Hello, can anyone tell me of a good, free spyware scanner/blocker? I'm using Slack 9.1 with blackbox.

There is no spyware in or for Linux. Or do you want it to sit between the internet and your windows pcs?

There isn't? Wow, I feel stupid now...strange... Umm, since I'm on a LAN with a windows computer, would it be a good idea?

At least install one on the Windows box - such as Spybot Search and Destroy and/or Adaware. (I have seen recommendations which say to install both since one misses some spyware that the othere picks up). And a virus guard and a firewall. And keep the Windows box up to date.

OK, well I have all that on the Windows computer. Thanks a lot. What about virus protection for Linux? I know there must be at least a few Linux virii floating around out there.

There are a few linux viruses but they pretty much all (if not all) rely on you doing something silly as root (like running them intentionally) or running some sort of software as root. If you run as root only for maintenance tasks then you're at a very very VERY low risk of any harm occuring. In fact, if you don't run as root and a virus infects your computer then the very worst it can do is affect your home directory and then die of loneliness

And think about it...the comparatively low number of linux PCs on the web, coupled with the idea that almost no-one runs solely as root, means the chance of even receiving a virus are very small indeed.


ps. the lack of spyware is mainly because most software is open source...if someone adds some spyware to a program then someone somewhere studying or altering the source is gonna find it and think "Hey ho, what do we have here?" and alert the community.

you are right there is some floating around there (only about 60), so as you can see
its not a threat like in windows (over 60,000) ... it is something you dont' have to worry
about, again like Xavier said, unless you are using it to scan between a linux box that sits
between the internet and windows pcs to avoid them affecting a windows pc ..

yes, if you are running any windows OS, you will want to run both adaware, and spybot. that in addition to a virus scanner that scans either live time, or at set times (daily at least) plus checks incoming and outgoing e-mail. as for a firewall, nothing is better then hardware firewalls, or just a plane simple NAT router like the D-link. SMC, or even the pathetic Linksys routers.

also take advantage of the spybot hosts list editor and add their entire list to your hosts list. this will stop 90% of the spyware/adware from getting to your computer in the first place.

Thanks everyone, that was very helpful.