Problems with internet pop ups!?

Question

My computer has been allowing pop ups to...well...pop up each time I go to a new page, even though I have pop up blocker on the highest blocking setting. What could be the problem? Is it a virus or is there something I can check out to see if a program downloaded on my computer is allowing this to happen? Please help me out here!

Answer 1

Don't panic! I have a solution which may seem long but is easy to follow:

First, you will need to get some software programs to help you. They are free for personal use.

Anti-Spyware Software

• CWShredder - You can find it at [www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder]
• Lavasoft's Ad-Aware - You can find it at [www.lavasoftusa.com]
• Spybot S&D - You can find it at [www.spybot.info]

• AVG AntiSpyware - You can find it at [free.grisoft.com] / [www.ewido.net]
Anti-Virus Software


Download each of the above programs and then install them. After you install them, you MUST update them so you will have the latest protection. There is one small exception: CWShredder is a stand-alone program that doesn't need to be installed, but you do need to have it check for an update to ensure that you have the latest version. If you don't update these programs and you are infected with the latest parasites, you will not be able to effectively detect and clean them from your computer, so remember to update, update, update.


1) Turn off System Restore

• Viruses can hide in your restore files, and if you do restore at some point you might reinfect yourself. Because of this, it is recommended to turn off System Restore before you test, and when you're done, turn it back on so you are still protected from standard computer problems.


Click Start.
Right-click the My Computer icon, and then click Properties.
Click the System Restore tab.
Check "Turn off System Restore" or "Turn off System Restore on all drives."
Click Apply.
When turning off System Restore, the existing restore points will be deleted. Click Yes to do this.
Click OK.

2) Carefully Look at Windows Add/Remove programs for suspicious programs

• Many of the spyware threats actually install into your system like a program. Many appear to be utilities that you may think are helpful but in reality aren't. Look for add-an toolbars, while toolbars like those provided by Google, MSN, Yahoo and other are great utils, there are many more that aren't and if in doubt check it out to see if ones you have are parasitic. Another common exploit are the Search helpers, WinTools, Gator products, IE Helper, Comet Cursor and many others just to name a very few. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) programs are another common source for these and even the ones that doen't come with spyware themselves are a security risk that may lead to your system being infected or to spread infections like these. Remove all suspicious programs, if you are wrong, you may always re-install them later.

3) Run Disk Clean-Up

• This actually comes with Windows. Click the Start Button and then go to Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Clean-up. I recommend selecting all of its options except the ones for Office Setup Files and Compress Old Files if you have them. While you may select those if you wish, they aren't as important. This will clean up all of the temporary files so your testing will go faster, and may also delete any spyware that may hiding there if the spyware isn't already running.

4) Empty your Internet Explorer cache

• Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools..Internet Options… and under the General tab, in the Browsing History section, click Delete… and then select Temporary Internet Files. This probably won’t eliminate any viruses but will make the scanning go faster.

5) Run CWShredder

• This is made for detecting and cleaning of the infamous CoolWebSearch exploits. Currently there are about 40 types of these, each with up to 4 variants and growing. These are some of the toughest ones to get rid of.

6) Run Ad-Aware next

• This handles the next toughest types the best. When it finally presents you with the list of parasites it has found, put a check mark in the box next to the ones you want to get rid of, I suggest checking them all. If it says it can't get rid of a problem right now, it will ask if you want to run it again after you restart your computer, answer yes and restart your computer so it may test again.

7) Run Spybot next

• When you run it, it will automatically select all the spyware that it finds, if there is something you don't want to get rid of for some reason, deselect it and then let Spybot fix all of the rest of the problems that it finds. This program also will ask to restart your computer so it can test again if it has problems removing something, so let it.


8) Now Run The AVG Program

• Run the “Complete system scan” option. AVG will scan all of the files when you scan your computer; it will likely take a long time to complete.

• If it found anything, restart your computer and test everything again. There are times that after cleaning certain parasites you will need to test again because something may have been hidden earlier by the infection. So repeat this process of testing and restarting until you find no more parasites.

• Run the scans again in Safe Mode. This will keep many of the parasites from loading and being able to hide from your protection software. To access Safe Mode on most versions of Windows, start tapping the [F8] key after you first start or restart your system, start tapping it before you ever see a Windows Splash Screen and continue until you get the Menu where you may select it from the list. On WinNT, this is called VGA mode and on Win2k you actually start tapping just after the first splash screen shows. For Detailed instructions see Restarting Your Computer in Safe Mode

9) Reboot your computer normally.
• If you're still having problems, continue with the following:

10) Go to
www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn

• and download HiJackThis. (Look on the left of the page, click on “Downloads” and select “HiJackThis”). Run the program, which will create a log file. Go to

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/

• and post your HiJackThis log. You will get an extremely rapid, very precise answer on the forum (they don’t e-mail responses to you) as to whether or not you still have any infections and, if so, exactly what to do.

11) After everything is all cleaned up
• I recommend installing SpywareTerminator (also free):
http://www.spywareterminator.com/
Good luck!

Answer 2

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. I believe that your computer is badly infected.

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/

Answer 3

go to yahoo and install the yahoo toolbar. there is a popup blocker on it that works really well,,,also an antispy button which i use every day to clean up cookies and other stuff that happens to find its way onto my puter. also install AVG free home version,,,wont help with popups but its really good at keeping virus' out.

Answer 4

It sounds like you may have a on your local PC that is causing them to pop up. You can use tools to find and delete this malicious programs. What I use is the following. I would suggest downloading, installing, and running these programs.
-Ad-Aware 2007-
((http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007-Free/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5))
Finds and deletes malicious cookies and some viruses.
--Spybot Search&Destroy--
((http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1))
Scans for and deletes spyware
--AVG Anti-Virus--
((http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=aff))
An anti virus program that protects your PC as well as scans for spyware, adware, and malware.

If this is over your head, you can always bring it into the Geeksquad and they will fix it all up for a reasonable price.

Answer 5

Sounds like spy-ware. Install Spybot from www.safer-networking.org and get avast antivirus from www.avast.com.
Both are 100% totally free. If these dont solve your problem then nothing will =)

Answer 6

This is probably spyware. Not really a virus but anoying and it slows down your computer more and more over time. you can get anti-spyware for free from http://free.grisoft.com/ . good luck

Answer 7

Try going to "system restore" and setting the date back past the date when he downloaded the programs.

Answer 8

avail AVG 7.5 Free.