Can anyone help??

h~chan

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I'm having a problem with my computer.. I don't use IE (
) as my internet browser.. but after I visit a few different things, IE keeps popping up with these stupid advertisement pages. Last time it happened, I figured it out really fast.. somehow an ad program was installed into my programs and I found it when I went to Add/Remove Programs.. so I looked there again this time and saw a program that I'd never seen.. it was called WebHancer Customer Companion or something.. so I googled it and almost every link mentioned problems with popups.. so I deleted it and another program it mentioned to delete with it.. but they're still coming up, and it's making me insane!


Can someone please help?? I can't stand it..
 

adymarie

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I wish I could held, but I am mostly computer illiterate. I'll see if I can find a techie at work and ask him. But I haven't seen either of them today!
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by adymarie

I wish I could held, but I am mostly computer illiterate. I'll see if I can find a techie at work and ask him. But I haven't seen either of them today!
That would be so great if you could!
 

adymarie

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Originally Posted by h~chan

That would be so great if you could!
Apparently our techies are MIA - if you are still having the problem in the morning I will stalk them until they answer me!
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by adymarie

Apparently our techies are MIA - if you are still having the problem in the morning I will stalk them until they answer me!
I've been stuck with it for a little while, so I'm sure I'll still have it in the morning..
Unless someone comes along on here tonight and can figure it out. Either way.. any help at all would make me very happy..
 

crazyforinfo

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By any chance have you restarted your computer?
Download Adware and run it (it's by lavasoft).
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

By any chance have you restarted your computer?
Download Adware and run it (it's by lavasoft).
I've restarted my computer a few times since I deleted it.. but I'll try running Adware to see if maybe it can help.
 
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h~chan

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I downloaded and ran Adware and restarted my computer.. and so far I'm not having popups! Hopefully I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I've usually had several by now, after visiting so many pages.. but I haven't had one..
Thanks a lot!
 

crazyforinfo

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Originally Posted by h~chan

I downloaded and ran Adware and restarted my computer.. and so far I'm not having popups! Hopefully I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I've usually had several by now, after visiting so many pages.. but I haven't had one..
Thanks a lot!
Wooohooo! Glad I could help
 

watchcaddy

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What I would recommend you do is to use Firefox instead, (getfirefox.com). In addition to Adaware (lavasoft), get microsoft defender as well.

Since you are already have malware on the computer, the only way to make sure you have a clean system is to reinstall windows. Some of the malwares are not detectable with these programs. If you do any confidential stuff with your comp, banking, paypal..etc, you should consider backing up your files and reinstall windows. I hope this helps.

NOTE: Always back up because computers are not reliable at all. Since most of our lives (pictures, videos, important documents) are on there, it is always a good idea to keep a back up.
 
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h~chan

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I downloaded Adware yesterday and it made it stop.. but it's doing it again today. I ran Adware and it found a few more things, so I deleted them and restarted the computer and it's still doing it.. what's wrong now??
 

graciecat

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Is it your home computer or work computer?
Are you running Windows XP?
I think I know how to make it stop as long as it's a home computer...not linked to a network...like a work computer would be and you're running Windows XP.
Post back and let me know...I'll be on and off of here all day long.
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by Graciecat

Is it your home computer or work computer?
Are you running Windows XP?
I think I know how to make it stop as long as it's a home computer...not linked to a network...like a work computer would be and you're running Windows XP.
Post back and let me know...I'll be on and off of here all day long.
It's my home computer and it's Windows XP. Any more help would be great.. because it's driving me insane..
 

watchcaddy

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Originally Posted by h~chan

It's my home computer and it's Windows XP. Any more help would be great.. because it's driving me insane..
As with these spyware programs. They are deeply hooked into the windows. The fact that it is coming back again, confirms with my first post that your computer is already compromised. Even if it goes away, you will never be sure it is clean. Also, if you do banking, ebaying, amazon or anything to do with any sensitive material, the data could be at risk. I would STRONGLY advise you to reinstall XP and start fresh. This is the only way to be sure you are clean.

Now, go back up your data and reinstall windows. Best of luck.
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by watchcaddy

As with these spyware programs. They are deeply hooked into the windows. The fact that it is coming back again, confirms with my first post that your computer is already compromised. Even if it goes away, you will never be sure it is clean. Also, if you do banking, ebaying, amazon or anything to do with any sensitive material, the data could be at risk. I would STRONGLY advise you to reinstall XP and start fresh. This is the only way to be sure you are clean.

Now, go back up your data and reinstall windows. Best of luck.
I never use anything like Ebay or Amazon.. I'm on the same websites pretty much everytime I get online (TCS, email, a few other things). I ran Adware and an antivirus program I use, and I got rid of the files Adware found.. the virus program didn't find anything.

I know how to do some things with the computer, but I have no idea how to reinstall windows.
 

watchcaddy

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Originally Posted by h~chan

I never use anything like Ebay or Amazon.. I'm on the same websites pretty much everytime I get online (TCS, email, a few other things). I ran Adware and an antivirus program I use, and I got rid of the files Adware found.. the virus program didn't find anything.

I know how to do some things with the computer, but I have no idea how to reinstall windows.
Do you open attachments from emails? That is the number one reason people get infected. People embed malware in the .jpg files, other files that appears to be from your friends and once you open it, you will get infected. Also, if you use outlook and use the preview pane and has html turned on, it will also get you infected when you are viewing some junk mail. It is just like viewing web page.

