New advertisement feature ?

[bmcecosse]

Is there a new advertisement feature on the forum? Certain words such as oil and play seem to appear in blue and underlined - and lead to adverts! Is this on the forum - or is it a virus on my computer??? For some reason 'oil' hasn't done it in this post.... Maybe only one per post ??

[brucek]

Not noticed anything untoward on my PC Roy - will keep a watch though - could, as you say, indicate some sort of spyware thing that attaches itself to words you type or use a lot. Try typing coil or 15/12thou and see if it does that too

[bmcecosse]

It's just done it on your post with the word 'try'....but not here where I put the word inside inverted commas......

[brucek]

How strange - not come across that before but then I'm not all that familiar with the vagaries of what computers do when they are given a few minutes to act by themselves. Hopefully another slightly computer nerdy (no offence) forum member will know what's going on

[ASL642]

Roy - it must be your Pc - it's never the coil!

[bmcecosse]

It's ONLY doing it on the MMOC forum - not on any other forum.... And not just on threads where I post - it's there on other thread posts where I have no input....

[JPX877J]

It has happened before to someone on another forum I was on and it was some adware type stuff installed from a dodgy site.

(The forum in question was this one: http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/)

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

It also happened me on the MMOC several months ago, I did contact the mods about it but think it was something on my PC. I ran my anti virus a few times and it stopped happening.

[LouiseM]

As mentioned, it sounds like you have picked up adware/spyware from something that you have either clicked on or downloaded recently. They monitor your browsing history so perhaps the problem is only occuring on this site at the moment because it is the one you frequent the most?

[MrDodo]

It's ad-ware - download either of these and run a full scan.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
http://www.avg.com/gb-en/free-antivirus-download

Also be sure to keep your computer up-to-date with the latest set of Windows updates http://update.microsoft.com

[Dominic]

Roy, it's worth installing and running regularly "Spybot"
It does keep the adware away.
Hope you're keeping well
Dom

[bmcecosse]

Thanks all - I do believe it is indeed adware - yet I have full Norton 'protection' running. Thanks for the tips - I have use Spybot in the past. But I'll try them all! Anyone any tips where I can 'uninstalll' this nuisance?

[Dominic]

Spybot will remove it I believe

[bmcecosse]

Dom - it comes up with various options when I ask to download Spybot - and suggestions? Must be FREE of course!

[Dominic]

Roy, just go here

http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/

and click on any of the offerings. These are the free downloads. Just ignore any that offer a 30 day free trial or similar!

[MarkyB]

Never install any toolbars you may get offered from any source.
Untick, decline the conditions, whatever it takes.
Free software will still install, if it won't, find another product.

[Trickydicky]

The safest way to stop rogue software from installing is to change the account you log onto the computer with from an admin account to a standard user account.

When it trys to install unknown software it will warn you and thus you can block it.

[JPX877J]

Also a quick word of advice - Norton is useless.

Avast or AVG are much better antiviruses and are free

[Dominic]

I can confirm that the free AVG is great, I've never yet had a problem. Years ago when I had a free "health check" for my laptop at PCWorld, they were very dismissive of AVG - yet had to admit that there wasn't a single virus present when they handed it back - so they didn't even try flogging me expensive and useless Norton!

[bmcecosse]

Hmm - I use AVG on my old 'upright' PC and it did run into a few problems in the past - but now rarely gets switched on. The Norton has been running in this laptop since new - and no problems, so I assume it's doing ok. I've been 'uninstalling' various odd looking problems from the laptop. Anyone know if ' Coupon printer for Windows' is a worthwhile program - or a piece of junk I can get rid of?? Thanks for all help/advice - keep it coming please! I still can't decide what program to run to try to shift this nuisance - worried in case they turn out to be virus laden!! Can anyone confirm a specific program that's ok to run?? Roy