adware and spyware and porn pop ups

[x-xcutiex-x]

hi i seem to have some sort of adware or spyware problem with my computor. i have norton antivirus and it keeps picking up and deleating problems but they come back a minit later. im getting pop ups about porn and spywear advertisements that my computor is saying not to trust.

heres the embarrising problem, i need to ask my boyfriend for help because my internet tool bar is messed up and everything. hes brilliant with pc's but im embarrased.

this virus is supposed to record what sites you go on? well you know im getting porn ads, is that because ive been on porn? and will he know?

does spyware and adware only send you info you have been on?

thank you

[boingo]

Along with the regular firewall and antivirus I software I have running all the time, I also do occasional scans with other programs. These are all passive, meaning you have to tell them when to run, so they aren't on all the time using up all your resources. For most people there is always going to be some sort of spyware lurking around. A good firewall should stop any of them sending out any information. Plus most spyware is just to tailor ads anyway.
To my knowledge none of these scanning programs contain any nasties either.

Primarily I scan with these programs and I regard them as must-have programs:
Spybot Search & Destroy -This one takes about five minutes to scan my system and can slow things down a bit as it's scanning. It's amazing how much crap it will pick up just from the stuff regular sites give us.
Ad-Aware -This will always find a MRU list. That must be a list of cookies from Female First as they only started being picked up when I began . the site.
There's usually some other thing I find, but it's nothing bad.
They both run a bit differently. Ad-Aware is faster than Spybot, but they both work a bit differently to each other.
I've recently started using Hijack This.
It's scans for browser hijacker programs. (The link has a page with information and a download button)
There is a bit of spyware called Cool Web Search which installs a search tool bar of the same name. Even if you don't have it installed, there is the chance it may be hiding somewhere. (Although I've never found it on my PC)

Where to get them.
Spybot Search & Destroy (The link's in the middle of the page at the top of the list):
http://www.spybot.info/en/download/index.html

Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Hijack This:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

Cool Web Search remover:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

I haven't tried this one yet, but it looks to be ok and it also only runs when you tell it to:
Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
I got this link via the "Australian Net Guide" magazine website.

Microsoft has finally brought out their own spyware remover too:
Windows Defender (Beta 2) x86
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&DisplayLang=en
This one also works passively. Ie. It's not always using up your RAM by continuously running. That does mean you'll need to run it yourself though.

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Avoiding problems:
Firstly, don't think of viruses or hard drive failures as things that may happen. Think of them as things that will happen. I've got back-ups of back-ups and tight security, but things do happen.

Most viruses and trojens etc will latch onto Windows, so one great way to avoid a lot of problems is to have at least two physically separate hard drives.
One with your operating system on it. Eg. Windows. The other one with all your stuff on it.
This also helps to keep Windows running more smoothly because the constant addition and removal of data (photos etc.) fragment the hard drive, which means Windows ends up with bits of itself all over the place.
It's like having a book, then putting the pages of the book in different places all around the room, then having to keep scribbling out the index and writing in the new location of the page.

Backing things up:
I've got three physically separate hard drives in my computer and one external. -Three is plenty though. This way you can have a duplicate folder of your photos etc on a second hard drive. When, not if, one of your hard drives fails then you still have all your data backed up.

I also burn back-ups onto DVDs as back-ups. Don't rely only on a backed up DVD or CD though as they can also stuff up. If possible make two back-up copies of your photos on two different brands of DVDs or CDs, and make sure they are reliable brands. Sometimes there will be a bad batch of discs, so using two different brands should ensure you have at least one good copy.
I keep my photos on one of my hard drives too. (I really should have two copies on two separate hard drives)

Store your back-up discs away from your computer. That way if there's a fire in one of the rooms then you may have a chance at grabbing one or the other.
For really important stuff, you could put them in a fireproof safe or even store a secton set of discs at someone else's house.

Along with DVDs, I use an external hard drive for back-ups. That way I can just grab it if there is a fire.

[cosmicB]

When I run into similar troubles as you, I run Find and Regedit for that culprit.. and flush it out of the computer...

Usually you need to go into all of your computer's control panels, and delete any mention of the bugger... especially into all of your Internet settings controls... That's usually where that crap takes hold... Mostly they change your user browser search parameters...

