Question about Spyware Blaster

dlb · May 16, 2009

From what I can tell, SpywareBlaster offers very little protection for Firefox users. The 'Restricted Sites' settings appear to apply only to Internet Explorer, leaving only cookie protection for Firefox. So what? Cookies have long been considered more-or-less benign. A cookie cannot crash your PC, steal your passwords or credit card info, or hold your desktop hostage. Most of your more savvy PC users clear all cookies on a regular basis anyway. If I'm wrong and totally off base with this, I have no problem retracting. Any comments or corrections are invited.
:-D

DavidGP · May 16, 2009

Hi dlb

You are correct on cookies and the main part of blocking with Spywareblaster is for IE and activex, but the cookie block is still good as it could stop an infected website offloading its infection when visited.

But do you need it if you run Firefox, probably not, but most users still have IE for certain jobs, so worth having installed as it takes up little space and no resources. Also you hit on the crux in mentioning savvy users, yes they do know how to surf and whats good and bad, but savvy users are a minority in computing, so advising the little things to less savvy users to help protect them and family is a good thing.

plodr · May 16, 2009

Even "safe" sites can have poisoning on the page and it might take some time before anyone discovers this. So a savy user and a normally very safe surfer can still get infected. I keep it on my computers, even though the only time IE gets used is for windows updates. I still want all the protection I can get.

oma · May 16, 2009

SpywareBlaster has been on my machine for many, many years and will continue to be there although don't use IE except for Windows Update and other web sites only when there is no alternative. It's added security.

dlb · May 16, 2009

:-D Thanks to you all for your informative comments. I use FF exclusively on my home PC (except for Windows updates of course 'cuz I have no choice), so it would seem that Spyware Blaster will only offer cookie protection as I assumed.... but that's cool. It's free, small, and uses no resources, so I'll leave it as-is and check for updates once-a-week or so. Thanks again folks!

[dlb]
:major

oma · May 16, 2009

dlb said: ↑

It's free, small, and uses no resources, so I'll leave it as-is and check for updates once-a-week or so.
Click to expand...

So true about free, small and no resources!! You'll find that SpywareBlaster offers updates about every 2 weeks or so. Nevertheless I do my weekly Friday maintenance anyway and it takes only a minute to check for updates.

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Question about Spyware Blaster

dlb MajorGeek

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

oma MajorGeek

dlb MajorGeek

oma MajorGeek