Tracking Internet Activity

[Crust]

I posted this on another forum. I'm sorry if that is a problem:

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but I have a question.

I'm told that the Internet activity on a computer can be tracked. Deleting history, cookies, and temp. files isn't enough. I have Spybot and Adaware 6 on my machine, and I run them constantly. Lately, Adaware isn't finding anything ever, which I find odd, since it used to find things all the time. Spybot finds the same three things every time, and only two of them are ever cleaned or fixed.

My question is, how can I thwart the tracking of my Internet activity? What can I buy, download, or do to erase any log files or tracking software that might be on my machine? I don't want anyone viewing my Internet activity. What can I do?

[report_2]

It looks like you are doing a good job with the exception of the index.dat file found in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

See <a target="_blank" href=http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm>http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm</a> for a good tool.

Now available AdAware SE.
You could also add CWShredder, HijackThis and BHODemon to your tool box as not one single tool will get them all. They are all easily found using Google.

[jdharm]

AdAware SE is much, much more effective than 6 is now, or even used to be.


Josh

<font color=red>NEW!
IMPROVED!
SOON TO BE NEGLECTED AGAIN!</font color=red>
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.jdharm.net>www.jdharm.net</a>

[jmagecko]

I'm posting this here as it is related. However, my problem is with the cookies in the C:\WINDOWS\Cookies folder...not the temporary internet folders

All the tools I've seen indicate they handle the Temporary Internet Files folder contents....NOT the C:\WINDOWS\Cookies folder.

How do I safely and prpperly delete WINDOWS cookies that are in the WINDOWS cookies folder?

How do I safely adjust or remove the "index.dat" Windows shared-access control file in that same folder?

I am left with Spyware and Adware warnings until I can resolve this.

NOTE: These are NOT the temporary internet cookies that can be deleted or exported from within IE (tools-internet options) menus. (and yes, I tried it anyway)

Just ran into a spyware exposure, and was pointed to eliminating some cookies in the folder "C:\WINDOWS\Cookies".

These typically have the form: "xyz@widget.txt"

Windows does NOT let me move or delete the "index.dat" file as it is apparently in permanently SHARED state.

I tried copying the entire "WINDOWS\Cookies" subdirectory, then deleting all files, but could only remove all the *.txt files.

After I did that (with the large 288KB) "index.dat" file remaining, Internet Explorer and Explorer seemed to have problems (anything from extremely long delays to displaying empty pages. I restored the subdirectory contents and these problems went away.

Obviously, the "index.dat" file is a data file for the *.txt files in this subdirectory, and when I deleted the files, the index.dat was reporting "bad" info...hence the problems.

I've looked for info on this subject, and all I've found is info for handling the internet cookies via the IE tools. This doesn't address these WINDOWS cookies.

[tom_keefer]

jmagecko,

Please don't "tag" a question on to an existing thread such as this. It will be ignored.

You also posted this same question in its own thread which is good. If someone can help, you will receive a response.


<font color=purple>Tom</font color=purple>

ya'aa'tey

[jmagecko]

This is somewhat related. If off-topic, I apologize, but I'm unsure what to make of this. Thoughts would be appreciated.

It has to do with the spyware/adware mania and what exactly the tools are telling us.

I recently ran some online Spyware scanners. One reported that I had 158 adware/spyware "pests" on a WinME computer. (for example, the "Apropos People On People "pest" was identified, and it said two fraudulent long-distance dialer intercepts were found (among other things).)

I examined the report in detail, and some of the "pest" reports had detailed instructions on how manually to eliminate them. I worked through quite a few of them trying to "eliminate" them as directed.

However, NONE of the top 5 critical "pests" showed up in any way or any form that the report specified. I examined the registry settings/tweaks (ie; "...localkeys..." etc), the file system, DLLs, and the current Task Manager processes. NOT ONE artifact from the reported pest's was found.

The scanning program said that if I bought their protection software, these "pests" would have been automatically eliminated. If they aren't there, how could they be eliminated? What would have happened had I been using the program and it tried to "fix" these "pests"?

Is this misreporting? A sales gimmick? Indicative of a potentially bad result from using these spyware and adware detection programs (ie; mucking about with the registry when the information seems to be invalid)?

This particular online real-time scanning tool was on the California Associates website. Something I would normally assume to be somewhat reliable.

[Booter]

Lets just say there are "threats" that can do the things you described. Threats are no problem unless your computer gets infected. There are lots of different kinds of threats.

Spybot and Adaware each find infections, some are the same, and some are different. If you use one program to remove infections, those infections will not be there for the other program to find any more. That's probably the reason Adaware isn't finding much. If you immunized from Spybot, it may be preventing some infections, hence they are not found in later scans by either Spybot or Adaware.

Spybot 1.3 has a bug in it which has been found, and which will be fixed in the next release. As I recall, it had to do with DSO Exploits showing up repeatedly. When the fix was applied, it was done incorrectly, so the same problem would show up again in the next scan.

How can you thwart the tracking??? The only way I'm sure of is to stop using the internet. Just joking. There is no sure way that I know of to prevent it.

I'd recommend you try using "Spyware Doctor". I've been using it over a week now, and I think it works pretty good. I have a couple of posts on this forum about it, and you can get to them by clicking on my name (above left) and clicking to view all user's posts.

The Spyware Doctor trial version can be downloaded from this page (on the left, under PC Tools), from ZDnet, or many other places free of charge. The trial version is fully functional as far as I know, and the length of the trial period is not defined.

It sounds like the "OnGuard" feature might be what you are looking for. I've not tried it. I understand that it eats up a lot of system resources, and for that reason might not be worth using. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Lots O luck.

Bruce

[peterpan8]

There was a known bug with Spybot1.3 that kept DSOExploit from being cleaned. A fix is available fromMajorGeeks : http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4392.html