My friend has a problem on her computer with a pop up that has taken over her google home page. It tells her to click on the x to open it up and the only cross is the one that would normally get rid of it! She turned her power off but it was still there when she switched it on again. She suspects it is a porn site and will charge her premiun rates if she clicks it. Any ideas?

If you log onto www.download.com i think two programmes may help your mate.

First Spybot (can also be found I think at spybot.com). This is a free programme aimed at getting rid of spyware and adware in your system.

Second pop-up stopper. Download the free version (I have it installed) and it is THE BEST pop up stopper I have come across on the web.

Hope these help.

DB :thumbsup:

also along with those two,

download adaware, similiar to spybot in that it disinfects your computer of spyware but it picks up different stuff,

Another program is spyware blaster, this prevents you getting infected in the first place (e.g spyware downloading onto your computer) I have found it to be very effective

Like DaB says those two programs are good but if you really wanna clean the system out then do the following - if you can't get much use out of Internet Explorer on her PC due to the pop ups etc. at the moment you might have to download the software for her but anyway:

1. Run a virus check - AVG from http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php is free and is pretty good or you can try an online one e.g. Panda or Trend (google for 'em)

2. Run CWShredder from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html - that will get rid of all variants of the Coolwebsearch trojan which is a serious pain in the arse.

3. Run Hijack This from the same site as CWShredder above - it gives you a list of everything that is trying to hijack your start page - have a look through and see if anything is obviously not supposed to be there i.e. pointing to porn URL's etc. - if you find anything then remove it. Beware that some of the list will be standard system stuff though and should really be left how it is.

4. Download Spybot Search & Destroy from http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10122137.html?part=104443&subj=dlpage&tag=button - once downloaded run the advanced mode and before you check the system run 'Search for updates' and download all it offers, there should be a handful. Then run a scan, remove all offending material, you might need to reboot at some point but it will tell you. Then feel free to use the Immunize to block against more browser hijacks.

5. Download Ad-aware 6 from http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button - again once downloaded first thing to do is update it - click on the globe icon in the program and follow instructions. Run through a scan and it should find anything Spbot missed - beware though that it will probably find some of the same stuff as Spybot as it looks at Spybots quarantined files as well - it should be safe to let it remove them as well anwyay.

6. Run Hijack This again and have a quick nosey to see if there's anything left that still doesn't look right - if you don't know then save the log file and show it to someone who might know what they are doing - one of us lot should be able to help if need be :)

7. Install a pop up stopper like DaB said.

I know that there's quite a list there and it will take you a while to run through it but it should get any system pretty damn clean even if some do think it looks a bit like overkill ;)

EDIT: Looks like I got a bit carried away with this one :P

Loads of good advice on clearing it out there!

For the future, the very best pop-up blocker that I've found is free, and a part of the equally free and fabulously useful Google toolbar that you can download here. (http://toolbar.google.com/)

Yep, I was going to say the google toolbar. It's especially useful because it not only blocks pop-ups, but you don't need to go to google every time you want to run a search.

Originally posted by Tony
Loads of good advice on clearing it out there!

For the future, the very best pop-up blocker that I've found is free, and a part of the equally free and fabulously useful Google toolbar that you can download here. (http://toolbar.google.com/)

Only thing with Google toolbar is it reports back on you unless you disable it at installation time. It also auto-updates itself and you cannot disable this which is a big no no to a lot of people. The pop up blocker is good though.

In personally couldn't care less what Google knows about my searching - the CIA haven't knocked at the door... yet ;). If it helps them develop great free tools like this one I'm all for it.

I've disabled the spyware. I never knew it auto-updated?? This hasn't happened to me yet...

