Page 1 of Unwanted web pages popping up.

Can anyone help a naive PC user ?
I can be sitting working away on my PC when a web page will open up on my screen, completely without provocation. I do not have to have internet explorer loaded. I can be in something like excel or word when these web pages pop up.
Unfortunately the pages involved are usually of `dubious` content. I have absolutely no idea what I did to allow this to happen,but I`d love it to stop.
I do not visit `dubious` sites.I tend to surf for the same sort of stuff like electronics,cars, and music so it`s not as if I`ve knowingly signed up to or welcome this crap.
I now hate leaving my PC unattended in case one of these dubious web pages appears and someone sees it.
Help !

You need a product like this http://www.panicware.com/index.html pop-up stopper, or just do a search on pop up stoppers, theres a good chance to get shareware ones with out paying, unless you know where to get a key gen for it !!


It also sounds like you might have some spy ware installed in your sys as well, download spybot and run it, its free and they only ask for a donation if you like it.
The other popular prog that does this is called adaware but spybot is far better. I ran adaware and it found some spyware, than i ran spybot and it found even more. You can get it from here

http://spybot.eon.net.au/index.php?lang=en&page=download

This item was edited on Monday, 19th May 2003, 17:48

It sounds more serious than that if "pop ups" keep happening when Internet Explorer is not loaded. Have you got a virus checker installed?
Also spyware might be active. Check your computer using this programme: http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
I would check for a virus first though. Might have been in an e-mail attachment.

"It sounds more serious than that if `pop ups` keep happening when Internet Explorer is not loaded."

Not necessarily - I have heard of spyware with this behaviour before. From CEXX.org:

"NETBUIE.EXE (Unknown) - Source unknown. Places itself in C:windowssystem and adds a startup reference to the Registry. Continually loads porn popups (www.sexysquirter.com et al) while the machine is switched on."

If you have something like this, either Spybot or Lavasoft`s Adaware should get rid of it.

Mike

This item was edited on Monday, 19th May 2003, 17:57

Mike , i`ve heard that people have been getting hit with this as well, this type of thing should be illegal. Imagine if you been on the net and this has loaded, and your kid is the next one on the PC and this pops up.

Gentlemen
I downloaded that spybot thing and I was amazed how many of these internet tracker things I had on my computer, all of which were classified as " real threats " by spybot.
Some of the names mentioned were sextracker and gator.
I have used it to `fix` them, and hopefully now the pop-ups will stop.
I really can`t thank you enough for your help.
Thanks again

Pleased it worked out for you Bowf :-))