I have a problem when I log onto the Internet. Some of my settings have been messed up. How I don't know and now I have no clue how to fix it.

Okay, when I log on there are no adverts and no pop ups. In the space where adverts should be there is an "X" that says "click here" Underneath it says "ACTION CANCELLED" My husband can't play his POGO games either. To play these games you have to accept pop up ads, so I when I had the Google blocker I used to allow them . Anyway, I recently loaded a new Norton Security program and I thought it was the firewall and pop up blocker. So I unloaded the whole program and took it off completely. Still no change. A friend says it must be the Java settings messed up. So I tried Internet options and look at the settings. I have no clue now how to fix it. So now every page I click on has no adverts and takes ages to load cos it tries to find them. WTF. I have run SpyBot, Spy Sweeper, Adaware and Norton Anti Virus: No viruses and no spyware.

:help: PLEASE :help:

Internet Explorer shouldn't have Ad's :S

Action Cancelled may be referring to the file being missing. Chances are the page you are trying to access is no longer there.

Sorry but going on what you have said it's a bit hard to understand what you mean exactly.

Are you able to use windows update?. Sounds like it could be something to do with an Active x setting that has been adjusted?
What operating system are you using?
Have you got win xp with sp2 installed?
Have you tried to do a system restore to before you installed Norton?
Have you considered using a different browser? ie: Mozilla Opera or Firefox?

Ohh my god, i've got my own head spinning now :gag:

Sorry that I can't explain it any better. All I know is that where adverts should be on page, there are blank spaces. POGO games won't load either. It's a free games website so you are required to allow pop up ads or you can't play. Strangely enough it is not every page just some pages.

So if I am still confusing you then don't worry I can get someone in to look at it next week. I was taking a shot at finding someone here to help. Any advise will be good at this point. I tried Internet Options / Connections and changing the security levels. Hmm, I'm a bit lost :( I put all the settings back to the recommended defaults so I didn't mess up too much.

ps.. I have Windows 98 second edition

Meg

Can your get to any of these sites on another machine? If so check they are still operating ok? However it sounds like the Norton altered a security setting to me. Have you changed anything else i.e. added any extra equipment such as a router? If you have this may have a built in popup blocker too.

if some of the ads work and others don't then it might be a redirection in your host file. But if something is actually stopping pop-ups then i'd guess that the uninstall didn't work completely. Do a ctrl-alt-del and list what processes are running for us.

Thanks Guys:

When I installed Norton Security it worked great for about 2 weeks. So I don't believe it just decided to just change the settings on me overnight. However, I do have Spy Sweeper, which updated its "shields". Maybe when I downloaded the updates in its program it gave me more protection. I get his message in some of the blank boxes "Internet Explorer was unable to link to the Web page you requested. The page might be temporarily unavailable"

I think I may uninstall Spy Sweeper and see what happens. I may even resort to uninstalling windows 98 and then reinstalling. Is that too drastic?

ctr-alt-del

I have running:
explorer
spy sweeper
navapw32
osa
incd
instant access
xwctray
systray
xwmsapi
monitor

I would try Spy Sweeper first because that would make sense since that would see the popups as being spyware because basically they are a form of spyware. It is also possible that Norton has done an update liveupdate recently as that defaults to one every 2 weeks or more often if you manually click on it.

If you do reinstall don't forget to backup your data first:D

Originally posted by Funke88
I think I may uninstall Spy Sweeper and see what happens. I may even resort to uninstalling windows 98 and then reinstalling. Is that too drastic?
I think the spy sweeper does sound remarkably like it's the culprit...

Search and Destroy does something similar with it's "immunization" process, blocking certain sites and cookies pro-actively.. Could be you're seeing something similar here.

As for reinstalling from scratch.. that probably is a bit drastic at this point... In all honesty... I'd think about a new PC in a years time... although obviously I don't supply to the USA :D... I do know some good contacts over there who could recommend good suppliers though...

Funke88, I know this is about a year late, but I found your problem while I was searching for a solution to my own. Your problem is identical to what I was dealing with.

SpySweeper WAS your problem. It altered your "HOSTS" file so that it was blocking the ads that Pogo uses as "placeholders" and so you were getting the "Action Canceled" page, and then unable to go beyond that.

I don't know if you ever got that problem fixed, but if you didn't, then you might consider altering your HOSTS file so that it appears like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost

if there's ever any website you want to block from popping up on your machine you just add an entry like this:

127.0.0.1 wwx.thewebsite.com
127.0.0.1 wwx.anotherwebsite.com
127.0.0.1 wwx.andanother.com
127.0.0.1 wwx.yetanother.com
127.0.0.1 wwx.yougettheidea.com

This little file is VERY important, so I would only alter it as a last resort, as it CAN backfire on you, and allow things to pop up that you don't want.

;) I wish I could have helped you a year ago. Take care.

Better late than never, so they say. Thanks.
I actually removed SpySweeper all together. But that was not before I got so pee'd off that I reformatted my hard drive and started from scratch. A bold move but I didn't know what else to do. So in dispair I did it. Took me a week to work out how to get it all back:rolleyes: I then got RVG and Adaware and did away with everything else including Spybot. Works fine now.:thumbsup:
Thanks for the idea for blocking pop ups. I'll try that.