all of a sudden I have pop-ups and browsers that try to open. Please help.

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Check for adware and sypware all are free except Spycop: http://www.spycop.com/

Also use SpyBot and AdAware in tandem. Neither is 100% accurate but the two of them together get pretty close to 100% accuracy.

spybot here
http://www.safer-networking.org/
Download
http://spybot.safer-networking.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

AdAware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Not Free
Spycop:
http://www.spycop.com/
==========================

Could be a Broweser high jacker behind the problem

This little didy will get rid of some of the more well known Home page Hijackers.
CoolWebShredder
http://www.spychecker.com/program/coolwebshredder.html
here is a description of what it does
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/10/17/10-17-143.shtml
Features:

· Redirections to CoolWebSearch related pages
· Redirections when mistyping URLs
· Redirections when visiting Google
· Enormous IE slowdowns when typing
· IE start page/search page changing on reboot
· Sites in the IE Trusted Zone you didn't add
· Popups in Google and Yahoo when searching
· Errors at startup mentioning WIN.INI or IEDLL.EXE
· Unable to change or see certain items in IE Options
· Unable to access IE Options at all

download here
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_coolwebshredder.html
----------------------------------

Could be a Broweser high jacker behind the problem
Hijack This and BHODemon and Browser Hijack Blaster

Hijack This http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip | Written by a member of our support forums and based on our Hijacked! article, this program scans the locations in your computer system that may be modified by browser hijackers and fixes any problems found. An easy-to-understand tutorial is available at TomCoyote.org.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php?cat=sp#det
BHODemon http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/ | Think of BHODemon as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them individually. This program is my choice for BHO detection and is highly recommended.

Browser Hijack Blaster http://www.wilderssecurity.net/bhblaster.html | Running silently in the background, Browser Hijack Blaster only springs into action when an attempt is made. It watches and protects the following items: IE Homepage, IE Default Page, IE Search Page, BHOs. Whenver one of the above items is changed, or a BHO is added, you are immediately provided with information on the item, along with the option to keep the change, or revert to your previous settings.
=======================

General and overall information about Spy/Adware
http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm

Also if you are using a program like Kaaza get rid of it. Programs like this generate a lot of problems one of which is unwanted advertisement.

ASKER

I do not use Kaaza and I have disabled messenger service before....can it "enable" itself?

>>>can it "enable" itself?

Not on its on volition. Is it enabled now?

SOLUTION

allllec

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Phill_upson

also try going to the run box and type

hbinst /uninstall

Follow the prompts, thats the most common peice of scumware that does what you describe.

ASKER

this problem has also caused something else, and it seems strange. Before last night and these new popups I would turn on my computer, wait for my desk top and then click the IE icon and it would bring up my dialer and dial in to my ISP. Now, it does it automatically(can someone explain how?). I turn on my computer and as the desktop shows up, the dialer does not open on my screen but it dials and connects in the background. I am not sure how pop-ups can cause that but it does and it "IS" convenient, but I still have to click IE to get a browser. To give you an example of what it is doing, before I came here to see the new comment, all I did was open my e-mail and clic the link to this message...that one click resulted in 3 popups on that one click. All the suggestions are numerous and somewhat GREEK but I will look into all of it. I'll increase the points on this thread, but it may take me some days to look over all of the above suggestions.

SOLUTION

☠ MASQ ☠

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SOLUTION

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ASKER

let me try all suggestions. I will increase the points over time so I can award some to everyone. I will do a virus scan first and see. I know what I was doing when this started. I went to a site where you just look up prices on video games, etc. I have been there many times with no accidental download of software. This time I did get a popup that always covered up what I was trying to see. It kept saying "if you want to see all the cheat codes for the video games" you must click YES. This is when it the problems started. I'll report back after my experimenting.

ASKER

I deleted some things on my desktop that were new in the last few days. I went to my add/remove programs and deleted all strange things. There is one called spin4dough. It won't let me delete it and when I do a search for all files containing that word, the search comes up empty. I have Windows XP. I'll do a virus scan to see anything, and then proceed to the suggestions given already.

Hi :

You can remove spin4dough by this tool.

http://www.bulletproofsoft.com/spyware-remover.html

You can see in the long list "Spyware.Spin4Dough" is included. I think if other tools doesn't work then this should work.

Good luck.

rsdn

ASKER

I checked my system for viruses and found none. Then I tried the bulletproofsoft.com. It found 518 infected files, 17 folders, 45 registry keys, and 3 memory processes. It removed them. Is spyware a program that sneaks onto my computer and then when I go to a site it pops up some add it thinks is related to the site I am currently visiting? I got a popup today for jewelry and I was on a sports site. I will look over and utilize much more of what has been suggested by all and report back. We'll see if these removals solve everything. Thanks

ASKER

The bulletproof worked 100% last night. Then today, I got 2 popups trying to get to this thread and ONE of those was an ad from "Experts Exchange". And I got 4 popups while using Ebay for only 5 minutes. Does this mean that I have to run things like Bulletproof every day? Also, it is deleting all my cookies too for sites I want. I had to re-log in to places like Experts Exchange, and My.Yahoo. I have never had a popup problem with Ebay before this recent popup spyware thing and I am sure Ebay is not in the popup business. I will check my settings on messenger service again too, but I disabled it a few months ago.

