Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 8/5/2004

Question
My computer has Sharewawre. It came thru my internet. It does two things; 1. Even when the internet modem is turned off, I get these announcements that look EXACTLY like announcements from Microsoft saying that my computer has viruses, etc. - "do I want to download a program that will remove the problem?" etc. When you press yes, you are then given an advertisment SELLING you some software that 'guarantees' satisfaction... Yea, right. 2. MORE ANNOYING - my internet server is replaced with another server that I never heard of. 2-3 different servers. If you try to use them instead, after a while, they stop working and you ONLY get advertising.

I have the various free downloads to stop this attack, but it is continuously during the time I am using my computer, internet on, or not. Turn off the computer, turn it back on again, and I have go back to scanning and removing everything again.

My only solution has been to bring out the factory cd and erase everything, start from the beginning all over again. Only to, as time goes by, have another adware program sneak into my computer and start problems again. Firewalls and virus scans do NOT stop this problem.

Any advice you can give would be of help to me.  

Answer
I'm presuming you use Windows, Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook.

To avoid adware forever, switch to a different browser and email client. IE is so hazardous that the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (www.cert.org) recently asked all Windows users to ditch IE and use a safe browser. Note that Outlook is integrated into IE so you have to quit using Outlook, too.

The best browsers are available free from Mozilla.org and Opera.com. Some of these include email clients. Alternatively, I prefer the Eudora email client, from eudora.com. It offers a free version.