Random websites.

[Glacialpath]

Ok aside from the Beckham advert and some other random adverts that I managed to get rid of. On selecting links to any part of the site and in no particular pattern I have bee getting a new tab and a random website popping up and it only happens on What Hi-Fis site. This includes even clicking the "login" button.

Anyone else been having this problem?

 

[Anderson]

Nope.

What browser do you use, does it have any suspect plugins?

My mother had a similar problem and she had a dodgey plugin in Chrome that was the cause. Also if you're Windows take a look at installed programs and again if there is anything dodgey looking that you don't recognise then remove that.

Check you're fully updated etc, if you have any other questions post back.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hi there Anderson.

I think I have sorted it. My laptop hadn't had a scan for a while and when I set the scan earlier it found something. Hopefully that was it.

Cheers for your reply and I will let you know if I definitely sorted it.

Actually it hasn't sorted it.

I don't know where to look to see if I have anything dodgy on my browser. The browser looks normal and these pop up websites only seem to come up on What Hi-Fi. I have started getting adverts pop up on Blu-Ray.com too but no pop up websites so maybe it's the same thing. I've not had trouble when loging in to face book.

I'm running windows 7 with Google Chrome. I looked at my control pannel but couldn't see any thing out of place. Any idea what I can do?

 

[Anderson]

No problem.

1. Okay, it's good you're using Chrome. Go to setting top right of the Browser (3 lines), go to Tools > Extentions

In there you should defintely have one for Google Docs, if there are any other can you list what they are please?

2. Secondly, add this extention, it's an adblocker

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb?

Get back to me about the installed extentions.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

Assuming you are running Windows have you done a scan with the free version of Malwarebytes? This find junk that AV’s miss.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Another free & very good program is ADW Cleaner that will find hidden malware but needs to be used with extreme caution, look what's brought up in the browser tab after or if you run it, some of the site is in French but is navigatable.

http://general-changelog-team.fr/en/downloads

Ghostery will remove trackers, but will upset the people running the site as will ad blockers but I use them.

https://www.ghostery.com/en-GB/

 

[Anderson]

Neptune is spot on with speciality adware/spyware tools as he's linked to. You could easily have some adware installed, easily done as there is so much crap bundled with legitiate software these days. Stick with the browser for now, we'll then go through your installed programs and as a last resort we can install spyware removal software.

 

[Glacialpath]

Right. There was only Google Doc in there. I added the extention you suggested. Lets see how that helps. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers Anderson.

 

[Anderson]

Still getting the ads now when you try and login? Let me know and we can go through some more steps.

 

[Glacialpath]

Not at the moment so fingers crossed.

I will post back if i get any more issues.

Thanks again.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hi Anderson.

Unfortunately even with the AD blocker I am still getting randome websites poping up and not just from What Hi-Fi. I tried to go on the Pioneer website just now and the site wouldn't load. It said Google Chrome can't access this site. I went to the AD blocker setting and unchecked the 4 options and the site worked but then another site poped up.

I'm going to leave my laptop scanning again and go out. Hopefully it will find whats doing this and sort it. Otherwise we can work though your ideas later.

Cheers mate.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

You wont go far wrong installing Malwarebytes, it’s's free & is a worthwhile addition to an anti-virus program & will reside quite happily with just about all AV’s.

You may have PUP's on your PC: These are ‘Potentially Unwanted Programs’ which are not viruses but additions that are often added with programs you install. The problem is some are very unwanted & can cause pop-up's & or being re-directed to web sites - You can end up using a search engine you don't want to etc. Some PUP's people may want to keep such as tool-bars, but others may not want them.

The problems occur when several of these programs end up on your PC at the same time, few if any PC's I've come across are free of PUP's.

Malwarebytes is highly respected & I've used it for years & install it on all PC's I maintain for home use, the difference between the free & pay version is the pay version runs in the background & will block (hopefully) malware or PUP’s before they are installed, & will also block known malicious web-sites whereas the free version does on demand scanning.

You don’t have to buy the pay version ever if you don’t want to, I don't have any interest in Malwarebytes other than finding it a useful tool to remove unwanted junk.

If you aren’t sure whether you should delete something Malwarebytes finds either ask on their forum or on this thread - Always do a back-up of your data before installing any anti-malware product.

Some info on PUP's:

https://helpdesk.malwarebytes.org/entries/23482988-What-are-the-PUP-detections-are-they-threats-and-should-they-be-deleted-

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/PUP

 

[Glacialpath]

Cheers for that Neptune. The scan I set going is finished and it found and "adware" thing which has now been deleted.

I am currently using my music making laptop to surf which was not my intention but the other laptop I had got the blue screen of death and won't boot up. I was running Vista.

