popup ads on neo?!?

[Mr. Darkside]

Well, I understand the need for advertising, but this is going too far. I've got Windows XP Pro, and my husband and I have seperate accounts on the computer... his startup page is stuck on some porn search engine, and cannot be changed... and now, every time he tries to type an address into the address bar, a popup comes up wanting him to download a program... when you click "no", another popup says "you have to click yes to view this site", when you click "no" on that one, it begins the download anyway, so you have to close the window altogether. That's not advertising, that's invasion of privacy...

Yeah, it is going too far. I hate those ads with the fake window, I sometimes press on the x on that window, but it starts to download some crap to my computer. Now I dont have pop-ups pretty much, I'm using Firefox... Automatic pop-up stopper, yeah baby yeah!

[everconfused]

Johnny you've got a hijacker, those are bad, bad news. And it was probably a "drive-by".

You know how people will tell you to avoid spyware and popups to just click No on a download window? Well with a drive-by you don't have that option. It somehow (I'm lost on how) downloads itself in the background - you'd never even know anything was there. Yes, even with a firewall. There are things now that will disable many software firewalls now! Then it digs into your registry -- which I will NOT touch. I'd probably blow my computer up!

If Spybot, ad-aware, PestPatrol, your a/v - Norton or McAfee are the 2 big ones here and the stand alone Stinger aren't getting rid of this, and you've disabled your System Restore and internet before scanning, then I think you might have to go to a professional. I'm dreading it myself (a couple of days without my computer...or having to use the piece of garbage with ME sitting in my closet), but the time is coming for mine to have a checkup and if there is anything sitting there, the tech can get rid of it for me.

[Johnnydontgo]

Yeah, I'm dreading it too. Luckily, a friend of mine works on computers for a living, and he's more than willing to help me out. It's just lugging the big thing over to his house that I'm dreading, lol

[shapu]

Here's another potential solution:
Try the program HiJackThis.exe.

Here's a linky:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

You might also want to look into Spy-Ad Exterminator.
http://www.spychecker.com/program/spyadex.html

Finally, go to Add/Remove Programs, and look for one called "Win32_bi." Get rid of it as well.

[Johnnydontgo]

I'll try that one, too shapu. Thanks for the tips!

[Strechii]

If you can get your hands on a *coughcoughpiratedcoughcough* copy of Norton AntiVirus, it's worth it...

Or you can download the free version of AVG which in my experience finds viruses faster then Norton.
AVG: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
You have to give you're email adress, but they won't send you any spam.

My advice to prevent spyware is to use Mozilla FireFox. Plus it has wonderful tabbing.

[darkgoddessuk]

I've had that sort of problem before! I found a great site that helps you out http://www.techguy.org

I use stinger, spybot, adaware and hijackthis. there is loads of information about them on the site. if you post you problem they'll help you out!

[Morningstar]

Finally, go to Add/Remove Programs, and look for one called "Win32_bi." Get rid of it as well.

I had that little sucker in my computer--it wreaked havoc until my husband was able to figure out that it was bad news.

[Vertigo]

My advice to prevent spyware is to use Mozilla FireFox. Plus it has wonderful tabbing.

I can't say enough good things about Mozilla Firefox. The worst I've picked up since I started using it are a couple of tracking cookies. And that happens maybe once a week. I'll stop now, or I'll start gushing about it.

Also, software firewalls do their best, but just don't seem to cut it anymore. Get firewall hardware.

On a side note, I'm now using Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail. Seems okay. Outlook Express went MIA at some point before I started using Mozilla, when I had a malware infestation.

[Azzie]

If you need to stay away from popups, get a pop up blocker.

there's one called PopUpPopper. You can choose to not get all popups from any site. There is this reality tv site that i visit but it has many popups and i just set it to block the popups so i can read in peace.

http://www.bayden.com/popper/

[fungi]

yahoo has one pop-up blocker too, but i forgot the link. i think you can see it if you just go to their homepage, http://www.yahoo.com
well, about neopets having pop-ups, i think it is, yea, your computer as i have never come across pop-ups in neo before

[VirtualMetal]

Not to pick on this website but I have got a bit of adware and such from here. But it can be picked up from many sites. It's usually the advertising the hosts put there.

When using hijack this, don't delete everything. Best to look on some forums for help on what and what not to delete. As a lot of people mess up their computers thinking everything on there is for deletion.

[Nani]

Yeah, AdAware's good for general cookie grabbers and browser hijacks, but for embedded adware, it's pretty useless. If you can get your hands on a *coughcoughpiratedcoughcough* copy of Norton AntiVirus, it's worth it...

Hehe, my grandma got a corporate copy of NAV. It doesn't work though, it just crashes when I scan the disks. I just set it to autoprotect and it seems to work alright. I run AdAware too and I don't have popup problems.

You do have a popup blocking toolbar right?
*coughtheneopetsonedoesntworkcough*

[shapu]

Problem with pop-up-blocking toolbars is that they only affect popups that come from websites - if it's a hijacker, it doesn't stop a darned thing.

[raudf]

Yeah, spyware and malware is one of the many reasons I quit using Internet Explore and swapped to Mozilla. Not to mention running both Spybot and Ad-Aware. I haven't had as many browser-jacks and my pop-ups? Gone. But, I admit and freely that Mozilla isn't for everyone, just those of us who like doing about 5 things at once.

But even with Internet Explorer, the only time I had pop-ups on Neopets was when I had a malware.