Sudden rash of severe Spywares......help

[Chewbacca1]

Sorry for the noob question, but I just recently moved to a new house and have been hit with massive spyware problems that have reeked havik on my computer.
In a nutshell, Ive had this computer for 5 years (and lived at the same location all that time), and just moved into a (new) home. In 5 years Ive never had a problem with the spyware (nothing I knew about, and nothing that ever caused probs). All of a sudden Ive been plaqued with them to the point that Ive had to run the restore disk in my puter 3 times in the past 6 weeks! I downloaded Spybot and Ad Aware as well as a McAffee firewall. Anything else I can do? BTW the computer is an eMachines 400i...with dial up Dont laugh, its been great and will have to do a bit longer. Im getting ready to buy a new computer, but am kinda afraid with all the probs Ive been having recently. Im relatively computer literate, but not super techno, so any info/advice whatever would be great. Thanx, Chewy
EDIT: Oh yeah I forgot to mention...when I run the above spyware fix programs, it mentions that some, if deleted, may cause certain programs to no longer run properly or at all. How do I know which is ok and which is not? Thanx again.

 

[inimino]

Obviously the house you moved into is haunted and/or possessed.





Besides an exorcism, I'd recommend backing up your data, reinstall your OS from scratch, install Firefox and Thunderbird, and don't do anything silly online or with your email. Even on an insecure OS like Windows you should be OK if you do that.

You could also look at an alternative OS like Mac OS or Linux, neither of which has these problems with spyware, viruses, etc, etc.

 

[Chewbacca1]

Lol, nah the house is brand new....it is strange timing though to say the least. Ive installed all sorts of spyware fixs, and anti virus, and a firewall. All were freebies of course...seem to be doing ok.......for now.
BTW Ive been using windows for 10 years, no desire for Mac (or any of those other ones you were talking about). If they dont have problems now, they will before long Im sure. What are Firefox and Thunderbird anyway? Thanx, Chewy

 

[inimino]

Lol, nah the house is brand new....it is strange timing though to say the least. Ive installed all sorts of spyware fixs, and anti virus, and a firewall. All were freebies of course...seem to be doing ok.......for now.
BTW Ive been using windows for 10 years, no desire for Mac (or any of those other ones you were talking about). If they dont have problems now, they will before long Im sure. What are Firefox and Thunderbird anyway? Thanx, Chewy

Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

A browser, very nice and more secure than IE.

Thunderbird:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

An email client, nicer and much more secure than Outlook.

Installing those two programs and using them will do more to stop your spyware problems than anything else (besides changing your OS).

BTW, Mac has been around for a while, Linux is newer but not brand new. The reason they don't have those problems is because they are more secure by design.