Topic: pop ups

[Sarah-b]

Have just installed broadband and have a physical firewall too. But am now really plagued with pop ups.
Two questions:
Is it just an illusion - or so you get more pop ups with broadband compared to dial-up?
What software can I buy to stop them popping up?

Thanks,
Sarah.

[Admin aka Dan]

What types of pop ups are they?

Do they say Messaenger Service at the top of the box ?

Cheers

Dan

[Sarah-b]

Just adverts and a lot of boxes saying that spyware - or something like that has been discovered on our computer (which I presume is just another advert?).

sb

[Svea]

sarah,
now you have broadband, do yourself a favour and install and use mozilla (www.mozilla.org) over the dreaded and very unsafe internet explorer as a brower. it's dead easy, too.
download mozilla, install and open, set mozilla as the default browser (it will ask you weather you want this, click yes). mozilla will import all your explorer bookmarks so no worries there.

then, never use internet explorer again.

you may well have adware and spyware on your machine.
use:

adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/
download the personal version, install and watch it find all the rubbish IE allowed onto your machine while you weren't looking. :rolleyes:

spyware blaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
will block known spyware and malware from even getting to your machine.

hope these three things will help
i had lots of problems last july with windows popping up left, right and centre - it nearly drove me crazy. switched to mozilla from IE and haven't looked back. seriously one of the best things you can do! then clean your machine with ad-aware and you should feel much more relaxed :)

svea

[Sarah-b]

OK - will get onto it tonight...
Thanks,
Sarah.

[Palustris]

Hope you have more success with Mozilla than we did, had to re-format the hard drive and re-install everything to get rid of it and the problems it caused when I tried to use it.
I use IE and we have no trouble with pop-ups. Adaware and Spybot and the correct settings in your browser should stop them all anyway.
Click on Tools at the top of the page. Second entry on menu is Pop up blocker. Sub menu has Pop up blocker settings( or something like that). The page which then appears has an area at the bottom where you can set you Pop-up blocker to High, Medium or Low. Try that first!

[Svea]

palustris,

sorry to hear about your trouble with the browser, i am very surprised to hear that though. it's only a programme not a system component so should not have caused any probs whatsoever.

i could be cheeky and suggest you get a mac - no pup-up shite whatsoever on the mac ;) :D (and none of this sophisticated settings stuff. macs are easy)
(unfortunately, i have to make do with a PC at work, boohoo)

svea

[Roy Bham UK]

If you are sticking with IE download this Microsoft service pack 2 you get free anti-virus with or without Firewall and a good pop-up stopper to boot.
I've had no problems with it.

I also run Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy plus Spyware Blaster. :o 8)

Her's the link... http://support.microsoft.com/windowsxpsp2

P S Give it chance to load as it's a very busy site. ;D

[Sarah-b]

Thanks everyone.
I installed Mozilla and that has really improved things.

sb