Beware of freeware programs; many come with a cost.

[mikepossy]

The Internet has a great tradition of free software. Over the years, there have been many wonderful free programs offered. However, the authors of such programs often find themselves making a living doing them. Therefore, they

need an income.Big advertising services companies offer them a deal. Include our program with your download, and we'll pay you. Usually, the presence of the spyware/adware is included in the user agreement for the freeware. Unfortunately, few people read those agreements. Besides, sometimes it's not clear. And sometimes, it just isn't there. "A majority of the time, it gets on the system without the knowledge

of the user," says Bryson Gordon, a senior manager at McAfee Security.These piggybackers fall into two categories. Some arrive with advertising, which they feed to you. They may be pop-ups, or they may be ads that appear on Web pages.The more nefarious programs track your surfing. For instance, if you visit kayaking sites, they will note that. Then they feed that information to a computer on the Internet. First thing you know, your Web pages have kayaking ads on them. Or you start getting pop-ups offering kayaking equipment.

[cauzomb]

It is a good idea to provide sources of the information such as a link to the original web page that the info was quoted from.

It's pretty sad, but it's true.. some free apps aren't actually free; they are provided with spyware/adware tracking tools built in.

Other companies use the tracking tools to gather popular interest information, or try to hook the users into purchasing other applications via pop-ups related to the application they downloaded.. Some will even pop-up links to other software vendor sites.

The really bad ones actually hijack the computer homepage and registry and insist there is some "INFECTION" and in order to get rid of the infection, the user is prompted to purchase a license to the application to remove the infection... That is illegal, but they still do it, and most times it's aquired just by vissiting a website, without actually clicking on any downloads, or without the users knowledge/permission.

When trying out software that is "FREE" I prefer to use TRIAL software that is limmited in function or is limmited via number of runs, or time in days/weeks before it becomes disabled. I recommend sticking to well known software companies when trying out software.. Their programs are less likely to include adware/spyware payloads. Some apps aren't very good, a trial to see if it does what you need it to do before you buy is a nice feature, as long as it doesn't take advantage of the downloader by including spyware/adware etc.

[mustangzach]

Thank God GPL stuff is usually free of bad stuff. I personally recommend, if an open source app is availible, use it instead of the freeware non-open version.

Also, N467 never charges for our stuff, nor do we include any spywarez or crap. We just don't roll that way.