OK I have pop-up bloker on and virus protection............?

Question

But I keep getting advertisements pop up and sometimes it will close out of the internet. This has been happening for about 4 days! I don't know what it could be. Maybe games my kids download without permission?

Answer 1

You have (a) spyware (infection). Easy enough to blame on the kids, and maybe true, but spyware comes in many forms and from many places. Don't be too quick to think it couldn't have come from anyplace you've been on the web.

Your basic security should consist of a firewall (software, on your computer; don't rely solely on your router or a hardware firewall), one (only one) anti-virus program, and some (could be many) spyware protection programs.

There are many fine spyware protection alternatives. Others will suggest their favorites here. You can research them at download.com, a valuable resource for information and software. You can sort software search results by CNet Editors' ratings, and read about what they think is the best. You can also do it for users' ratings, and read about their top-rated choices.

Another note for you: even with good protection, you should make sure that your programs update frequently and also run full-system scans periodically. Sometimes, something bad does get through, and it will be detected and (hopefully) repaired or deleted in a subsequent scan.

How often? My anti-virus checks for updates about every three hours and runs a full-system scan daily. My spyware protection is not real-time, so I must update and scan manually, and I update-and-scan at least three times weekly with each of the programs I use.

For now, you might just run a free, online scan, Housecall. Google Trend Micro Housecall, click Housecall, accept the terms of use, and choose scan for all malware.

Answer 2

You almost certainly have some sort of adware or spyware installed that's causing this.

1. Install and run Spybot (free) - http://www.safer-networking.org/

2. install and run the free version of ad aware - http://lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

reboot

3. Get a free version of the best startup manager I've ever encountered, called Winpatrol - http://www.winpatrol.com and use it to remove all of the unknown startup items and "browser helper objects". Winpatrol will then prevent this from happening again, by asking you each time if you want to allow new things to take place when you start your computer.

4. reboot and live happily ever after

I also have a full article on my own website, more than five years old, but still true to this day -
http://www.pdxtc.com/200201-spyware.htm

Answer 3

Popup blockers, such as the Yahoo and Google toolbars and IE's built-in blocker, will only stop web based popup advertising. They can help somewhat but will do nothing to stop popups on a computer that is badly infected with trojan downloaders that are "phoning home" and contacting other computers to download and deliver the pop up ads.

Try a full cleaning and dis-infection routine, if you are getting excessive popups, or are getting popups even when you are offline.

This is the one I use (it will take some time). These are on-line scans, you do not need to uninstall any of your current protections.

1. Scan for virus, worms, dialers, etc. and remove (free online scan) with BitDefender
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/home/

2. Scan for trojans, adware and spyware and remove (free online scan) with Ewido
http://www.ewido.net/en/

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And after your computer is fully cleaned of spyware I would suggest IE-SPYAD to prevent further problems, if you are using IE browser:

"IE-SPYAD adds a long list of sites and domains associated with known advertisers, marketers, and crapware pushers to the Restricted sites zone of Internet Explorer. Once you merge this list of sites and domains into the Registry, the web sites for these companies will not be able to use cookies, ActiveX controls, Java applets, or scripting to compromise your privacy or your PC while you surf the Net. Nor will they be able to use your browser to push unwanted pop-ups, cookies, or auto-installing programs on your PC."
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/resource.htm

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And if your popups say "Messenger Service" at the top Title Bar. Read Here:

Older versions of Windows (pre XP-SP2) can get "Messenger Service" popups which are caused by Microsoft leaving the almost never used Messenger Service enabled by default. These type of popups will have the words "Messenger Service" up top in the title bar. This was corrected in Windows XP- Service Pack 2.

Understand that the Windows Messenger Service is completely different from, and not in any way related to, "MSN Messenger", "Windows Live Messenger" "yahoo Messenger", or any other well-known instant messaging system. Therefore, disabling the Windows Messenger service will have no effect upon your use of any other instant messaging applications. They will continue to work without trouble.


To disable this service in older versions of Windows use the free, Shoot The Messenger from:
http://www.grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm

Good luck.

Answer 4

There is a good chance your computer might be infected with adware and/or spyware. Adware has a sneaky way of installing itself on your computer without your knowledge. The best thing to do is to install an antispyware program and scan for adware/spyware. There are plenty of free antispyware programs, try the free Lavasoft Ad Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy

1. Ad Aware (http://www.filehippo.com/download_ad-aware/?2466)

2. Spybot (http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/?148)

Answer 5

most virus are spread through IE. IE is not a safe browser. you should use a more secure browser to protect your PC from virus.

i recommand you to use firefox with Google toolbar. firefox can block any any popup and disable any virus and adware, spyware on webpage, so, firefox is much safer than IE browser. as you know, most of virus spread throught internet and webpage.

besides, firefox is much smaller than IE, so it run faster than IE.

download firefox for free, Just have a try:

http://www.openawindow.info/firefox/

Good Luck !!!

Answer 6

Some pop-up blocker do not work well. If those pop-ups causing your internet go down I would say do the following:

adware scan
spyware scan
virus scan
this would make sure you are safe.