Question for my readers
Anyone know why my google tool-bar is suddenly less effective at stopping pop-ups? And why Yahoo suddenly has pop-ups? Did I accidentally install some ad-ware or something?
Update: It seems that blogspot now has pop-ups to, which leads me to believe that I somehow installed ad-ware or something. Anyone know how to search and destroy that stuff?
March 30th, 2004 at 10:29 am
Mrs. Bubba just got hit with some virus that allowed other sites to install all these piece of crap browser plugins that were redirecting her searches and popping up all kinds of weird stuff. One of the plugins was a Lycos search tool that left crap all over her PC and registry. I think it started when she opened an e-mail a few days ago that opened up a bunch of trojan ports. She just figured it out this morning after running a full virus scan. It doesn’t sound like the same thing, but who knows. I’d run a full virus scan, and check out this site for more info on these rogue plugins: http://www.pestpatrol.com/
March 30th, 2004 at 10:33 am
I got hit with the lycos one as well and uninstalled it. It seems to have taken care of some of it but still the occasional pop-up jumps through. It’s quite annoying.
March 30th, 2004 at 10:33 am
Go here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Download Ad-aware
run once a week.
Should help, removes spyware and other crap pretty well.
March 30th, 2004 at 10:56 am
I use Lavasoft, too. But the pay version doesn’t block popups very well as advertised. They spyware removal features work great, though.
March 30th, 2004 at 11:22 am
My google search bar blocks the run of the mill pop ups but it doesnt block those whacked out java things/ads that jump out of the page. They usually have a “close/exit” button on the ads to get rid of them. Other than that the google bar has been working great for me…especially when I “accidently” run across a porn site… 🙂
March 30th, 2004 at 12:59 pm
[quote]My google search bar blocks the run of the mill pop ups but it doesnt block those whacked out java things/ads that jump out of the page.[/quote]
pop up stoppers block the HTML call which forces a new instance of your browser to open up when read. Its does a bit more (tries to determine if a page is suppose to open to function, or if its a pop-up add) but that bacisally all there is too it.
As for the Java adds, those would be very difficult to keep from displaying without breaking the browsers ability to handle normal non-add type Java content. I hate um too but sadly we have to deal with them.
March 30th, 2004 at 1:10 pm
One word: Firefox. This is a free browser (http://www.mozilla.org) and it kills *all* pop-ups dead. I haven’t seen one in almost two years now. You can easily download and install it, and it will run alongside IE, if you’re worried. Firefox comes with a whole lot more features that you’ll find amazing. Tabbed browsing, for one, which completely changed the Internet and blogging for me. Give it a try, Unc. Really.
March 30th, 2004 at 2:53 pm
Use Opera.
It has a setting that kills all popups, but it’s smart enough to recognize ones that you request.
I’ve used the opera browser (non java)almost exclusively for over a year, and it’s very rare that I have to resort to IE, usually for spelunking the microsoft site.
March 30th, 2004 at 2:54 pm
Use Opera.
It has a setting that kills all popups, but it’s smart enough to recognize ones that you request.
I’ve used the opera browser (non java)almost exclusively for over a year, and it’s very rare that I have to resort to IE, usually for spelunking the microsoft site.
March 30th, 2004 at 3:08 pm
By far the most effective ad and spyware removal program I’ve found is Spybot Search and Destroy; just search on google or download.com for spybot and you’ll find it; it allows you to scan for about 13,000 known spyware files (at least on the last update I saw) and immunize your computer to automatic installation. Works very well, easy to use, and is fairly comprehensive.
March 30th, 2004 at 3:58 pm
Yes Spybot Search and Destroy does a great job – I usually run both Ad-Aware and S&D at the same time. Lately though Ad-Aware hasnt been leaving anything behind for S&D to find but if I run S&D first Ad-Aware always picks up one or two additional apps. I have been using S&D less, but it still gets run on my systems frequently.
– I doubt there is anything that will truely eliminate the pop-up, that is unless you go to a non-IE browser 😛
Pretty sad that we have to spend so much time protecting ourselves from simple internet browsing…
March 30th, 2004 at 4:48 pm
I hear Lynx blocks pop-ups too!
Actually, with Ad-Aware and the Google bar, things have been special lately. Awhile back I downloaded a piece of freeware at home that worked really swell. So I downloaded a newer version at work. All Hell broke loose. Turns out between versions they decided to include a shitload of spyware. Great. Took awhile to get it all off, but I did manage. Ahhhh, regedit.
April 10th, 2004 at 7:47 pm
No matter how hard I tried,
I could find no reason for people to create software and then give it out for free.
It costs hell of time to develop something, why not sell it?
There must be some reason.
Brian