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General discussion

Ad-aware 6 removed too much

Apr 25, 2004 6:21AM PDT

I am running Windows 2000 and was previously using baden spysweeper to remove adware etc. My brother suggested using Lavasofts' ad-aware which I downloaded.
In the short space of time when spysweeper wasn't running (or it missed them) ad-aware 6 found 78 adware/spyware items, then when run again found 6 then 2 - I quarantined all of them and found Outlook express couldn't find server and IE 6 wouldn't display anything - could not find server. I restored the last 2 quarantined items sort of worked, then previous 6 and then all of them. New-dot.net seemed to be the main problem - the last to remove. Is this something MS needs to run (I've heard there is spyware in IE6)?
Any help would be welcomed.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Ad-aware 6 removed too much. Actually, my bet is some LSP was installed.
Apr 25, 2004 7:02AM PDT

Adaware most likely remove a "Layered Service Provider" which some MALWARE had installed.

Look up LSPFIX with http://www.google.com on how to fix that.

Good to read you've found this bad stuff...

Bob

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Re:Re:Ad-aware 6 removed too much. Actually, my bet is some LSP was installed.
Apr 25, 2004 8:22AM PDT

Thank you so much for your help - LSPFix (winsock repair) sounded scary but got step by step instructions from knowledge base article at Earthlink.net. Haven't tried it out yet - my brother (the same one who suggested ad-aware) is burning a backup copy of the installation CD for me and I haven't got it back yet and it looks like I'll need it after removing new.net and running the LSPFix. I'm hopefull I won't run into any probs - I'll head back here if I do.

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Re:Ad-aware 6 removed too much
Apr 25, 2004 3:23PM PDT

I had the same problems when I used ad-aware. The fix was to get rid of ad-aware. I use Spywareblaster now and haven't had a problem since. A new Free version 3.1 just came out and works even better since IE and restricted sites are listed separately now. You just download it, check the boxes to activate IE and Restricted sites blocking and your set. Note: If you decide to use Spywareblaster you will have to unblock any cookies to websites you regularly use. The only one I had to unblock was Excite. Also, in IE blocking there are 2 files towards the middle of the list that need to be unblocked. They are: Internet Explorer Exploit (These are the files that everyone says are spyware). Could be but,if you block these 2 files you will get an error pop up..That says "main server can't create object".

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Yes. Two approaches to the parasite issue.
Apr 25, 2004 9:28PM PDT

The blaster(s) I know of are preventative. While Adaware, Spybot and what else are removers.

How does one remove a Layered Service Provider easily?

I found Adaware to do this just dandy and LSPFIX afterwards to be painless. Unless you didn't know about LSPs...

Bob