Help with popups? (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

I am using Windows XP and AOL 8.0. Anyways, a few days ago I started getting microsoft internet explorer windows popping up. Some are ads. But, most are links to websites. It is only getting worse. Does anyone know of any shareware programs to stop this? Or is their a setting I could turn on with either XP or AOL?

Thanks!

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

Google toolbar is your answer. My home system has >1000 blocks on the toolbar. Just configure the options to remove all the excess junk except the popup blocker.

Toolbar link

 

[DaveGTP]

You probably have a bunch of spyware that is spawning the popups. I recommend the combo of

Lavasoft Adaware

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/


Spybot Search & Destroy
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Searc...-10289035.html


And

Spy Sweeper

http://www.webroot.com/


All have demo versions that will clean your PC of spyware. You might have to scan with all of them, reboot, and scan again.

 

[Rob Silver]

Ad-Aware and Spybot are good for clean up, but for prevention, use FireFox instead of IE.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Spyware Blaster also helps for prevention. I use it, along with Firefox, Ad-Aware and Spybot.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Well, first install spy sweeper and see what it finds. Then, install firefox. Ever since I switched 6 months ago, I haven't seen a single unwanted popup.

 

[todd s]

What is Firefox?

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

http://www.mozilla.org/firefox

Here's a good way to filter out the nasty traffic before it gets to the browser. There are ready-made executables for Windows, even (although personally I run it on a Linux server):

http://www.privoxy.org

Works great, and you can centralize your ad- popup- etc blocking so it works on any and all browsers.

 

[todd s]

Kimmo,
Thanks for the info. Just curious what privoxy should I download? I am using windows xp.

Thanks!

 

[Benson R]

I know microsoft is still evil and this doesnt change that, but since installing service pack 2 I havent had any problems with spyware, popups and unwanted activex controls.

I would recomend using the programs mentioned in this thread to clean your computer of any spyware, then install the service pack 2 update.

I find the popup blocker included to be intuitive and also non intrusive.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

While the popup blocker in IE worked well for me, the PC my wife uses was hit with a spyware attack after installing Service Pack 2 for XP.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Todd, click on the "Download recent releases" link, and there you can scroll down and download the file named privoxy_setup_3_0_3-1.exe - it's near the bottom of the list, under the Win32 heading. Just download that and run it, it's an installer.

Privoxy is a separate program and doesn't integrate itself at all into your browser, it just filters the traffic coming in and removes ads, cookies and stuff. There is documentation on the privoxy site, it's not rocket science, but not quite point and click either...

The roots in the Unix world shows a bit, it's not entirely simple to add exclusions etc to it - but ideally you don't really need to do much, it just runs in the background.

 

[Benson R]

Well I had such a bad spyware problem that I couldnt cure, that I went the radical route of doing a completly fresh install of winxp and then installed service pack 2 first thing.

I browse a lot of pages I shouldnt, that I know are trying to install all kinds of crap, and I havent had any problems whatsoever for a couple months now.

Now I have stopped myself from installing all kinds of freeware programs (which invariably bring all kinds of unwanted programs with them) so perhaps that might be part of the problem your wife is still having.