Pop-ups, Pop-ups, Pop-ups!

[Adamdc]

A friend bought a PC from Compaq about 2 months ago and he's been using it with Norton AV running on it but no firewall and he called me to complain about the constant 'pop-up' ads he's been getting. I went over there today and I was amazed at how bad it was----just constant 'pop-ups'. So I downloaded 'FreeSurfer'and ran it and it seemed to get slightly better. Then I downloaded and ran 'Spybot' and 'Adaware' and I also dl'ed 'ZoneAlarm' and got that running. The situation seemed to get considerably better but I was still getting one or two occasional 'pop-ups' one from Ebay and some other 'Smiley' thing. My friend called a few minutes ago and said that his son went to play a game and he said 'All the pop-ups are back!' I set it so that 'FreeSurfer' and 'ZoneAlarm' would run on startup.

Can anyone suggest anything else that I should do?

I figured the above steps that I did would cure the problem. I've got the same setup on my pc and I don't think I've ever had a pop-up.

Please help!

adam

[shawshank62]

Make sure you updated spybot and adaware to the latest version, then try running it. Also, i would suggest getting a firewall http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10...ml?tag=lst-0-1
I have used this for over 6 months, and imo, is one of the best out there, and is free. Make sure that you clean out all cache, i suggest disk cleaner http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/

I would also get the google toolbar, it elimiates popups while surfing
http://toolbar.google.com/

Are the popups when browsing or just whenever?

[Brainchild]

I'm still having the same problem,so I think I'll watch this thread.

I have sygate for a firewall,adaware,spybot,and AVG,google toolbar and still get the popups.

I have found Purity Scan and it floods the thing with popups,maybe that will help some.There is info on removing it in the link.

Also XP has the Messenger Service maybe it is the culprit.

HTH

I still have a popup every few minutes,These are some things I have found trying to fix mine.

[Xeroid]

Once you get the spyware cleared up, why don't you download the FireFox browser? There is a version for Linux and Windows. I run the Linux version and have install the Windows version on my sons W2K box.

In FireFox you can disable popups and it's a free download.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

[fyxxer32]

Personally I am a little suspicious of that google tool bar. I just feel it is adware. I use spybot, zone alarm, adaware sometimes. Have messenger service disabled. To kill new pop ups that very seldom pop up I use POW, available at analogx.com, POW It seems to work great. You could always use mozilla.

[The Real Bingo]

Yeah, go for Mozilla.

[Brainchild]

Mine get a popup sometimes when a browser isn't even open.I have Opera also,and it still happens.Not sure if that's the case for Adamdc

Wow I just noticed Adamdc just signed on too,Welcome to TechIMO.

[Adamdc]

The pop-ups are happening even when the browser isn't running. If I've run spybot and adaware I would assume that all the spyware has been eliminated. I'm going to disable the Messenger service and I noticed he has lots of unnecessary items in 'Startup' that I will disable but other than that what can I do?

Also, Shawshank mentioned that I should clean out all cache. Does that mean all the temp internet files and cookies?

adam

[Theophylact]

Firefox is the standalone (that is, no e-mail client) version of Mozilla. Runs like a dream. It's a beta version (0.8) but I've had very few problems with it.

[DanGrease]

This is a thread started by me, which is about finding the best free pop-up blocker for Internet explorer. There are many nice posts in it, check it out

dan