ARRRGH! How do I stop pop-up ads!

[Rachels]

They're driving me crazy. When I try to shut down IE, a million and five ads pop up. Why, why? And how do I stop them? Arrrrgh!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[abigailsmom]

My BIL put the Google search bar thing (can we tell who is not computer savy?) on ours and we hardly ever have popups!! Like once every 10 times I log on will one sneak up on me!

Hope this helps bc I know it's not very clear! :)

ETA: here's a photo... it might help you understand! I took it with my PDA so excuse the quality. You can see to the right the "606 blocked"

[Jeanmick]

Yahoo has a tool bar much like Google that'll stop those pesky pop-up ads:

http://companion.yahoo.com/

I think I'm up to some insane number like 3053! Yikes!

HTH!

[mommd]

I use Mozilla as my browser (www.mozilla.org) and it automatically stops all pop-ups. Everything "requiring" IE works with Mozilla as well.

[kfcboston]

I SWEAR by the Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker - it's flawless. It only rarely blocks something I actually WANT to open, and it takes half a second to temporarily disable it.

[Dcclerk]

Thanks for asking, as I have spent the last 4 hours trying to get rid of all the spyware, etc. I'm hoping that the google toolbar will do the trick now.

As a tagalong question, does anyone have a stupid searchbar at the bottom of their screens that says "searchBAR" with links to "free $$$$" and other such wonderful things? It doesn't matter what I do, I can't get rid of the freaking thing!

[egoldber]

We also installed the Google toolbar and we are very happy. Virtually zero pop-ups now!

HTH,

[calebsmama03]

I don't have that particular one, but do have something similar, but one of the lovely things it links to is "adult entertainment"!! I'm trying to get rid of all this spyware (and Rachel, if they're popping up like that while you're trying to shut down you likely have spyware installed on your machine too) but not having luck. I'm going to buy a special spyware remover software bundle and see if it can rid them for good! Let me know if you have any luck getting rid of yours!
Lynne
Mommy to Caleb 3/3/03

[nwaddellr]

I use a slightly different mozilla product - Firefox, which is just a browser and is so quick. I love being able to block pop-ups (I forget how many are on the web until I try using my parent's AOL stuff - :P) as well as being able to block ads from loading so my pages load faster. It's so much nicer than IE.

[memedee]

Download Spy Bot and it will get rid of those bargain ads.

[Melanie]

Do you think something was inadvertantly installed on your PC? I know I accidently installed that gator thing one time...ugh.

[Rachels]

I ran spy bot and adaware, but it's still happening! Arrgh. The google toolbar is helping, though.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[tarahsolazy]

One of the many great things about using a Mac! All those popups and viruses are aimed at the PC market, so I never get them! (Seriously, though, the Google toolbar is great, and using an alternate browser can be a solution. My husband uses both on his PC)

[amp]

Ditto! Love the Mac! I virtually never get a pop up window!