pop-ups, .. help? Options

[clarissa]

i have no idea where this goes, but here's the story.. i was doing some research on the internet for school when i got a virus from some stupid website. don't you love that? i spent around 5 hours trying to get it out.. and i'm pretty sure i did.

here's the problem.. even when i'm not browsing the internet, i still get pop-ups. i have zone alarm, ad-aware, and i have a pop up blocker from the google toolbar. no help. do you guys know anything that'll get rid of these pop-ups? thanks.

and if this is in the wrong place, i'm sorry. i just didn't know where this should go.

[ryanoman]

Many p2p file-sharing programs come bundled with adware and spyware. Many sites also may have some capabilites of downloading these malicious applications if you are not protected. It does things that you don't want, like give you popups, on or off the web, slow down your computer tremendously, change your homepage, add icons that you don't want to your desktop, etc. I know, I had this problem in recent experiences with my old computer, which we actually had to stop using, because the problems worsened, and our computer wouldn't even startup (this may not have been caused by spyware, adware, or viruses, though.) Luckally for you, there are quite a few solutions out there, some in which I have listed below.

http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-80...tml?tag=lst-0-1

HijackThis is an application that will tell you what has been changed in Internet Explorer settings and registy keys, therefore, some of the stuff it lists is potentially safe, so don't remove what it lists. Respond back to this topic with the results so that I can look them over and determine what should be removed.

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Dest...tml?tag=lst-0-1

Spybot search and destroy is an application that will tell you the spyware and adware that has been detected on your computer. Download the updates, restart computer if necessary, scan, restart, and scan again. This is necessary to determine if the infections are coming back. Please post the results of this scan if you want me to determine where most of your spyware/adware is coming from.

In addition to those, if you're willing to spend the money, I strongly suggest Norton Internet Security 2005. It protects your computer from viruses, hackers, popups, etc. It even let's you browse pages without seeing the ads at the top and side of all sites!

And last but not least, iI suggest you get Firefox. Internet Explorer is good in some cases, but adware/spyware can easily be installed on your computer with out you even knowing it. Firefox fixes these vulnerabilities. Go here to get it:

http://www.mozilla.org/

If you need any further help feel free to IM at xcombine