Unrelenting adware

[Guest]

Oh man, i'm about to explode from frustration. Ok...I have been getting unacceptable amounts of pop-ups latley. I run adaware and spybot on a daily basis, always getting 70+ results. I clean them about and go about my business (Which is hard when every 20 minutes I recieve a new popup.) But they persist. So I run a free anti-virus program called "The Cleaner" and after about 90 minutes it finishes. It has found 247 instances of 7 different trojans. So i fix them all. Disinfect when possible, delete when necessary. Cool I think...There go my problems...I go back to my computer a few hours later to find 11 popups just waiting for me to scream at them. Im at a complete loss. adaware removes them, but they come right back. I get rid of the viruses but the adware and spyware is still there. I don't understand it. I visit only 5 sites on a regular basis and I know they are not the problem. I can't bear the thought of reformatting, I can't exactly back up the 40+ gigs of data that I wouild need to. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated...thanks for your time.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330904

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

Oh man, i'm about to explode from frustration. Ok...I have been getting

unacceptable amounts of pop-ups latley. I run adaware and spybot on a daily basis,
always getting 70+ results. I clean them about and go about my business (Which is
hard when every 20 minutes I recieve a new popup.) But they persist. So I run a free
anti-virus program called "The Cleaner" and after about 90 minutes it finishes. It
has found 247 instances of 7 different trojans. So i fix them all. Disinfect when
possible, delete when necessary. Cool I think...There go my problems...I go back to
my computer a few hours later to find 11 popups just waiting for me to scream at
them. Im at a complete loss. adaware removes them, but they come right back. I get
rid of the viruses but the adware and spyware is still there. I don't understand it.
I visit only 5 sites on a regular basis and I know they are not the problem. I can't
bear the thought of reformatting, I can't exactly back up the 40+ gigs of data that I
wouild need to. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated...thanks for your time.

 

[MAP]

-----Original Message-----
Oh man, i'm about to explode from frustration. Ok...I

have been getting unacceptable amounts of pop-ups latley.
I run adaware and spybot on a daily basis, always getting
70+ results. I clean them about and go about my business
(Which is hard when every 20 minutes I recieve a new
popup.) But they persist. So I run a free anti-virus
program called "The Cleaner" and after about 90 minutes
it finishes. It has found 247 instances of 7 different
trojans. So i fix them all. Disinfect when possible,
delete when necessary. Cool I think...There go my
problems...I go back to my computer a few hours later to
find 11 popups just waiting for me to scream at them. Im
at a complete loss. adaware removes them, but they come
right back. I get rid of the viruses but the adware and
spyware is still there. I don't understand it. I visit
only 5 sites on a regular basis and I know they are not
the problem. I can't bear the thought of reformatting, I
can't exactly back up the 40+ gigs of data that I wouild
need to. Any suggestions would be highly
appreciated...thanks for your time.

.

Are you using a firewall?

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I don't believe that either adaware or spybot offer popup protection.
You don't need a virus to cause pop-ups.

You may find turning off messenger service may help. However I suggest
that you get a firewall that includes pop-up protection. I use ZoneAlarm
for this. It gets almost all of them.

 

[Steve]

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330904

The short version:

Go to Start, Run, type "services.msc" (without the quotes) Find
"Messenger" on the list, double-click it, select to Stop the service,
then select "Disable" from the drop down menu and click Apply.

If you're referring to popups in Internet Explorer, I suggest getting
Popup Cop from popupcop.com and installing that; it's shareware and it
expires after... 10? 30? (can't remember how many) days, but it's
worth investing in.

 

[Betty]

As others have said, Adware and Spybot are not for Popups.

Have you tried Google's toolbar? It blocks popups cold.

Go to Google home page and look for the Toolbar. It's free.

B......

 

[Rosanne]

The short version:

Go to Start, Run, type "services.msc" (without the quotes) Find
"Messenger" on the list, double-click it, select to Stop the service,
then select "Disable" from the drop down menu and click Apply.

If you're referring to popups in Internet Explorer, I suggest getting
Popup Cop from popupcop.com and installing that; it's shareware and it
expires after... 10? 30? (can't remember how many) days, but it's
worth investing in.

It sounds like Internet popups she's talking about. Especially when it
involves trojans routinely infesting her computer. Mary, Spybot Search
and Destroy is yet another free spyware/adware program, but with a
difference. You can set it to "Immunize", and it will automatically
BLOCK a lot of these. Not all - I run both Spybot and AdAware (free).
The paid version of AdAware has that option as well, I think. What I
also like about Spybot is that if it finds stuff it can't remove while
you're logged on, it asks you if you want it to do a preemptive strike -
run during startup, before the nasty stuff is launched, and clean it out
then.

Here's what I would set up:

1. Clean your system one more time.

2. Go straight to www.zonealarm.com and download their free firewall.
Install it. It's a pain for the first day or so, when it's learning
what you want to allow on your system, but then it's almost maintenance-
free. It not only stops the bad guys from coming in, it can keep your
poor deluded machine from calling out to them as well. That's one big
difference between that and the Internet Connection Firewall that came
with your machine. If you can't decide whether ZoneAlarm should allow
something on your system, say "No" (but not permanently) and see what
happens. At worst, you'll have to log out and back in to clear out the
"No".

3. Install a good antivirus program. I use AVG (the free version) and
have been happy with it. Update the virus definition files immediately
- the program may download with old ones. Set the program to update
these files automatically... frequently.

4. Go directly to the Windows Update site (there should be a link in
your Start menu) and make sure you have all of the Critical Updates.
There's a way to set THOSE to download automatically as well.

5. Clean your system again.

The "services.msc" fix mentioned previously WILL stop Windows Messenger
popups (the plain gray ones with black text), but it will do NOTHING
about the door you're leaving open into your system. If you're getting
these particular popups, they're a red flag that your system has at
least ONE open door (port), and probably several. The services.msc fix
will treat the symptoms, but not the disease. The trip to ZoneAlarm
will take care of most of that.

The absolute bare minimum for any machine on the Internet is a good
firewall, a good up-to-date antivirus, and having all Critical Updates
installed. There's no way to stop everything, and you still have to be
careful. Check things out - ask folks like you did here. There's a
wonderful post today from Benjamin Johnstone-Anderson in this newsgroup,
that you should also read. He explains more than I do here, and phrases
it better.

Instead of copying his text, I'm just going to include the header info.
If you can't find it from that, holler.

Hope this helps!

~ Rosanne

Subject: Re: help me some one plz...
From: "Trafton" <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 10:53:14 -0700