BTW, if the popup is not a web page, but just a windows dialog box, then the problem is not spyware. Here is how to turn those off: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp
Illiquid, the problem arises when one visits a sex site or a gambling site or when one discloses one's name and email address to a web site (any website) we visit. It can also occur if one discloses one's email address in a post on say a site like E.T. There are programs around which enables 'them' to automatically comb through a website to collect email addresses mentioned in posts. Pronto they have a list of email addresses which can be used for spam mail (or sold to companies). One solution would be to have several email addresses, one for business and friends and another one to use on visiting a website. Thence from time top time keep changing the latter one. A good way to find out who is selling their email list to other companies is, when leaving an email address behind (to get further information on a product), to give them a different first name each time. It does appear as if the main problem lies with sex and gambling sites. They must sent out millions of spam advertisements at a time. freealways
freealways, what does giving out your name and email address have to do with popups? spam email is a completely unrelated issue to the one being asked about.
True, the most common issues are: SPAM - I found that using SpamNet plugin for Outlook and Outlook Express in combination with my own rules in Outlook blocks 95% of the spam (I get about 250 spam messages a day) VIRUS - Norton Anti-Virus is one of the best ones. SPYWARE - Common sense works best - if you are browsing to a site and you get a popup for a permission to download something when you did not click on a download button, DON'T DO IT unless you know what that something is. For software that you do download and install, Norton Internet Security, ZoneAlarm and Outpost are very good for detecting outbound connections, though it can be a bit irritating. Outpost is pretty flexible about the rules. Ad-Aware should of course be run regularly to check for any Spyware that might have been installed (NOTE: NOT Adware is not the same thing as Spyware. Our software - QuoteTracker - is Adware, but we do NOT have any "Spyware" components that identify the individual users to advertisers) POPUPS (web based) - There are lots of popup blockers out there. I frequently use NetCaptor browser which has popup blocking and ad blocking built in. Both Norton Internet Security and Outpost also have it built in (refer to SPYWARE above) POPUPS (Microsoft System) - If you are connected to the net via a router such as Netgear or Linksys, or through a proxy server, you will not have that problem. If you connect direct, the firewall programs such as Outpost, ZoneAlarm and Norton Internet Security will block the messages, but the easiest thing to do is to disable the service in Windows (refer to the link in my previous post). Home users do not need that service anyway. This is only an issue on Windows NT, 2000 and XP computers. Software referenced in this post (I am not affiliated with any of these companies): Norton Internet Security http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/ Outpost http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ ZoneAlarm http://www.zonealarm.com NetCaptor (great tabbed browser too) http://www.netcaptor.com Norton Anti-Virus http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_9xnt/ (NOTE: it may come together with Norton Internet Security as well) SpamNet http://www.cloudmark.com/products/spamnet/ Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ and of course QuoteTracker, which I am affiliated with: http://www.quotetracker.com
Jerry, if one blocks something does that mean that one has nevertheless downloaded it in the first place (thus using up our allowed portions of megabytes) ? freealways
No, most ad blockers detect the request for the ad and redirect it to a local blank ad instead. For popups, what they do is detect the JavaScript code that is used to open the popup and modify it to cripple it prior to passing it on to your browser, so the popup window is never launched in the first place and the page that would have been loaded into that window is never loaded.
Actually, this computer I'm using is still on Windows ME, which does not allow disabling messenger. The ads seem like normal pop-ups though, not messenger format pop-ups. The solution I got was to add "www.win250dollar.com*" to my pop-up killer list -- however, the microsecond in which it takes for the popup to load up and disappear is still pretty annoying, especially when watching a fast market. Yes I know, I should be way beyond windows ME by now, but I've never had any problem with it when it came to trading so I never bothered to change -- now I think I finally have a reason. In any case, if any of you puter geeks out there can figure out what exactly this site has put on my computer, I will be most grateful.