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alicez
2009-03-05, 02:44
I ran a scan tonight and for the first time, after man,, many, scans I get an exception (problem) which reads:

"Tracking cook internet explorer owner. cookie owner.excite.com"

I've looked all over my computer and can't find this cookie. (Also ran CCleaner before scan.)

What is this and where might it be? I looked in owner Cookies and only two files are there:index.dat and desktop.ini

Can it be safely removed? As I said, I have done many scans before and never got this 'error.'

Very strange indeed. Can anyone help?
Alice

(Also, I had to try several times to get into this forum. After I input name and password, it said Welcome Alice, and then kept returning me to the same sign-in page (where the sign-in is in the middle of the page.) I signed-in finally at the top right-hand side and was able to to get in. Very strange indeed and frustrating to be always returned to the sign-in after the Welcome...)

spybotsandra
2009-03-05, 11:22
Hello,

RightMedia, Doubleclick (and others like Advertising.com, Avenue A, Inc, CasaleMedia, Fastclick, Hitbox, Mediaplex etc.) are so-called tracking cookies. It is quite common for popular websites to employ such tracking cookies from third parties. They use them in order to track the users' surfing habits on their websites. As I said, these cookies are from third parties but they are employed by the site. There is a tool in Spybot-S&D: BrowserHelper, i.e. a bad download blocker for Internet Explorer. With this tool enabled such tracking cookies will be blocked. In order to activate this tool, please run Spybot-S&D and go to the "Tools"->"Resident" page. Checking the checkbox in front of SDHelper will enable the BrowserHelper.

Now open the Tools menu in your Internet Explorer and choose 'Spybot - Search Destroy Configuration'.
There you will find a drop down menu which will appear giving you some options.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd15/index.html (3rd picture)
You should select "Block all bad pages silently".
With that option set the notifications will no longer come up, but you will still have the protection.
Further choose "Spybot-S&D->Immunize" from the navigation bar on the left.
Now the baddies are blocked.


Please do the following:
Clean your Cache and Cookies in IE:

* Close all instances of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer
* Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > General tab
* Click the "Delete Cookies" button
* Next to it, Click the "Delete Files" button
* When prompted, place a check in: "Delete all offline content",
click OK

Clean your Cache and Cookies in Firefox (In case you also have
Firefox installed):

* Go to Tools > Options.
* Click Privacy in the menu on the left side of the Options window.
* Click the Clear button located to the right of each option
(History, Cookies, Cache).
* Click OK to close the Options window
Alternatively, you can clear all information stored while browsing
by clicking Clear All.
A confirmation dialog box will be shown before clearing the
information.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

alicez
2009-03-05, 15:07
Thank you.
I wonder if you, or someone, can answer the questions asked in my original post please:

#1- What is this and where might it be? I looked in owner Cookies and only two files are there:index.dat and desktop.ini
(I've looked all over my computer and can't find this cookie. (Also ran CCleaner before scan. If the scan is showing a file, I would like to know where this file is.)

#2- Can it be safely removed? As I said, I have done many scans before and never got this 'error.'


You advised: "You should select "Block all bad pages silently". THAT WAS ALREADY SELECTED!

Thank you kindly,
Alice

(Also, I had to try several times to get into this forum. After I input name and password, it said Welcome Alice, and then kept returning me to the same sign-in page (where the sign-in is in the middle of the page.) I signed-in finally at the top right-hand side and was able to to get in. Very strange indeed and frustrating to be always returned to the sign-in after the Welcome...)

alicez
2009-03-05, 15:48
Add-on to previous post which I could not Edit.

#3- If this should/must be deleted, how would that be done? (Would deleting it cause any problems to computer.)

#4- Why is this item appearing now after not having used Excite for quite some time.

All very confusing. As I said, I searched all over the computer and can't find this Excite tracking cookie. Would anyone know why not? If a scan is coming up with an 'exception,' I would like to see the actual file that is being 'tagged' as a problem.

Thank you.
Alice