Inundated with pop-ups now

I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

Why, oh why, are these @&!#@ing pop-ups plagueing me still? What can be done
with what I have instead of using third party software?

Thanks so much.

lthkeeper wrote:

I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

What kind of pop-ups do you see exactly? Does this apply: "Messenger
Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330904)?

--
(tm)

"lthkeeper" wrote:

I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

Why, oh why, are these @&!#@ing pop-ups plagueing me still? What can be done
with what I have instead of using third party software?

Thanks so much.

Simply install Mozilla Firefox browser and set it to be your default
browser. Read its features here and download. It is free...

"Chuck Davis" wrote...

Simply install Mozilla Firefox browser and set it to be your default
browser. Read its features here and download. It is free...

http://www.mozilla.org/

Well, I've been getting the same set of ads that open up in a separate IE
browser window. I've also noticed that the URL address is always different -
they have some sort of time stamp involved so I could not simply block them.

I decided to do a system restore and then I updated my spybot destroyer
program and ran that. So far so good. I first noticed the problem when I
downloaded a file from LimeWire, accepted a file license, and subsequently
opened it. I figured it was some sort of sneaky spy ware that infiltrated the
Windows registry. Any idea what the "file" was?

"Thorsten Matzner" wrote:

lthkeeper wrote:

I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

What kind of pop-ups do you see exactly? Does this apply: "Messenger
Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330904)?

--
(tm)

lthkeeper wrote:
Well, I've been getting the same set of ads that open up in a separate IE
browser window. I've also noticed that the URL address is always different -
they have some sort of time stamp involved so I could not simply block them.

I decided to do a system restore and then I updated my spybot destroyer
program and ran that. So far so good. I first noticed the problem when I
downloaded a file from LimeWire, accepted a file license, and subsequently
opened it. I figured it was some sort of sneaky spy ware that infiltrated the
Windows registry. Any idea what the "file" was?

"Thorsten Matzner" wrote:


lthkeeper wrote:


I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

What kind of pop-ups do you see exactly? Does this apply: "Messenger
Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330904)?

--
(tm)

Many think that Limewire IS spyware. I don't use it myself but
a quick search on the web found several references to the new
version of Limewire and a program called Cydoor.

gls858

gls858 wrote:
lthkeeper wrote:

Well, I've been getting the same set of ads that open up in a separate
IE browser window. I've also noticed that the URL address is always
different - they have some sort of time stamp involved so I could not
simply block them.

I decided to do a system restore and then I updated my spybot
destroyer program and ran that. So far so good. I first noticed the
problem when I downloaded a file from LimeWire, accepted a file
license, and subsequently opened it. I figured it was some sort of
sneaky spy ware that infiltrated the Windows registry. Any idea what
the "file" was?

"Thorsten Matzner" wrote:


lthkeeper wrote:


I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to
max. Can anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all
of a sudden? I have a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an
up-to-date anti-virus program, and I normally clean out the cookies
folder.


What kind of pop-ups do you see exactly? Does this apply: "Messenger
Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement Appears"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330904)?

--
(tm)

Many think that Limewire IS spyware. I don't use it myself but
a quick search on the web found several references to the new
version of Limewire and a program called Cydoor.

gls858

Found this just a just now at:

http://www.spyany.com/program/articl..._LimeWire.html

LimeWire is a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Like many free p2p
software, this program is also bundled with adware that delivers
advertisements to your computer.


Follow these removal steps to remove this adware from your computer:

Open the LimeWire folder.
Then open the folder UninstallerData.
Double click the incon named Uninstall LimeWire or something alike.
Follow the on screen prompt to uninstall the program.

If you only want to remove the ad banner from LimeWire, try the
following steps:

Close running LimeWire application. To do this, open Task Manager (
press CTRL+ALT+DEL ), from the processes list, select and terminate the
process limeshop.exe .
Open the folder C:\Program Files\LimeWire.
Delete the file 'Cbanner2.dll' and 'ads.war'.
Restart LimeWire.

lthkeeper wrote:
I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to
max. Can anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all
of
a sudden? I have a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date
anti-virus program, and I normally clean out the cookies folder.

Why, oh why, are these @&!#@ing pop-ups plagueing me still? What can
be done with what I have instead of using third party software?

Thanks so much.


What specific kind of pop-ups are you seeing? There are at least
three varieties of pop-ups, and the solutions vary accordingly.

