Spyware And Crap

[EN1X]

Yesterday evening when I logged on to my computer, I was greeted with 50 + annoying ads which all said "Spyware has been detected on your computer! Click here to learn how to remove it!"
I closed them all, ran my [b]Spybot Search and Destroy[/b] and [b]AVG Virus Scanner[/b]. Neither of them picked up anything. I opened a new browser and to my surprise, my homepage was changed to one of those pages that says something like "Click here for great deals on Viagra!", plus all those 50 "spyware ads" came up again. I just changed my homepage back to what it usually is, and closed all the ads. Not even two minutes later, my homepage was changed again, and the ads came up once more.
I got pissed off and shut of my computer.

This morning when I logged on, nothing changed. Same thing as last night. So I downloaded [b]Ad-Aware[/b], and ran it. Thankfully it picked up a lot of things. So instead of those 50 + ads, I only get about 5 popping up every 10 minutes ( <_< ) ... but still, my homepage keeps changing. I can hardly access any page of the internet without ads coming up and everything.
Really ticking me off, cuz I can't access any of my email accounts (whenever I get to my inbox, the page changes to my "homepage"), it's taking forever to do [i]anything[/i]

The weird thing about "my homepage" is that it isn't really a website. All it says on the address bar is " about:blank "

I don't know what could have started any of this. It was fine yesterday [i]afternoon[/i] ...

I don't know what to do.... Any help...?

[Lexar]

Okay first of all nobody should have to close pop ups in this day and age. You should use firefox instead of internet explorer. it's faster, safer and easier to use. And you can send all your bookmarks and passwords over from IE to firefox. There is no reason not to use it. And that's your biggest mistake, using internet explorer.

Okay secondly make sure you have the new versions of adaware and spybot S&D. If it's from before december, it's practically useless. Make sure you have the newest of the newest versions.

Don't believe it when popups say you have spyware, it's BS, they say it on my pc too, and I'm pretty sure I don't have any. They just want people to click on their popups.

ctrl-alt-delete and see what programs are running, how many processes are running. If you see a process you don't trust, DON'T DELETE IT. It could be very important, especially if it's in the system32 folder. Instead, copy the name of the process and enter it in google, and the first couple of search results are from webpages telling you what kind of application it is, and if it's harmfull to your pc, how to safely remove it. Looking it up in the folder and deleting it doesn't work, and sometimes even makes matters worse. Go over every single application or process you see.

Don't browse pr0n, or use programs like bearshare, edonkey, winmx you name it, or any other file sharing program. Usually the program itself is fine, but they ship with advertisements riddled with spyware, or even worse. I've had a lot of problems with uninstalling all the extra crap you get when you install bearshare for example.

Search google for a program called CCleaner. It destroys all kinds of useless files, leftovers from internet explorer and such.

If you can find it for free (I believe it's payment only now) try finding 'enditall 2', a nice little program, kinda like doing ctrl-alt-delete, but with more extras for ending applications. Has a description of the program too, so you can easily spot spyware. For example I had a program running called 'totem' and the description was 'we rule'. Well that kind of thing stands out, and makes it easier to look for spyware. Handy but not necessary.

[Mace]

See if this folder exists in your pc:
C:/Program Files/EnterOne/Portal

if so, it's very easy to delete the pop-ups.

[slet]

Ever heard of a firewall? Quite a handy fellow to keep a lot of s**t out as well.

[KFelidae]

It must also be considered that FAC itself is riddled with worms and spyware that don't "live" on the FAC server, but rather link themselves out through other sources on the internet. Simply browsing an art archive is like asking for the blue screen of death.

((Oddly enough, just as I typed this, that self-same blue screen of death appeared on my monitor!))

Lexar has a good idea -- find an alternative browser that hasn't been hacked yet. I would as well, if some websites that I must frequent would allow me to.

Personally, I have AVG. However, you must set it to actively search, and alert you each time it finds an intruding spyware proggy trying to burrow its way in. In this way, you'll learn which sites to avoid if you're unprotected. A simple sweep of the system can confuse it, and the spyware can masquarade as another program.

To reset your homepage, go up to Tools -> Internet Options. There should be a bar there to change your homepage. The thing you should be watching out for, though, is the one that changes the "404" page. Everytime a website can't be found, it will automatically foward you to pr0n. Very bad.


-KF

[Lexar]

Firefox isn't that alternative actually. Many people use it, and it works just fine. I haven't had a site that didn't work on firefox so far. Deviantart even recommends using it, and so do many other sites. You see, internet explorer has a lot of security issues, and they won't be adressed. Microsoft made it clear they are now focussing entirely on the browser that's going to ship with the new operating system. The only downside to firefox is that the images seem to load slightly slower, but overall it's faster, at least as far as I can tell.

[slet]

yeah I agree, there isn't a page IE can display, that FF can't display. Netscape is also good, but not as good as FF.

[Raymei]

My dad has firefox on his computer :huh: but ...I'm not sure if it was just that one time, but my comic's web page has a white background on it instead of the blue one.

