maddening pop-ups, computer help needed

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
OK, you computer savvy types. I'm desperate. I picked up one, maybe two, invasive programs/worms/buggies/whatevers that want to sell me anti-virus/spy-bot/whatever software. They pop up, literally, every couple seconds with 'warnings' and screens trying to get me to install or buy their junk. These are not listed in my programs or remove software menu. I want them out but don't know how to get rid of them. I do use AVG and Spy-Bot Search and Destroy but they didn't protect against this stuff. When I say, I'm desperate, I mean, really desperate. I had to click their pop-ups closed at least a dozen times while trying to type this. I recently had to format to get rid of garbage like this, hope formatting doesn't become a weekly or monthly necessity. I also picked up an unwanted toolbar, Security Toolbar 7.1, don't know how to get rid of that either.

p.s. One of the is called AntiVirGear

p.p.s Another one of them is called SpyWare Removal
 
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Frank,

Once you get rid of the stuff.....what kind of internet connection are you working with?

I have to use cable broadband for professional reasons and therefore use it for personal use too.

One of the things that I did that has really saved me a lot of aggrevation is use ZoneAlarm firewall. They used to have a free version which I used and after getting tired of Semantic's antics, I quit using their A/V and saw that Zonealarm Pro has a/v and spyware. I bought their pro version and have been extremely happy with it.

If you are using broadband and if the Zonealarm is still free....try it.
 
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Bummer Frank,

Bill and the rest have you covered with clearing it out. Once you get rid of it, please please please use Firefox instead of IE. Lots of your problems will vanish with just that switch. Also, don't click on ANYTHING unless you know where it goes for sure. Especially in emails. If you get an email with a link, be sure that the link actually goes where it says.
 
I'll echo what the other guys have said. Zone Alarm and Firefox are two good "first lines" of defense. Somewhere along the line, you're clicking on something that launches these gremlins and installs them on your computer. Of course you don't intend to do that, and the scumbags who write these programs are as sneaky as they come, but there's something you're doing inadvertently that lets them loose on your system. If we can help you find that, the problem won't keep repeating itself.
 
...If you get an email with a link, be sure that the link actually goes where it says....

I have a stronger policy. I never click on a link in an email unless it is from somebody that I know, contains text that indicates that the person who sent is aware that they sent it to me and finally, that it is a message of a sort that I would expect. Call me paranoid if you like. ("You are Paranoid" shout the crowd)

Also - if you are surfing and get a windows dialog box of the "Ok/Cancel" type come up when you are not expecting one, never click on any button in the box. Always close it using the "X" box in the top right hand corner. The code behind the buttons is written by the scumbags, the code behind the "X" is written by whoever wrote the browser.
 
I agree with you, Ian.

MY actual policy is don't EVER click links to any service that I'm not a part of, nor any that i AM a part of that have my personal info (paypal, ebay, amazon, etc). If you want to do anything with someone who has your personal information always type the url in yourself and the odds of getting snagged go WAAAAY down. Paypal, ebay and the others say very clearly that they will never send you email asking you to "verify your account" or any such nonsense.

I have run 15 years on the internet now without a lick of virus protection or backups. The one infection I got was MY OWN FAULT. I opened an email attachment like a dummy. As soon as I say this my systems will all crash, but i'm okay with that, because I've been making such cavalier statements for the last 10 years and so far so good. Dare I tempt fate? :D
 
Frank,

You've got a bit of what's called spyware there. Both Ad-aware and spybot have free versions that work well to eliminate them. You might need to run both to totally clean out the little buggers. FWIW, don't beat yourself up. While you can get spyware and viruses by clicking a link or installing software or just inserting a infected disk into you system, you CAN get spyware by just visiting a website. Less than ethical folks program the pages to automatically install the scrap WITHOUT your knowing. That's undoubtedly how you got that neat little extra tool bar.

Once you get cleaned up, a decent firewall and regular spyware scans and good practices, like not opening e-mails from folks you don't know, should keep you safe. You need not spend a lot either, ZoneAlarm, Spybot and Ad-aware all have free versions. The pay versions only offer easier use or convenience.

http://spywarebot.com/
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp


I have run 15 years on the internet now without a lick of virus protection or backups.

Jason, if that's true your a very lucky man... Might I recommend the above. It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN you get bit.:(

Mike
 
I have a stronger policy. I never click on a link in an email unless it is from somebody that I know, contains text that indicates that the person who sent is aware that they sent it to me and finally, that it is a message of a sort that I would expect. Call me paranoid if you like. ("You are Paranoid" shout the crowd)

Also - if you are surfing and get a windows dialog box of the "Ok/Cancel" type come up when you are not expecting one, never click on any button in the box. Always close it using the "X" box in the top right hand corner. The code behind the buttons is written by the scumbags, the code behind the "X" is written by whoever wrote the browser.
I thought I was the only paranoid in the crowd. I advocate (and do) the same.

If I get an e-mail message from a friend with an attachment, and s/he did not put a personal note on it, I send it back to them and explain that I do not open attachments unless I can tell from the note that they sent it. And even then, sometimes I don't open it.

