Qustion For The Computer Savy

[Chuck N]

LOML or I did something to our computer that causes those irritating !@#$ing ad things to pop up in the forums I visit. You know the ones I'm talking about; The ones the hi-lite a word at random with the double lines under it and if the cursor passes over it an aggravating ad pops up.

How do I get rid of them?

[Crazy Climber]

Some forums do that by default - not something you can control.
Is it doing it in forums that used to NOT do it?

[berryman]

What are you using for virus protection? Are you using IE? This doesn't work to bad. http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-se ... tials.aspx
Maybe not the best, but the best free one I found......... no pop-ups for me

[FrozenInTime]

I've had it twice da past week. I run a virus scan and delete the thang, it's call'd adblock, or something. Really irritating virus.

[Chuck N]

Is it doing it in forums that used to NOT do it?

It's doing it in this forum.

[The_Professor]

Is it doing it in forums that used to NOT do it?

It's doing it in this forum.

What browser are you using?

[duff]

Well that would seem to indicate that the issue is with your computer.

Have you tried a different browser? While IE is getting much better than it used to be about security the other options tend to be better. And by better they seem to get hit less but they still have the problems. The most popular other browsers are Chrome and Firefox. If you don't have one installed the malware that is currently adding pop-ups may redirect the normal download for those programs to get you to install something really bad. If you want to test using another browser and don't have one installed you can download the installer using another computer and copy it over to install the browser.

The things I would do are:

Update and run the a full scan with the antivirus you currently have installed. If it is out of date and you can't update it just move on to the next step.

Download Ad-Aware from another computer and copy the installer to my computer. Install the program and run it. It sometimes takes multiple passes to remove the bad stuff. At this point Ad-Aware also does viruses so you can usually skip installing a different antivirus tool. When all is said and done make sure you only have one antivirus program installed and running. I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my home computer but Ad-Aware seems to do a better job of getting the advertising/tracker type of malware after it has been installed than MSE does.

If you can't get Ad-Aware to install or run sometimes the TrendMicro online virus scanner works.

If that still doesn't work this is when I use HiJack This. THIS PROGRAM IS DANGEROUS. It will not autodetect bad things. All it does is show you a list of things that modify Windows/IE settings. Most of the things in the list are good so you need to make absolutely sure that if you check something and tell it to fix selected problems that you mean to stop the item from working. You can perform a scan and export a log file. There are forums where users look at the logfiles and make suggestions. If you want I will take a look at the logfile for you and make my recommendations but I give no guarantees as to being able to diagnose a computer through a forum.

If you used a thumbdrive to transfer files to the infected computer I highly recommend you perform a virus scan on the thumb drive after you make sure everything is working again just to make sure their isn't something on the drive.

[swenocha]

Definitely malware... Duff's recommendations are solid.

[teutonic terror]

Chuck, if you're running Firefox, run your anti-virus and Ad-Aware then install Adblock Plus.
Every time I return my computer to factory settings I have a big problem with pop ups and
pop unders until I reinstall that program.

[Crazy Climber]

Agree w/ TT - Adblock Plus is a must for Firefox.
Duff's suggestions are also excellent.
And, like berryman, I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my machine.

To go one step further, I use -- and HIGHLY recommend -- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. For me, this program catches stuff that nothing else does. I paid I think $20 or $25 for the full version and it was well worth it, IMO. It gives you real-time protection, blocking stuff before it installs on your hard drive. But they also have a free version that will help clean up any crap you've already been infested with, which sounds like it'd be ideal for your current predicament.

[berryman]

Another thing I was thinking Chuck, if you are running windows 7, you can restore your computer to an earlier time and maybe before you started having these problems, it's easy to do. And as most everybody else said, try a different browser, Firefox is good. A good thing to do on a windows computer is to have two accounts, one as a administrator and password locked, and the other one as a non-administrator. Use the non-administrator one for your web use, and if you have problems you can go to the other one and fix them.