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

This type of spam has become quite common over the couple of
years, 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, such as the Blaster Worm that
swept across the Internet last year and the currently active Sasser
Worm. Install and use a decent, properly configured firewall.
(Merely disabling the messenger service, as some people recommend,
only hides the symptom, and does little or nothing to truly secure
your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" the security
gap represented by these messages is particularly foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default...B;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/p...e/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, by itself, 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, if annoying, 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?

2) For regular Internet pop-ups, you might try the free 12Ghosts
Popup-killer from http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/popup.htm, Pop-Up Stopper
from http://www.panicware.com/, or the Google Toolbar from
http://toolbar.google.com/. Alternatively, you can upgrade your WinXP
to SP2, to install IE's pop-up blocker. Another alternative would be
to use another browser, such as Mozilla or Firefox, which has pop-up
blocking capabilities. (But I'd avoid Netscape; it carries too much
extraneous AOL garbage.)

3) To deal with pop-ups caused by any sort of "adware" and/or
"spyware,"such as Gator, Comet Cursors, Xupiter, Bonzai Buddy, or
KaZaA, and their remnants, that you've deliberately (but without
understanding the consequences) installed, two products that are
quite effective (at finding and removing this type of scumware) are
Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de and SpyBot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org/. Both have free versions. It's even
possible to use SpyBot Search & Destroy to "immunize" your system
against most future intrusions. I use both and generally perform
manual scans every week or so to clean out cookies, etc.

Additionally, manual removal instructions for the most common
varieties of scumware are available he

PC Hell Spyware and Adware Removal Help
http://www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml

More information and assistance is available at these sites:

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

The Parasite Fight
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

--

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

I have the opposite problem. I can't stop pop-ups from being bloked - which
is why I did not post a new thread. When I tried I got a message that a
pop-up window was blocked. Whatever is causing the problem does not stop the
Reply window from popping up. This is what is happening generally - some
popups are blocked , others are not. I have ZWindows XP Home and SP2
installed as well as Norton Firewall. I have disabled the firewall but that
has not helped. Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance.

"lthkeeper" wrote:

I have XP Pro with SP2 installed and the pop-up blocker is set to max. Can
anyone tell why I am still being blasted with pop-ups all of a sudden? I have
a registry cleaner, a spy bot killer, an up-to-date anti-virus program, and I
normally clean out the cookies folder.

Why, oh why, are these @&!#@ing pop-ups plagueing me still? What can be done
with what I have instead of using third party software?

Thanks so much.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:25:03 -0800, bocafl wrote:

I have the opposite problem. I can't stop pop-ups from being bloked - which
is why I did not post a new thread. When I tried I got a message that a
pop-up window was blocked. Whatever is causing the problem does not stop the
Reply window from popping up. This is what is happening generally - some
popups are blocked , others are not. I have ZWindows XP Home and SP2
installed as well as Norton Firewall. I have disabled the firewall but that
has not helped. Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance.


Should be able to add the site to your Trusted zone in Internet Options

and/or

Allow popups on specific sites. I have only played with the new popup
blocker in IE but it lets you allow/disallow popups on a site by site
basis. Tools Pop Up Blocker Popup Blocker Settings will bring up the
screen where you can add "allowed" sites."

If "Popup Blocker Settings" is not available, click on it to turn the
feature on. Then go back under Tools again to access the Settings page.

If you are using another popup blocker program, it should have similar
settings. Check the help file if it is not clear from the menu choices how
to set it up.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

Thanks Sharon. I'll try enabling specific sites although in the past I have
checked to make sure the block IE blocker was off.

"Sharon F" wrote:

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:25:03 -0800, bocafl wrote:

I have the opposite problem. I can't stop pop-ups from being bloked - which
is why I did not post a new thread. When I tried I got a message that a
pop-up window was blocked. Whatever is causing the problem does not stop the
Reply window from popping up. This is what is happening generally - some
popups are blocked , others are not. I have ZWindows XP Home and SP2
installed as well as Norton Firewall. I have disabled the firewall but that
has not helped. Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance.


Should be able to add the site to your Trusted zone in Internet Options

and/or

Allow popups on specific sites. I have only played with the new popup
blocker in IE but it lets you allow/disallow popups on a site by site
basis. Tools Pop Up Blocker Popup Blocker Settings will bring up the
screen where you can add "allowed" sites."

If "Popup Blocker Settings" is not available, click on it to turn the
feature on. Then go back under Tools again to access the Settings page.

If you are using another popup blocker program, it should have similar
settings. Check the help file if it is not clear from the menu choices how
to set it up.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User