Spyware Blaster Protection Disabled.

[Leurgy]

Opened Spyware Blaster to check for updates and it showed that under Restricted Sites Protection that I had one item disabled. I certainly did not do this. When I checked it was CoolWebSearch (716) and the site was oregoncharter.org.

Does anyone know how this may have happened? I have not visited that site. I really don't want to disable it again and go there.

But I might.

[Welshjim]

Leurgy--Coolwebsearch is spyware and comes in 100's of variations. Yours seems to disable part of SpywareBlaster's protection.
Have you scanned with a spyware detector?
AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
or
SpybotS&D
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Be sure to update with the latest reference files before scanning.
Unfortunately CWS (because of the many variants) often cannot be fixed with these programs, but try first.
The next step would be to run HiJackThis and then perhaps CWShredder, but you should get more expert advice before doing that.
Read the stickies here
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/for...ne=&forumid=71
especially the one dated October 16.

[Leurgy]

Thanks for the reply Welshjim.

I run all those programs on a regular basis and just finished running them again. Everything came up clean and I certainly don't have any symptoms of Coolwebsearch. Can only put it down to a bug in the program I guess. Opened Spyware Blaster a few times today and everything is normal, all protection enabled.

Will be keeping an eye on it, about all I can do.

[Ridgerunr]

There was some debate concerning SpywareBlaster and IESpyads. Some thought the SpywareBlaster entries became unchecked when you would wipe out the old reg entry for IESpyads before installing the new ones. Of course,if you don't use IESpyads then it's a moot point. I've had this happen a few times myself. Never found a solid answer. Goes to show it pays to check Blaster once in awhile to be sure I 'spose...

[DuaneB]

I also have had (a couple of times) instances where I found a couple of boxes unchecked - for no reason I could find. So, I occasionally open SpywareBlaster just to make sure all protections are enabled. I don't know why it happens.

[Leurgy]

I don't see it as a big problem. Out of the hundreds of millions of websites out there what are the chances I would go to that one.

Unless Me and Ridgerunr decide to go fishing.

[Welshjim]

Leurgy--When you say "disabled" do you mean the box for that item is unchecked? If so, can't you just check the box|click "Protect against checked items"? Or on first SWB window, click "Click here to enable protection"?

[Ridgerunr]

Soon as the weather warms a' bit and I get some flies tied,give me a' holler Leurgy!

Jim,,Guess I should have been more explanatory. Yeah, I just recheck the 'lost' ones and re-enable protection. Kind of a bore to have to go thru' the whole listing though...

[Leurgy]

WelshJim

Yes, that item was unchecked.

Yes, I could have clicked on enable protection but I was curious to see what site it was. I just held down the scroll button and the unprotected one flashed by in red so I backed up a bit.

Ridge, flies on a charter boat? Sounds interesting, never tried that before. Up here we troll about 60-80 feet down looking for 69 degrees F.

[Welshjim]

Ridgerunr-- I do not use SWB for the Restricted Sites protection. I leave SWB's Restricted List items Disabled. I never was sure whether SWB would just duplicate the IESpyAds list anyway. So I thought I would use just one of the two for the Restricted Sites list.
Your experience suggests that IESpyAds' Unregister file deletes all sites in the Restricted Sites list. I always assumed it just deleted the items it had put in the list. I will have to look at that next time I update IESpyAds since I add sites on my own to the list. It would be disappointing to learn the IESpyAds was deleting those.