I disconnected my PC from the internet as it's still on XP and I can't afford to upgrade it at the mo. My wife has a laptop running Vista but it's so slow it's to frustrating to use.

So far all is good. and I'm happy with Microsoft Security Esentials for now. I just need to remeber to let it scan once a week.

Having said that as soon as I clicked on another part of this site another web page tried to load. Now i'm installing Anti Malware Bytes. lets see what it finds.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

 

[pauln]

Cheers for that Neptune. The scan I set going is finished and it found and "adware" thing which has now been deleted.

I am currently using my music making laptop to surf which was not my intention but the other laptop I had got the blue screen of death and won't boot up. I was running Vista.

I disconnected my PC from the internet as it's still on XP and I can't afford to upgrade it at the mo. My wife has a laptop running Vista but it's so slow it's to frustrating to use.

So far all is good. and I'm happy with Microsoft Security Esentials for now. I just need to remeber to let it scan once a week.

Having said that as soon as I clicked on another part of this site another web page tried to load. Now i'm installing Anti Malware Bytes. lets see what it finds.

Sounds like you could do with a reinstall on the Vista machines. MSE doesn't support XP anymore but free Avast antivirus (and presumably others, AVG I think) still works with it so you can get your protection and continue to surf. Risky surfing on your DAW isn't it? Better off keeping machines like that completely disconnected from the internet other than when you need updates from MS.

FWIW I still run an XP SP3 clean install desktop for audio, video and CAD work that is not connected to the internet and it's trouble free.

 

[Glacialpath]

Sounds like you could do with a reinstall on the Vista machines. MSE doesn't support XP anymore but free Avast antivirus (and presumably others, AVG I think) still works with it so you can get your protection and continue to surf. Risky surfing on your DAW isn't it? Better off keeping machines like that completely disconnected from the internet other than when you need updates from MS.

FWIW I still run an XP SP3 clean install desktop for audio, video and CAD work that is not connected to the internet and it's trouble free.

I tried puting the system disc in the Vista laptop but nothing would happen. Might have take it to my local computer shop when I have some spare cash.

My DAW seem clean now, I've had no more trouble with random websites.

Thanks again guys.

 

[pauln]

Sounds like you could do with a reinstall on the Vista machines. MSE doesn't support XP anymore but free Avast antivirus (and presumably others, AVG I think) still works with it so you can get your protection and continue to surf. Risky surfing on your DAW isn't it? Better off keeping machines like that completely disconnected from the internet other than when you need updates from MS.

FWIW I still run an XP SP3 clean install desktop for audio, video and CAD work that is not connected to the internet and it's trouble free.

I tried puting the system disc in the Vista laptop but nothing would happen. Might have take it to my local computer shop when I have some spare cash.

My DAW seem clean now, I've had no more trouble with random websites.

Thanks again guys.

Your laptop may well be set up to boot from the hard drive first so you need to change the boot order in the BIOS to put CD first.To check/change this enter set up during POST, usually by hitting the del key. (Back up data first!)

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

If you do decide to do a reinstall beware that you will lose everything you have on your PC that you don't have on an exterior drive (unless your drive is partitioned) or on a site such as Dropbox - Some people don't always realise this does mean all your documents, saved emails, photographs, passwords, browser history, on that PC, you will end up with the PC as it was when new - Remember any software that required a key etc. will be gone make sure everything you need is on at least one external drive & you have all software keys you may need to reinstall software & the discs.

Sorry to go on about this & I’m not trying to be patronising but I've seen so many people who haven’t thoroughly checked that everything is backed up & lost some very important documents or often sadly photographs etc, & if your PC is working OK now leaving well alone may be an option? - Paul

 

[pauln]

If you do decide to do a reinstall beware that you will lose everything you have on your PC that you don't have on an exterior drive (unless your drive is partitioned) or on a site such as Dropbox - Some people don't always realise this does mean all your documents, saved emails, photographs, passwords, browser history, on that PC, you will end up with the PC as it was when new - Remember any software that required a key etc. will be gone make sure everything you need is on at least one external drive & you have all software keys you may need to reinstall software & the discs.

Sorry to go on about this & I’m not trying to be patronising but I've seen so many people who haven’t thoroughly checked that everything is backed up & lost some very important documents or often sadly photographs etc, & if your PC is working OK now leaving well alone may be an option? - Paul

He did say that one of his Vista laptops wouldn't boot after a blue screen of death so it's effectively useless anyway. Of course there may be a hardware fault but having a go at a reinstall from CD has to be worth trying first.

The other machine is his wife's and apparently, really slow and frustrating to use. Maybe a good spring clean would sort that but I've always found that a clean install every couple of years is worthwhile unless you are meticulous in keeping your computer 'clean' and defragged on a regular basis.