Help, PLEASE! pop ups, not even on internet

G

Guest

can someome PLEASE help me with this pop up problem. all i have to do is
start my computer and i get pop ups! without internet explorer even open!

it is very frustrating. it just started. i checked to see if there were
any new programs added and i don't see any listed in the add/remove. so i am
at a loss. i even tried to put the sites as restricted, but it doesn't seem
to help. they also are NOT blocked by the pop up stopper through explorer or
the pop up blocker i have installed. there are several from the same
"company"

any advice will be GREATLY appreciated!!
 
B

Bruce Chambers

jennifer said:
can someome PLEASE help me with this pop up problem. all i have to do is
start my computer and i get pop ups! without internet explorer even open!

it is very frustrating. it just started. i checked to see if there were
any new programs added and i don't see any listed in the add/remove. so i am
at a loss. i even tried to put the sites as restricted, but it doesn't seem
to help. they also are NOT blocked by the pop up stopper through explorer or
the pop up blocker i have installed. there are several from the same
"company"

any advice will be GREATLY appreciated!!


What specific kind of pop-ups are you seeing? There are at least
three varieties of pop-ups, and the solutions vary accordingly.

1) Does the title bar of these pop-ups read "Messenger Service?"

This type of spam has become quite common over the couple of
years, and unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It
demonstrates that you haven't been taking sufficient precautions while
connected to the Internet. Your data probably hasn't been compromised
by these specific advertisements, but if you're open to this exploit,
you may well be open to other threats, such as the Blaster Worm that
swept across the Internet last year and the currently active Sasser
Worm. Install and use a decent, properly configured firewall.
(Merely disabling the messenger service, as some people recommend,
only hides the symptom, and does little or nothing to truly secure
your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" the security
gap represented by these messages is particularly foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904

Stopping Advertisements with Messenger Service Titles
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service, by itself, is a "head in the sand" approach to computer
security. The real problem is not the messenger service pop-ups;
they're actually providing a useful, if annoying, service by acting as
a security alert. The true problem is the unsecured computer, and
you've been advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this
helpful?

2) For regular Internet pop-ups, you might try the free 12Ghosts
Popup-killer from http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/popup.htm, Pop-Up Stopper
from http://www.panicware.com/, or the Google Toolbar from
http://toolbar.google.com/. Alternatively, you can upgrade your WinXP
to SP2, to install IE's pop-up blocker. Another alternative would be
to use another browser, such as Mozilla or Firefox, which has pop-up
blocking capabilities. (But I'd avoid Netscape; it carries too much
extraneous AOL garbage.)

3) To deal with pop-ups caused by any sort of "adware" and/or
"spyware,"such as Gator, Comet Cursors, Xupiter, Bonzai Buddy, or
KaZaA, and their remnants, that you've deliberately (but without
understanding the consequences) installed, two products that are
quite effective (at finding and removing this type of scumware) are
Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de and SpyBot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org/. Both have free versions. It's even
possible to use SpyBot Search & Destroy to "immunize" your system
against most future intrusions. I use both and generally perform
manual scans every week or so to clean out cookies, etc.

Additionally, manual removal instructions for the most common
varieties of scumware are available here:

PC Hell Spyware and Adware Removal Help
http://www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml

More information and assistance is available at these sites:

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

The Parasite Fight
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
G

Guest

Well, you can see if you can stop them from starting at startup. Run
MSConfig by going Start>Run>msconfig Go over to the Services Tab, click the
"Hide All Microsoft Services" box. Uncheck any services that you are weary
of or didn't authorize. Then go over to the Startup tab, uncheck any
programs that are not supposed to be there. Then hit OK and Reboot. When
you restart, a box wil lpop up saying that the System is in Diagnostic Mode.
Click the checkbox and then OK. See if that helps any.

Also, for future reference, you may want to Raise your IE Security Settings
do Disable?Prompt for ActiveX Controls.
http://home.comcast.net/~BDTRusnak/rusnakweb/article2.html <<< HOW - TO

Good Luck
BMR777
www.rusnakweb.4t.com
 

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