Is Gamespy Arcade Adaware/Spyware/Trojan?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Okay, I went to go play some UT2k4 the other day for the first time in about 2 months. When I searched for servers my lowest ping was in the 300 area, and it went all of the way to 900. This was wrong, really wrong. I have a cable modem and always usually get connections in the low 10-20's area.

Since I had not played UT2k4 for so long, I decided to launch Counter Strike: Source, the last game I played online about 2 weeks ago. Sure enough my pings were way higher than they normally are on that game as well, lowest was around 400, Highest was in the 900's.

I immediately though maybe somehow, someway, although I am anal rententive with my Anti Virus and Spyware scanning, I had a gotten a trojan or something similar, as it seemed alot of activity was going out of my computer.

Eventually I ran Nortons, and sure enough it found a file called "gadaware.exe" I believe (not 100% sure) was the name. Nortons went on to delete the file once I gave it permission to do so. This was late last night so I decided to just go to bed and not see if my Pings were better until today.

Today, I checked to see if my pings were better, and if this file Norton found was indeed the culrpit for my outgoing activity.

Sure enough my pings were back to normal.

Then I saw something very interesting...under my Start Menu / Games folder that my Icon for GameSpy Arcade had turned into the missing .exe Icon...

Then I read this post in the PC gamer found here, which had this...

all-seeing eye because it has multi theft auto :D

and i think gamespy has adware? not sure

So after reading this reference post, and seeing the missing Icon, it turns out that I think Norton recomended me to delete GameSpy arcade, or at least something related to it.

All I know is now Gamespy Arcade is gone, and my problems with high pings have completely gone away as well.

So my 1st Question is WTF?

My 2nd question is if Gamespy was the culprit, how did it start doing this out of nowhere? I have had it installed for quite some time, and I never had any issues at all with it before, quite frankly because I only used it once then never again.

Any info on this matter would be appreciated, as I am really dumbfounded at this point.

[TimRogers]

WWWWEEEEIIIRRRDDD!!

Could be that a worm etc has infected the program?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

WWWWEEEEIIIRRRDDD!!

Could be that a worm etc has infected the program?

585117748[/snapback]

Thats a possibility.

Either way I am glad my low ping problem is taken care of, I just wanted to see if anyone else experienced anything like this as well.

I just checked my Nortons Activity Log and this was exactly what it said.

Source: X:X\GameSpy Arcade\Aphex.exe

Description: The file X:X\GameSpy Arcade\Aphex.exe is a Adware threat.

Click for more information about this threat : Adware.GameSpyArcade

Maybe the ping just happened to be something else, but it is just weird to me.

[kak]

Norton said that my DC++ install file was adware. Run a real program to see if it finds the file..something like Spybot, Ad-Aware, or Webroot SpySweeper.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Norton said that my DC++ install file was adware. Run a real program to see if it finds the file..something like Spybot, Ad-Aware, or Webroot SpySweeper.

585117986[/snapback]

I ran Norton Last.

I ran Spybot & Ad-Aware + first.

I should have been more specific with saying that, instead I said ...

"I immediately though maybe somehow, someway, although I am anal rententive with my Anti Virus and Spyware scanning,...

Eventually I ran Nortons

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Also I did some more research on the detection rule was just added to Norton on the 14th, and I have not use my computer since Tuesday (the 14th) until last night, when I noticed the problem.

Since I have only been playing HL2 SP I would not have noticed if my pings were that bad for at least the past 3 weeks, so unfortunataly I do not know how long the problem existed.

I just find it a little strange thats all.

[mtrftw]

gsa is adware if youre not paying for it. a nice alternative is kquery @ http://kquery.com/

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

gsa is adware if youre not paying for it.  a nice alternative is kquery @ http://kquery.com/

585118037[/snapback]

thanks for the alternative.

i should also add i am a paying subscriber to the gamespy network (fileplanet, etc.) so i did indeed have the no ads version as well.

no big deal.

my ping problem is gone, wether unrelated or related so is gamespy arcade is gone now too.

if i dont sound upset its because i am not, as gamespy arcade has always sucked IMO anyway.

[[SST]SLAYER]

I never had any problems with gamespy but I stopped using it about a year ago

I have used this instead and works out better for me

gametiger online player search

Just find your buddy or clan member

[kennyout]

I ran a^2 (a-squared) about oh...month and half ago

it said Gamespy had ad-ware/spyware....it removed them....i've had no reason to touch Gamespy Arcade in long time....and it finding that after some update....well it was nice...

[U2K Tha Greate$t]

I have the lastest version of gamespy install and i play it when i can and i havent had any problems yet. The thing is spyware and ad-aware free, the only problem i seen on the thing is, something about Script Errors

[Mercutio Vanse]

I wouldnt never trust Gamespy, I use ASE.

http://www.spywareguide.com/product_show.php?id=1242

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/Pe...px?id=453073352

[[SST]SLAYER]

It's Evil I tell you :devil: