I think my main laptop is infested with something. It's running pathetically slow online, when just this past weekend it was running like a champ. I have another PC that accesses the 'net via a wireless router, and it's a lot faster than the other one.

I think I've got some spyware or other bad stuff that needs to go, but what and how do I ditch it? Adaware doesn't really seem to help, I think I'm gonna need some more serious medicine. Any advice?

 

You tried Spybot?

 

You'll never get it all with one app.

I'd run the following...in this order.

Lavasoft Ad-aware - full scan and reboot
Spybot - full scan and reboot
If you have XP try Microsoft's Antispyware

there are ton but these three are a good start.

Make sure you pull the current definitions before scanning.

 

I'll agree. These are the three I use and they do a good job. You'll definitely need to run all 3 apps. I've found they each will pick up things the previous one missed.

 

Then if you get it all, you can prevent a great deal of headaches by using a good AV and firewall package, and then copy and paste this: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt into your hosts file. If XP it can be opened by going Start, Run then type "Notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" Paste it, save it, enjoy your ad and spyware free surfing. An ounce of prevention goes a long, long way.