SiteAdvisor, be warned before you click Options

[jkp]

Hi CH,

I checked out your wallpaper site and looked at Living Marine Aquarium. A lot of the staff where I work like this sort of stuff so I prefer to check them out before they just blindly download them and I have to remove the spyware. When I opened the host page for the aquarium screensaver, my SiteAdvisor button turned red and when I opened SA for more information I got this information. A regular spam and spyware hell.

For anyone doing a lot of browsing, I highly recommend SiteAdvisor. It's freely available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. One of its best features is integration into Google or Yahoo! search result pages. It displays a small, color-coded icon beside each link indicating the spam/spyware safety of the site. A mouse over the icon reveals a "tool tip"-like summary of SiteAdvisor's experience with that particular URL.

[Evil Marge]

I got a warning from Microsoft AntiSpyware that something was attempting to change my homepage

[jkp]

I got a warning from Microsoft AntiSpyware that something was attempting to change my homepage

I've installed both the Firefox and IE versions on computers running Win98, XP Home, and XP Pro. In no instance did SpywareGuard or MS AntiSpyware (now known as Windows Defender) report any change in homepage and, in practice, there was no such change.

I suspect, because of its integration with the Google and Yahoo! search results pages, that if your homepage is set to Google or Yahoo! that homepage (and any other Google/Yahoo! address) gets filtered through SiteAdvisor--it would have to be to produce the link classification icons. This would most likely cause the MS software, Spyware Guard, etc. to report a home page change. The change, however, would be completely transparent to the user--the only result you would see is the additional icons beside links; your homepage setting in IE or Fx would still read as before. (None of the computers I worked on used Google or Yahoo! as a homepage which is why I can only "suspect".)

In fact, the only way SiteAdvisor could work is to route all your URL requests through the SA site; sort of like a proxy server. You can get a bit more info on how it works by reading Does SiteAdvisor slow down browsing performance? and by browsing the on-site FAQ.

I guarantee it's safe. If it does somthing nasty, you can have my snooker balls

[Evil Marge]

Oops I didn't word that properly

What I mean't was when I clicked the link for the Living Marine Aquarium that you mentioned I got the warning,it wasn't anything to do with SiteAdvisor cause I don't have it

[jkp]

Oops I didn't word that properly

What I mean't was when I clicked the link for the Living Marine Aquarium that you mentioned I got the warning,it wasn't anything to do with SiteAdvisor cause I don't have it

Snooker balls safe. Whew!

Give it a try. It forewarns you about sleazy sites before you actually open the links. To get an idea of what information it provides, click the "this information" link at the top of the thread to see what it says about that particular screensaver host site.

[Evil Marge]

Will give it a go.

I've spent most of the day supposedly typing out college work but keep taking glances at the net,I'm trying to reply here by typing in Microsoft Word.

I'll be handing in work with god knows what comments misplaced here and there

[coathanger007]

After much effort all the Freeze adverts have now been removed. So everyone can now post freely