Pop-Up Downloads

Yeah, you read right. As if pop-up ads weren’t already annoying enough, some evil company has now developed the technology to allow them to install software on your PC (sometimes in the background, without your permission). Porn sites are already using this handy new tool to hijack IE settings and redirect users to their sites. How long will it be before virus writers start exploiting this wonderful new breakthrough in computing technology? In my opinion this new practice is much scarier than the Brilliant Digital fiasco. Here’s the link:

<a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-877592.html" target="_blank">http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-877592.html</a>

I've already had Gator attempt to install itself on my PC twice while I was casually surfing the internet. This stuff is just getting ridiculous. When are these slimeball software companies going to learn that if we want their product on our machines we will knowingly download and install it ourselves!

I have had these types of popups as well. To the unsuspecting eye they are basically plug-in like in appearance. They are a PITA if you ask me, but if people want to try to force these programs upon you, then do as I do, don't go back to the sites in question.

It is basically another revenue scheme such as banner ads in reality but a little more naughty due to you actually have the choice on banners wether or not to click them, yet you have to click the box to get rid of these pop-ups.

Using <a href="http://www.webwasher.com" target="_blank">WebWasher</a> will stop this nonsense in it's tracks. It may prevent some sites from working properly, but it will let you surf in peace.

webwasher does not seem to work on xp (so it says) , however i am using "pop up stopper from <a href="http://www.panicware.com" target="_blank">www.panicware.com</a> and this does seen to work on all platforms

freddy

Yea, it appears like I got hit by one of these the other day. I was kinda curious as to why my AMD 1.2 running XP Professional came to a crawling halt when I was only surfing the internet. It seems like I had been hit by Gator. When I ran Ad-Aware, I had over 200 running processes that were spyware. Not including the many registry entries, and software that had been installed. Keep an eye out, and remember, Ad-Aware is your best friend....

You might try Adaware + .Adaware with the addition of the AD Watch plugin,it runs in the system tray and catches them as they try to appear on your system with options to boot Adaware striaght away.

another vote for adaware, which rule my a55!
oh and are you running a firewall? perhaps zone alarm which is good about incoming and outgoing sneaky crap like that...
Agreed that these sneaky fools are out of control with this sh1t tho..

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Stanley_Kubrick:
<strong>another vote for adaware, which rule my a55!
oh and are you running a firewall? perhaps zone alarm which is good about incoming and outgoing sneaky crap like that...
Agreed that these sneaky fools are out of control with this sh1t tho..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm running two firewalls, one hardware and one software, but still got hit. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

I;m not sure how accurate I am here - but I have heard that it is relatively easy to modify the confirmation box provided by IE (for example).

Imagine you get a confirmation box that says "do you wish to install and run <crap> - click yes to confirm or no to cancel".

I have heard that it is possible to modify this box so that no means yes and vice-versa. I always click the cross (top right of confirmation box) to clear these pop-up download requests.

Can't believe that there is no properlaw against this, and spyware in general. I mean - if your door was open and someone came in to your house, and sat down and started watching you TV and maybe drank some of your beer, you'd be able to prosecute them for trespassing. So why is there nothing similar for spyware that sits on your machine, watches what you are up to, and consuems system resources???? What is going wrong with the world??????

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Stanley_Kubrick:
<strong>another vote for adaware, which rule my a55!
oh and are you running a firewall? perhaps zone alarm which is good about incoming and outgoing sneaky crap like that...
Agreed that these sneaky fools are out of control with this sh1t tho..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You'd be amazed at the number of inbound connections that are initiated from web sites.

Like right now someone is banging on my global ip with what appears to be 12 zombies. Looks like it's been happening all morning... not a flood though, must be some kind of virus or hack attempt.

I see the same thing sometimes from web sites. You visit the web site and the next thing you know there's an inbound connection attempted on x udp port.

Gotta love the PIX. It stops everything I've seen thrown at it so far and the logging is beautiful.