i am running firefox and am getting the occasional pop up for some reason. This has started in the last couple days,haven't had a pop up problem FOREVER. I have ran spybot search and destroy and fixed all the problems it found,but that didn't fix the pop ups. I am also using AVG free for virus protection. what can I do to get rid of the pop ups? thanks!!

 

I'm using adblock plus 1.2 add on ... no popups at all..

 

At my age, I am thrilled to get the occasional pop-up.
When I was in my 20's, I'd get them all the time.

 

Yeah, get an adblock plug in for your Firefox.

Whatever you do....don't ever click on one or "x" one out. Just back out of the page...period.

Had a friend who was running "Firefox" on his laptop, "x"ed out a popup that allowed a hidden trojan to download into it. The popup was a false "Security Tool/ your computer is infected" one meant to scare the user into clicking on it to find out more. clicking on the "x" downloaded a particularly nasty "Google Redirect" page rogueware trojan that was slowing down his laptop.

He called me about something else, over a recent weekend and mentioned his laptop had recently started slowing down with the redirect problem. Not being very computer savvy about malware/spyware/rogueware (or trojans) he wasn't sure what to do until that Monday when his IT tech could check it out. He was given the laptop a year ago but never really checked out what was installed or perform a general investigation out of curiosity. Just plugged it in, pushed the button, browsed and whatever else he used it for.

So, I asked him a few questions, walked him through some basic security procedures and helped him as best I could. He had Malwarebytes, AVG Free 8.5 and Lavasoft SE Pro. I suggested he download SUPERAntiSpyware but whatever the trojan was...prevented that program from completing the download.

His AVG Did say "something was there" but could not complete the scan. After a badly needed updating, his LavaSoft SE Pro found several "Critical" narsties but, again, it could not complete its' scan. When he tried again, it kept asking for updates and then froze. Malwarebytes also did not find anything. Then his laptop began shutting down and rebooting. I told him to turn it off and take it to his IT Tech.

The tech hunted down the culprit and rooted it out, or so he thought. The laptop ran fast after that...for a day. Then it started acting up again and back to the Tech it went again. The trojan, or whatever it was, had burrowed deep into his system apparently. My friend said the tech used a different program and this time got everything. It has been running properly ever since.

My friend learned a very serious lesson about popups that weekend.

 

Good call, Viking!!

Many time they use the red "X" as the trigger to start the virus. We have all been programmed to think it's a way to close the box,,, in many cases we are opening a horrible thing!!

 

OK,dumb question time. How do I get adblocker on firefox? I looked at the tools tab at the top of the browser and looked at the add ons available and didn't see anything about an ad blocker. I am not real familiar with firefox,I guess I might have missed it,but if someone could steer me in the right direction,I would appreciate it!!

 

Try This ...https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865/

 

Just go to your "Tools" > "Add-ons"> Get Add-ons" or Browse for all Add-ons. The latter will take you to a Mozilla page. Go to the Privacy& Security page to see the top rate downloads are. Also be sure to read the reviews and comments.

Heh, I just got the word back earlier yesterday...the popup deposited a malicious "rootkit" trojan. No wonder the tech didn't catch it at first.

They are extremely hard to find and dig out of a computer system. They modify OS core behavior by installing or modifying drivers or kernel modules. Then conceal running processes, hide systems files and/or other configuration data from monitoring/scanning security tools.

If the offending toolkit trojan was corrupted in some way, the computer slows down or acts 'wonky" enough to get your attention.

He asked me "why" a person would make such a thing. No telling. People make this dreck for a whole host of reasons. For "giggles". Or to stroke an Ego and/or of course, engage in outright criminal behavior.

I hatessss themssss!