Pop Up Ads

[hawk]

I am a little confused about pop-up ads. My WinXP Home system with IE
gets many pop-up ads after any time on the internet. My other Win98se
system with Mozilla gets no pop-up ads.

What is the difference?

Also, I have seen a couple of programs, one named Ad-Aware and the other
SpyBot. Will these programs eliminate pop-up ads? If not please
recommend a good pop-up ad stopper.

Thanks and regards, hawk

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

There are several varieties of pop-ups, and the solutions vary
accordingly. Which specific type(s) is troubling you?

Does the title bar of these pop-ups read "Messenger Service?"

This particular "sales method" is strikingly similar to the
"protection" rackets offered to small businesses by organized
criminals. Yes, it's a scam; no reputable business would need to
resort to extortion. Particularly since they're trying to sell you a
type of protection that is already available to you free of charge.

This type of spam has become quite common over the past few
months, and unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It
demonstrates that you haven't been taking sufficient precautions while
connected to the Internet. Your data probably hasn't been compromised
by these specific advertisements, but if you're open to this exploit,
you may well be open to other threats. Install and use a decent,
properly configured firewall. (Disabling the messenger service, as
some people recommend, only hides the symptom, and does nothing to
secure your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" these
messages and the problem they represent is particularly foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904

Stopping Advertisements with Messenger Service Titles
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service is a "head in the sand" approach to computer security.

The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups; they're
actually providing a useful service by acting as a security alert. The
true problem is the unsecured computer, and you've been
advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this helpful?

Equivalent Scenario 1: Somewhere in a house, a small fire starts,
and sets off the smoke alarm. You, not immediately seeing any
fire/smoke, complain about the noise of the smoke detector, and are
advised to remove the smoke detector's battery and go back to sleep.

Equivalent Scenario 2: You over-exert your shoulder at work or
play, causing bursitis. After weeks of annoying and sometimes
excruciating pain whenever you try to reach over your head, you go to
a doctor and say, while demonstrating the motion, "Doc, it hurts when
I do this." The doctor, being as helpful as some of your respondents,
replies, "Well, don't do that."

I'm beginning to think that the people deliberately posting such
bad advice are hacker-wannabes who have no true interest in helping
you secure your system, but would rather give you a false sense of
security while ensuring that your computer is still open to
exploitation.

For regular Internet pop-ups, you might try the free 12Ghosts
Popup-killer from http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/popup.htm or Pop-Up
Stopper from http://www.panicware.com/. Myself, I use Norton Internet
Security, which, in addition to containing Norton Anti-Virus and
Personal Firewall, also blocks most of the pop-up adds on the
Internet.

For pop-ups caused by some sort of "adware" and/or "spyware" that
you've inadvertently installed, two products that are quite effective
at finding and removing scumware are Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de and
SpyBot Search and Destroy from http://security.kolla.de/. Both have
free evaluation versions.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"hawk" > wrote in message
...
> I am a little confused about pop-up ads. My WinXP Home system with
IE
> gets many pop-up ads after any time on the internet. My other
Win98se
> system with Mozilla gets no pop-up ads.
>
> What is the difference?
>
> Also, I have seen a couple of programs, one named Ad-Aware and the
other
> SpyBot. Will these programs eliminate pop-up ads? If not please
> recommend a good pop-up ad stopper.
>
> Thanks and regards, hawk
>

[hawk]

Thanks for the reply. The pop-up windows are titled "Internet Explorer".
They appear to be little browser windows. They are hidden behind my main
browser window until I quit my internet session and close IE. Then there
are all of these little browser windows cluttering up the desktop. This
doesn't happen with Mozilla on my Win98se system.

I connect to the internet through a router on a small home network. The
Hacker Whacker site reports that my computers are not visible to the
internet.

I use Norton Anti Virus as part of Norton SystemWorks. Everything
appears to be working just fine. There was one period a few months ago
when it appeared that someone was trying to send me a virus via E-mail
and Norton always caught the suspected virus.

Even with SpyBot installed, I am getting these little browser pop-up ad
windows.

