"Sarah" wrote in message
news:1186494755.636571.214620@d30g2000prg.googlegr oups.com...
> Hello, I use spyware blaster and ad aware. I use Firefox. Every time I
> run them these are back:
>
> AdRevolver
> Advertising.com
> AvenueA.Inc
> DoubleClick
> HistLink
> MediaPlex
> Statcounter
> Zedo
>
> How can I stop them from getting put on my computer in the first
> place?


Those are cookies. Cookies are not spyware. They are text files, no
different than you opening Notepad, entering some text, and saving to a
..txt file.

Firefox has its own options for cookie management. Use those options to
dictate if you allow 1st party cookies (cookies written by the current
domain for its own domain), if you allow 3rd party cookies (cookies
written by the current domain but readable by another domain - cookies
can only be read by the domain specified within the cookie), and
per-session cookies (cookies that get purged when the browser closes
versus cookies that specify an expiration of which many will list years
in the future). I don't use Firefox. In IE, I configure to allow 1st
party cookies, block 3rd party cookies, and allow per-session cookies.
I'm sure Firefox has similar options.

IE also has lists of Allowed or Blocked domains for cookies. I'm sure
Firefox has the same. You could, for example, block all cookies, even
1st party cookies, but add a "good" site to the Allow list so their web
site functions properly. Problem is that you might want to allow
cookies at a "good" site but you really don't want them lingering around
after you leave. Many sites require cookies for their site to function
properly but you only want their cookies to exist during your session at
that site. I use a cookie manager (already built into a popup blocker)
in IE that lets me whitelist cookies which means all others are forced
to be per-session cookies. I don't care about whether a site leaves
cookies because non-whitelisted sites will get their cookies purged when
IE closes. Maybe Firefox has some built-in whitelisting option that
ALSO forces all other cookies to be per-session cookies. There are
mozilla.* newsgroups more focused on those products, like Firefox.

Cookies can be used for tracking but only if permitted to continue
existing past your web session. After all, while you are at a site,
they can track you by your IP address as you navigate around their
pages, can provide info in URLs links to other site's pages to indicate
from where you came or use Referrer to do the same thing. While you are
there, they don't need cookies to track your web navigation. Cookies
are not spyware. Read:

Have a read at:
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=246
http://www.xblock.com/articles/article_show.php?id=64
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/answ...-badcookie.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

I bet you NONE of the anti-spyware tools that you use has yet to report
the cookies (.sol files) left behind by Flash.