It's not just what you search - if you haven't disabled it then it records every URL you visit. For some this isn't an issue and for others it is, some people see it as an invasion of their privacy. All I'm doing is letting people know the facts before they install it :)

Originally posted by Sidla
I've disabled the spyware. I never knew it auto-updated?? This hasn't happened to me yet...

http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/googleupdater/

Check that for a bit more info. You can of course block the site it contacts to update if you want :)

Meanwhile, I have told my firewall to block "/version" from "toolbar.google.com" and this has solved the auto-update issues without any conflicts.

That's of course if they haven't cottoned on and changed it since :rolleyes:

Are you saying it's updating itself without me knowing about it? Why is this a bad thing?

by the way, if you want to close something without clicking the 'X' then hold control-alt-delete, and the task-manager will open. you can then highlight the program and click end-task

I'm saying it can update itself without you knowing - maybe they haven't released a new version since you've had it. This in many cases is a very bad thing not least if you're a network administrator. The main problem being it could update itself, cause a conflict and crash your system - if you didn't even know it had updated itself it makes it a lot harder to find the culprit. Also they could add whatever features they want, spyware or not and you would get them installed with no knowledge. Then there's the chance someone could put rogue code on Google's servers and upload whatever they want to your machine - the list goes on. Basically they have created a backdoor in your system to install whatever the hell they like silently. Just look at the uproar Microsoft caused when they changed the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) with a Windows Media Player update basically giving them permission to automatically update your version of Windows whenever they felt like they wanted to.

At the end of the day it's your machine, no one should be putting anything on it without your express permission :)

Originally posted by rarstar
by the way, if you want to close something without clicking the 'X' then hold control-alt-delete, and the task-manager will open. you can then highlight the program and click end-task
...or just press alt+F4...

Originally posted by rarstar
by the way, if you want to close something without clicking the 'X' then hold control-alt-delete, and the task-manager will open. you can then highlight the program and click end-task

Yup good advice but you always get the pop ups that spawn more pop ups - sometimes you have to sit there seeing if you can close 'em quicker than they can spawn, lol :)

Originally posted by fnkysknky
I'm saying it can update itself without you knowing - maybe they haven't released a new version since you've had it. This in many cases is a very bad thing not least if you're a network administrator. The main problem being it could update itself, cause a conflict and crash your system - if you didn't even know it had updated itself it makes it a lot harder to find the culprit. Also they could add whatever features they want, spyware or not and you would get them installed with no knowledge. Then there's the chance someone could put rogue code on Google's servers and upload whatever they want to your machine - the list goes on. Basically they have created a backdoor in your system to install whatever the hell they like silently. Just look at the uproar Microsoft caused when they changed the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) with a Windows Media Player update basically giving them permission to automatically update your version of Windows whenever they felt like they wanted to.

At the end of the day it's your machine, no one should be putting anything on it without your express permission :)
I trust google, I don't think they'd let anything bad happen...

It's not a case of them letting anything bad happen and it's not a case of trusting them. New software can and soemtimes will conflict with other software on a machine unfortunately - they can't possibly test their new software on every possible configuration, even the simplest software contains bugs. The other main problem is if a hacker gets in (or finds a way to spoof the update address) and uploads rogue code as a google toolbar update - even if it's only on the server for a few minutes there's a possibility of a large proportion of toolbar users getting their machine 'updated' with this rogue code and knowing sod all about it.

A warning for you all, a month or so ago i realised that sometimes my modem was hanging up and then redialling. Assuming it was OK i let it be, then i received my phone bill. It appears that my modem had been dialling a premium number to access the internet, and for about 8 minutes worth of 'access calls' I was charged the sum of £12! Now obviously I wouldn't have knowingly used an ISP that charged over a quid a minute, so I believe that the settings of my dial-up had been altered by a spyware type program. Not too happy about it but theres next to nothing i can do.

Another decent program to have is AdAware, available from lavasoft.com. I run it every time i come off the internet now, and it usually picks up between 10-20 tracking cookies and the odd spyware program.

