Just a little PSA...

[rusty_halo]

I've had two complaints about people getting pop-up advertisements when they visit my site. Guys, this has nothing to do with me. All About Spike has no pop-up advertisements and never will. If you're getting pop-ups, it's because you've got adware and/or spyware on your computer.

You get these if, say, your security settings are low and you visit a site like fanfiction.net, which has ads that try to automatically download and install spyware programs on your computer. Or you download a program like, say, Kazaa, which comes with a ton of spyware programs bundled in that automatically install themselves when you install Kazaa. (More info here or here or here). Or if you've ever downloaded that awful Comet Cursor thing, for example, you're pretty much guaranteed to have spyware on your computer.

Spyware doesn't just cause annoying pop-ups, either; if uses up your system resources and slows down your computer. It can be used for all sorts of malicious activity, like tracking your internet use by advertisers or stealing your personal information, which may eventually lead to identity theft.

There are many programs, some free and some that you pay for, that will scan your computer for adware/spyware and remove it for you. Do a search on yahoo or download.com and you'll find some; AdAware is a good one to try.

Comments

[ex-vanillaco754.livejournal.com]

Excellent post.

I've had similar complaints from visitors to my site and spend ages explaining there are no pop-ups generated by the site itself.

I have officially sanctioned pop-up and spyware blocking software on my work PC and laptop and I still have to run AdAware two or three times a week.

It's amazing what slips through the net ... I'm deleting 30 or 40 illegal items a time.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

Or people could try the Google bar. It blocks most pop-ups. I do still get some but not a lot. 239 blocked so far. Google bar enabled at the end of December.

[octopedingenue]

I also really like Spybot Search & Destroy. :) I have it and AdAware, and I run both programs regularly.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Please don't think I was ever blaming you (I never really thought that it was your site in the first place). It's just that I have the google bar and ad-adware, and your site (and only your site) brings up this particular window. I do agree it probably is something I picked up elsewhere, especially as I have another spyware problem that swaps over my homepage.