Do some features that work on IE not work with Firefox, Lexar?

T.T I have a chronic problem with spyware too...so...that's why I'm asking

[Lexar]

I think you need to download some stuff for flash animations and such, but it's almost automatical. Other than that, firefox can do more than IE, and faster too. FF has a popup blocker, multiple tabs, instead of seperate browsers, built in google searcher (or yahoo, or anything else you want), easy access to bookmarks, and it's not supporting the big bad microsoft, which is also a nice extra.

All you ppl with your spyware.. I used to be like you all, but now I laugh at you from my clean pc. Hahah!

[Stratadrake]

[quote]Simply browsing an art archive is like asking for the blue screen of death.[/quote]

I don't know about that... however, the other day my computer was seriously seizing up while I was trying to load, oh, 8 pages at a time :P

[quote]Do some features that work on IE not work with Firefox, Lexar?[/quote]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: While all browsers try to conform to the W3C HTML standard, oftentimes an Internet browser will support additional HTML features that [i]aren't[/i] part of the official W3C standard. Like named colors (which aren't valid according to the W3C standard, but browsers support them nonetheless).

Thus, if you build a site that relies on attribute tags that aren't part of the official W3C standard, i.e. browser-proprietary tags and settings, then you may end up with a webpage that works completely fine on the browser it's meant for, but doesn't work well (or possibly at all) in a different browser.

[quote]FF has a popup blocker, multiple tabs, instead of seperate browsers, built in google searcher[/quote]

Features which are also available in NS7+ (since NS/FF use the same codebase). NS7 has the same tab system, pop-up blocker (and NS7's pop-up blocker is easier to use since there's a toolbar button to turn it on/off and you don't have to go into the settings pages)

Firefox also stores its bookmarks in a single file "bookmarks.html", which is forwards and backwards compatible with Netscape browsers.

Ugly fact: Go to your Windows directory, right-click on the Favorites folder, and choose Properties. Compare the total amount of actual data with the total amount of disk space reserved for it.

My PC (Win98, FAT32 hard drive):
- 2,200 IE bookmarks
- 268kb of data occupying 9.00 MB of disk space -- literally 96% empty space.
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[EN1X]

I downloaded Firefox and am using it now. It's alright. Some pop ups still come up every once in a while, though.

But, the font of webpages keep resetting to their original size, which is quite large. I keep decreasing the font, but it always changes back. Any way to fix that?
I also have a problem with new windows opening from links, but I'll try to fix that before I ask about it.

But thanks a lot, Lexar. Really appreciate it.


[quote]To reset your homepage, go up to Tools -> Internet Options. [/quote]
I know [i]how[/i] to, the thing is that it just changes itself every couple minutes. (well, I don't have this problem with FF..)

[quote]Don't browse pr0n,[/quote]
Well, I don't do that, but my stepdad does and I don't think I can stop him... o.0

[quote]  See if this folder exists in your pc:
C:/Program Files/EnterOne/Portal[/quote]
I don't have it... I searched Google... Must be a Dutch thing or something... o.0

[Stratadrake]

[quote]I downloaded Firefox and am using it now. It's alright. Some pop ups still come up every once in a while, though.[/quote]

I believe the popup blocker takes effect only [i]while the page is loading[/i]. It does not apply to anything you click on once the page is complete, or "mouseover" popups.
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[Lexar]

Clicking on banners is your own fault

[EN1X]

Even when I don't have a browser open, ads still come up... o.0

[slet]

Then it has nothing to do with internet browsing. You need to chekck if you're firewall is working properly.

[Mountain_Dewroo]

Sorry to interupt, Is "game32" a virus?

[Raymei]

Well crappity..
Yeah with FireFox webpages look funny (the text doesn't seem to be right and some colors are skewed)
and I had the same problem with trying to open windows (like if you click on a webpage link here, it'll never open)

o.o,


I got rid of WinMX and now it's going fairly well
I'm running another spyware sweep with my program, but it's not that good (i should really get another)

but thanks for the WinMX tip! ^^

[slet]

[quote="Mountain_Dewroo (Norman Fry)"] Sorry to interupt, Is "game32" a virus? [/quote]
ever heard of google? game32

[Black-Bird]

[quote="Raymei (Raymei A. L. Klisea)"]
Yeah with FireFox webpages look funny (the text doesn't seem to be right and some colors are skewed)
and I had the same problem with trying to open windows (like if you click on a webpage link here, it'll never open)
[/quote]
What do ya mean??? I'm using Firefox right now. Does this mean that ppl using explorer arn't seeing the same thing I'm seeing. :wacko:
If so. What can I do about it?
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[Mountain_Dewroo]

[quote="slet (Jan Alink)"] [quote="Mountain_Dewroo (Norman Fry)"] Sorry to interupt, Is "game32" a virus? [/quote]
ever heard of google? game32 [/quote]
Sorry, You can call me a n00b now, I don't care.