Pop Up Nightmare!

[Micah]

I have never hada problem with popups until I updated to the newest IE. My version of XP is as up to date as one can make it, but I still get blasted with popups.

One thing that I have noticed is that when I change my cookies setting to "NO COOKIES", moments later something changes the setting to "Accept All Cookies"

They are a pain in the ass at home, but I use my laptop for grad school classes. The last thing I want is to be taking lecture notes in my Sexual Deviance class and have a donkey-show popup hit my screen with 20 soccer moms behind me gasping.

Any suggestions? AD-AWARE is only "so-so".

Edited April 12, 2007 by Pharaoh Bender

[Matt Cheely]

The last thing I want is to be taking lecture notes in my Sexual Deviance class and have a donkey-show popup hit my screen with 20 soccer moms behind me gasping.

I don't know anything about computers, but THAT would be funny!

[BSeevers]

Turn your computer off, place your hands on the keyboard and touch buttons for an hour a day.

[ihatepickles]

Use Firefox after you've had your machine rebuilt.

[D.Hayden]

Yopu do have the 'Tools' 'PopUp Blocker'.. on right?

Try setting it to highest..

But if you already have a virus (sounds suspcisous).. you'll need to clear that first.

[Middle Man]

Switch to Mozilla Firefox and stop annoying popups

[lcs]

Download two free programs

SPYBOT

SPYWAREBLASTER

Update them and check for updates every couple of days and ck for threats. They work for any of the internet explorers

Stop surfing all the XXX sites!

[Brazos SC Shooter]

If it is a Sexual Deviance Class, couldn't you just say the Donkey Show Pop-up site was just previous research?

Edited April 12, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[SiG Lady]

Yeh, get those cool anti-spyware anti-adware programs onto your system NOW. That should clear up a number of hassles. Do download AdAware (by Lavasoft) too... another high-class, free anti-ware thing that I use frequently. I use Spybot S&D at least once a day--sometimes more, depending upon my surfing activities. It's very efficient and reliably finds tracking crap that none of us need on our systems. And there're more types of 'tracking crap' than ever before!

[shred]

+1.. anything resetting your IE settings is going to be malware of some sort.

Also note that depending on the sorts of donkey show websites you visit, there have been some ugly hack opportunities lately (read: go to wrong site, get free virus). Also keep up with the Microsoft updates.

[Chris Keen]

You're done for PB. Your 1st problem was upgrading to IE 7. What was wrong with IE 6 ??? Been working fine for me for years now.

I've been dealing with the pop-ups for about 3 weeks now. I had some of my defenses down, and have no one else to blame except myself, and Al Gore.

I'm so frustrated, I'm ready to do a FORMAT C:\

Then I'll put all the ad-awares & firewalls & spybots I should have had running in the first place .... and I should be back to running like a top again.

QUIT CHANGING THINGS THE WEEK BEFORE A MATCH!

[Micah]

QUIT CHANGING THINGS THE WEEK BEFORE A MATCH!

No $hit man

Thanks for the advice. I'll give the suggested freeware programs a try, and stop looking at the top 10 gilfs of the day

[Brazos SC Shooter]

QUIT CHANGING THINGS THE WEEK BEFORE A MATCH!

No $hit man

Thanks for the advice. I'll give the suggested freeware programs a try, and stop looking at the top 10 gilfs of the day

GILFS - I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[Chris Keen]

I just threw up ALOT!

[cautery]

Spybot S&D - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Install it, use the initial install wizard, registry backup, update, etc... routine.

Be sure to run the immunize, and setup the IE to disallow changes... Also, allow it to block bad pages in IE.

Then run Spybot and allow it to find all the trojans, worms, etc...

I'll almost guarantee that you'll need to run it multiple times to get them all... and likely it will need to reboot a couple of times to get some of them.

Turn on anti-phishing and other security features on IE after the computer is clean and BEFORE you actually run IE again....

After you have the computer "clean" again.....

Switch to Mozilla Firefox 2.0+ and your problems will be drastically reduced.

I ONLY use IE for Microsoft Update and the few sites that REQUIRE its use.

