ad popups open randomly

[bmurty]

Im using win xp pro and ad popups (pointing to www.look2me.com) randomly appear in internet explorer, even when im not using it.

My Norton firewall keeps telling me that 'Microsoft Windows Update' is trying to access the internet and it recommends to block it, but this doesnt work.

How do i fix this annoying problem?

[MITCH11]

FOR YOUR SPYWARE PROBLEM {POP UPS} YOU DEFFINETLY SHOULD GET A PROGRAM CALLED AD-AWARE SE. DONT DEAL WITH ALL THE OTHER GARBAGE ON THE NET THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR. ITS FREE GO TO


http://www.lavasoft.de/

ANYWAYS THE WINDOWS AUTOMATIC UPDATES ARE 90% OF THE TIME REAL INPORTANT FOR YOU COMPUTER JUST GO TO YOUR SYSTEM PROPERTYS IN MY COMPUTER GO TO THE TAB AUTOMATIC UPDATES AND UN CHECK KEEP MY COMPUTER UP TO DATE.

THIS WILL DISABLE AUTOMATIC UPDATES

SO EVERY FEW WEEKS OR SO IN YOU IE BROWSER CLICK ON TOOLS. GO TO WINDOWS UPDATES AND DOWNLOAD WHAT EVER SUITS YOUR NEEDS.

WELL GL

MITCH

[plastikaa]

you need to take caps lock off :P

[bmurty]

im using ad-aware with the ad-watch feature enabled, but it only blocks some of the popups.

does any1 know of a better popup blocker?

[plastikaa]

Try the google toolbar that blocks pop-ups well. My pop-up blocker came with my ISP and is excellent so I can't give you what i use. If you have XP you could upgrade to windows SP2 - the update includes a popup blocker in IE.

[Jazz]

Pop-Up Stopper Professional is pretty cool as well: -

Pop-Up Stopper Professional

[MITCH11]

By far the best free pop up blocker is the yahoo tool bar. it comes with a anti spyware to. even tho its not updated frequently its still good to have and picks up stuff that ad-aware doesnt. The google toolbar is not that good because it blocks about 70% of you pop ups and yahoo in the 90-95% range. gl have fun
╔═════╗
₪♪ Mitch11♪₪
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[plastikaa]

The pop-up blocker toolbar I use is based around the yahoo toolbar, but its not exactly the same. Although I do believe that it uses the same blocking software and ive found it to block nearly every single pop-up which is very good.

[bmurty]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Ive installed both the yahoo and google toolbars, and they dont seem to be doing anything. I think there may be a spyware or ad program on my computer somewhere, but ad-aware or the yahoo toolbar's anti-spy dont recognise it.

How can i find and delete the ad program?

[plastikaa]

When you opened Ad-Aware 6 did you use the Web Update tool to get updates for Ad-Aware before you ran the scan? If not try that. Also remember if you have more than one hard drive (or a hard drive partitioned) you need to tell it to scan all your hard drives.

[Jazz]

bmurty, you are using Ad-Aware SE Personal as Mitch11 suggested? It is an improvement on Ad-Aware 6.

Important

You absolutely must turn off System Restore prior to running any antispyware, adware, malware, AntiVirus scan, etcetera, otherwise you run a strong possibility of being reinfected. Turn it on again after you have completed the scans, if you wish to.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 310405

How to turn on and turn off System Restore in Windows XP

Also dl, install, immediately update and run the following free app in addition to Ad-Aware SE Personal.

Spybot-S&D 1.3

Spybot-S&D 1.3 Tutorial

Let us know how you get on.