***Official Disclaimer***
Neither I nor Alltel/Windstream/Your ISP/Anyone else will be held accountable for what you or anyone else does inside your router or on your computer or any software you download and/or install. If you change/remove/corrupt something up on your computer or router or equipment and someone has to fix it or replace it for you and charge you money/services/beer for fixing it then it's your responsibility not mine nor is it Alltel/Windstream's or your ISP's or anyone else's. I give you the information that I have learned/found/acquired. What you do with it is up to you. Do not email me with questions or complaints about why your router/computer/equipment/etc. doesn't work. I cannot guarantee that this config or these settings or information on this site will work for everyone. I can't test all solutions possible because I don't know them all and there are not enough hours in the day/week/month/year for me to test every combination possible. I have tested/used these configurations/software and they work for me. I am just letting my findings be open to help others in times of need at no cost. If you do not understand these instructions/configurations/software or are afraid that you will mess up the computer/router/equipment/software then you will want to contact a computer/network technician to help fix/configure/build what you need done.
|
|
Click on the images to get a larger view.
|
|
Now in order to get the most out of Spybot we will want to switch to the Advanced mode for the most options.
|
|
Just click on Mode, then click on Advanced mode.
|
|
You will now be asked if you want to switch to this mode or not, just click on the Yes button.
|
|
Now you will notice 3 new option bars displayed in the icon window. These allow for optional settings within Spybot. Before we get to those, we'll want to immunize your computer. Spybot has the ability to protect your computer against several forms of spyware and malware with the click of a button. Go ahead and click on the Immunize button.
|
|
Now Spybot will tell you that 0 products are blocked, just click on the OK button.
|
|
Now click on the Immunize button with the green cross. This will prompt Spybot to immunize your system against many forms of spyware.
|
|
Now click on the bar labled Tools, and in the tools window, go ahead and put a check in all the boxes. This will enable all items to be viewed from the "Tools" toolbar.
|
|
Next we'll go ahead and click on the selection for Hosts File, once selected, click on the Add Spybot S&D hosts list button. This will add hundreds of spyware/adware sites to your host file as 127.0.0.1. This effectively make it so any links to these sites will fool your browser into thinking they are on your local computer and not on the internet. Thus not downloading the spyware garbage onto your computer.
|
|
Now click on the IE Tweaks selection. In here we want to check all three Miscellaneous Locks. This will help protect you from spyware changing your homepage and also from redirecting legitimate sites to garbage spyware sites. Also take note of the two text boxes down below for Internet Explorer Custom Title. If your Internet Explorer was branded by your ISP or Online services (Such as AOL likes to do.) You can remove the branding of the browser in here for either yourself or all users of the computer. A branded browser will say something like "Internet Explorer brought to you by AOL" up in the title bar of Internet Explorer.
|
|
Next we'll click on the Setting tool bar and click on the Settings option. Make sure that under the Automation group we want to check "Immunize on program start if program has been updated." This will allow Spybot to automatically add new sites to be immunized from to your hosts list.
|
|
Now we'll scroll down a little bit on the settings area til we get to the Web Update section, In here make sure to check "Search the web for new versions at each program start." and "Download updated include files if available online." This will tell Spybot to check for new spyware information and update itself every time it is started.
|
|
Now, we want to setup Spybot so that it scans your system at a scheduled time every day to check for spyware infestation. We'll now click on the the Scheduler option in the Settings tool bar and then click on the Add button to create a new schedule.
|
|
Once you click on the Add button make sure to select both check boxes for "Fix problems after scheduled scan." and "Close program after finishing schedule." Once these are checked we'll now have to edit the time(s) that you would like Spybot to scan and clean your system. Just click on the Edit button on the top of the Scheduler window.
|
|
You will now be looking at the Windows scheduler. On the tabs above click on the Schedule tab.
|
|
Now click on the New button to create a new scheduled task.
|
|
Now you will be given the choice of how often and also what time you want Spybot to run. For this example we'll just keep it a 9:00 AM. Once you've changed the time to meet your needs then click on the Settings tab on top.
|
|
The final setting that we want to check on are mainly for laptop users. Under the "Power Management" section, laptop users will want to check all 3 options, For everyone else just make sure to select the "Wake the computer to run this task" option. This will ensure that your computer will come out of hibernation mode and run Spybot with no problems. Once you have made all the settings changes just click on the Apply button then click on the OK button. At this point you can go ahead and close out of Spybot.
|
|
This concludes the tutorial on Spybot Search & Destroy. I hope it has been helpful for you in your quest to rid your computer of spyware infestation.
|
