hide your surfing at work, Ghostzilla rocks.

Ghostzilla!!

-Superman-

Dude, that is an awesome piece of software. I am posting this with it right now. Fucking killer. Thanks, man.

Ghostzilla also kills popups. I don't know how I've gotten by all this time without it. It fucking rules.

Yeah, I'm loving it too. A subtle mouse move and it vanishes from your screen ... I love how it just blends right in with whatever program your using. I was all over the net today at work. It must have looked like I was really concentrating on those spreadsheets!

-Superman-

"Spybot"

This program basically takes Ad-Aware a step further. In addition to finding and removing spyware, Spybot also finds things such as hijackers, keystroke recorders and other bad stuff. It will also remove usage tracks from virtually any program that keeps tracks ....

It's a little clunky and more complicated to use than Ad-Aware, but it also removes a lot more stuff. You can also set it to clean up your registry

-Superman-

SpyBot Search & Destroy!!

-Superman-

Why am I having to login everytime I want to view a photo? Says something about enabling cookies. Checked my I.E. 6.0 settings and "internet" is set to medium. What else can I do? Anyone else having this problem??

Harry

Seems to be corrected now. Go figure.