advise on spam and popup's

[Derby Allen]

My computer is getting worse for popup's while viewing on Internet explorer and Spam behond belief in my inbox. I am currently using AVG 7.5 free addition but it never seems to do anything or find anything when you do a scan. i am not a computer expert by any means so a bit of advise would be great, i have paid in the psat for the likes of WinAntivirus, this was even worse so deleted it. are there any other free programmes that work or if not one that is at a sensible price to install, also there are 3 computers at home so do i need to purchase for al 3 or can one do all, i understand that i will have to install on all 3 though.

Cheers Steve

[Peter M]

Use Firefox as your web browser and thunderbird for your mail.

[peterg]

GoogleMail is excellent for catching spam    

Popups are not usually caught by AVG Free Anti-virus or AVG Free Spyware as they are neither of those things, set the Popup blocker in IE6 and you won't get 99% of them  

[Stuart]

Download the Google toolbar - it comes with a pop-up blocker that's pretty good.

I also use Ad-Muncher which blocks adverts embedded in web pages.  It's fantastic.  30 day free trail and then you pay a one off fee ($25) or buy something from one of their associates - I paid £14 for an ink cartridge that would normally ocst me a tenner so I got a liftime subscription for £4.  Well worth it    Here

[Derby Allen]

Peter, sorry but was is IE6 ! i am using outlook express if that helps, stuart , the link don't seem to work although your recomendations sound good, i tried the other suugestions "Firefox "etc but had to unistall as they didn't seem compatabile with my inbox and internet browser

[Peter M]

stuart , the link don't seem to work although your recomendations sound good

clicky

[Derby Allen]

Petrer M, thanks, now down loaded and will give it a go.

Cheers Steve

[Hammy]

When it gets bad its often in IMHO best to start again, and its not a bad move to rebuild every so often

Take your data off, reformat the hard drive and start again with a fresh install .

Use AVG free virus and turn the windows firewall on when you've rebuilt.  Assuming you've a gen copy of Win XP turn the auto update on. GEt all the updates and the latest IE and or firefox as suggested by others

Finally you might have to change your email address, or park the old one for a few months,  choose some thing unlikely to be used by spam mailers - something with numbers in it e.g J8mes@ AOl of whatever .

Be careful where you go on line and what you click on, don't take part in any surveys, and don't sign up for regular newletters !

Good luck

Various removers. cleaners anti popops etc end up filling you machine with running applications so it goes like a X/flow on 3 cylinders.

[skiba]

All you need to run is Ad-Aware and SpyBot.

The other suggestions will help only in preventing in the future.

If you have an understanding of Start>Run>msconfig then you can disable all of the junk that is causing them manually otherwise run the above two applications and you will find your problem goes away. If not let us know.

Mike

[Paul S]

One thing I've found that 100% cures popups is to disable the PC's messenger service. Obviously, if you run anything that needs the messenger service, this is a non-starter, but mostly, you don't need it enabled, especially on a home PC.

[gee_fin]

If technically minded, it is always far far better to stop the spam at the server side, rather than at the client side (your PC). Stopping it client side means you still have to process it, download it, store it etc.

For those server bods, I am yet to find a better solution than ART's (Atomic Rocket Turtle) package (for Linux). Went from ~300/day spam messages in my inbox to now 1 or 0.  Greylisting, PyZor, RaZor, ClamAV, Spam Assassin, MAPS, RBLs.  

[lukeyboy]

I always recommend stopping looking at porno sites! Works for me every time    

[Blatman]

Look at porno sites all you want, just use Firefox but keep IE as your default browser.

You can even uninstall Firefox, re-install it and all your old browsing history and bookmarks come back... apparently

[Stuart]

And don't use the Google toolbar that I recommended above - found out since it acts as some sort of tracker.  AdMuncher is all you need.

[the_fbi]

For those server bods, I am yet to find a better solution than ART's (Atomic Rocket Turtle) package (for Linux). Went from ~300/day spam messages in my inbox to now 1 or 0.  Greylisting, PyZor, RaZor, ClamAV, Spam Assassin, MAPS, RBLs.  

If you are able to dedicate a server to the job, personally I'd use (and do) Mailcleaner. http://www.mailcleaner.org/doku.php

It includes all the things mentioned above together with a fantastic front and backend for users and admin. Integrates into a Domain via LDAP and does callout so it doesn't even process emails for users who don't exist.

Very similar to MessageLabs's service which for a Corporate looking to pay for a service if they can't setup/admin themselves, can't be beaten.

A great piece of software, especially if you like graphs (rrdtool) too, samples from my work box here.

http://www.chrismobile.com/mailcleaner/

If you're looking for a simpler SpamAssassin based setup for home use (with the need for a dedicated server), SpamAware from Jam Software ( http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml ) is free and uses the SpamAssassin engine which is what most Linux filters will employ at their heart.

hth

Chris