Just a little PSA...
Jan. 5th, 2004 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloI'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.
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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-05 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-05 05:36 pm (UTC)That should take care of the pop-ups, but it's still a good idea to run an adware/spyware removal program to stop other malicious activity of which a user may be unaware.
stop other malicious activity of which a user may be unaware.
Date: 2004-01-05 05:40 pm (UTC)Re: stop other malicious activity of which a user may be unaware.
Date: 2004-01-05 05:46 pm (UTC)AdAware really is a good one to try, and
These programs will scan your computer and tell you what spyware you have. You'll be shocked; it's often stuff that you had no idea about. Removing these programs makes your computer safer and can also help it run significantly faster.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-05 06:02 pm (UTC)Anything that makes my machine run faster than it's present pace is going to bring it out of the donkey and cart era and into the internal combustion engine age. (I despair of ever reaching the digital age,I really do, since I installed XP)