Pop Ups Today

[Fozzie Bear]

Hey, I'm getting pop-ups while browsing the forum today. Unless it's PopCorn, I don't like pop-ups.

Especially at work.

What do I do?

Kev

 

[WiGgY]

I don't think the issue is with these boards. I never get pop ups from here. You must have accessed a site that put adware on your computer.

 

[sarah_yzma]

I think I got one or two also, Kevin.....

so maybe you're not going insane

 

[anathema]

If you think that the popups are being generated by a site that you're visiting, one option is to switch to a different browser. Opera and Firebird (or whatever it's currently called) both allow you to disable advertising popups. Allegedly the updates to IE that are due this summer in the next XP Service Pack will also provide this function. You can also install a popup-blocker, but these are typically unable to distinguish between a popup that you don't want (ie, advertising) and a popup that you do want (ie, from a link that you clicked on). The above browsers can be set to different options:
- allow all popups
- block all popups
- allow only requested popups (this is the one I use)

However, if you've got adware on your machine, you'll need to find and uninstall it. There are various tools out there that you can run to find out if/what adware is installed on your computer; the one I use is Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/

Unfortunately, about the only thing you can do if it's adware is remove the program it came with (or register it if appropriate), so you have to decide if the irritation factor outweighs the benefits of the program concerned.

Some adware is installed without your knowledge though, and for these cases a tool like Spybot will tell you what you have, and may well be able to clean your system up as well.

If you need any help, please feel free to drop me an email ;-)

 

[Beauregard]

Go to www.google.com and download the Google Bar from tools. That means you have instant access to serches from your browser, and they stop pop-ups.

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I've never encountered an ad through muppet central so I would say it must be another site you are one or some adware or spyware thats been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Spyware removal is almost as important as virus protection on computers and the 2 best ones are free! So I'll recommend these great free programs that I think should be on every computer and used atleast once a week.
Adaware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ is the easiest adware/spyware and unwanted cookie removal tool around and its the most well known and its also totally free.
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/ is also an excellent tool, it works very well in conjunction with adaware, if one doesnt pick up something the other one will.

Be sure to check for updates regularly for both of these programs and run them regulary also and you will find your computer running much more efficiently.

Infortunately none of the tools mentioned above prevent spyware/adaware, they just remove it but there is a fantastic tool available that is also free and very small to download. the amazing thing is that this program doesnt even have to be running to work so it doesnt waste computer memory. its amazing, i have had very few spyware/adware items since i installed this. It's available here http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spyware/adware is something that annoys me a great deal because many computer users don't have protection unlike virus software. I hope I have helped protect some computers by typing all this!
from,
Paul

 

[Phillip]

All of the suggestions above are very good. There are no pop-ups on www.muppetcentral.com. More than likely it is Spyware or you visited a site with pop-ups before MC and they continued to be open on your machine.

 

[Beauregard]

Pop Pop Pop!

__

Pop-popperdy-popping!

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

All of the suggestions above are very good. There are no pop-ups on www.muppetcentral.com. More than likely it is Spyware or you visited a site with pop-ups before MC and they continued to be open on your machine.

Thats what I thought too! Its still a great idea for people to install and use those free programs that I suggested. Its amazing what nasties you find on your computer that you didn't even know was there.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Well, it didn't happen none tonight on my home computer. Must be something at work. I did happen to discover that there was some extra stuff added to my computer when I was downloading new cursors to my work computer, so I got rid of all that. I'll discover tomorrow if there's anything else going on, or if I fixed it by deleting that program for the cursors.