Suddenly getting LOTS of pop ups.

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kjnk
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Suddenly getting LOTS of pop ups.

Post by kjnk »

I have been using Mozilla for about a month and love it. The thing I love the most is the lack of pop ups while browsing the net. Unfortunately starting yesterday I am getting TONS of pop ups of all kinds. Is there some problem with Mozilla or an update I need to download? HELP!!!!
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dmccunney
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Joined: July 5th, 2003, 12:18 pm
Location: NY, NY

Post by dmccunney »

That depends. Where are the popups coming from? Can you provide a sample URL where you get them?

Most popups are created by Javascript routines on the sites you visit. Mozilla disables the Javascript functions that create popups by default. When you visit a site that tries to create a popup, it should tell you, and allow you to specify whether popups from that site are allowed. (See Tools/Popup Manager.) If you go to Preferences/Advanced/Scripts and Plugins you'll see options for further control of Javascript.

You may be getting stuff from outside of Mozilla. I'd install and run Ad-Aware, to make sure I hadn't unintentionally downloaded some spyware.
______
Dennis
SeaMonkey 1.1.19/NS 7.2/SeaMonkey 2.33.1/SeaMonkey 2.34a,FF release version 32 bit, FF Developer Edition 64bit, FF Nightly 64 bit, Kompozer 0.8b3/Sunbird 0.8/Win2K Pro SP4/WinXP Pro SP3/Win7 Pro SP1/Win10 Pro, Ubuntu Linux 12.04/Ubuntu Linux 16.04/Puppy Linux 4.31
kjnk
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Post by kjnk »

Thanks for the help. Most of the popups are ads for popup blockers, You have won..., or e-bay training information. I am a novice at most of this, so bear with me. Is Ad-Aware available from Mozilla or do I need to go somewhere else to get it? Thanks.
kjnk
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Post by kjnk »

http://servedby.advertising.com/click/s ... 0000162917

this is the URL of one of the pop ups that came on while I was typing the previous response.
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James
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Post by James »

The two programs you should try in order to get rid of spyware on your computer.

Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

SpyBot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/
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dmccunney
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Joined: July 5th, 2003, 12:18 pm
Location: NY, NY

Post by dmccunney »

Ad-Aware is from a Swedish company called Lavasoft. You can get the "free for personal use" home edition here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com Download it, install it, run it, and see what it tells you. (It will offer to remove any suspect stuff it finds. I generally let it do so.)

Come back after you've run Ad-Aware if you still have the problem, and try to give us a bit more detail, like what version of Mozilla you are running, what OS you use, and what site you are visiting when you see popups.

While I think of it, are you running WinXP? Microsoft bundles the Microsoft Messenger instant messaging client with it, and turns on the Messenger service by default. Spammers have figured out how to spam Messenger, and you may want to turn off the Messenger service. Steve Gibson of Gibson Research offers a little freeware application called Shoot the Mesenger that does that. Look for it at www.grc.com.
______
Dennis
SeaMonkey 1.1.19/NS 7.2/SeaMonkey 2.33.1/SeaMonkey 2.34a,FF release version 32 bit, FF Developer Edition 64bit, FF Nightly 64 bit, Kompozer 0.8b3/Sunbird 0.8/Win2K Pro SP4/WinXP Pro SP3/Win7 Pro SP1/Win10 Pro, Ubuntu Linux 12.04/Ubuntu Linux 16.04/Puppy Linux 4.31
kjnk
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Post by kjnk »

I installed Adaware from Lavasoft and ran the scan. It isolated and removed about 30 suspcious things. I am still getting pop ups even as I am typing. I am running XP and I did not think about Messenger being part of the culprit. Thanks again. I will keep trying your suggestions. I appreciate the help.

Jodi
AnonEmoose
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Joined: February 6th, 2004, 11:59 am

Post by AnonEmoose »

u may also have the virus/trojan/worm which targets port 135 ( i forget the name i think it's MyDoom or Blaster), so run a virus scan too.....
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

I have installed Adaware and Shoot the Messenger. I am running Mozilla 1.5. Should I upgrade to 1.6 or 1.7? If so which one? Thanks
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

I am running AVG for virus protection. I made sure the virus data base was up to date and ran a scan today. Nothing showed up. What is Purity Scan? It keeps trying to open on our computer and many of the files isolated when I run Adaware seem to be related to Purity Scan. Thanks again for any and all help. There is a pop up blocker from Google that someone else told me about. Does anyone know if it works with Mozilla?
kjnk
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Post by kjnk »

Sorry, The last two posts were from me also, but I forgot to log in, so it says guest.
wittmeba
Guest

Post by wittmeba »

I had a recent copy of I believe 1.7b that had lots in inherent control for popups. You could select to only open a tab if 'I' (yourself from your own pc) open it, open tabs when links are clicked, never open a new window, etc. However, I am unable to find that build again. Anyone know where it can be located? It was the best I have seen yet.
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dmccunney
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Post by dmccunney »

Anonymous wrote:I am running AVG for virus protection. I made sure the virus data base was up to date and ran a scan today. Nothing showed up. What is Purity Scan? It keeps trying to open on our computer and many of the files isolated when I run Adaware seem to be related to Purity Scan. Thanks again for any and all help.

Purity Scan is a blocker claims to block pornography. It is ad supported, so while while blocking porno, it spams you with its own ad content.

Are you the only user on your PC? *Someone* who uses your PC is apparently converned about porn and downloaded this puppy...

Purity Scan can may be found here:
http://www.purityscan.com/aboutus.html

More information about it can be found here:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/bu ... tstory.jsp

And advice that may useful be for removing it can be found here:
http://miataru.computing.net/security/w ... /6598.html

There is a pop up blocker from Google that someone else told me about. Does anyone know if it works with Mozilla?

It's the current version of the Google Toolbar for IE. It works very well, but it's specific to Internet Explorer. Google does not have a version of thier toolbar for Mozilla.

There *is* a third-party toolbar for Google for Mozilla called Googlebar. You can find it here:
http://googlebar.mozdev.org

I run it and like it a great deal, but it is *not* an ad blocker. Mozilla is assumed to do that. Googlebar is an advanced interface to the Google search engine. The URLs I provided above for Purity Scan came from typing "Purity Scan" into the Googlebar search box. and looking a the first page of results from Google. :)

Bottom line? Mozilla can and does block popup ads while you are browsing. It *can't* save you from the actions of stuff you *choose* to download and install. When in doubt, don't download and install it. Before you *do* download and install something that is supposedly "free", make sure you read the license or terms of service. An awful lot of this stuff comes with strings attached, like implicit agreement to be bombarded by ads.
______
Dennis
SeaMonkey 1.1.19/NS 7.2/SeaMonkey 2.33.1/SeaMonkey 2.34a,FF release version 32 bit, FF Developer Edition 64bit, FF Nightly 64 bit, Kompozer 0.8b3/Sunbird 0.8/Win2K Pro SP4/WinXP Pro SP3/Win7 Pro SP1/Win10 Pro, Ubuntu Linux 12.04/Ubuntu Linux 16.04/Puppy Linux 4.31
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Post by Guest »

no...my friend has had purity scan installed on his computer while he was surfing the net....he didn't choose to install it...he said he just restarted his computer one day, and there it was....
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Joachim
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Location: Germany

Post by Joachim »

Hmmmm.

I think the cleanest way to get rid of all this is "format C:\" and reinstall everything :mrgreen:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; de-DE; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030619 Netscape/7.1 (ax) * Win 98 SE Ger *
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