Hi friends,If you value your privacy and/or "Fair Use" rights in the least way, please read this post in the general forum and help stamp this despicable software out from GameSpot and others:http://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboa...orum=DCForumID6I can't encourage you enough to read this and exert your influence.Take care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

Good catch, and on-topic since I feel spyware causes many FS2002 simmers grief. The more people are aware of it, the better. Adaware is a great tool for catching some of this, but more and more vendors are finding ways to one-up Adaware. As always, I urge all people to skip the urge to click misleading banners designed to lure folks by looking like system warning or advisory messages. Download Accelerator is just one product, and there are many others. And depending on IE settings, you may not even know spyware is being installed.-John

Thanks Elrond for the heads-up.Where can I get that "Ad Aware" at.I seem to keep getting more and more junk mail and I wouldn't doubt for an instant it's because of some of that spyware crap.thanks,Heather

Hi Heather,You can grab the latest copy here:http://www.lavasoftusa.comNote that there is a separate component: "RefUpdate" that allows you to keep the signature files for Ad Aware up to date from you system without having to download the entire program over and over. I highly recommend that as well.I don't think your spam is related in this case however: spam is a separate but sometimes linked component to spyware, but more often than not its a public forum issue (unlike AVSIM I might add). If your email address is located in public forums or on the most vulnerable of sites (such as GeoCities), spammers will collect you into their lists. There isn't much you can do to stop spam these days in itself, but there is a great new anti-spam tool you can use called SpamNet from CloudMark:http://www.cloudmark.comIts an ingenious plugin to Outlook that uses the features of P2P networks to block spam. Basically, every person using SpamNet has the ability to mark spam in their inbox. The signature of the blocked spam is sent to SpamNet and if enough people mark a piece of spam as spam, the result is downloaded to All SpamNet users. In essence, people vote out spam from their inbox. In my experience with the tool, it has worked wonders to date. I highly recommend it.Take care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

You can get ad-aware here http://www.lavasoft.nu/ its a must have. Dont think it will work with the DRM's mentioned in the article but hopefully someone will figure it out.

WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH THIS STUFF ELROND???? Fantastic. I just installed the CloudMark system and then opened up an account I don't use much because of spam. Of the 44 messages waiting for me (all spam, as I had checked via a web2mail system) it blocked or erased all but six! Those have subsequently been blocked! Thanks for the referral Elrond. This one goes in the Editor's Picks list!

Hi Tom,Unfortunately, the answer is I have *way* too much idle time on my hands :-).Really though, most of the security apps like the above are usually highlighted at one of my daily industry/software related rounds:The Register (my favorite)http://www.theregister.co.ukSlashDot (my second favorite)www.slashdot.orgBeta Newshttp://www.betanews.comExtremeTech (its growing on my list at every visit)http://www.extremetech.comI know, I should only be looking at AVSIM and nothing else, but alas... :-lolTake care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

"I know, I should only be looking at AVSIM and nothing else, but alas..."If you did that, we would not have these great stories to post on the front page. So, I guess we'll forgive you for your transgressions! :-lol

Elrond -I too just installed the spamnet software...or so I think. :-) Can you tell me how I can confirm it is operating, since I can not find any program application or reference in Outlook nor on my desktop/menus. The installer indicated it was successful, but I'm not sure it is operating right.Any help would be appreciated. :-)Regards,http://home.earthlink.net/~snyders2000/P2.jpg | [LINK:www.airliners.net/search/[email protected]]AIRLINERS.NET PHOTOS][/b

Thanks for the link to the Outlook Express Utility. ON my way to download it now. We have to get hese guys.Mike

Open up Outlook and look up! You will see three new buttons. "CloudMark", "Block" and "Unblock". Works great!

Thank you very much for highlighting an issue like this: as always, AVSIM is at the front of protecting its users. My respect for the principals you and everyone at AVSIM upholds (and actively leads with as well) simply grows daily.One thing of note though: SpamNet doesn't yet have a version that runs with the free Outlook Express... Only Outlook 2000/XP (you must own Microsoft Office) is supported in the current version. They are working hard on having the Outlook Express version released shortly however.Thanks again Tom,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

I have reinstalled twice, used the repair option in the install process, and restarted twice and unfortunately I see "notta" a button. ;-) I know I'm missing something simple here. :-)Win98SEOutlook 2000Any ideas?Regards,http://home.earthlink.net/~snyders2000/T1.jpg | [LINK:www.airliners.net/search/[email protected]]AIRLINERS.NET PHOTOS][/b

Oh, now ownder I see no difference after I installed it. :-lol I kept looking and looking for thiose buttons and reading all the documents on their site. I must have missed it somewhere.Take careMike

Hi Jeff,Right click on an empty area of your toolbar for the list of available toolbars... You should see a new one available, "CloudMark". It should have automatically been activated however, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't show on your system. Are you using Outlook 2000 or XP or an earlier version such as came with Office97?Toolbar should look like this:http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d2cc5af491cb5f2.gifGood luck, http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif