Help Please ! ! ! before I tear out what little hair I have left
Running all standard Windows XP on home PC with (supposedly) all the good protection - Norton antivirus & Adaware (both of which I have run & deleted all sus stuff)
Problem is :-
All of a sudden I'll get all these windows flashing up on the screen, jumping about like popcorn on a hot flame, opening stuff, shutting stuff, hiding stuff, exposing stuff, on-an-on till it finally gives up leaving umpteen open windows for me to close down before finding out its (sometimes) deleted what stuff ive just done.
GGrrrrr.... what with no Ferkin wind ; insurance companies insisting car replacement cheques MUST be mailed out ("Yes sir, sorry sir, even over Easter sir, it is the only way it can be done sir" then when you finish telling them, nicely of course, that whilst you had hoped to have a car for Easter of course you understand they finish off the call with the corporate phone etiquette phrase-of-the-day "thankyou for your call sir & we hope you have a very pleasant Easter" - Aaaaaaaahhhhh ) ; bladders leaking in my 11M ; nicotine withdrawals [}:)] messin with my head big time AND getting emails from my son tellin me what a great time he's having skiing in Banff ............
Really! how much can a koala bear

ANYHOW (sorry for the digression but I think sharing it helped) - Ive worked out Ctrl/Alt/Delete stops it in its tracks but only to retreat, regroup & attack again after some purely random interval.
ANYONE ? please ? what the f..'s going on & how can I stop it
HINT - dont know if its related but start up screen is telling me "4 programs running" when I KNOW there is only "two" ...hhmmmm thats suss?

PS : isnt it interesting that when things become difficult to 'bear' we respond with 'Grrrrr'
Oh Gawd I think I really am going mad
Think I better go and bleach my strings ha ha hahha what a crack-up.
Dont u just love this forum - always something to make you laff - even from the bottom of the hole

go here: start - programs - accessoires - system tools - system restore

there you can restore your windows xp to a date before all that **** happened.

that should fix the problem that made you apparently crazy - assuming you do not visit those nasty p0rn sites anymore...

(btw. your problem is called browser hijacking - there also some tools on the market to fix that.)

get rid of Norton's; it's a target and it is well renown for slowing down an otherwise fast machine!... download AVG Free from Grisoft.

download Opera; best browser available and it doesnt suffer the "holes" that IE does

download ZoneAlarm from Zone Labs; it's a firewall and it will keep most nasties and hackers at bay... dont use the Windoze XP firewall; it is a piece of sh1t!

All these programs are available in free versions or you can get all the bells and whistles for a small fee... I use these and recommend them to all my clients. I dont have virus or hacker problems with this combination on my net machine that is online 24-7.

If you need help PM me.

For sure.

Don't download free "smilies" software, and free "weather in your taskbar" software .. all full of spyware.

Here's a no-brainer - it's one click & free

Grab "Ad-Aware" from www.adaware.com/ - it will scan your PC for all these things and remove them - no effort required.

Enjoy .. Lozza

p.s. seabreeze.com.au never has had any annoying popups !

You should check that your xp firewall is enabled
right click my network places - properties - right click local area connection and click properties - goto advanced tab - click setting then ensure that the firewall is infact on.

Equally important as firewalling your pc is to apply all patches that are listed on windows update. this can be time consuming and if you are not behind a router (NAT) you can get infected whilst updating. It is possible to get a CD of patches off the web that you can install whilst your PC is disconnected (sorry, not sure of address)

I'll second that for AVG - its free and very good.

whatever you do, DO NOT use any sites that require a password whilst you are having these problems - if your system has been compromised you may have a keystroke logger installed that is recording every key press and sending it back to mother russia.

Another strategy you can use to ensure that these problems dont lead to complete data loss is to partition your hard drive into two logical partitions (C:\ and D:\) Install windows fresh on C:\, then store all of your personal data on D:\. In the absolute worst case senario you can reinstall the entire operating system and programs to the C:\ drive and all your data will still be on D:\

Lastly - consider Linux. If you in any way enjoy tinkering it is a great OS. I'd recommend Mandrake as a good starter distribution though I use SUSE and Fedora Core 3 at home (and XP ). you can get Mac's cheap now as well...

