Pop Ups - DIE!

JayBird · Post by **JayBird** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

Ok - not sure about all of you, but it seems like pop ups are taking over the computer world. I HATE pop ups and unwated ads. This might just be my most hated thing in life. I've been getting pop ups about pop up blockers from numerous companies...doesn't that defeat the purpose? I finally got fed up with all the crap and decided to take up one of the pop up blockers and download Stopzilla. Ahhhh...best damn decision that I made. Anyway, this program keeps track of how many pop ups you've gotten since you downloaded the program...take a guess...20, 30, 50...NO, try nearly 200 pop ups since yesterday. Now I didn't actually receive the pop ups because Stopzilla nabs them before they show up on the screen, but come on computer world...WTF?!

Pop ups are like telemarketers - we don't want them! I'm on the DNC list for telemarketers and I sure wish there was a NO POP UP list.

Anyone else having extra pop up trouble lately?

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

Only pop up i get is in the morning...and im damn glad i still do!

the herald · Post by **the herald** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

bfoust · Post by **bfoust** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

I use Mozilla Firefox which blocks popups by default.

If you use Internet Explorer, however, I suggest you get and use Google Toolbar (but don't include page rank as it can spy on your keywords)

Another solution is to not use IE all together, it has lots of bugs and allows script executions that can slow-down and/or crash your computer.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

If you are running XP, install Service Pack 2. It has popup blocking capability as well a s bunch of security enhancements. I will also 2nd the recommendation for the google search bar. I have been using that for quite a while and it has been fantastic.

GUITARII · Post by **GUITARII** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

Hurricane wrote:Only pop up i get is in the morning...and im damn glad i still do!

Amen Brutha!! And so is my wife!

GUITARII · Post by **GUITARII** » Wednesday Oct 06, 2004

GUITARII wrote:
Hurricane wrote:Only pop up i get is in the morning...and im damn glad i still do!

Amen Brutha!! And so is my wife!

I meant about my pop-up.... not Bobby's

! Bobby's not doing my wife!

Are you Bob? Seriously

You're not, right? I mean she is spending more time in Altoona these days.... but she says she's working. She is bringing money home regularly too.... but I'm getting less time in the sack...

does that mean.... no.... she wouldn't.... he wouldn't, would he???

Post by **Ron** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

Maybe Hurricane is Service Pack 2! LOL

Punkinhead · Post by **Punkinhead** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

bfoust wrote:I use Mozilla Firefox which blocks popups by default.

If you use Internet Explorer, however, I suggest you get and use Google Toolbar (but don't include page rank as it can spy on your keywords)

Another solution is to not use IE all together, it has lots of bugs and allows script executions that can slow-down and/or crash your computer.

Firefox is the shit man, for real....

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

Hurricane, WTF! You mean you have another married girlfriend besides me?!? If you wanna call me married...

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

I run a good-sized computer network, and started noticing a lot of extra activity last week. I restrict internet access to only about 30 users. What I found was that there were a few people who had ad and malware out the wazoo and it was sitting there broadcasting back "home" like crazy. They also complained about popups. Chances are, your popups are coming from this stuff.

There has been a lot of new ad and malware generated in the past month and it doesn't look like it will get any better. Whatever software you are using, you need to get the latest version of the program along with the latest definition files.

I recommend using a combination of Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy with SD & Teatimer sentinels loaded. I also keep Hijackthis! on hand for those few that the others can't handle (yet). These are all free (for now).

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Sometimes the anti-malware programs will just rip out the malware with total disregard for what it has done. Some malware replaces your winsock and if removed, renders your computer TCPless, and therefore, no internet. There is a utility that fixes this called LSPFIX. It will restore your winsock after it has been corrupted.

Spybot S & D:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

AdAware:

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

LSPfix:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/lspfix.html

HijackThis!:

http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

I use Opera 7 for my browser. It has the built in ability to accept all popups, accept only requested ones, or block them altogether. Opera rocks. Go to http://www.opera.com for the free download.

esa · Post by **esa** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

GUITARII wrote:
Hurricane wrote:Only pop up i get is in the morning...and im damn glad i still do!
Amen Brutha!! And so is my wife!

And so is Urbs!!

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

Me too!

byndrsn · Post by **byndrsn** » Thursday Oct 07, 2004

esa wrote:
GUITARII wrote:
Hurricane wrote:Only pop up i get is in the morning...and im damn glad i still do!
Amen Brutha!! And so is my wife!
And so is Urbs!!

Hey!!!!! Wait a minute!!!! I was minding my own business for a change!!

Staceman · Post by **Staceman** » Friday Oct 08, 2004

lonewolf wrote: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Sometimes the anti-malware programs will just rip out the malware with total disregard for what it has done. Some malware replaces your winsock and if removed, renders your computer TCPless, and therefore, no internet. There is a utility that fixes this called LSPFIX. It will restore your winsock after it has been corrupted.

Wow, thanks for the info on LSPFIX especially, I'll definitely have to keep that in mind. I too have always used the combo of Spybot S&D along with AdAware, with HiJackThis as a last resort for the really nasty ones. I could have used a tool like LSPFIX on my brother's computer a while back, as it was dead in the water network-wise after a run of the anti-spyware programs. I tried everything, ripping out and reinstalling the TCP/IP components in the network control panel several times, several different ways (ripping out and re-doing DUN also), to no avail. I ended up having to do a fresh install of Win98. LSPFIX, from the sounds of it, might have prevented that step from being taken.

I assume that problem would only happen on the Win9x machines, right? I've never had that happen on the NT-based ones (2000, XP).

Oh, and as for browsers, Firefox all the way, baybee! Even on a Mac, it has surpassed Safari as the fastest browser. Don't forget about Thunderbird for email also (on the PC, good ol' 'Mail' is still the best email client on the Mac). If you use Outlook Express, you're pretty much a "target", same way with Internet Explorer more or less, even with the SP2 improvements.

mikers85 · Post by **mikers85** » Friday Oct 08, 2004

In addition, during the spybot installation click the check mark to allow teatime to also install, teatimer tells you when programs are trying to edit your registry to allow start up with windows and allows you to allow or deny the change. I have found this along with SP2 (disable the security center service so it doesn't eat ram), adaware, msconfig startup entry removal, and hijackthis have made pop ups a very rare occasion on my computer and also kept malware from hogging up system resources.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Friday Oct 08, 2004

I have a long documented bout with spyware. It was a pay-per view event about a month ago: "Bassist_25 vs. Spyware." Don King was suppose to promote it, but he wound up bailing. Instead, we got some two-bit sleeze bag to run things. We still made a decent amount of money, though.

I'm running a program that's simply called Pop-up Stopper. You can turn it off and on your taskbar which is nice for websites where you need pop-ups.

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Saturday Oct 09, 2004

I assume that problem would only happen on the Win9x machines, right? I've never had that happen on the NT-based ones (2000, XP).

I had it happen on one machine with XP Home, which evolved from the 9x product line. I haven't seen it on NT 4, Win2000 or XP Pro yet.