spywareblaster's block list: won't "protect"

[driveerased]

Greetings everyone!

I need help enabling "protection against checked items" in spywareblaster.  Here's the background:

i updated my SpywareBlaster today and my "Protection window" showed that "89 items have protection disabled" in the Restricted Sites page.  I clicked "enable all protection" and still the same figure continued.  I went to the "Restricted Sites" page and noticed that quite a few items were unchecked and printed in red.  I checked all of the boxes next to those items and clicked again on the button "protect against checked items".  The progress bar moves but the items remain unchecked and I still have 89 unprotected items.  BlockCheckers, Clickzs, CoolWebSearchers, Mirar and Z-quest are some of the items on the list.  

X-Cleaner, Spybot, Microsoft Malware Detection Tool, Webroot, macaffee VirusScan Enterprise, Microsoft AntiSpyware and Ad-Ware all seem happy to congratulate me on not having any suspicious stuff on my computer.  Spycatcher caught a few things but only one was a confirmed dangerous piece, which I deleted.  

How can I get rid of the rest of that stuff?  And why are all the other programs not reading them as malicious?

Thank you for your time and help.

[dl65]

driveerased...... First of all which operating system are you using .....?

X-Cleaner, Spybot, Microsoft Malware Detection Tool, Webroot, macaffee VirusScan Enterprise, Microsoft AntiSpyware and Ad-Ware all seem happy to congratulate me on not having any suspicious stuff on my computer.  Spycatcher caught a few things but only one was a confirmed dangerous piece, which I deleted

....... You must realize , that there hasnt been a nasties scanner desgned that will find and remove everything . You must use a number of various apps to do the job.
When you respond , I will be happy to offer some suggestions.

dl65  

[driveerased]

... and i thought i was so thorough in my post LOL... windows XP is my OS.

and you are absolutely right on the need to use different apps.  that's precisely why i tried running all of the ones i mentioned, in addition to AVG and the GDATA Softwared worm remover.

Thank you for writing.  I look forward to your suggestions.

I'm wishing you well.

[dl65]

driveerased..... LOL , your post was pretty complete , however the reason I inquired about your O/S is because some apps won't run on all windows o/s .

I would suggest the following :
A good  Anti-Virus
Ewido Security ........ good for finding and removing trojans
Spybot Search and Destroy ...... Be sure to enable the resident
M/S ...... Windows Defender is decent .
Ad-Aware SE Personal .......
Always check for updates before running any of these


Then in your toolbox ......you should have:
hijackthis ....( very powerful tool )
CWShedder
Vundo Fix
Stinger
CCleaner .... excellant for cleaning up your system
Always check for updates before running any of these

There is a multitude of free apps out there ........ The ones I mention are simply the ones I use.

BTW ..... You didnt mention which version of SpywareBlaster you are using .....I just D/L V3.5.1 ..... and it doesnt have any scanner it just appears to block anything comming in .... so if your machine is infected , another tool will be required to find and remove them .


dl65  

[driveerased]

DL65,

thank you for your suggestions.  I have downloaded, installed and run Ewido Security (as well as the online scanner beta), CWShedder, Stinger and CCleaner.  This morning I updated every single one and ran them again.  None of them seems to find an infection. However, G DATA anti-worm tells me that it "looks like" my host has been hijacked and it does provide me with a report, which, unfortunately, I can't understand.  What I have noticed, though, is that all addresses end with #SpySweeperCASS, and since I have Webroot Spysweeeper as resident, I'm not sure how this can indicate hijacking.

I continue to be unable to protect against the several instances of BlockCheckers, Clickzs, CoolWebSearch, mirar and Z-Quest that my (newly downloaded version of) Spyblaster indicates are "unprotected".

I was hoping that you might provide other ideas.

Thank you.

I'm wishing you well.

[dl65]

 driveerased...how about posting the report from....G DATA anti-worm

and how about a new hijackthis log .


dl65  

[driveerased]

Thanks for writing.

Much as I hate to admit it, I don't know what hijackthis is, nor do I know how to get a log through/with it.  I will however post the antiworm hosts report here as soon as i find out how to convert a text file to one of the formats accepted by this forum.

Thank you again for your interest and help.

Regards.

[Fed]

Have you used a program like Spybot to 'lock your host file'?

[driveerased]

i use spybot all the time but i don't recall using it to "lock host file".  i imagine one would do it through the TOOLS tab... i'm running on the affected computer right now.  will look at the TOOLS commands once the scan is over.

Thank you.

PS: what would that accomplish, locking my host file? or are you suggesting that this might be the problem?

[Fed]

I'm suggesting that if your hosts file is locked by a third party program then your spyware blaster will not be able to alter it.

[driveerased]

good pont on the locked hosts files, Fed. Thank you.  I have now locked them with SpyBot. Incidentally, this scan by SpyBot was also unsuccessful in eliciting any malware or programs, which, in turn, brings me back to my original question:  how can i either prevent those items SpywareBlaster tells me are "unprotected"  - BlockCheckers, Clickzs, CoolWebSearch, mirar and Z-Quest among others, from stealing my privacy and/or further demaging my system?  How do I get to them and pry them out?  Incidentally, the SpywareBlaster report shows IE only has these problesm Mozilla Firefox items all appear checked and protected.

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can provide.

I am wishing you well.

[Dilbert]

At the bottom of the Status tab, click "Enable all protection".