Pop ups in Restricted Sites Zone

[Guest]

Good morning,
I have put many unwanted site names into my Restricted Sites Zone in the
Security tab in Internet Options. However, these same sites still pop up and
at the bottom right of the window in which they pop up, the restricted sites
icon is displayed. Howcome they can still open? Any suggestions??
Thanks.

 

[RobertVA]

Good morning,
I have put many unwanted site names into my Restricted Sites Zone in the
Security tab in Internet Options. However, these same sites still pop up and
at the bottom right of the window in which they pop up, the restricted sites
icon is displayed. Howcome they can still open? Any suggestions??
Thanks.

Add the domains to the computer's Hosts (no extension) file. Some
malware/spyware/adware detection programs can add a list of many spyware
and adware sites to the hosts file automaticly.

All internet communication is dependent on IP addresses, a sequence of
four numbers less than 256 seperated by periods (Example: 127.0.0.1). A
domain name server (DNS) provides the appropriate IP addresses when the
client wants access to a domain like "microsoft.com". A Hosts file
provides an alternate lookup for those IP addresses and can overide the
IP address information the DNS would normally provide. The hosts file
can be used to direct the browser to an imposter site OR block the site
by directing the request to the local hard drive "localhost" with the
127.0.0.1 IP address.

 

[Guest]

Hi RobertVA,
Please excuse my ignorance but can you please tell me step-by-step how to
add the domains to the computer's Hosts.
Thanks.

 

[RobertVA]

Hi RobertVA,
Please excuse my ignorance but can you please tell me step-by-step how to
add the domains to the computer's Hosts.
Thanks.

Assumes you have previously set Windows XP to show hidden and system files.

1. Log onto computer with an administrator account.
2. In Windows Explorer open the
(bootdrive):\Windows\system32\drivers\etc folder. On most computers the
bootdrive is drive C.
3.Right click the icon for the Hosts file (the file has no extension -
no .ini no .sys, no dot anything).
4. Click Properties in the context menu
5. Uncheck "Read Only" and "Hidden".
6. Click the "OK" button.
7. Double click the Hosts Icon in the Windows Explorer window.
8. Choose "Notepad" as the "Program you want to use to open this file.".
Don't check the "Always use this program..." checkbox.
9. Add entries for the domains you would like to block. Enter the IP
address for "Localhost" (127.0.0.0) at the beginning of the line
followed by spaces and the domain name as shown in the Examples
microsoft provided in the comments at the top of the Hosts file. You can
direct a LARGE quantity of domains to IP address 127.0.0.1.
10. Save the modified Hosts file back to the original location with
Notepad's "Save" command.
11. Close Notepad
12. In a similar manner to the procedure above, set the Hosts file back
to "Read Only". The "Read Only" status adds one barrier to any malicious
software that might delete your Hosts file entries.

Blocking useing the Hosts file may not completely eliminate the popup,
but in many cases the content will be blocked, leaveing a blank area
where the material would otherwise be. This can significantly reduce
page load times over a dialup and offensive or annoying content.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Robert,

Make sure that the security settings for "Restricted sites" zone is not
tampered by any Malware. You set it to a High level security, thus blocking
"Active Scripting", Pop-ups et al.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com

Good morning,
I have put many unwanted site names into my Restricted Sites Zone in the
Security tab in Internet Options. However, these same sites still pop up
and
at the bottom right of the window in which they pop up, the restricted
sites
icon is displayed. Howcome they can still open? Any suggestions??
Thanks.

Add the domains to the computer's Hosts (no extension) file. Some
malware/spyware/adware detection programs can add a list of many spyware
and adware sites to the hosts file automaticly.

All internet communication is dependent on IP addresses, a sequence of
four numbers less than 256 seperated by periods (Example: 127.0.0.1). A
domain name server (DNS) provides the appropriate IP addresses when the
client wants access to a domain like "microsoft.com". A Hosts file
provides an alternate lookup for those IP addresses and can overide the
IP address information the DNS would normally provide. The hosts file
can be used to direct the browser to an imposter site OR block the site
by directing the request to the local hard drive "localhost" with the
127.0.0.1 IP address.

 

[RobertVA]

Robert,

Make sure that the security settings for "Restricted sites" zone is not
tampered by any Malware. You set it to a High level security, thus blocking
"Active Scripting", Pop-ups et al.

While restricting scripting for sites in the restricted zone will keep
those sites from producing popups, it will NOT prevent scripts in the
internet zone from opening popups. The popups opened by internet zone
site COULD be in the restricted sites zone, but could not run their own
scripts if the popup was in a restricted site domain. they would still
be able to display normal HTML text content and graphics.

You might not want to disable javascript in the internet zone, since
many sites will NOT operate properly with it disabled. If you set
javascript to require prompting you will be responding to permmision
popups at every turn.

ActiveX controls provide a bit more oportunity for mischief. You might
want to set Internet Zone to require permission to run ActiveX controls.
This will require you to place a few sites in the Trusted Sites zone.
This might include items like the MSN stock ticker or the web based
version of MSN messenger.

Also note that Hosts file settings would apply to alternate mail clients
and browsers like Thunderbird, Opera and the various Mozilla browsers
like Firefox and Netscape.

It IS a good idea to run a Firewall as well as Anti-Virus and
Anti-Spyware/Anti-Adware applications. Some commercial products can tie
up unreasonable amounts of your computer's resources though. Read the
reviews and forums carefully. The routers used with many multiple
computer wideband internet connections often feature firewall capabilities.