saxony...
Is it safe to have sent a logfile from your computer to this
company? Yes. It is highly unlikely that the logfile contains
any information that can be used to your detriment, especially
if the logfile was created by the NoAdware program.
Programs like this are carefully scrutinized by independent
agencies for their safety and efficacy. AdwareReport.com
is such a company, and you can read their review of an
earyl version, NoAdware 2.0, here:
http://www.adwarereport.com/mt/archives/000023.html
And you can read their subsequent review of NoAdware 4.0
here:
http://www.adwarereport.com/mt/archives/000238.html
As you can see, the company has made significant
improvements in the software since the earlier version,
and, though is still has some problems which are well
worth consideration, the reviewer notes:
"With vastly improved search results and customer support,
the 4.0 version is now one of the better anti-spyware
products on the market and we can safely change our
recommendation from 'stay away' to 'worth a look'."
and...
"It now provides better protection than such industry
heavyweights like McAfee and at a reasonable price.
That said, the additional features are not as well
executed as in other products and we experienced a
critical problem with our browser after scanning."
These are very good signs as to the integrity and
intentions of the company, however, it's also clear
that they were prepared to remain hidden unless and
until their company achieved a reputable status, and
they continue to hide their true identity behind
their domain name registrants.
Entering their domain name into AllWhois shows that
the company is registered with a common domain
provider, GoDaddy.com:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: NOADWARE.NET
Using GoDaddy's whois service shows that the company
has gone through another company, Domains by Proxy,
to register and hold the domain name:
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: NOADWARE.NET
Created on: 15-Mar-03
Expires on: 15-Mar-12
Last Updated on: 10-Oct-04
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration NOADWARE.NET@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration NOADWARE.NET@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599
http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=noadware.net&prog_id=godaddy
What this means is that all the information above pertains
to Domains by Proxy, Inc., so there is no information at all
about who is actually operating from NoAdware.com. And this
is obviously intentional. You can get a clear picture of this
intent by going to the homepage for Domains by Proxy, Inc.
and noting their motto: "Your identity is nobody's business
but ours".
http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/
Of course there are some legitimate reasons for wanting to
hide personal information from a whois company. On the other
hand, major companies, such as Google itself, have no problems
making real addresses and phone numbers available to the public
in the Administrative and Technical contact sections of their
whois data.
Personally, I would hesitate to do business with this
company - not only because they would be hard to track
down to a physical address or phone number if I ever
wanted a refund, but because there are freeware programs
which, when used together, outdo any paid program for
detecting and removing spyware, adware, malware, etc.
I will reproduce information from a previous answer
I gave on how to create a system with "bulletproof"
security:
FREEWARE SOLUTIONS
Out of all the freeware solutions out there, the following
programs should be considered essential. They are tried and
true, contain no spyware or adware themselves, work well with
other programs, and are constantly being updated and improved
by some of the most creative and conscientious programmers in
the world.
Many of them overlap in their protective capabilities, but
there's no such thing as too much protection. At the same
time, they each contain some unique aspects which more
than make up for any overlap in function.
- AdAware
"Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from
known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites,
Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware,
Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the
release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes
the fight against Spyware to the next level."
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
The free version is essential. Plus and Professional
versions are also available.
Use it once a week, or more often if you browse aggressively.
Manually update before each use.
- Spybot Search & Destroy
A partial list of features:
Removal of adware and spyware
Removal of dialers
Removal of keyloggers
Removal of trojans and other baddies
Removal of usage tracks
Save removal of threats by shredding them
Backups of every removed problem
Exclude option to ignore specific problems
Permanent blocking of threatening ActiveX downloads
Permanent blocking of known tracking cookies for IE
Permanent blocking of threating downloads in IE
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/features/index.html
Overview:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
- Javacool Software's Spyware Blaster
"Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware,
browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted
software.
Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and
Mozilla/Firefox.
Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in
Internet Explorer.
SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and
secure, without interfering with the "good side" of the web.
And unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to
remain running in the background."
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Run it once a week to update it, and enable all protection.
Then close the program. This program acts more like an
inoculation, preventing changes to the system. 4349 items
are currently in the database.
- WinPatrol
"WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks
and violations of your computing environment. Traditional
security programs scan your hard drive searching for
previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot
of your critical system resources and alerts you to any
changes that may occur without your knowledge."
http://www.winpatrol.com/
This program loads with Windows and sits in the system
tray, offering many features. The most noticeable are
when Scotty, the Scottish Terrier, barks to alert you
that a new program has been added to the Windows Startup
sequence, either in the registry or the Startup Folder.
Since one of the ways that viruses multiply themselves
is to add an entry to Windows Startup, this is a very
valuable program. You can immediately deny any program
from placing a startup entry.
You can also use the program by double-clicking on the
tray icon. Scotty will bark in response, and you'll
have access to several tabs of options, including
viewing Startup Programs, Active Tasks, IE Helpers,
Cookies, and much, much more.
Scotty can also be set to monitor any changes made to
your HOSTS file. Much more on this later.
- HijackThis (HJT)
HijackThis is a legendary program which is of immense
value if you've already been infected, or think you
might have been.
"HijackThis examines certain key areas of the Registry
and Hard Drive and lists their contents. These are areas
which are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers."
http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/
HJT creates a log of what it finds which can then be
posted for analysis by experts such as those found here
on Google Answers, or in a forum dedicated to assisting
those who are infected, such as 'TomCoyote Forums',
'Geeks to Go Forums' and 'SpywareInfo Forums'.
Experts can tell you precisely what entries to check for
removal by HJT.
One of the latest enhancements to this program is the
addition of online HJT log analyzers, which can give
you a leg up in analyzing them yourself:
IamNotaGeek.com log parser:
http://hjt.iamnotageek.com/
HijackThis log analyzer (a more graphic version):
http://www.hijackthis.de/en
HJT has other very useful features, including one which
marks a file for deletion on reboot. This is very useful
when Windows prevents you from deleting a file because
it's currently in use, which happens a lot with viruses.
- Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware (Beta)
I installed this and ran it for about a week. It didn't
give any indication of having found anything that wasn't
already protected against by the other software here, but
I'm including it because it's received very good reviews
in the geek community, and I'd certainly recommend it to
anyone who has limited knowledge of spyware and the other
programs I've outlined to prevent it.
Let this run in your system tray.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
See more about bulletproof security in that answer:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=568868
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
A user's guide on this topic is on skermit-ga's site, here:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify
sublime1-ga
Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.
Searches done, via Google:
noadware
://www.google.com/search?q=noadware |