Originally posted by fnkysknky
It's not a case of them letting anything bad happen and it's not a case of trusting them. New software can and soemtimes will conflict with other software on a machine unfortunately - they can't possibly test their new software on every possible configuration, even the simplest software contains bugs. The other main problem is if a hacker gets in (or finds a way to spoof the update address) and uploads rogue code as a google toolbar update - even if it's only on the server for a few minutes there's a possibility of a large proportion of toolbar users getting their machine 'updated' with this rogue code and knowing sod all about it.
Admittedly I was trying to play the devil's advocate there...

I was just thinking about this and agree you're probably right. Anyone could make a piece of software and try and pretend to be a google toolbar update. This is exactly the sort of thing that hackers look for.

I don't think Windows should allow sites to automatically install or update things on your computer without informing you. Which eejit thought that one through... :loopy:

Originally posted by Barra
A warning for you all, a month or so ago i realised that sometimes my modem was hanging up and then redialling. Assuming it was OK i let it be, then i received my phone bill. It appears that my modem had been dialling a premium number to access the internet, and for about 8 minutes worth of 'access calls' I was charged the sum of £12! Now obviously I wouldn't have knowingly used an ISP that charged over a quid a minute, so I believe that the settings of my dial-up had been altered by a spyware type program. Not too happy about it but theres next to nothing i can do.
Yep, watch out for that. I made sure I was very strict with my security settings after I fell for that one. Fortunately where I am at the moment I can't dial premium-rate numbers anyway, so I've slackened up a bit now.

If your PC seems to be reconnecting, always make sure you can find out what it's dialing. If you're not sure, then check your dial-up network settings and make sure there's no connections listed there which shouldn't be.

Well Microsoft argue that a lot of virii that use exploits in Windows code to infect your machine could be stopped a lot quicker (MSBlast for example) if they have the ability to automatically update any online Windows machine with security patches - at first it seems a good idea but as any system admin would tell you - it's not, it should be up to the person in charge of the machine as to what and when it gets updated. As stated above there's a lot of compatibility issues that need to be thought through. On top of that the fact that some previous Windows security updates have been known to create more security holes than they fixed doesn't exactly inspire confidence... As you have rightly pointed out - letting software automatically update itself silently could be seen as a flaw in the Windows security model in the first place but it would be a difficult task to enforce otherwise from a programmers perspective as software can use it's own TCP/IP stack etc. if the author really wants to be a pain in the arse :)

Just ditch Windows and use Linux, then you wouldnt have any of these problems :)

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Just ditch Windows and use Linux, then you wouldnt have any of these problems :)

That's not an option for a lot of people I'm afraid as you probably well know if you know anything about *nix. With *nix you get a whole world of other problems instead - security for one, it's great when you know what you are doing. Despite recent efforts *nix is still too complicated for your average PCWorld customer - Windows has done a hell of a lot for PC's over the years, it's ease of use is unrivalled and when it's working well it's a good OS. Because of how much has been put into it and it's ad-hoc development over the years it's got more than it's fair share of security issues etc. but it generally does what it says on the tin.

Get rid of Internet Explorer and install Mozilla. I never see pop-up windows. After installation when the first site attempts to open a pop-up you get asked whether to allow any pop-ups at all from now on. Answer no and bye-bye pop-ups. You can allow restricted sites to open pop-ups.

But whilst I appreciate fnkysknky comments about Linux (and agree it is not the best os for the pcworld crowd) at heart I agree with Skatiechik. Using Linux I get none of the adware/spyware problems described above. No virii either. But I need to have good security in place. Strong firewall, no unneccessary servers etc. And keep the system up-to-date.

g

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Just ditch Windows and use Linux, then you wouldnt have any of these problems :)

Or Mac. But this is a feature of the most widely used consumer system - it is poorly secured and susceptible to exploits particularly through email.

However, enough helpful souls give away good software that will stop most things in their tracks, if only more of us used them.

Or just ditch IE and run opera - does everythgin ie does and one of its javascript options is to only open windows you request to be opened :)