To moderators re "spam"

Dear moderators I do not know if this is affecting everyone but for example in the 3D food thread there
are a number of words hilighted and underlined which lead to advertising stuff. Or perhaps it is part of funding for your
forums?
eg in Mike's post the word printer
in Jeff"s the word range

regards
Barb

I don't see that. Maybe it's on your browser?

Thanks Jeff I will get my system administrator to have a look.

Okay the problem seems to be at my end, something has got into my browser. Sorry for the mistake.
regards
barb

[Robin Garr]

Okay the problem seems to be at my end, something has got into my browser. Sorry for the mistake.

Barb, I'm glad you resolved it! Your post sure scared me, because, although we do permit Google AdSense advertising on the bottom of the forum pages - someone's got to pay for this thing, and no point in it being us! - I would never hold still for something like that. In fact, I frequently block specific advertisers if I think their ads are too tacky or scammy.

So, any time you have any question about advertising standards, please feel free to post or send me a PM. I don't mind at all!

We've been getting the highlighting of words on forums, email, and other internet sites for over a month now, and nobody I've contacted seems to know what to do about it. We're also getting popup ads that Trend Micro calls "dangerous pages." Any advice?

[Robin Garr]

We've been getting the highlighting of words on forums, email, and other internet sites for over a month now, and nobody I've contacted seems to know what to do about it. We're also getting popup ads that Trend Micro calls "dangerous pages." Any advice?

It sure sounds like malware on your computer, Carl. Maybe summon a tech? Or for starters, see if Barb Downunder can offer you anything more specific based on her experience.

Whilst my system administrator(ie my beloved) has not yet fixed my problem he tells me something called adware has infiltrated
internet explorer on my laptop. This may give you a path to follow, I will post anything that may help when he gets to it (renovations are
commanding his attention at the moment!)

Barb,

Adware is a category of malware. (Adware = software that shows you advertisements, Malware = software that is malicious in intent)

It sounds like the one you have is a calm one-- it reads your web pages, looking for words it knows; when it finds one, it highlights the word and attaches a link back to its mothership. If it is also monitoring your activities, then it is spyware (= software that spies on you) in addition to being adware.

There are lots of good malware-removing programs out there; some are free.


Jeff

Okay, hereis what I have learned!
What I had was called Spydeal and is often bundled in with updates. The following is the fix for my problem which was it attached to my browser explorer 9
1. go to windows control panel
2. go to programs and features
3. go to applications
4. find spydeal and uninstall

There are lots of good malware-removing programs out there; some are free.
Jeff

This.

I've noticed on my computer that when I do a search for a product, an ad for that product follows me everywhere. So that means I have adware? Is there a way to get rid of it?

[Robin Garr]

I've noticed on my computer that when I do a search for a product, an ad for that product follows me everywhere. So that means I have adware? Is there a way to get rid of it?

Karen, that more likely just means that Google (and maybe some of its associates like DoubleClick) planted a "cookie" on your computer when you did the search, as a way to (ahem) try to serve you ads that it thinks might be relevant to your interests. It's not malware and it's harmless, but if it offends you, there are plenty of ways you can clear cookies from your computer. Take care, though, as cookies have even more harmless uses - for instance, to store your password on this forum so you don't have to log in every time you visit. Bottom line, unless the ad bothers you, it's not doing any kind of tech harm.

I've noticed on my computer that when I do a search for a product, an ad for that product follows me everywhere. So that means I have adware? Is there a way to get rid of it?

You have a form of adware known as tracking cookies. These are generally not malicious and pose only a slight risk to your privacy (IMO). If you want to stop these, Google tracking Cookies for a discussion to help you decide if that is what you want to do. If so, there will be instructions on how to block them (very simple) depending upon your browser.

Been using Spybot for years successfully...and it's free.