Hi there:

You need to open the "spy watcher" option in the bulletproof software, in order to alert you about adware or spyware. Otherwise, the same or new spyware/adware will infect your computer.

rsdn

Besides, adware and spyware software, you can use seperate popup ads stopper software (if you really don't want to see any popup):

Freeware :

http://www.firase.com/NoAds/

Shareware:

http://www.panicware.com/

I hope it helps.

rsdn

ASKER

ok, I'll try that.
I just got a popup and all I did was click "submit" to send an inquiry to Ebay tech support.
The spyware is being initiated by almost everything I do. I guess an occassional popup is not bad but 4 every 5 minutes like today is bad.

ASKER

I opened the bulletproof folder and opened the popup watch. But it inteferred with some things. It would not open up Ebay when i tried to click on an Ebay linik in my e-mail box. It also made me have to login again on Experts Exchange. So, I closed the popup watch. I clicked on "spy watcher" and it appears to be on....it says "monitor on".
CRAZYONE: My messenger service is already disabled.

rossfingal

Hi!

Download and install HijackThis (per CrazyOne's post above).
Install it to it's own folder, not your Desktop or a temp folder, click on the config button and check every box.
Close all browser windows, run it and post a HijackThis log here.
We'll take a look at it.

Good luck!

Hi:

You need to set the configuration of each tool inside the bulletproof software. Please read the help file for more details and see screen shots.

rsdn

ASKER

the bulletproof seems to be working properly now even though I am not sure what I did. I deleted it from my add/remove list, because of things I could not do. Now, all I see on my tool bar for my IE is "popswatter" I noticed when I went to Ebay and tried to move around I heard a sound in the background. I guess it is "swatting" a popup. I have had no popups in several hours now. I'll try all other suggestions as well, look into all of it.

amanda333

Here are a couple of spywear programs that you can use. Yes spywear can get on to your computer by just visiting a site.

The two best spywear porgram to use are

Spy-Bot search & destroy
and Lavasofts Ad-Wear(You should get both becuase each one gets stuff the other doesn't)

You might also want to find some other spywear programs and use them becuase those two might not get all of the spy wear so just do a search and find one that you think would be good.

ASKER

what I am using now seems to catch some and not others. It seems when I am using Ebay I get popups, even though Ebay tech support said their site only has one popup, when you first go to their home page. When I clicked the link to this thread, I heard that "sick cow sound" in the background and new a popup was stopped. I have never gotten popups going to Experts Exchange before recently. There is alot of info above from everybody. It will take me time to go over it all. I'll report back in a few days and increase my points so I can award to all.

allllec

try and remove some spyware using the tools i suggested before and you origanly said that you get a "-----Mircrosoft Inte.....". pop up these will always come up ocasinaly but without any spy\ad ware it will become very rare.

good luck

and by the way if you have any software called my.... or ..my...... i would suggest uninstalling it because that sort of software does cause alot of pop ups to apper

anyways good luck and pop up blockers can be better or worse than others so look around

alec

ASKER

A question I have is since I had NO popups for many, many months, until early this week, then this means the spyware got on my computer thru visiting some site or some download. Is there a way to remove the spyware programs from my computer? I think I did this the other day with bulletproof but pop-ups are back. Why do I still get them after removing all the programs? I am trying to understand why I still have them if I removed the spyware programs. And why do they come back when I am visiting the same sites I have always gone to in the past with ZERO popup problems?

☠ MASQ ☠

I think amanda333 is hinting at your current position. Although most spyware removers are good, none catch everything it might be worth trying a couple of others (making sure they are updated before you run them) to see if anything else can be found. There are also nasties called browser hijackers that might be worth hunting for. You can download a small program called hijackthis! which can generate a log of legitimate (& otherwise) installations on your computer which in one way or another control your browser. The log produced is pretty hard work to analyze but you can cut & paste it here & there are several experts who can pick it clean for you!

As an aside to reduce the risk of future infection in IE tools - internet options - advanced tab make sure that both the browser optionslabelled Install on demand are unticked. This makes a lot of the software declare itself before it runs on your computer.

Hi nickg5:

No offense, there is no software can gurantee that your computer will never infected by spyware or adware. Because everyday there are new virus, spyware/ adware are coming. That's why, all the virus programs need to update for latest version.

The best way to get less popup and adware/spyware is not to visit some sites which are not secure (as for example mlm, crack, underground site and so on).

Thanks.

rsdn

ASKER

RSDN: ok, but once it is on my computer and I find it in my add/remove program list and remove it, then it should be gone and all popups stop until I accidentally get another? I am getting popups today but there are no strange looking items in my add/remove program list.

Hi:

I don't think all popup will install or change in your add/remove program list. As far I know, some toolbar (specially search tool) install a small program which you can notice in your add/remove program list.

My suggestion is to use a good firewall program like
zone alarm or outpost. Because whenever, some spyware or adware infected your computer, it always try to connect through internet. Then you will see some popup and other unusual matters. Firewall will stop these type of activities as well as to change something (like registry) in you computer.

rsdn

ASKER

will try this one from downloads.com and see. It says it repairs the registry.

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner 1.12 pop
Scan for spyware, adware, Trojan horses, keyloggers, and trackware components.
OS: Windows (all)
File Size: 1.09MB
License: Free