Help with IE pop up / spyware issue.

[FastEddy]

When I start up IE I'm getting a search bar on the bottom of my browser that brings me here if I use it. http://srch.lop.com/

The bar has an x I can use to close it. Once closed it doesn't return upon opening new instances of the browser. If I close all the browsers and re open it appears again. If I resize IE it stays full width of the screen and doesn't resize with my window.

I have run 3 of the top spy-ware programs an use a pop up stopper. I have looked and it isn't an installed program. Right clicking on the bar will not give me any info on what it is or where it is located or the option to turn it off or un install.

HELP!!!

 

[Rolex]

I won't click the link, since I might end up with it, but try clicking 'start', 'run' and put in 'msconfig' then go to the start up tab and see if you can turn it off there by unchecking the box.
If you can't find it there, click 'start', 'find' and in files or folders type the site name or anything else that might relate to it and delete it there. Do it first with folders, then do it again with files.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

LOP is a hard one, I ran into this about two weeks ago and Spybot and Adaware both couldn't remove it. I had to use this:

http://www.free-web-browsers.com/remove-lop.shtml

you might be able to go to there site to uninstall it, but that didn't work for me.

 

[suppaduppa]

Check out majorgeeks.com they have a lot of shareware & freeware. ie. Adware, 12 Ghost, Spywareblaster (actually a prevenitive not a cleaner) Nice site. If you want to run a safer browser try MozillaFireFox little slower, but has firewalls & internet gaurds out the ass. Good Luck maybe try updating your Norton.

 

[kwong2001]

I feel your pain Eddy. I've got about 6 anti-spyware programs on my computer and they all can't seem to clean my computer totally....not even Norton!

 

[Rolex]

I've had a couple of things get past Norton in the past. Usually some type of re-direct that automatically takes you to a site as though you had chosen it as a home page, or it brings up another browser or search engine every time you open IE. Very annoying, and hard to find. I consider this a type of hacking since they find a way through firewalls and around any protection you might have. It's usually a site you have to sign up for, and in my case it was a Peer to Peer site, and their re-direct was part of their installation. Not something you're even aware of, and not something Norton would stop, since you are giving them the Okay.
After DAYS of trying to kill one of these, I found a forum on the site that started my problem, and posted a question, and someone provided a link to the removal tool. It removed the share folders, but not the re-direct. Anytime I run into something like that, I delete every file and folder related to that site, and NEVER go back. I had a tough time killing that one since files or folders named "Jupiter" were cleverly disguised with the name "Xupiter". Intentionally misspelled making it hard to find when you want to remove everything.
2 days after getting rid of it, my neighbor, who recommended the site, called me to complain about it, and I had to walk him through the removal process.
The site was Grokster (sp?) AVOID IT.

 

[alkyula]

i switched to using only netscape and put IE's security and privacy on maximum..and run spybot sd and lavasoft adware once a week. i used to get a pop-up every 20 seconds..i havnt seen one pop-up yet since did the above.

 

[FastEddy]

Thanks for all your help guys.

Long story short.
I purchased 5 Spyware programs that promised to get rid of LOP. None of them did.

I stumbled upon Spy Sweeper from Wedroot that finally did the job free of charge. I'm interested to see how CS is at these 5 spyware companies when I take them up on their money back guarantees. As of now I'm $180.00 down in the spyware removal game.

-Ed

 

[WoodiE]

Spy Sweeper is great for removing any hard to remove spyware, however I've found keeping the program on the computer makes the computer do odd things such as run VERY VERY slow, lock up, make programs randomly close.

Dont get me wrong I use Spy Sweeper on customers computers to remove those hard to get spyware, but I make sure I uninstall it right after.


-Michael

 

[wannarunem]

Hope u dont ever get the spyware called "about:blank". This is one, pain in the ass IE hijacker to get off your machine. I've been trying to get rid of this for 4+ months now. It really sucks. It messes with just about every progam on my computer. I had xupiter at one time, but that was a breeze to remove compared to about:blank. It will literally want to make you throw your computer out the window.

 

[hb1111]

oh i had the same poop they make the name of the program like internet explorer something !! i could not figure out mine till i saw that and just removed the program now its gone!!they make it look like some kind of important program oh i hated that one used to pop up on the bottom of my screen...

 

[Blah420]

use spy bot search n distroy

 

[ImBroken]

Ever since I downloaded the Windows Service Pack 2 from Windows Update, I haven't had any pop-ups while using IE. I had switched to FireFox because the pop-ups were so bad, & haven't looked back... Haven't seen a popup since...

 

[jon2]

same here TJ. I love SP2 as I can surf the net without getting annoying popups. Porn here I come!!! Lol

 

[Nitro_Freak]

i had the same problem you did...

get mozilla, way better browser with less pop-ups and less spam. or even better, do what i did and get linux and never worry about spyware or viruses again

 

[El Pirata]

I was thinking about the whole spyware issue lately. I remember several years ago that there was a company that paid members to surf the net and track their surfing habits. I think it was only like $50 a month if you maxed out the time but it was still money. I imagine that these companies are probably the beginning of the spyware that they only have to pay a programer to make a tracking cookie then sell the product to other sites so they can know what surfers are looking at and cater more to the tastes of the average user.

Now I am currently using Zone Labs Zonealarm Pro and Lavasoft's Adware to remove. I actually use them so one is watchdogging the other. Zonealarm also allows you to block cookies from specific sites or to allow more cookies from other sites. I will also manually go into Zonealarm every few days or so and manually block cookies from any site that says ad, stat, counter or something that looks like it might be a tracking cookie. The only down side to this is that you can accidentally block cookies from sites you like to visit and, if you're like me, can't remember which ones I blocked recently so I am unsure which cookies to open again.

When I have the security set at the higher settings I rarely get any pop-ups and rarely ever get 3rd party cookies, which are the tracking cookies. The down side about this is that some sites realizing that people can do this will make their pages not load unless your computer downloads their cookies.

I do have a problem in some ways with not allowing a site to be able to load but honestly, I've lived my life so far never seeing that web page and I think I might be able to live the rest of my life without ever seeing that site.