Dealing with Pop-ups

[Shearer]

I’m hoping someone can help me out regarding Pop-ups

I’m running Windows XP. I’m having the random Pop-Up appear on Internet Explorer after I let someone using my PC. I have a feeling they looked up a few smutty websites…

I have AVG, Malwarebyte and Spybot occasionally finding infected files but I can’t seem to get rid of these Pop-ups.

Any help would be great.

[holdensupporter2005]

Is the popup to a particular website. If so you can put that website into your host file as a loopback and whenever it tries to appear it will just bring up a blank IE window.
PM me for details on how to do this. Not the best fix but it will at least stop the content being displayed.

[Shearer]

Seem to mainly be on ebay and other sites. But never on JC or any other forums

[mcin7]

Thought about changing your internet browser?

[Shearer]

Its crossed my mind a few times. Mozilla is looking better already

[GetToDaChopa]

Use Google Chrome.

[mcin7]

+1 with Chrome

[Maxxiz]

+1 Mozilla. Found chrome too basic.

[jacko VS]

+2 with Chrome

[Jezza]

i use mozilla with a few different add-ons and the W.O.T. (web of trust) seems to be great as if you go onto i site and you can rate it good, ok or bad and if people have found it bad or dangerous it will load the site but it comes up over it saying that its got a bad rating and if you want to continue or not and you can see why people rated it bad to know why

[Kurtp]

"I have AVG, Malwarebyte and Spybot"

There is your issue.

[mcin7]

"I have AVG, Malwarebyte and Spybot"

There is your issue.

Haha.

Back to the topic, seeing it only happens on a couple of sites you say, I would change browsers.
Internet explorer is really, eh, lets just say they didn't follow standards until recently. I can't stand using it when I have to!
Chrome or Firefox, is the pick of the bunch, the decision is up to you. If you're on a smaller screen resolution go straight for Chrome as the view port is bigger.

If these popups still occur, you may need to get someone to do a proper virus removal/format as 'occasionally finding infected files but I can’t seem to get rid of these Pop-ups.'

[Shearer]

I've downloaded and installed Google Chrome. I won't connect or view any websites. Any help would be great.

[mcin7]

Do you use a proxy by any chance?

[Shearer]

No proxy present.

[ephect]

2 quick things for starters

1. clear ur internet cache..
2. tools -> internet options -> Advanced tab -> reset button, reset IE back to its defauts and u should be fine.

Google Chrome, logs and reports all websites u visit back to google..

[emir3008]

I say just download firefox, it has an inbuilt pop up blocker, but you can download third party pop up blockers that work even better, so youll never have the problem of pop ups

[Kurtp]

If you have changed to chrome and having serious connection issues, and are getting pop ups in IE, i would have to assume you have a spyware/trojan issue, further which i would suggest buying a decent anti-virus and or anti-spyware protection program, such as NOD32 and Kaspersky (dont buy kaspersky pure ITS SHITHOUSE)

[Shearer]

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

I'm going to give NOD32 a shot.

[Shearer]

Tryed NOD32, terrible program. Slowed down the PC and made web browsing almost impossible.

i would have to assume you have a spyware/trojan issue, further which i would suggest buying a decent anti-virus and or anti-spyware protection program

What is decent anti-spyware program? (I remember Ad-aware use to be good, but you don't hear much about it)

UPDATE: I'm now using Mozilla, works better then Google Chrome did.

[holdenhero]

Google Chrome, logs and reports all websites u visit back to google..

Exactly what I was going to say, its the reason I stick to mozilla

[Kurtp]

Tryed NOD32, terrible program. Slowed down the PC and made web browsing almost impossible.



What is decent anti-spyware program? (I remember Ad-aware use to be good, but you don't hear much about it)

UPDATE: I'm now using Mozilla, works better then Google Chrome did.

Interesting that NOD32 slowed down your computer, as it is one of the most light weight AV's i know of. I'm assuming you don't have a new computer? if you're interested i can give you some tips to speed up your computer.

Decent Anti-spyware programs include, Kasperskys anti-spyware side, Xoftspy (Though not hugely in depth, is extremely quick and good for a quick clean), AVG-Anti-spyware (i think this now built into the avg anti-virus paid program, however it is extremely better than the anti-virus side)

[Shearer]

Interesting that NOD32 slowed down your computer, as it is one of the most light weight AV's i know of. I'm assuming you don't have a new computer? if you're interested i can give you some tips to speed up your computer

Nah mate, she not a new one. Always interested in speeding my PC, although Mozilla doesn't stuff around like IE use to

[Kurtp]

Righto lets see what i can do!

There is quite a few different factors that slow down a computer, being ram usage, hdd space, cpu load etc.

The one i find most damaging to older systems is usually a massive amount of programs unnecessarily running at start up sucking up resources.

Clearing Start-up
(Ideology behind this method: Nearly everytime you install software, it installs services and programs to the start up config, over time these build up and slow down the computers performance. Clearing all the unnecessary programs will release a huge amount of ram that was current unavailable for normal processing.)

XP:
> Click Start Menu
> Click "Run"
> Enter msconfig
> Hit enter
> A new window should open, along the top are various tabs, one of which is "Start up" click this.
> This should display a list of ticked boxes, these are all programs that are starting with the boot of the computer, really all you need is your anti-virus (and other programs such as a sound card driver, mouse controller)
> I'd suggest unticking everything other than your anti-virus software, then you may reactivate as necessary if something doesnt work.
> Press "Ok", it will ask you to restart, click reboot.
> When the computer boots back up again you should notice a different in start up time, as the computer does not need to load all this shit.
> If something doesn't work that you used to use often, you can go back nito msconfig and reactivate it, however most programs can just be manually started when needed. (also note, programs such as MSN, will continue to start up with boot after this method you must disable them in the program)

Clearing HDD Space:
(Ideology behind this method: As a HDD is filled the computer spends more time locating files, an extremely full hdd will slow down the computer badly, you can either run disk-defragments which don't do much or simply clear up data. Personally i would suggest both.)
XP:
> Check your HDD space via "My Computer"
> Click on "Local Disk" Down the bottom is will display the space, if it does not
> Right click on "Local disk" and click properties and it will show you available space. You want to have atleast 20% of your HDD empty.
> You may have multiple partitions of the HDD, which are virtual splits of your HDD, if this is the case you may want to sum all the space up.
> If a large amount of space is used, clear some files such as music/images/videos.
> In Windows "System restore points" are saved automatically to protect your system, however these can amass after many years of use and use a huge amount of space. You can delete these from the "Disk clean up utility" in the system tools.
> Note: If you are not sure about something DON'T DELETE IT.

These steps can also help remove the affects of viruses/adware. Your PC specs would have helped a lot, hope this helps.

[Shearer]

^^ Thanks for that mate. A lot of crap on start-up