Can anyone recommend a free download to stop those Damn pop up ads ??   Thanks

Use Mozilla browser.  Works great and it's free.  go to mozill.org

www.google.com and instal their free search bar

Do you get pop-ups when you go to a site or do you just start
your browser and pop-ups start appearing out of no where?

Makes no difference.  Get Mozilla and your pop up days are over.

They ought to just classify all Microsoft crap as a freaking virus.

I use My Yahoo with Yahoo Companion .
Yahoo has a FREE pop-up blocker and anti-spy feature.
I don't get pop-ups and I run the anti-spy every time I'm on.

If you are getting pops-up out of nowhere,
its because some web site you went to stuck
adware software on your computer.

You may also have spyware, which is tracking
what web sites you visit.

Adware 6.0 and Spybot Search and Destroy are
free programs that remove adware and spyware,
but they aren't 100 percent effective.

If you need to use internet explorer, then
I recommend getting Norton Internet Security
Professional - its a firewall, anti-virus, anti-
adware and spyware, all in one.  I used it to
get rid of a nasty adware infestation on another
computer, and it was worth buying.

It's Ad-Aware from Lavasoft, best free software for spyware that I have found.

Not necessarily so...  There are some loopholes, particularly in Windows 2000, wherein the Windows Messenger Service has been compromised and used to transmit pop-ups.

This is in the Messenger Service... which is the the alert and message system that runs in the background of Windows...  No relation to Windows or MSN Messenger IM/Chat software.

Also, Mozilla is great, but Mozilla's next generation of browser, Firefox, is a tremendous browser and just had it's first production release last month.  I've been running Firefox, instead of Mozilla 1.7, in beta for about a year and it is an extraordinary browser.  I believe that the development of the original Mozilla (ie Netscape legacy) browser is winding down to nothing now and all future development will be focused on Firefox.

-- Modified on 10/6/2005 1:11:57 PM

-- Modified on 10/6/2005 1:13:59 PM

Go to www.grc.com and look for "Shoot The Messanger." The dude is the best coder I have ever seen.

Hey trooper,

It's pretty easy if you're the administrator of your computer and know your way around a little.  The problem isn't that the messenger service has beenm compromised...  It's working the way it's supposed to.  If a hacker finds a away to send you what llooks like a legitimate alert, the Messenger service pops it up.  So, the answer is to stop the messenger service.  Unless you're in an enterprise environment that uses the service to send you alerts about things like server shutdowns, you're not using the service anyway.

The Windows Messenger Service runs as a service in the background.  Right click "My Computer" and select Manage, when the MMC comes up, select "Services"...  scroll through the list of services, find the messenger service,it's just called "Messenger" in XP, can't remember if it's the same in 2000.  Right-click on it and stop it, then right-click it again and g to properties, and set its startup type to "disabled."

You know where to find me if you need help with it...

Geronimo!

-- Modified on 10/6/2005 1:12:25 PM