Warning Will Robinson

Now that's dragging the memory (Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space for anyone that misses the reference)

For someone who wasn't going to post any posts, I now find myself posting a second, and it is one as a warning. I have just spent about an hour sorting out something I never asked for in the first place.

Liam (that's my eldest) had just finished searching the internet for information on the Lord of the Rings PS2 game. He had closed the browser, e-mail. Infact everything but the actual connection which normally isn't a worry. But I noticed that the "Modem TV's" were still flashing.

After some digging I found that a program called "Trickler" (although , according to what I've since found out, it does go under a number of other names as well - the other more common one is FGS) was doing the transmissions. As this is a program that I didn't recognise I tried to stop it. Only problem - it isn't one of my programs and the only way I could stop it was to halt it via the Windows Manager.

Back onto the internet to do a bit of research, and up came a set of results that gave me the shivers. This program is Spyware. And it is linked to Gater.com. Well I have had deallings with Gater before. They collect your habits and then sell them under the pose of a Information tool or a password manager. You sometimes encounter it if you have downloaded some free software - but I have always decicded that this type of deal isn't worth the free lunch.

This Trickler is a program that cheats.

1. It is loaded either from the install of another program, but in our case I can only assume it was because of a popup window, because we haven't downloaded any programs for a week or two.


2. You are NOT asked if you want it or not


3. There is NO uninstall


4. It downloads Gator programs in such a sneaky underhand way that you don't even know that it is doing it.

Further information can be seen at http://www.cexx.org/gator.htm or "http://boards.cexx.org/spyware/messages/3609.html?board=spyware .

I thought I would pass this on as I am normally very careful of what I do on the Internet, what I download, what I connect to and it got through my defences.