Also, if someone starts sending me jokes, political commentary, etc. I write back and tell them that I enjoy hearing from them and would appreciate any messages that they write themselves about their life, family, problems, and so forth, but please do not send me jokes, religious messages, political stuff, etc.

Good luck, Frank, in cleaning up your computer.

Mike
 
Jason, if that's true your a very lucky man... Might I recommend the above. It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN you get bit.:(

I appreciate your concern, Mike. I should say that I've had a (true) firewall in front of my machines so I don't get attacks and the like. But I don't fear virus infection mostly because I am confident that I know what to watch out for. I use Firefox as my 100% browser at all times and that alone prevents 99% of the sneaky scripters. I'm sure that one day someone will find security exploits in firefox and I'll have to change my behaviors a bit, but until then I'm pretty comfortable with it's protection.

I also don't advocate anyone do what I do. Don't! Unless you're a coder and know HOW these things get on, you can't possibly adequately protect yourself without tools like AdAware, SpyBot and the like. I don't suggest anyone use any Norton program, though. I consider it as much a virus as the things it purports to block. Corporate edition is the only Norton program I trust. That's my personal experience, YMMV. :)

Backups are a MUST!!
Not just in case of virus infection, but for recovery purposes in case hardware fails or your brain fails. I've foolishly deleted my own stuff plenty of times and some of it was kind of important. But flying "without a net" as it were has really strengthened my practices when I DO work on important things. I always make quick backups for those things. Knock on wood, this is how it works for me. I am not your prototype, don't model after me! :D
 
Regarding backups, I used to have a USB connected hard drive on my computer that I used for backups. The idea was that if I had to evacuate my home I could take the drive with me.

Of course, if the house burned while I was away, I would lose everything.

So I signed up with Carbonite. They backup your data over the Internet (this assumes you have high speed access) so even if your home is destroyed you still have your data.

Mike
 
I ended up with the same stuff about 4 weeks ago. I already had Ad-Aware but it didn't get it out. I downloaded the AVG and it got rid of it, so I'm surprised your's didn't take care of it. Make sure to update your definitions, but I bet you have. Oh, I did try something from Microsoft about the same time too, but couldn't tell if it did anything or not. It did say after running it to run a good antivirus program, which is when I tried the AVG. Maybe it did something afterall??? Jim.
 
I also don't advocate anyone do what I do. Don't! Unless you're a coder and know HOW these things get on, you can't possibly adequately protect yourself without tools like AdAware, SpyBot and the like. I don't suggest anyone use any Norton program, though. I consider it as much a virus as the things it purports to block. Corporate edition is the only Norton program I trust. That's my personal experience, YMMV. :)

Nothing hard about flying without a net. It's the landing that will get you. No matter how good you think you are it will bite someday, especially if you run a windows environment.

FWIW, I don't run any AV/Spyware protection either. I really don't see what the big deal is. Uptime since the last reboot

21:18:23 up 25 days, 22:00, 2 users, load average: 0.16, 0.27, 0.18

I'll just stick with Linux
 
Frank: no one mentioned HiJackThis, which is a small and free program which can analyze and then "help" you remove very difficult to remove stuff.

I say "help" because is it not a program in which you can just press a "Fix" button and it does everything automatically. You have to run it, get a log of almost unintelligible jibberish, and then upload the log to a site which will attempt to "analyze" it for you. You then take that analysis and do some searching and manual removal.

I know it sounds too "nerdy", but in several cases, it was the ONLY (repeat ONLY) way to get something out that the other, more automatic programs could not touch. There are also other forums where volunteers will "talk you through" a series of steps for removing the offending trash.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10379544.html

The following link is one that does the automatic analysis for you.

http://www.hijackthis.de/

I just pasted in the log file from HiJackThis for my system and got all green checks and a bunch of question marks -- no red Xs. This can be intimidating but sometimes is the only way to get stubborn stuff out.

HTH.

Ken
 
I have run 15 years on the internet now without a lick of virus protection or backups.

I have a stack of dead hard disks under my bench that says you are tempting fate not to have a backup ;) :eek:

They are a mechanical device that spins.. or sometimes dont spin :dunno:

Cheers

Ian
 
I have a stack of dead hard disks under my bench that says you are tempting fate not to have a backup ;) :eek:

They are a mechanical device that spins.. or sometimes dont spin :dunno:

Cheers

Ian

I agree. Jason may be luckiest person on earth to ever have sat in front of a computer.
My problem is 'somewhat' under control. I talked with the IT guy who maintains our computers at the State Board I sit on. He knew exactly what I had gotten and said my best bet was to format. Not good news. Well, today, I tried a system restore and it seems to have worked. Only problem, the only web site I was able to open was Google. Even Yahoo wouldn't open. Uh-Oh! :eek: Then my wife started complaing about the same thing with her computer. That was good news, indicating the problem might not be in my computer. A check with my ISP revealed they were having problems. Later, all is better, not perfect. But, here I am. :D
 
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