Unwanted ads

[*msdet]

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 12:07 am

For the past four weeks unwanted advertisements are popping up whenever anybody is on the computer. These ads are very disturbing ,because some are adult content. My children are 5 and 8 and like to go onto Disney, Barbie etc. But these pop ups are un ending. There is also regular advertisements in thepop ups.
I looked the content controller and am not sure if this would help to curtain this problem. I am using the Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Any suggestions would be appreciaited.

[*joed]

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 9:22 am

Got to www.lavasoftusa.com and download adaware. It will scan you PC for unwanted ad software. It sounds like you have piece of unwanted software installed on your pc.

[*dkerr]

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 10:47 am

I agree with joed, check for adware as he sugested, then repost your results from that. If that doesn't do it there is others things to check for, but do that first.

[*msdet]

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:10 pm

I downloaded the adware software and scanned the harddrive. Pop up still come in and i noticed they were all being sent to a folder named cookies.After looking in this folder all files seem to be aol and various sights.
would deleting this folder stop the pop ups?

[*dkerr]

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 7:09 am

Did adware report back anything ?

Cookies in itself will not cause popups, but websites can refer to these cookies to find out such things as if you visited there before, and other previous browsing habits. Delete your internet temps and delete your cookies. If this is just an ad program then deleting any references to any adult/**** sites that you may have once visited may not nexcessaryly get rid of the popups but may direct them to non adult popups.

You mention you get popups whenever someone uses the computer, does this mean you have an always connected high speed conenction ? Do you get the popups even if no browser is opened ?

What is the home page you are using ?

[*joed]

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:11 am

I just read something on another site about windows messenger. If you have XP windows messenger seems to be a hole to allow ads in. Not to be confused with msn mesenger. They are 2 different things. There is a way to disable it but I don't run XP so I can't help there.

[*joed]

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:18 am

Here is acouple of links I found that should be usefull if this is your problem.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~support/web/winpopup-spam.html

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-962483.html

[*msdet]

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 10:49 pm

I ran adware and it found 43 files that were questionable. I put these into a quarantine folder. The adult popups don't seem to be happening lately since I ran the adware software.
I do have a high speed connection (cable modem) . I recently dropped AOL because the cable co has it's own ISP.
I also did a windows update on line. I am wondering if either of these two things are the reason that I am seeing these pop ups.
I currently use MSN as a home page.

[*dkerr]

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2003 10:56 am

AOL on its own should not be a problem, although you would really don't need it with a high speed connection.

What the adware found would be a problem.

After a few days of no problems, then you should know that what your put into quarantine is not needed to run any of your existing programs or system, at that point you outright delete what adware found.

It might be a good idea to run adware occassionally to check on what your computer may picked up from the internet.

Running a good antivirus program with the virus definitions up to date and a firewall is a must. Zonealarm is good cheap firewall and its free available at http://www.zonelabs.com they do have products with extras that they sell but if you look hard enough you will find a link to the free version. Or cut the meat and click...
http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm&subj=dlpage&tag=button

this should take directly to the download.

even though these things help tremendously, some +%$!+ sites especially adult sites try to sneek something by you onto your computer.

[lplp]

try a browser that doesn't have everything ,, i use mozilla firefox ,never a problem with popups ,when i need to update xp I use the explorer, firefox is a basic browser that does not have all the dooddads like explorer and much safer ,also there is opera that does the same,some times a browser is capable of to much ,which can slow you down also.

[kcurtrob]

What Operating system do they have? if its win98 or less they should get a pop up blocker of some kind. you can get them for free from aols AIM software or from yahoo and I think google and if they downloaded gator or that monkey software then they need to do a thorough cleaning of there system to get rid of everything that spyware put in the system. Get a good antiviruse. the antiviruse software thats out now does a lot of ad-blocking and popup blocking.