Something has changed in my computer over the past two days.
Basically, wherever there’s a frame showing one of those “animated” ads, a very nasty, pornographic ad now shows up. Even when I visit our local newspaper’s site or the SDMB itself, these new pornographic “animated” ads are appearing in the space where there used to be a much more typical ad.
Before I try and fix things, I wanted to ask the assembled computer intelligentsia of the SDMB a few things (btw, I did check out the computer help thread at the top of this page but then wondered whether all the info it contained was still up-to-date and relevant):
Does this sound like a spyware problem?
If so, is AdAware still the cleansing agent of choice?
If you don’t think this is a manifestation of a spyware infestation, what do you think it is?
I am running XP, service pack 2 on a Dell Inspiron 8600.
Maybe. There is no one silver bullet spyware removal solution. I run several just to be sure; belt and suspenders. Run AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Windows Defender and SuperAntispyware, and you can get a pretty clean machine without any further fiddling. All of them are free.
I cannot imagine what else it would be other than spyware. With spyware that insidious I would also update all of my anti-virus packages if I were you. Just to be on the safe side.
I agree with Fear Itself’s recommendations for spyware programs. Shut down all of your running programs and take a couple of hours to let all of the checkers run through. Spybot also has a feature that allows you to lock settings and files that should not be changed, look into installing that.
Good luck with everything. I hope you get it taken care of.
pat
ps:
Practice safer porn viewing in the future! Just buy copies of Playboy and Penthouse and only read the articles. That’s the safest route.