blocked pop-up windows that keep appearing

[Denise]

We have tried everything we know of to eliminate pop-up
windows that show up on our desktop even when we are not
currently using the internet. We are getting actual MSN
windows from www.yourfreedvds.com, www.680180.net,
www.yourgiftcards.com, www.lowermybills.com, &
www.classmates.com that appear now just as a blank screen
because we have the securities set so high, but when I
right-click and check the properties, one of these sights
are the reason for the pop-up window.

How do I get rid of these completely?

We currently have the free Ada-aware program &
Systemsuite Net Defense Firewall installed on our
computer.

Thanks for your help!

Denise

 

[M. W. Jamison III]

It sounds as though you are a victim of the less than
scrupulous practice of browser hijacking. Look at the
following site and download the recommended utilities to
try to remove the offending software and prevent this
from happening again.

(I didn't go into detail about what hijacking is because
this site has a good description)

Hope this helps!

http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/

M.

 

[wdlipira]

Hi Denise,

The first thing I need to know is the OS you have running. In Win 200
/XP you can disable the Messenger service. This service blocks unwante
dialog boxes from appearing (seperate issue I know).

Now, onto the issue at hand. The most effective way to avoid havin
these sites pop-up, is by using and creating a hosts file. The entr
will be something like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 name of the website
and so on
and so on

The reason for this is that Windows uses DNS to cross-reference I
addresses to web addresses (i.e. 206.12.33.164 to www.msn.com). Th
browser checks your local PC first, then goes out to the internet t
find it.
This method is used usually to speed up the process of translation s
that sites you go to normally, if put in your hosts file will appea
faster.
But be careful, sometimes IP addresses/website names change, and yo
may be unable to to get to a site in the furture.
So by setting the IP address of websites that you DON'T want to visi
as 127.0.0.1 (internal IP), or 0.0.0.0, etc, then what you have done i
confused the browser into going to the wrong place. This metho
"grounds to short" the path to the website.

I can be reached via email for more questions.

(e-mail address removed)
-
wdlipir