by Ignacio Brown

Created on: January 28, 2010

It is true when people say that the best things in life aren't free. Surfing the Internet has been the indulgence of the masses and it looks like it is here to stay. The capabilities of the .com industry have leapfrogged from dial-up to broadband in just a few years and one could only marvel at its future prospects! But how many times have you sighed when suddenly your computer slows down like a snail? Or maybe having to listen to your friends or a computer expert for the umpteenth that you have been infected with "spyware", "adware" or "malware"? If you’re feeling the pinch while reading this, rest assured you are not alone.

Spyware have plagued the web and many of its loyal customers for a while. But the primary question would be how do you detect it? I would like to share with you 4 tips that will surely work in detecting those pesky buggers. In addition to that, I would also provide you with a few tips that would definitely help you in rectifying the issue at large.

So here are 4 ways to detect them:

Pop-ups
Take note of this cycle: a) open browser, search and click appropriate website, b) upon clicking, a random or pornographic pop-up appears, c) you click close and the another one appears, c) the cycle continues until you either restart your computer or it just dies off suddenly. If this is what you're experiencing than this would definitely be spyware at large.

Computer’s Decrease in Speed
The ultimate goal for spyware programs is to primarily cause your computer or its programs to crash. A computer can get sluggish for a few reasons and spyware is one of them. Sometimes you might try loading a program or a file, only to find that it is slow. At times, you might notice that you are downloading or uploading a mysterious file without you even doing so! Remember, the advertisements and pop-ups created by spyware programs are meant to lead your computer to a big crash and you computer acting strangely slow must be taken into consideration.

Change of Homepage
Just say one day, you got so fascinated with Google that you have decided to make it your homepage. You set it and it works perfectly. So perfect, that every time you click your home button you are transported back to Google’s homepage. Now imagine after enjoying some classic browsing, the moment you click home you are directed to some other website! Especially an irrelevant one! And it was all done without you doing it! Scary isn't it? Well now you know what's behind it.

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