Gator that remembers passwords

[Bob Haller]

I heard about gator that remembers passwords. I am a moderator at a really obsolete message board. Have to enter that EVERY time we do anything:( Anyone know of one that works without the advertising Gator supposedly adds to your life?

I wouldnt mind paying something $20 a year to be rid oif the endless user name and password thing.

I HOPE to atrtend a conventoion someday and pitch a upgrade to the site owner. I suspects its a resource issue, at last check the site had 85,000 members and thousands of posts a day. Costs to run that must be unbelievable.

Heres a link to the one board, http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/recent.phtml

[MarkA]

Web site passwords? Mozilla. www.mozilla.org . It remembers username and password for all webform except ones marked "secure", mainly Yahoo! for some unknown reason, and most banks.

[Chris Blount]

Originally posted by Zac
Web site passwords? Mozilla. www.mozilla.org . It remembers username and password for all webform except ones marked "secure", mainly Yahoo! for some unknown reason, and most banks. IE does the same thing but Gator is a slightly different beast. It remembers complete web forms and encrypts everything.

Bob, Gator should work on you board. You can download Gator for free and try it out.

http://www.gator.com

[James_F]

GATOR IS SPYWARE.

By using Gator you are allowing the people who made the software to look at your computer and how you use it. :eek2:

Here is a good way to remove gator from your computer.

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/howto/story/0,24330,3389395,00.html

[Bob Haller]

Ah so this is something the board uses rateher than a program MY computer could use to remember codes on websites?

I nearly downloaded gator but stopped because of the warning/

Yhe board in question is a bug filled mess, with new IT people constantly. It hpeless to get them to do anything. IT says well I wasnt here at the begining. They are clueless as to how a GOIOD board like this one should run:(

[Chris Blount]

Originally posted by James_F
GATOR IS SPYWARE.


That is true to a point. The web forms and passwords are encrypted and stored on your computer but the only info that is sent to Gator is your first name, Zip, country and surfing habits.

I'm not defending Gator but it should be made clear exactly what this particular brand of "Spyware" is doing.

[MarkA]

"It remembers complete web forms"

So does Mozilla - it can remember a complete form.

[James_F]

Originally posted by Chris Blount
I'm not defending Gator but it should be made clear exactly what this particular brand of "Spyware" is doing.

Ever been to a webpage and a IE warning popups asking if you want to install Gator? Tell me that isn't deceitful?

[Kevin]

Get rid of Gator (and any other spyware) here:

Lavasoft Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.nu)

You'd be surprised at how much crap you have on your computer!

[Unthinkable]

Fyi on Ad-Aware... it's not being currently supported with new reference updates and hasn't been since last summer I believe so it's a bit out of date. The creators are working on a newer version right now. Spybot Search and Destroy is a more comprehensive free utility.

[MarkA]

"
You'd be surprised at how much crap you have on your computer!"

YOU might be, but personally I'd expect to find nothing. I have a strict policy - if I don't need it and know exactly what it is, it doesn't get installed.

[James_F]

But what about something that is installed without your permission or knowledge?

[MarkA]

How would that happen? The computer is running NT 5.1 Pro (XP). Password protected with a secure password and firewalled.

[Wedgecon]

Well Firewalls, Passwords and Anti Virus programs help a lot, it is still very possible for a rogue program to install itself on your pc. The most common way is through active x and java in Internet Explorer, hardly a week goes by without some security hole in Windows or Internet Explorer.

The most important things to do:

1) Keep Regular backups
2) Run a firewall and keep it updated
3) Run Anti Virus software and keep it updated and run regular scans on all files (not just the default one's)
4) On a WinNT/2000/XP system do not access the internet as an Administrator or a user with Administrator rights. You generally only need these rights to install some software.
5) Keep your OS update to date. You have to be careful with this one since OS patches sometimes make things worse. This is a good reason for backups.
6) Did I mention Make and Maintain regular backups...
7) Every once in a while use one of the free spy ware detection tools to scan for any spy ware that might have slipped by.

[MarkA]

"Well Firewalls, Passwords and Anti Virus programs help a lot, it is still very possible for a rogue program to install itself on your pc. The most common way is through active x and java in Internet Explorer, hardly a week goes by without some security hole in Windows or Internet Explorer."

I don't use IE and am very careful to never say yes to Java security permission dialogs.

That said, I'll admit I'm guilty of one of the big no-nos - running with admin rights. It's just too much of a pain to keep a seperate user access account.

There's no reason someone would want to hack into my computer.

Also, even if software were to get in - it wouldn't go unnoticed by me for very long, and I reformat and reinstall Windows on a regular basis (3-4 times a year)

[James_F]

Originally posted by Zac
How would that happen? The computer is running NT 5.1 Pro (XP). Password protected with a secure password and firewalled.

That has nothing to do with it. When you install a program you give it rights to install everything that the developer wants to do. You can't install Kazaa without having spyware loaded on your computer (Yea I know about Kazaalite), Gator loads something called offercompanion. Some programs give you a choice with loading these programs, some don't. I know you don't use Creative soundcards, but if you install the drivers for them, they load up a program that connects to the internet everyday to see if new drivers are available. Doesn't ask if you want it, just installs it.

