The biggest computer gift I've ever received is something called
Spybot Search and Destroy. About ten or twelve years ago a German kid named Patrick Kolla discovered that his machine seemed to be "phoning home" packets to IP addresses that were not related to the websites he was logging onto, and he became curious because he noticed that the amount of traffic being sent to these IP addys was significant enough that it was starting to slow things down a bit.
That's when he first discovered spyware, and he resolved to do something about it. As his success in removing these baddies grew, he started sharing his cobbled together software with his friends. That's how Spybot got its start.
The great thing about Spybot SD is that the more you use it, the better it works (to a point).
The immunize feature eventually blocks all known products to the point where you don't even get attacked anymore for the most part. You simply have to continue to keep the product updated and apply the immunize feature with every new update.
The scanner works efficiently and quickly.
http://safer-networking.org There's a FREE version, but Patrick gladly takes donations.
I was so grateful the first time Spybot cleaned out my baddies that I sent him some money.
