Okay, so I'm at work. IE was annoying me with the popups so I installed FF with Adblock Plus. I have been online for 5 minutes and I have already had 10 popups from IE.
How am I getting IE popups, when FF is the only open browser?
Probably spyware on that machine.
Boss spyware, or bad spyware? Or, both... ?
You've probably done this already but you could test your system: http://www.kephyr.com/popupkillertest/index.html
If Firefox is set to the default web browser and popups appear with IE, you may very well have the bad spyware.
Okay, so I'm at work. IE was annoying me with the popups so I installed FF with Adblock Plus. I have been online for 5 minutes and I have already had 10 popups from IE.
How am I getting IE popups, when FF is the only open browser?
Perhaps they are pop-ups from windows messenger or other instant messenger services
Perhaps they are pop-ups from windows messenger or other instant messenger services
All of the popups are a IE browser pages. The popups are either telling me that my computer has a vulnerability to a worm (I don't have the name with me), or that my registry is corrupted. But they are all IE browser pages, and FF is set to be the default. I refuse to open IE, but it opens itself.
I think that my boss, and I are going to need to have a little talk. The computers/network are only protected by a few routers. The accounting software keeps getting corrupted and my boss doesn't know why. I wouldn't be surprised if there are multiple infections/spyware.
Those popups that are unsolicated advertisements stating you have a "worm, spyware, corrupted registry" etc., can easily be blocked by a software-based firewall (ZoneAlarm, Sygate, Kerio, etc.,), hell even Windows Firewall will block them. Another problem is if you're seeing those popups they may have inputted their rogue websites into IE's Trusted Sites which means you'd have to manually remove them or deal with the consequences of someone stupid enough to actually visit such a website with cough, cough Internet Exploiter.
Those popups can also occur if the system either:
1. Doesn't have a firewall installed.
2. The system has a firewall installed but it isn't configured properly e.g.; it isn't blocking the proper ports, or the firewall is old and needs updated to a newer version that has fixed vulnerabilities in earlier versions.
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Edit:
If that system has anything as old as say Kerio v2.1.5 get rid of that old s**t and update it to something more current!
Those popups that are unsolicated advertisements stating you have a "worm, spyware, corrupted registry" etc., can easily be blocked by a software-based firewall (ZoneAlarm, Sygate, Kerio, etc.,), hell even Windows Firewall will block them. Another problem is if you're seeing those popups they may have inputted their rogue websites into IE's Trusted Sites which means you'd have to manually remove them or deal with the consequences of someone stupid enough to actually visit such a website with cough, cough Internet Exploiter.
Those popups can also occur if the system either:
1. Doesn't have a firewall installed.
2. The system has a firewall installed but it isn't configured properly e.g.; it isn't blocking the proper ports, or the firewall is old and needs updated to a newer version that has fixed vulnerabilities in earlier versions.
------
Edit:
If that system has anything as old as say Kerio v2.1.5 get rid of that old s**t and update it to something more current!
My computer is Windows 2000 Professional. Doesn't only XP have a Windows firewall? (I will look) And there is only the hardware firewall which should block that stuff, huh? Hopefully I'll have time to check everything out soon.
Normally, I would be able to fix the problems that this machine has but I don't have a CD to do a sfc /scannow and I don't have access to the Windows folder even though I'm the Administrator (this is strange to me).
Popups galore
Defrag is broken
Disk Cleanup is broken
Lots of crashes and freezing
My goodness!!!
I've never used Win2k, however the Windows Firewall was made available in WinXP (SP2).
It's probably as Tarun stated: bad spyware
However if that system has no firewall at all, or an old outdated one I'd bet it has more than spyware alone and probably has other infections as well.
Popups galore
Defrag is broken
Disk Cleanup is broken
Lots of crashes and freezing
Time to follow Andy's recommendations he gives in the HijackThis thread then!
And if that much is broken on the system and you don't have the install CD to reinstall Windows your boss may be shelling out some $ for a WinXP install CD.
I
However if that system has no firewall at all,
It has a hardware firewall, but routers only protect against incoming traffic not outgoing. So a software firewall is necessary even with a router. (I learned that a few weeks ago. I used to think that a router was enough.)
Time to follow Andy's recommendations he gives in the HijackThis thread then!
Yeah, I was thinking about that yesterday.
And if that much is broken on the system and you don't have the install CD to reinstall Windows your boss may be shelling out some $ for a WinXP install CD.
Yeah, for me!
Those popups that are unsolicated advertisements stating you have a "worm, spyware, corrupted registry" etc., can easily be blocked by a software-based firewall (ZoneAlarm, Sygate, Kerio, etc.,), hell even Windows Firewall will block them. Another problem is if you're seeing those popups they may have inputted their rogue websites into IE's Trusted Sites which means you'd have to manually remove them or deal with the consequences of someone stupid enough to actually visit such a website with cough, cough Internet Exploiter.
I think that I will need to use a software firewall after all. The machine had over 250 infections, and more keep showing up every day. The computer has all possible protection now except for a software firewall. So when I am finished cleaning up the new infections I will setup a software firewall.
My goodness!