It all depends on how deceitful the developer wants to be. No firewall or OS will stop them if you don't pay attention.

[MarkA]

Didn't I already say that I don't install any program I don't need and don't know exactly what it is?

-update- I guess I didn't. I meant to:) I am VERY careful. I can't have any unscheduled downtime.

[James_F]

No what if they install a program without asking?

[MarkA]

I don't really see how that would happen, and if it did - I'd notice. I have VERY little software on my computer:

Windows XP Pro
OpenOffice.org 1.0.1
ETC Expession Offline
Apple Quicktime
Turtle Beach Drivers and AudioStation
ATI Drivers and MultiMediaCenter
Ulead VideoStudio5
Nero Burning Rom
WinRAR
Dazzle DV Software package
Mozilla
FIFA 2003
Need for Speed III
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer
Sun Java SDK

That's IT. I'm VERY careful.

[Neil Derryberry]

Run ad-aware... you would be really surprised.

[James_F]

Zac, I'm not saying you aren't careful, just that even legit software installs stuff you don't know about or need.

[Chris Blount]

Doesn't really matter Zac. Without using spyware now we all know what is on your computer. :)

[James_F]

:lol:

[James_F]

Back on topic... I've used a program called Passkeeper for over 6 years now. Still works with Windows XP and its free.

http://www.passkeeper.com/

[MarkA]

Yeah, so? It's not you guys I worry about - unless you work for advertising agencies that could use it to provide targeted advertising to me. Even that I don't worry about as much as I worry about unstable spyware messing up my computer. Spyware in and of itself doesn't bother me.

Oh, and if you noticed, I don't bother with antivirus software either? What's the point. I'm only running major commercial software packages, and I use a web based email (no security vunerabilities therefore ), and I'm firewalled. No point in anti-virus software slowing down my computer...

I have decided after some research to go ahead and download and run adaware. Just to show that it really IS possible to know what's going on with your computer...

[James_F]

Zac every time I think you know about computers you make statements like that. :rolleyes:

[MarkA]

Like what? Like it's actually possible to keep track of your computer? I ran Ad-Aware to prove it to you guys:

It found ONE thing, and one thing I already knew about and can't believe it reports - Alexa. Which, BTW, I didn't install - it's built into Windows XP (possibly other versions also?) - it powers the "related" button in IE. Hardly spyware since Microsoft themselves puts it in (and I HATE Microsoft)

Oh, and it found a COOKIE for fastclick in IE?!?!?!?!? How the heck do they call a COOKIE spyware? It isn't even a ware...

PS, don't take that last part of my last post to make you think I'm okay with tracking cookies. I'm not only okay with them, I think they're A GREAT IDEA because they allow targeted advertising within a site network with no invasion of the users reasonably expected privacy (if you expect total privacy in a free enterprise you're crazy!).

The only reason it didn't find more cookies for tracking is because I assume it doesn't check my Mozilla cookies and I've used IE maybe 4 times since I last reinstalled.

[James_F]

Zac you can get a virus by using webmail. Doesn't matter what you are using.

[MarkA]

Not if you don't download attachments you can't. It won't run VBScripts. Same goes for Mozilla Mail. The only way to get most of these email worms is running Outlook Express. Getting a real virus involves downloading an attachment. And the reason I said webmail was more virus proof than running say, Mozilla Mail, is because my webmail provider virus-scans all incoming mail and blocks anything with a known virus.

Trust me, I know what I'm doing and am very careful with my computer. I rely on it too much for many things to run the slightest risk of unscheduled downtime.

Now, for anyone who comes to me for help (paying or not), I ALWAYS tell them they NEED antivirus software. But personally, I don't think I'm in a position where the benefit outweighs the risk (the risk being a slower computer that crashes more)

[James_F]

I've never had Norton crash my computer. How the heck to you share files with friends? Ever open a word document? Ever open a jpg?

[MarkA]

I don't share files with friends except pictures

I don't open Word documents I didn't create - and I don't have Microsoft Word. OpenOffice won't even run the macro viruses, as I have Office macros disabled.

A JPEG image can't contain a virus. That shows what you know. It has no executable code.

[James_F]

As long as you view HTML emails, you are susceptible to Javascript viruses.

Also JPEGs can contain viruses. Not many exist, but it has been pr oven that you can get infected with a jpeg.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,101910,00.asp

Shows what you know. :rolleyes:

[MarkA]

"As long as you view HTML emails, you are susceptible to Javascript viruses."

Uh, HOW? JavaScript is NOT a part of HTML emails. My webmail provider strips any scripts off an email.

As for your "JPEG virus" theory, your link doesn't provide much information, but it appears as if some data is being encoded in the JPEG file, but the virus is NOT spread through a JPEG. Read the article, it says it requires the virus exe to work... It also admits this doesn't exist as a wild virus. Therefore, it is not a concern.

[James_F]

Suit yourself, but you proved once again that you don't know jack about anything.

[MarkA]

Nevermind. That was uncalled for James because you still haven't shown me where I said anything incorrect (the site you pointed says their was virus code in a JPEG, but admitted it needed a seperate program to execute it). But as I don't want to be banned, I shall not post again.

[James_F]

Gee I'm sorry I missed it. :grin: