tin foil hat computer question

[RainDog]

I assume I am not the only who gets these little bitty windows which pop up on my computer screen...

do you know the ones I'm talking about?

when I open a link to a site from time to time, I get regular advert pop ups sometimes, of course, but I also sometimes get these little rectangles which do not contain anything, and they are so small that they are easy to miss sometimes, or they are behind my regular open window.

so what are those things, anyway?

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Disable Windows Messenger and download Spybot

Also, switch from Internet Explorer to the Mozilla browser. Finally, make sure you have some kind of good internet security program (Norton is great but some others are free, I think). That will solve your problems, I assure you.

On edit: The part about Windows Messenger only applies to Win XP. The link for a neat little program to disable it is right here....

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_mess_disable.htm

[RainDog]

3. I'm a mac head...but I'm using IE...

but I do plan to switch soon cause I'm switching my ISP.

[La Resistance]

9. Get Mozilla

they have a version for MAC

http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/download/

It'll stop your pop-up problem (you'll have to go into preferences to disable them). It gives you so much control over your browsing experience and you'll fall in love with tabbed browsing.

[nostamj]

5. one of those nasty pop-ups

CRIPPLED my PC for a whole day.

Spybot didn't help
SpyHunter didn't help

they used a pop-up to download the 'peper trojan' and it totally screwed up my machine...

[CityZen-X]

2. They Are.......

Weapons of Mass Distraction!

[Maestro]

4. Go here

And there are two types of Messengers. This site tells you exactly how to disable them both.

http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/xp_notes.htm

[RainDog]

6. is this also for mac?

because I'd previously looked at spyware blocker sites, etc. and those all all for windows.

[Maestro]

10. Oh man

sorry. I don't know anything about Mac OS's.

[wtmusic]

7. A pain in the ass but ultimately harmless

Any web page can open those things using Javascript. A lot of times they'll tuck them down in the lower right corner of your monitor (they can be positioned) and then set a timer to make new windows pop up minutes or hours later.

Contrary to popular opinion, they can't write anything to your disk outside of cookies, and they can't spy on your email or track your movements on the web, outside of the last page you visited before you got to that one.

[flaminlib]

8. popunders is the term....

And what have you been looking at??:shrug:

Try a good popup blocker. Google toolbar has a decent one and it includes a search bar.

[emulatorloo]

11. Mac OS specific advice

Dump IE

Get Mozilla at www.mozilla.org

Once you have it installed and running, go to the Mozilla Menu and choose preferences.

Select the "Privacy and Security" section in the resulting dialog box. Under that, choose "Popup Windows" and turn on "Block Pop Up Windows."

Alternately go to apple.com and get Safari

http://www.apple.com/safari/

Once you have installed it and are running it, go to the "Safari" menu and choose "Block Pop-up Windows."

That's it. You are done.

Me I prefer Safari, but Mozilla is super too.