PS - The learning curve is a little tough, but I would advise using the Zone Alarm suite on your PC... It will keep virtually everything unintended off your PC if setup right. And once it has "learned" your setup, you will only see warnings when something bad is happening or when you are changing something on purpose.... But still run Spybot S&D periodically.

[George]

If you are going to be doing surfing like this on your computer a lot, you better get a Mac, or this will happen over and over even if you switch to FireFox and install all the condom software you want. The only way to be immune to crap like this is to run a system that can't have these type of hooks set in it ;-)

[Micah]

If you are going to be doing surfing like this on your computer a lot,

I would really like to clarify that I am not really looking at grandma, donkey, and alien invasion porn with little midget Ron Jeremy's running around Lake North.

Seriously.

I mean it

Edited April 13, 2007 by Pharaoh Bender

[1911user]

Spyware cleaners are good, but I've found host file blocking to be very effective at stopping spyware. In the past, I ran ad-aware, etc. a few times a week and usually found something. Read here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

What this method does is prevent ads and spyware from accessing their home website.

I've been doing it for over a year now and rarely get any kind of spyware on a search with several sweeper programs. It sounds like you need to clean something first, but try the host file blocking and update it every few months to add the latest ad websites.

I would also recommend the mozilla browser since it does a very good job on pop-ups and has for the last few years.

Edited April 13, 2007 by 1911user

[Steve Anderson]

There's a class on being a better sexual deviant?

I love excellence!

SA

[carinab]

[Micah]

Just to let you cats know, the Firefox/Spybot combo is doing an amazing job keeping the pop ups away. Big thanks to all the help

[OpnBlstr]

If you are going to be doing surfing like this on your computer a lot, you better get a Mac, or this will happen over and over even if you switch to FireFox and install all the condom software you want. The only way to be immune to crap like this is to run a system that can't have these type of hooks set in it ;-)

+1

I switched to Mac about six months age - first a 24" iMac then a 15" 2.33 C2D MBP - don't know why I didn't do it sooner. No more endless deluge of virus threats and spyware plus my computer runs as fast as it should since I don't need ten condoms running in the background. No more Norton, McAfee, AdAware, S&D, ad nauseum. It's gotten a LITTLE better security-wise with Vista but at the expense of system speed and responsiveness. I'm keeping my Macs - MS better dump the entire Windows codebase while they can and just start over.

[Nik Habicht]

If you are going to be doing surfing like this on your computer a lot, you better get a Mac, or this will happen over and over even if you switch to FireFox and install all the condom software you want. The only way to be immune to crap like this is to run a system that can't have these type of hooks set in it ;-)

So --- it's the gun, not the shooter?

I don't think I buy that.....

[George]

I bought a lot of them thar' Macs Nik and just for edification, a little story about our front office workstations that our receptionist and office manager sit at. I got tired of the bi weekly cleanout sessions after hours and the yearly rebuilds on the windows machines so I deleted all the Email and Browser apps on the Wintel machines running biz apps and set up a pair of old Mac towers I had kickin' around as second machines on their desktops and told them they had to do all internet related stuff on the Macs.

Fast Forward to 6 months later and I am just past the FIRST EVER service pass on the Macs and they both passed all the systems tests in under 5 minutes each and I went home early after leaving them in service :-)

I have not had ONE SINGLE INCIDENT in that six months versus weekly issues with hung machines and twice monthly fixit evenings back when the Wintel machines did both of these folks internet chores/hobbies. I had them using FireFox and Eudora for the 3 months prior to walking away from internet on WinXP. That was how long the machines went running smooth on alternate browsers and email apps compared to 2-3 weeks running smooth at best with IE and Outlook code doing the internet tasks. You CANNOT control employees surfing habits, nor can you prevent Windows systems from getting wonky in time, but on a Mac you can make the internet troublefree in a workplace environment, which is huge from a biz owners perspective :-)

Yeah, I am biased, biased about ever wasting any more of my time trying to keep Winblows systems safe on the internet form folks who don't know how to have safe cybersex ;-)

[D.Hayden]

There are defintely Mac virus, Linux virus and Solaris virus floating around... fewer yes, but as those platforms become more popular the viruses are increasing..