Do you update your windows regularly? Do you have the automatic update turned on? Do you use a router or do you connect your cable/dsl model directly into your computer?

The new virus/malware is almost impossible to get rid of, sometimes you don't even you have them.

Your computer should come with a windows reinstall disc. If you can find someone to reinstall the windows for you, that will be best way to get rid of it.

Can you let us know what kind of computer you have, brand, make..etc?
 

graciecat

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Windows XP has what is called a "Messenger Service".
It's enabled all the time unless you go in and disable it yourself...it's what lets computers on a network talk to each other...like if you were in an office and there was an important message that someone had to get to you they would send it via this messenger and it would "pop-up" on your screen.

This is how to disable it...I was getting pop-ups like crazy until I disable that thing, now they've stopped and have been stopped for well over a year.

Give this a try and if it doesn't work you might have to enable the firewall that comes with XP...I can tell you how to do that too.

Hope this works....

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Performance and Maintenance...if you don't see the Performance and Maintenance icon, then you're probably using "Classic View" and you can skip this step and go to number 3.

3. Click Administrative Tools.

4. Double click Services

5. Double click Messenger

6. In the Start-up types list, choose Disabled.

7. Click Stop and then click OK.

Let me know if this takes care of it.
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by watchcaddy

Do you open attachments from emails? That is the number one reason people get infected. People embed malware in the .jpg files, other files that appears to be from your friends and once you open it, you will get infected. Also, if you use outlook and use the preview pane and has html turned on, it will also get you infected when you are viewing some junk mail. It is just like viewing web page.

Do you update your windows regularly? Do you have the automatic update turned on? Do you use a router or do you connect your cable/dsl model directly into your computer?

The new virus/malware is almost impossible to get rid of, sometimes you don't even you have them.

Your computer should come with a windows reinstall disc. If you can find someone to reinstall the windows for you, that will be best way to get rid of it.

Can you let us know what kind of computer you have, brand, make..etc?
I only open mail from people I know.. and hardly any ever have attachments.. they usually tell me if they sent me something with them before I even open it.

I think we use a router.. but I'm not sure.. I'm kind of dumb when it comes to those things.. I didn't do anything with setting it up.

We had the disc somewhere, but I'm not sure where it went.. one of my relatives used it a while back on here and I haven't seen it since..

My computer was made by a friend of my relatives.. it's a Dell OptiPlex GX100.. if that says anything.


Originally Posted by Graciecat

Windows XP has what is called a "Messenger Service".
It's enabled all the time unless you go in and disable it yourself...it's what lets computers on a network talk to each other...like if you were in an office and there was an important message that someone had to get to you they would send it via this messenger and it would "pop-up" on your screen.

This is how to disable it...I was getting pop-ups like crazy until I disable that thing, now they've stopped and have been stopped for well over a year.

Give this a try and if it doesn't work you might have to enable the firewall that comes with XP...I can tell you how to do that too.

Hope this works....

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Performance and Maintenance...if you don't see the Performance and Maintenance icon, then you're probably using "Classic View" and you can skip this step and go to number 3.

3. Click Administrative Tools.

4. Double click Services

5. Double click Messenger

6. In the Start-up types list, choose Disabled.

7. Click Stop and then click OK.

Let me know if this takes care of it.
Thanks.. I'll give it a try and let you know if it worked.
 

watchcaddy

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If you can find the disc and reinstall, that will be great. If not, try the following.

Can you let us know what you were doing when the pop up started? reading email, viewing a certain page, opening a particular photo, opening a particular program...etc? Let us know and we might find out where it is coming from.

For now, try system restore. This will restore the computer before it started acting weird.

click on start.
help and support.
undo changes to your computer using System Restore.
restore my computer to an earlier time.
Choose a date that is bold and before the infected date.
click ok and let it do its work.

This will reboot your comp. After it reboots, it will show you whether it is successful or not. Malware often corrupt system restore so the user cannot go back to the uninfected state. Give that a try and let us know.
 
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h~chan

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Originally Posted by Graciecat

Let me know if this takes care of it.
Unfortunately I'm still getting them after I disabled messenger service..


Originally Posted by watchcaddy

If you can find the disc and reinstall, that will be great. If not, try the following.

Can you let us know what you were doing when the pop up started? reading email, viewing a certain page, opening a particular photo, opening a particular program...etc? Let us know and we might find out where it is coming from.

For now, try system restore. This will restore the computer before it started acting weird.

click on start.
help and support.
undo changes to your computer using System Restore.
restore my computer to an earlier time.
Choose a date that is bold and before the infected date.
click ok and let it do its work.

This will reboot your comp. After it reboots, it will show you whether it is successful or not. Malware often corrupt system restore so the user cannot go back to the uninfected state. Give that a try and let us know.
I was using IE to look at a video or something that a relative told me about.. they're usually on youtube so I don't worry about it messing up my computer.. I use Opera as my browser but I use IE when I want to watch something.. because Opera and FF won't show them for some reason.. I guess I need to learn more about the settings..


Anyways.. I'll give this a try now and let you know what happens.

EDIT: When I click on "Undo changes..." it says it found a problem and needs to close.. and it won't go any further.. any ideas?
 
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