We have a cable modem so our connection is always on. Many times when the browsers aren’t even open, ads will pop up. Many of the ads are ones that I don’t want my 10 year old daughter to see. It also is quite irritating as you can be in the middle of the game and all of a sudden the game stops to display the ad. The easy way is to turn off the modem when not in use. But is there another way to stop the ads from coming when I’m not even on the machine? We use Win 98, and the browser window that opens up on its own is always IE. Is there a way to tell IE not to open up unless I open the application?
You have at some accidentally allowed spyware/adware to be installed on your computer. It has nothing to do with IE.
Search for Ad Aware, or Swat It - these programs should be able to remove it for you.
Thank you Eleusis I will try that when I get home tonight.
There’s also apparently a new type of ad that pops up with only an Internet connection required - no browser needed. I remember seeing an article about this very recently, say the past few weeks.
Yes. That uses Windows messaging (not messenger), a service for Win2K and WinXP. You need to turn messaging off (you don’t need it for a home computer anyway). I believe it’s under “Start,” “Control Panel,” “Services.” Find Windows messaging and click on it, then turn it off, and set it so it doesn’t load automatically.
It uses the built in messenging feature of Windows, that was originally designed for network admins to tell people to log off when the network was being worked on. You can turn it off in XP by going to the Control Panel->Adminstrative Tools->Services. Note, this is NOT the same as Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger.
God Bless RealityChuck and Nanook of the North Shore! You guys rule! I just upgraded to XP and found these annoying messages on my computer every morning. A little searching on my own didn’t tell me anything, but you guys solved the problem.
May you both have mind-blowing sex with the person of your choice!
You know, I’m not sure that’s the one I was thinking of. Seems to me there was a hullabaloo about some guy who had figured out a way to show ads without a browser, and it didn’t involve any kind of messaging - all that was needed was an Internet connection. Hm.
I am pretty sure that that this is Nanook and Chuck are talking about. The messaging service that Nanook and Chuck speak about is the service that will put up message like the network printer is out of paper and the like. This service was enabled on my computer at home this morning. So I would expect it is enabled on most computers out there. As Nanook said this is not to be confused with instant messaging that people use to talk to each other.
If I may add…there is also an email virus going around that, once installed, causes pop-ups (for porn sites, I have heard.) I believe they pop-up whether your browser was on or not. A guy got it at one of our remote-offices and it auto-propogated to everyone in his address book (myself included) but if you just deleted the email then it couldn’t install itself.
Hm, interesting. Well, something else to look out for. Thanks, guys.
Hey can someone tell me how to use windows messaging. Sometimes I want to send my wife a message when I am downstairs and she is in her office upstairs, messages like, “Pick up the phone”, or “Please turn the printer on”, etc. I didn’t know I could do it. My computer has Win2K, but she is using Win98.
from a command line:
(start>run>cmd)
NET SEND ‘computername’ ‘message’
include the spaces, eliminate the quote marks.
so if you’re on computer1 and you want to send a message to computer2:
NET SEND computer2 hello dear, get me a sandwich.
you can find more by typing NET SEND /? at the aforementioned command prompt.
and the only way windows messaging can be exploited is if you have those ports open to the internet. all you high speed-demons have a firewall, don’t you? don’t you!!???
try zonealarm at zonelabs.com. they have a free version that’ll keep the nasties from messaging you senseless.
Well, net send works. I sent myself a message using it. Unfortunately, both computers have to have the messaging service and my wife’s is only Win98, which does not appear to. When we bought it, I had installed NT4, but one of her programs would not run and we had to back off to Win98. Oh well. Unless there is an add-on that adds messaging to Win98. Oh, we have a router that includes a firewall. It reports a number of attempts every day.
Google for “WinPopup”. They implement SMB messaging for Windows 9x & ME.
Or uprade a PC to 2000 or XP. XP’s got some nice “compatibility” mode features that allow most older apps to run (save old games, really).