CM DiskCleaner's registry scan can be set to find keywords, by typing the culprit's names in options, clicking find search words, and then run the registry scan... but do not delete everything CM's registry cleaner finds... Just delete the stuff you know forsure is garbage... The only real safe foolproof Registry cleaner I found in the Net World is EasyCleaner.. with that one you can delete everything the cleaners find, and suffer no problems afterwards.. but it doesn't find a lot of the stuff CM finds...

When I run this type of search and clean, I always add the common items which I know are bad to have in an old PC: macromedia, shockwave, showbehind, backweb, desktopmessenger, plus whatever it is I want cleaned out of the registry.. like trace bits of an old uninstall...
Then I carefully scrutinize what CM finds, and delete what I know should be deleted... And if I make any errors, CM has a backup restore, if I had clicked that option... CM saves you a lot of time in you not having to do a manual regedit search...

To prevent porn sites from adding their hard cookies to your operating system, you need to have your firewall set to block that kind of traffic...

"Tiny Personal Firewall" is a good one for that... "Nod32" is a good AVS...

"Spybot" is Super for finding and deleting most of those pests...
careful what you do in Spybot's advanced settings... You can make a big systems killer mess playing with settings you don't fully understand...

"F-Prot AVS" finds malware things that no other AVS can...

What are you running as an AVS scanner, and a Firewall?.. Which Windows system are you running?..

I found the best cure to not getting those bugs in my PC, is I boycott those dirty porn sites... Trouble is that none of them are truly clean these days... Visiting their websites is like sticking your hand into an aquarium of very hungry piranha's...

[chorlean]

To get rid of unwanted pop up messages:-

Click start
click run and type services.msc /s Click OK
There is a space between c /s
scroll down and click messenger and then change the box stating start up type to disabled and click OK.
No more unwanted messages!

[cosmicB]

I think what you are referring to is a "hard cookie"...

You go into Start>Settings>Taskbar>StartMenu>Remove... and delete any porn links there...

Then into Start>Control>Add/Remove... and delete any porn mention there too...

If you still can't find something, use Start>Find to find it...
And if you still can't find it, use Start>Run>type-in Regedit, and go to find...

Firewalls and good AVS's prevent those irritating links from taking-hold in computers...
It sounds like that PC doesn't have a good firewall...
Tiny Personal Firewall is a good one for catching those little irritating links.. but it's doesn't seem to be a reliable firewall to catch the wicked modern nasties... TPF is a good internal PC cop...

Bottom line.. those porn sites are full of all kinds of nasties...
Before clicking on porn sites, do an internet search on the intended site, to determine if that site is buggy and dangerous... If a devil-site harmed other's PC's, People will have posted warnings about it on the Net...

Before you can safely play in hell's porn sites, you must have the best up to date AVS, and Best Firewall, installed in your PC.. and even then it's taking chances...

Ones best option, is to do an Internet search for "clean bugfree porn sites".. and a search for "porn sites to avoid", and "bad web sites".. Save a copy of the bad sites lists, and try to boycott the buggy ones...

Plus, if you right click to save a copy of a porn pix, there's a good chance that the pix will come with bugs, which will infect your OS the moment you click the downloaded icon...

Those who abuse the Internet, are pushing it closer and closer to tighter and tighter regulations and policing.. pushing it into all of us paying per email.. making the Internet into another federal beast, hellbent on sucking yet more of the money out of our wallets, and blood out of our veins... If only there was a way to wake up the bullies to stop their crazy Internet bullying, before new laws have to be created, implemented, and enforced... If this craziness bullying doesn't stop soon, I bet within 17-years we will all be paying per email.. and forums will cost a couple $hundred just to register in... A valid active credit-card will be required, to use forums...
The Plus will be that there will be a dramatic reduction in mass-mailings of irritating spams, scams, and adverts... Incidents of petty thievery will rise to set precedents, for the scammers to stay alive...
The sad thing will be that most the good forums and blogs, will simply die off.. and only the Wealthy will be able to use the Internet.. while the average Public is essentially kicked-out of the Internet...
It's coming, if we all don't somehow learn to play nice...