Ad-aware FAQ... |
Frequently asked questions..
Official Ad-aware FAQ
Q: What is spyware?
A: Spyware is
a synonym for advertising systems, which secretly uses your internet connection
to
download banner-ads
or send various user data to a companies server - with or without knowledge
of the user. *)
These companies
build user profiles for statistical data, or they sell it to third parties
to do target advertising.
These companies, all have very nice privacy policies, that are shown during installation of their (customers) software.
Our experience
is, that nearly all people where not aware of the fact that they
install an "advertising parasite" when they
installed the
"freeware" host application.
Anyway, it is like the "fine print on the back of the ceiling", obviously near to fraud.
When you decide
to uninstall the host application (the freeware), the spyware will remain
active on your system.
This so called
"freeware" is often not free at all, it may cost your privacy or at least
bandwidth and cpu resources.
Please read the
general
information page for a complete overview and company profiles.
*) for example,
Radiate is very proud about their over 2.000.000 victims (yes, that
is what they claim on their page).
you may ask
yourself how many of them are aware of this.
Q: How does it get installed on my system?
A: In most cases
by downloading and installing a "freeware" program,
but today even
retail software can contain advertising systems.
Q: How do i know before installing, if a program contains spyware?
A: You may use
the free Ad-search utility from Jason Loefer, that contains a regularly
updated list of known spyware,
This program
and the latest database is available on our page at www.lavasoft.de
Or have a look
at the "Spychecker" online database at www.spychecker.com
(great!)
Q: Where can i get more Information about spyware?
A: Please check
the related links page in
this document for a list of recommended sites.
Q: What does Ad-aware do?
A: Basically,
Ad-aware will scan your system for known advertising systems and lets you
remove them from your system.
It will scan
your memory, registry and file system for known modules.
If a related
module was found in memory, it means the spyware was active until Ad-aware
detected and
unloaded the
particular module.
i.e. if TSADBOT.EXE
was found in your memory, it means that Timesink is not only installed,
but was also active.
Nearly all of
your internet and system settings are stored in the registry.
Ad-aware will
scan parts of your registry for modifications or values and references
to known spyware.
Finally, your
hard drive(s) will be scanned for known spyware files.
After the scanning
process, you can view a list of all spyware references residing on your
system,
and select for
removal.
In short: Ad-aware
helps you in getting rid of advertising parasites.
Make sure you
always use the latest version, as Ad-aware is updated regularly.
Q: Will my program still work?
A: It depends
on the program you are using, some will continue to work, after you
removed the
adware, and some don't.
We do not have
time to test every program individually, if you would like more information
regarding a
specific program, please go to our forum.
Some programs
(I.e. GoZilla) will definitely not work without the advertising
system installed,
but there are
alternatives to any of these programs.
Generally if
an application is available without ads (only the shareware version is
ad-sponsored), you have
a good chance
it keeps working.
Q: Why did my program stopped working?
A: In most cases,
the program could still work without the advertising system.
But the programmer
included a check for the presence of a particular file, and closes the
application if it can't be located.
The code of
the advertising system is separate from the code of the host application,
it is completely up to the
programmer if
his app keeps working or not. In any case it is the programmers decision
if his app works without the
spyware installed.
Q: How come my program is still working?
A: ;-)
Q: Will Ad-aware remain freeware? and why is there a plus version?
A: Yes Adaware
is
and will of course remain freeware.
The plus version
does not mean that the regular Ad-aware program is restricted in any way.
The main difference
is that Ad-watch is included with Ad-aware plus.
For more info,
look here.
Q: Can Ad-aware only remove the ads and keep the Application running?
A: No, this is
not our intention (and would be illegal btw.)
You have the
possibility to block the internet access of particular files, but remember
that
the parasite
still resides on your system, even if it is not transmitting data.
In some cases
removing the spyware system does not harm the host application.
Q: How do i use the "reflist.sig" file, and what is it for?
A: The reflist
file is used by Ad-aware like a signature file by a virus scanner.
It contains
information such as, to what advertising system a particular component
belongs, and how to treat it.
After you've
downloaded and unzipped this file, please move it to the Ad-aware\Ad-watch
folder and replace
any former version.
We will update
this file frequently, please make sure you have the latest version installed.
To find out
the version number, please click on the 'click here for more information'
link in the Ad-aware title screen,
Ad-watch will
print this number in the first line when loaded.
Q: What's up with "Web3000" you've mentioned before?
A: Some Web3000
installations replace (without telling you of course) an important system
library, WSock32.dll.
If Ad-aware
detects that this file has been replaced by Web3000 on your system, you'll
get a warning message.
If you get this
message, we highly recommend you use the Web3000 uninstaller prior to
removing any
Web3000 references with Ad-aware.
If you run Ad-aware
with the parameter /full or /auto, no Web3000 references will automatically
get deleted if
WSock32.dll
has been replaced.
Q: How do i get rid of this darn DoubleClick cookie?
A: Doubleclick
offers an optout feature on their web site, once you've installed their
optout cookie, Ad-aware
will no longer
mark it as spyware (it will be noticed in the log file).
Q: What is a cookie ?
A: A Client Side
Persistent Cookie is a small text file, only a few bytes in size.
It is used to
store information on your hard drive. A cookie has a limited lifetime.
The size of
the cookie can never exceed 4 kb.
Q: Are cookies dangerous?
A: The answer
is no.
A cookie is
a pure text file, and can never contain any exe files or viruses.
Normally only
the web server that has created the cookie can get it in return.
However some
web browsers have a programming error (bug) that will allow a specially
crafted web page
to read cookies
not sent from it's own server. In most cases it is not possible
for anybody else,
that does not
have physical access to your computer, to snoop around among your cookies
and
see which sites
you have visited.
However, some
cookies do assign you a unique identifier, that means you will be identified
when you return to the
web site. Some
personally (i.e. Doubleclick) - some not.
Q: How long will a cookie remain on your system?
A: A cookie does
not stay on your system forever. Normally the cookie will be stored in
your Random Access Memory (RAM)
and will be
deleted as soon as you close your browser.
Anyhow there
are cookies that will not be deleted, unless you do it manually.
Q: What is a secure cookie?
A: These kind
of cookies can only be written to your system if your connection is encrypted.