by Barnaby Meins

Created on: December 29, 2007   Last Updated: November 16, 2011

Have you ever encountered irritating ads that always pop up no matter which websites you access or is your web browser always redirected to a different website other than your customized homepage whenever you start it? If you answer yes to any of the questions, your web browser is likely to be infected with adwares and spywares.

No doubt, the Internet has played a vital role in the advert of the present Information Age. This is so as it has made communications around the world much easier. Given the widespread usage of it for varying purposes, it is no wonder some may exploited the Internet for their selfish usage, resulting in abuse such as adware and spyware. Below are the comprehensive list of recommended downloads to fight adwares and spywares, which you definitely will want to have in your computer:

These programs below scan your hard drive for adwares and spywares ranging from viscous malwares to oblivious surf-tracking cookies, and then recommend action for deleting them. Just like anti-virus programs, remember to set it to automatically update itself with the latest adware and spyware definitions.

• Lavasoft Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
• Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/
• CWShredder: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

The last freeware, CWShredder, is one of the most recent spyware used specially for removing variants of the difficult-to-remove "CoolWebSearch" spyware

More information about adwares or spywares and troubleshooting can be found at http://www.spywareguide.com.

Tip: You can try out alternative free web browsers which are less targeted by current adwares and spywares. A highly-recommended one is Mozilla Firefox, which can be found at http://www.mozilla.org.

A firewall acts as a control barrier between your computer and the cyberworld by ensuring only traffic permitted by you can pass through. Most operating systems offer firewall protection but for more control these are the more popular programs you can consider. The first two are freewares but the last two are trialwares, which means the software is free to try for a limited period of time.

• Comodo Firewall: http://www.comodo.com/

• Kerio Personal Firewall: http://www.kerio.com

• Sygate Personal Firewall: http://www.sygate.com

• ZoneAlarm: http://www.zonealarm.com

Upon installing a firewall, you might want to run the below two tests to see if the firewall is working effectively.

1) Port-scan tests check if your computer is invisible to unauthorized users like hackers and blocks incoming attacks. Below are recommended port-scans that scan for holes in your firewalls:

• Shields Up: www.grc.com

• Quick Test: www.pcflank.com

• Firewall test: www.auditmypc.com

2) Leak Test check if undesirable data, for example passwords or personal details, are coming out from your computer lest a hacker wants to steal such information. Check out this site which bring together all the current different leak tests: www.firewallleaktester.com.

They act just like the white blood cells of your body to keep your computer away from both harmful and harmless unwanted programs. Also, the best thing about them is you can get these great programs for free, without much worries as they are recommended by most computer users.

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