# Pop-ups?



## RangerWickett (Apr 6, 2003)

I hope this isn't just some nasty program that got installed on my computer, but I just got a pop-up ad while browsing these boards.  There's only been one so far, but it definitely wasn't game-related.  I'm just curious as to what it was.


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## Dragongirl (Apr 6, 2003)

Hmm well my ISP blocks pop-ups, but lets me know there was one.  Not seen any on ENWorld.  I bet you got one of those nasty pop-up makers.  Several things you can do, run an anti ad program like ad-aware, virus checker, and also if you "run" "msconfig" and go through the files that boot up with your computer, you can probably find the culprit.

One of the baddies is called freescratchandwin.


If you want to check the boot programs in msconfig you can look here to find out what each one does :
http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/PENINDEX.HTM

Good luck.


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## jdavis (Apr 6, 2003)

I've gotten a wierd pop up twice now, they say they are instant messages but they are pop ups. Both of them happened while I was posting here. I didn't think much about it until I saw this post, I figured it was from a different page I had up in the background or something.


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## orbitalfreak (Apr 6, 2003)

I've never had a popup at ENWORLD.


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## Eternalknight (Apr 6, 2003)

jdavis said:
			
		

> *I've gotten a wierd pop up twice now, they say they are instant messages but they are pop ups. Both of them happened while I was posting here. I didn't think much about it until I saw this post, I figured it was from a different page I had up in the background or something. *




Do you have MSN or Windows Messenger installed?


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## jdavis (Apr 6, 2003)

Eternalknight said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Do you have MSN or Windows Messenger installed? *




It's built into XP but it is not signed in. It's the first thing I looked at, it just got me that it only happened when I was posting here, matter of fact it has happened three times not two and everytime it happened was when I was posting in the Meta forum, just thought it was sort of wierd but I didn't think it had to anything to do with here until I saw the thread, I still doubt it does but I thought I'd mention it.


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## Eternalknight (Apr 6, 2003)

Ok, probably not the problem then.  Follow DG's advice and download Ad-Aware, then run it and see what you find.  Another option is to grap either Pop-Up Stopper or a browser with a pop-up killer in it, such as Crazy Browser or Opera.


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## Blacksway (Apr 6, 2003)

There is another program, called Messenger, a Windows XP (and 2000) service that people can use to send messages directly to your PC. Was it trying to sell you university diplomas by any chance....

Disable it in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Its called Messenger and has no relation to MSN Messenger. It is used on local networks for administrators to send messages to all workstations and can safely be disabled without any ill effects.


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## Eternalknight (Apr 6, 2003)

Blacksway said:
			
		

> *There is another program, called Messenger, a Windows XP (and 2000) service that people can use to send messages directly to your PC. Was it trying to sell you university diplomas by any chance....
> 
> Disable it in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Its called Messenger and has no relation to MSN Messenger. It is used on local networks for administrators to send messages to all workstations and can safely be disabled without any ill effects. *




That's what I was getting.  Thanks for the tip


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## jdavis (Apr 6, 2003)

Blacksway said:
			
		

> *There is another program, called Messenger, a Windows XP (and 2000) service that people can use to send messages directly to your PC. Was it trying to sell you university diplomas by any chance....
> 
> Disable it in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Its called Messenger and has no relation to MSN Messenger. It is used on local networks for administrators to send messages to all workstations and can safely be disabled without any ill effects. *




done, thanks.


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## EricNoah (Apr 6, 2003)

Yeah, I had those Windows Messenger pop-ups a while back -- they're totally unrelated to what site you're on, and in fact can pop up even when you're not browsing the web (if you have a connection that's "on" all the time).  Do a google search on "windows messenger spam" to find out more.  Here's one I found:

http://www.auburn.edu/oit/security/messengerService.html


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## RangerWickett (Apr 7, 2003)

Not good.  I downloaded the latest version of Ad-Aware, ran it, removed a bunch of files, and I again just got a pop-up ad when I opened Internet Explorer.


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## EricNoah (Apr 7, 2003)

grab us a screenshot next time it happens if you can...


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## Mark (Apr 7, 2003)

bLaCkSwAy RuLeS!


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## Mathew_Freeman (Apr 7, 2003)

I had that freescratchandwin one, managed to get rid of it eventually. Sorry to hear about your popup problem, I hate them with a passion!


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## Dungannon (Apr 7, 2003)

Tallarn said:
			
		

> *I had that freescratchandwin one, managed to get rid of it eventually. Sorry to hear about your popup problem, I hate them with a passion! *



Anti-popup sentiments from an Outwars advocate?  Is that even legal?


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## RangerWickett (Apr 8, 2003)

Okay, it's happened a few more times, and I've been trying to see which processes on my computer might be responsible.  I'm running Windows 98, and so I've been taking time Ctrl+Alt+Deleting to close everything but Explorer and Systray, and then seeing what happens whenever I open IE.

What does Rundll32 do?  It's a process that turns on whenever I open IE.


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## RangerWickett (Apr 8, 2003)

Oh, and what does Internat do?


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## RangerWickett (Apr 8, 2003)

Okay, so it's probably not internat (whatever that is), because a pop up showed up after I closed down internat.  So what's rundll32?


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## Eternalknight (Apr 8, 2003)

> Process File: rundll32 or rundll32.exe
> Process Name: Windows RUNDLL32 Helper
> Description: The Windows Rundll32 Program is used to run DLLs as programs and is used by many programs to execute functions located in a DLL file
> Common Errors: N/A
> System Process: No




May not help much, but I think you should leave it alone going off the above.


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## Dragongirl (Apr 8, 2003)

Dragongirl said:
			
		

> *..... if you "run" "msconfig" and go through the files that boot up with your computer, you can probably find the culprit.
> 
> If you want to check the boot programs in msconfig you can look here to find out what each one does :
> http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/PENINDEX.HTM *




That site lists all kinds of programs that can be running on your machine.  For instance it talks about your internat, one is benign and one is a virus depending on where it is located.  Try the site.


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