Thanks and regards, hawk


Bruce Chambers wrote:
> Greetings --
>
> There are several varieties of pop-ups, and the solutions vary
> accordingly. Which specific type(s) is troubling you?
>
> Does the title bar of these pop-ups read "Messenger Service?"
>
> This particular "sales method" is strikingly similar to the
> "protection" rackets offered to small businesses by organized
> criminals. Yes, it's a scam; no reputable business would need to
> resort to extortion. Particularly since they're trying to sell you a
> type of protection that is already available to you free of charge.
>
> This type of spam has become quite common over the past few
> months, and unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It
> demonstrates that you haven't been taking sufficient precautions while
> connected to the Internet. Your data probably hasn't been compromised
> by these specific advertisements, but if you're open to this exploit,
> you may well be open to other threats. Install and use a decent,
> properly configured firewall. (Disabling the messenger service, as
> some people recommend, only hides the symptom, and does nothing to
> secure your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" these
> messages and the problem they represent is particularly foolish.
>
> Messenger Service of Windows
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893
>
> Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
> Appears
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904
>
> Stopping Advertisements with Messenger Service Titles
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp
>
> Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
> http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
>
> Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
> more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
> service is a "head in the sand" approach to computer security.
>
> The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups; they're
> actually providing a useful service by acting as a security alert. The
> true problem is the unsecured computer, and you've been
> advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this helpful?
>
> Equivalent Scenario 1: Somewhere in a house, a small fire starts,
> and sets off the smoke alarm. You, not immediately seeing any
> fire/smoke, complain about the noise of the smoke detector, and are
> advised to remove the smoke detector's battery and go back to sleep.
>
> Equivalent Scenario 2: You over-exert your shoulder at work or
> play, causing bursitis. After weeks of annoying and sometimes
> excruciating pain whenever you try to reach over your head, you go to
> a doctor and say, while demonstrating the motion, "Doc, it hurts when
> I do this." The doctor, being as helpful as some of your respondents,
> replies, "Well, don't do that."
>
> I'm beginning to think that the people deliberately posting such
> bad advice are hacker-wannabes who have no true interest in helping
> you secure your system, but would rather give you a false sense of
> security while ensuring that your computer is still open to
> exploitation.
>
> For regular Internet pop-ups, you might try the free 12Ghosts
> Popup-killer from http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/popup.htm or Pop-Up
> Stopper from http://www.panicware.com/. Myself, I use Norton Internet
> Security, which, in addition to containing Norton Anti-Virus and
> Personal Firewall, also blocks most of the pop-up adds on the
> Internet.
>
> For pop-ups caused by some sort of "adware" and/or "spyware" that
> you've inadvertently installed, two products that are quite effective
> at finding and removing scumware are Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de and
> SpyBot Search and Destroy from http://security.kolla.de/. Both have
> free evaluation versions.
>
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
> --
> Help us help you:
> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
> having both at once. -- RAH
>
>
> "hawk" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>I am a little confused about pop-up ads. My WinXP Home system with
>
> IE
>
>>gets many pop-up ads after any time on the internet. My other
>
> Win98se
>
>>system with Mozilla gets no pop-up ads.
>>
>>What is the difference?
>>
>>Also, I have seen a couple of programs, one named Ad-Aware and the
>
> other
>
>>SpyBot. Will these programs eliminate pop-up ads? If not please
>>recommend a good pop-up ad stopper.
>>
>>Thanks and regards, hawk
>>
>
>
>

[Chris Lanier]

You could have a virus cause this, do a virus scan.
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

you could have spyware on your system, do a spyware scan.
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Ypu might need to disable the Windows Messenger Service - Enable XP's built
in firewall. -
https://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/hnw_enable_firewall.asp

"hawk" > wrote in message
...
> I am a little confused about pop-up ads. My WinXP Home system with IE
> gets many pop-up ads after any time on the internet. My other Win98se
> system with Mozilla gets no pop-up ads.
>
> What is the difference?
>
> Also, I have seen a couple of programs, one named Ad-Aware and the other
> SpyBot. Will these programs eliminate pop-up ads? If not please
> recommend a good pop-up ad stopper.
>
> Thanks and regards, hawk
>