I am so mad I could spit.
For the past few days, I have been inundated with ads that seem to be coming from a microsoft derived source. Even when I log off my ISP (I am on a broadband dsl hookup) when I turn the monitor on in the morning I already have up to twenty ads on the screen and sometimes I have to reboot to get rid of them. I am not computer savvy and I fear I may have accidentally hit the wrong box when trying to get rid of the stuff. Starting today, I have been getting all kinds of spyware ads guaranteeing to get rid of, I guess, themselves, if you know what I mean. Several of them have started the download even though I thought I clicked the correct " I don't want you" button. Now, it just happened again, 4 adds popped up as I am typing this and I have to close each one of them.

Any help out there? What do I look for?? How do I get rid of this crap, it's driving me nuts. BTW, I did try SpyBot for a week but it just made things worse as it blocked a lot of stuff I needed apparently based on the type of address one has. I know mine is often blocked because of the word "toy" in my email addie.

Thanks in advance for anything you can give me.
Bill

 

SpyBot with Immuniztion enabled is the best way to go. But, if you want to go another direction get Ad-Aware Personal SE. You can get it from www.majorgeeks.com in the Spyware tools section. And it's free. Might want to go ahead and download HiJackThis just in case things get really bad later and you end up needing professional geek help.

Also wouldn't hurt to run an online virus scan from www.trendmicro.com that's called housecall. Just in case you local AV software is f'd up in some way that you don't know.

And finally, check for Trojans at www.trojanscan.com it is also free and online.

Good luck.

 

Bill,
Windows can manage sites that you want to block.

With your internet browser open, click on "Tools" and then on "Internet Options" which is at the bottom of the list.

When that box is open, click on the privacy tab, which his 3rd from the left.

In that box, click on the "sites" button. That will open a dialog box which will show you which sites are blocked and which you want to allow.

You sound like you need a Pop-Up stopper. A good one can be downloaded free at www.panicware.com

Spybot is quite good for freeware and doing the above will allow you to get cookies from the sites you need.

Another good freeware is Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. Go to www.lavasoftusa.com to download it.

Don't forget to regularly check the sites for updates after you are running them, once a week is fine.

Good luck

 

Another vote for spybot. Depending how bad you have it, manual intervention is sometimes required. Use the immuninzation feature as well.

If you have 2000/XP, I highly recommend NOT using an account with admin rights. If you need help I can walk you through it. Make a seperate account and place it in the 'users' group. You'll need to login as administrator to install programs and such, but your very well protected from this crap. Also download SP2 if your running XP, or get a IE toolbar like the one from google. Great pop-up blocking. Or, if your PC savvey enough, scrap IE altogether and get a real browser that doesn't let this BS in.

Godspeed Bill.

 

And once you are "clean" again, you may want to stop using Internet Explorer, and use something like Mozilla FireFox instead. IE has a lot of holes and vulnerabilities in it. FireFox also has a built-in pop-up blocker...

 

Thanks for the input and I am printing it off now and will see what happens.

For sure something has to happen. Whatever I did wrong is now getting worse by the minute. I have knocked off 20 ads while reading your replies and typing this response.

As an idea, let me list a bunch of files that I found when going to to the "add or delete files" section.
Blogtorrent beta
broad.com
broadjump.com.
Inet delivery
Pig Pen
Pure Networks Port image
Scan to Web
Search Aid
Search Assistant
Spam Blocker Utility
Viewpoint manager
Web tools by Spam
Blocker Utility
Webrates by toprebates.com
25 Windows Hot Fixes
Win Tools Easy Installer

I downloaded none of the above. Some may be legit, some not.
If this gives you a further clue, please let me know, this is absolutely killing me. I absolutely do not want to make a joke in bad taste, but this is sort of like that damned tsunami, I just can't stop it.
Bill

 

I use the Microsoft anti-spyware program!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

 

ferroequine: And what is that for a name??

If you can explain to me in very simple English how I can switch from IE to Firefox, I am at that point where I am willing to give it a try.
My concern is, and I have read yours and others posts on the subject of Firefox, I am no good at "tweaking". Plug and Play was invented for me I am quite sure. I just want something that works, is easy to navigate and is content rich as I call it.

For example, and I know everyone hates AOL, I enjoy the news functions and a lot of other stuff like that. And....I have hundreds of bookmarked sites and forums on, I think, AOL.

If I switch to Firefox, do I still have my AOL stuff would be a major question.

Bill

 

i vote for spybot or adaware

 

clonetek

I tried it last night....works pretty good too.

 

I have a $700 corporate server edition virus scanner and real time agent... but you can pick one up from the same company for way cheaper, just wont have the same level of coverage but they are still the best on the market right now.... they had a cure for the sasser virus before an other program

 

aol is your internet supplier. Firefox or I.E. are just the browsers you use to access AOL.

Here's a link for firefox...


http://www.mozilla.org/



Thunderbird is a very good email program, too.

Good luck

 

If things are that bad, you might want to consider reformatting your hard drive.
Wipe everything clean and start from scratch.

 

yeah but some virus' migrate at shutdown from your HDD to your RAM, so even if you turn it off and re install everything, as soon as a windows splash screen comes up, that virus comes right back for a family reunion

 

I've never have a problem with spyware.

I've never have a problem with viruses.

Come to think of it, I've never had any problems.

(I can't say the same for my Windows machines . . . Yes, I have both, in fact, numerous of both.)


One of the nice thngs about using a Mac is that they only have something like 1.3% market share. No self respecting hacker will write malicious code for it. What's the point? You would only affect a tiny number of folks.

Sometimes it's nice being in the minority.

Carry on.