Nate needs some help

[NateP]

Okay, lately when I click on a button around this website, It takes me to some stupid search site with popups. Has this been happening to anyone else? If not, could ya'll point me in the direction of some good popup killers, internet cleaners, virus scanners, etc... I use Ad Aware, but any freeware would be cool. If so, would anyone know why it's happening all of a sudden?

Thank you,
Nathan

[JenGe]

That's really very odd!!

Are you having the trouble on the website or the message board?? I'm not getting pop-ups or anything like what you are describing one either one.

[mawa]

Nate, do you use Internet Explorer?

If yes, then you have some ad/spyware installed which redirects you to this search site.

To check it for sure you might want to try this link: www.doxdesk.com/parasite/ Note: it only works with Internet Explorer

As for spyware scanner you might want to try this:

Spybot Search & Destroy www.safer-networking.org/de/mirrors/index.html - it's in German. Quite odd, but I couldn't find any English version of the site. This link lists available mirrors, where you can obtain the file.

And I'd recommend you to switch to Opera or Mozilla, instead of IE.

[Witcher Wolf]

I'd recommend, Firefox for browsing (Mozilla browser based) and I switched to Thunderbird for email.

[Walldude]

Ad-Aware, Spybot and Pest Patrol are the three best spyware removal tools, Pest Patrol seems to get most everything for me. I've had those same problems in the past, Pest PAtrol took care of them.. just do a google search for it...

[NateP]

Thanks for ya'lls help..... When I got spybot, it seemed as though it introduced a whole bunch of crap instead of taking it away....... so after a "fun" morning of tryng to find this garbage, I'm going to blow the entire OS and just start with a new install....... That'll teach those damn spy things.........

[NateP]

yippie......I got that pest patrol freeware thing, and all it tells me is that i have the crap on my PC......gee I knew that..... Thank you Walldude though for telling me about it, and when I get some money I'll be looking into buying the product. But untill friday, My only option is to fdisk the sucker. So I might be back tonight around 10:00 or so.....maybe

[g3po]

NateP said:

yippie......I got that pest patrol freeware thing, and all it tells me is that i have the crap on my PC......gee I knew that..... Thank you Walldude though for telling me about it, and when I get some money I'll be looking into buying the product. But untill friday, My only option is to fdisk the sucker. So I might be back tonight around 10:00 or so.....maybe

You really shouldn't have to repartition and start from scratch. I recommend a handful of software, depending on your level of expertise.

Ad-aware & Spybot Search and Destroy are both free and are both good a removing adware/spyware.
www.lavasoftusa.com
www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Stinger is Mcafee's common virus removal tool (free); it's currently checking for about 40 odd common viruses out there. (Just make sure you set it to scan all files in preferences!) If you don't have a virus scanner that's up to date, run this on your machine and get a scanner asap.
vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

HijackThis (free) will help remove regkeys and website hijackers, which can be difficult for the previous 2 to remove.
www.download.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=hijackthis&tg=dl-2001&search.x=0&search.y=0&search=+Go%21+

ProcessExplorer (free) tells you excactly what is running on your computer, and allows you to kill rogue processes.
www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

And, to block popups, if you continue to use IE, get the google toolbar. It's the only one that doesn't keep personal information about you and doesn't shoot you popups.
toolbar.google.com

These products won't put adware/spyware on your machine, which is what you described above. They will tell you what you have and remove it for you; they're made to help.

MaWa made a great suggesting by using something other than IE to browse. You're still able to get this junk on your machine, but less likely because alot of junk out there is IE specific. Using Opera/Mozilla/Konquerer/Safari/etc is another layer of protection against this crapware. This junk is like germs, you really can't do anything to keep it from getting on your machine; as long as you're on the internet and viewing sites the best you can do is wash your hands by using these removal tools.

[NateP]

I'm now using Mozilla. For anyone out there who uses it, Have you ever had problems with it, any sudden popup crap appear, any random renavagations to crappy sites ? I'd like to know all pros and especially the cons of Mozilla. The reason for the questions is that ever since I first used the internet, it was through IE and so this is all very new stuff for me. It looks like IE but hopefully I won't have to resort to a full OS install. Thank you all for your help, and I'll keep the updates coming as a learn the new browser.

[pyro]

NateP said:

Okay, lately when I click on a button around this website, It takes me to some stupid search site with popups. Has this been happening to anyone else? If not, could ya'll point me in the direction of some good popup killers, internet cleaners, virus scanners, etc... I use Ad Aware, but any freeware would be cool. If so, would anyone know why it's happening all of a sudden?

Thank you,
Nathan

oh man i thought it was because i went to drudgereport.com

yes nate i got the same thing, it took me to google.com and about:blank windows popped up

note: anyone using AOL- Aol and internet explorer are best friends, Dont use AOL to search the net, use mozilla!

[skippythegator]

In addition to the above suggestions, I recommend using a hosts file to block sites at the source. I use ad-aware 6 and the hosts file I got at mvps.org, and I haven't had any spyware on my system in years.

[doomtoallchaos]

KIll the popups
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