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 06:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-05 06:58 pm (UTC)It sounds like you definitely have spyware or adware running that AdAware is failing to detect. You might want to pick a specific phrase or URL that's associated with the pop-up and then do a search on it to try and find a removal tool for that particular program. For example, there's a list of spyware programs and how to remove them here.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-05 07:06 pm (UTC)