Good Luck

Buy an Apple [}:)]

Just open a comand prompt and type "format c:"
That fixes all problems but then you will go and put more software on it and start all over again

Really Download the following it works http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Its the microsoft one it has a lot less overheads then the others and you can set it to scan at different times as well.
Good luck and keep to the true path of internet surfing (keep the kids of your computer)

Hiya Puppet,

Let me know if all of the suggestions above don't work (forgetting the format c: option which will fix not only "the" probelem but ALL problems), and I'm fairly sure I can talk you thru a fix. Fortunately / unfortunately it's what I do for a job. You can mail me at ben(at)mitchellcs.com (obviously change the the (at) to a symbol - I don't like to be spam harvested).

Would appear that you have an adware issue which should be able to be fixed by one of the following - Spybot, Adaware, Antispyware or Hijackthis! Also a good and useful piece of software to have is the Google Toolbar add-on which has a built-in pop-up stopper to prevnet it happening again. Plus the Imuunize feature in Spybot doesn't hurt!

Also check your antivirus is up to date, and do a full scan, some detect adware and pop-up probs these days.

Cheers
B.

Hi Puppet
Don't worry about running any software on your PC, instead use an ASP (Application Sevice Provider). All your standard programs and data are stored on a central mainframe: virus free, ad-free, backed up, and Always-On. And you can access your personal desktop environment from any device, anywhere in the world (home, work, airport, cafe). I don't even travel with a laptop - cos all I got to do is remember an IP number and instantly I'm home with access to everything in my life.

You rent it monthly as a service, like an ISP. Either Microsoft (expensive) or a Suse Linux environment (much sweeter and much cheaper) with full compatability with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc...

This is my pet entreprenurial project. We've been doing it for about 9 years, and the Linux desktop variant (18 months of R&D) we're just releasing now. It is a Killer and about 90% cheaper than the Microsoft equivalent.

So come on Puppet, try it out. Its called "LinFrame".

Graeme
CENTRAL-DATA.net

Don't know about that Shannon I hate their burgers and that freakin clown gives me the **s

Pass the dutchy

FANTASTIC GUYS !!
Thanks heaps. Im working my way through downloads & clean-ups etc. but thought it time I gave you all some feed back for your much appreciated advice.
The saga so far :-
1) Followed the system restore back in time to Feb 9th.
(Think about it wouldnt it be cool if we each had that little trick built into our body clocks how far back would you go [}:)] )
2) Checked the firewall - thought it was on but it wasnt tis now
3) Double checked with my own stuff by running full Norton scan - all clear then Adaware scan - found 8 bugs ( & I only did that about a week ago )
4) Downloaded Grisoft AVG & ran that straight away. Surprise surprise !! It found 11 bugs that Norton obviously thought were harmless
5) Downloaded MS Antispy and surprise again. It found & deleted 15 little nasties that Adaware missed. Hows that work ??
6) Spybot got a few votes so tried for that too. Download worked (twice) Full scan worked (twice) but when I tried to delete 12 bugs & get the "Trojan Horse" (how clevers that name) locked away in a stable it all froze over & blipped up a "not responding" flag - both times, same thing
So obviously there are still at least 12 spy bugs crawling around amongst my bytes & an unwanted 'gift horse' I really do need to punch in the mouth.
BUT the popcorn screens seem to have abatted so may have it beaten
Just doesnt feel right yet cos I know the Spybotted critters are still lurking in there somewhere

Still working on it - so more later but I really really like the sound of gls's off-site bisso option. Sounds like the perfect solution for those of us who just want it to work & dont care how it happens
But before I take that option ? if there are any pro's out there who can set up a network for me so my Mac G3 laptop can hang off the end of this PC/ADSL set-up (or just talk through the options Ive got) I would gladly pay for the service. Phone me if you want on 0400 227 296. Everyone Ive ever asked is either a mac-man or a pc-pro but never the twain doth meet I bought a cable once that was supposed to do it - simple I was told but not simple enough for me

Anyhow - thanks again - Im enjoying the exercise - its a great diversion from having nothing to do other than spew over the lack of wind (and wait for insurance cheques )
TOMORROW TOMORROW bring it on !!!

Puppet,
I tried the microsoft antispy,(after reading these posts) it got even more adware?sprware. Its good because it automatically scans for you daily and takes appropriate action.
No wind here today either.

I got ****ed off with it so I just brought a new computer