Free downloads

If there’s anything Internet users should have learned from the dot-com bust, it’s that nothing is free. There’s almost always a catch. Yet every day, users download supposedly free software that promises all kinds of goodies, some useful, some fun. And then they wonder why—after their cursors are adorned with silly characters or their browser has a built-in way to search the Net—their PCs are crashing, their desktops are covered with pop-ups and spam is flooding their inboxes.

They’re paying for all that free software they’re using, and the cost is high. Sluggish performance, system instability, a loss of privacy and a barrage of marketing are the fees extracted by what’s come to be known as Adware and Spyware.

These programs are offered to users without charge. They may be utilitarian, such as a program to store multiple passwords in one place. They may be entertaining, like a game or something that makes your Windows desktop livelier.

But embedded within them are components with other agenda. They may report your computing activities to advertisers, bring you pop-up ads when your browser isn’t running or even log your keystrokes. Some can reset your browser’s home page, change your default search engine or rework other Windows settings, all without your knowledge or consent. Some even cross over into the realm of being destructive. There are what appear to be cute joke programs circulated by e-mail that place back doors on your PC, which could allow hackers access to your system.

To be fair, some Adware programs are benign, merely showing you ads within the body of the free programs. Some will allow you to pay for them, which turns off the advertising component. However, there have been some cases in which the ads go away from the registered software, but the code that reports surfing behavior continues to operate in the background. And some programs may even leave the spyware piece in place after you uninstall them.

And there are some programs, created by individuals or teams of volunteers that are truly free. The Linux operating system is one example, as is OpenOffice, the open-source productivity suite.

Some spyware and adware programs are fairly notorious: Gator, Bonzi Buddy, Searchex, GoHip are among the best known examples. But others can sneak up on you. For example, there are a slew of sites offering free MP3 downloads of hit songs and even whole albums. But when you go to grab one, you’re required to install a browser plug-in necessary to complete the download.

These plug-ins spies on your activities, and in some cases install ad-popup software or a toolbar for searching porn sites.

Others may perform what’s known as a browser hijack, in which you’re tricked into clicking on a box that gives permission to change the startup page in your Web browser. In some instances, manually resetting the page back to your original preference is only a temporary fix—you’ll discover after a reboot the page has been hijacked again.

How can you avoid these traps? The best advice is to think twice before downloading software that’s free. Look carefully at the description of what it does on the developer’s Web site, and read as much fine print as you can find, including the site’s privacy policy.

(Franco O. Mendoza is Systems Administrator of Verizon. For questions or comments, e-mail him at franco.mendoza@vzpacifica.com.)