Spybot Users - Warning

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 11:04

just a heads up, my previous installation of windows 7 took ages to get a wireless connection , chrome or IE took ages to load the Google home page.

i freshly installed windows 7 and this has cured it, it connected instantly and loaded Google homepage quickly.

after installing spy-bot and immunising, things slowed down again, the wireless device took longer to connect and Google homepage took longer to load. So i used the undo button on the immunisation feature and this has fixed the delayed connection and delayed Google homepage loading. If your having these symptoms spy-bot may be to blame. I have removed it.

oh and i had no other programs loading at startup.

davethe11 · 30 Jan 2012 at 11:08

handy to know, ta

Deception · 30 Jan 2012 at 11:11

Sounds about right because it fills the HOST file with entries. So, every time you start your internet browser, it has to scan HOST file everytime.

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 11:31

well it just seems to have slowed my homepage loading too much, goodness knows why my wireless adapter is taking longer to connect as well.

jbloggs · 30 Jan 2012 at 11:34

I stopped using Spybot a few years ago as it just became so bloated...

Stoner81 · 30 Jan 2012 at 12:46

Handy to know thanks!

Stoner81.

Azuse05 · 30 Jan 2012 at 14:26

jbloggs said:
I stopped using Spybot a few years ago as it just became so bloated...

Tbh the current version really isn't that bad. The beta one however is another story

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 14:36

i have been using spybot for years, as i have removed it is there an alternative, i run spywareblaster, malwarebytes and superantispyware, i usually just update them and run the scans i dont have them loading starting as programs at startup.

gdrules · 30 Jan 2012 at 17:58

I've had Spybot installed for years, will see what the performance is like without it!

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 18:01

gdrules said:
I've had Spybot installed for years, will see what the performance is like without it!

i found uninstalling it alone did not help, i had to use the undo button on the immunization so that there was zero items protected, then i removed it.

ShakenNstirred · 30 Jan 2012 at 19:14

no slowdown here with spybot that i can see

MikeHunt79 · 30 Jan 2012 at 20:02

Deception said:
Sounds about right because it fills the HOST file with entries. So, every time you start your internet browser, it has to scan HOST file everytime.

This, your hosts file becomes huge but I'm not sure if this would slow things down or something else

neil_g · 30 Jan 2012 at 20:12

MikeHunt79 said:
This, your hosts file becomes huge but I'm not sure if this would slow things down or something else

Well every time you do a website name lookup it's going to check that massive list so will slow down response times.

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 20:28

maybe faster machines you wont notice a difference, i had the same problem with my cousins laptop as i done a fresh install on his laptop of w7, so removed spy bot. I removed spybot from my main pc and its connecting to the internet quicker and loading the google homepage quicker, and im not just talking a couple of seconds.

Crowort · 30 Jan 2012 at 21:42

If you use IE with spybot it will warn you that it is slowing website loading. SB has kind of had its day. At one time it was the only program that was really good at removing stuff without doing any damage. Now we have a whole load of better options. Each person has to weight up if the speed decrease is worth the bit of extra safety it offers.

djxput · 30 Jan 2012 at 21:49

Crowort said:
If you use IE with spybot it will warn you that it is slowing website loading. SB has kind of had its day. At one time it was the only program that was really good at removing stuff without doing any damage. Now we have a whole load of better options. Each person has to weight up if the speed decrease is worth the bit of extra safety it offers.

ya I Agree - not sure the best spy ware prog to use but imo malware bytes and mse are the best for the other stuff ...

KIA · 30 Jan 2012 at 21:53

Spybot's approach is a little dated. I'd only use it if you need to remove malware. Filtering at DNS & browser level is probably going to be more effective.

gdrules · 30 Jan 2012 at 23:00

sare^baw's said:
i found uninstalling it alone did not help, i had to use the undo button on the immunization so that there was zero items protected, then i removed it.

Have followed your advice, thanks again

sare^baw's · 30 Jan 2012 at 23:37

gdrules said:
Have followed your advice, thanks again

have you noticed any improvement?

MikeHunt79 · 31 Jan 2012 at 00:09

neil_g said:
Well every time you do a website name lookup it's going to check that massive list so will slow down response times.

Yep it's going to slow things up, I'm not really sure how much however.

I remember asking about having a massive hosts file a while back and was told it would be insignificant and barely be noticeable, but by the looks of this thread some people have been getting noticeable latency.

Maybe more modern browsers such as Chrome dont really get along with a tinkered hosts file due to the way it's anti phishing filter works? Who knows.

I don't really use Spybot now anyway, I remember it being handy in the XP days but in Windows 7 I don't really worry about Spyware now.