Juathuur

[Bunt]

When I open the Juathuur forum page, it tries to force some popups on me. The popup then tries to install some MS word-related stuff(and adamantly refuses the cancel-clicking, closing the whole forum window if you try too hard to stop it) and Errorsafe installer opens on the same window the forum was in. Makes it really hard to use the forum, such thing. Can anything be done about it?

[gammyun]

Hmm... that's odd. Never happed to me, though with all my popup blockers it could be possible that I'm just missing it. I will see if I can root out the cause. If you want to be ulta helpful, could you tell me what operating system/browser you are using and the exact names of the things the popups are trying to install?

[Bunt]

It tried to install DATA1.MSI with windows installer(which wanted Microsoft Office 2000 CD inside). I didn't trust it so I didn't let it install it. The popups have been about jamba, some casino thing, Errorsafe and Windows Anti-virus.

[gammyun]

the normal popups are just an unfortunate consequence of free forums... but the DATA.MSI thing is probably something specific to your MS Office installation on your computer - I haven't heard of this problem specifically in relation to forums, but it happens sometimes when running programs that access microsoft DLLs ... I suppose it's possible that forum code could trigger it (or it could be a program you just happened to be running at the same time) - are you using IE?.

I don't think the installer is malicious, but if you don't trust the installation popup, you could try just re-installing MS Office. Depending on what version you're running I also think there's a service pack update that fixes this problem.

[DanielSan88]

To anyone getting popups that refuse to close or just seem out of place, especially any type of casino popup, on Windows:
I'll tell you now that you have likely been infected with malware.
Probably because your internet browsing practices could be safer.

First of all you're probably using Internet Explorer. Using IE is the worst thing to do if you want your computer to be safe.
For heaven's sake just don't do it! Although I'll admit IE7 is much safer than any previous version, It still has gaping security holes
simply because it uses ActiveX. These security holes are not because Microsoft is a bad company or because they have bad programmers.
In fact, I will tell you now that Microsoft is a good company. Their programmers are all but great, albeit occasionally misguided.
ActiveX itself has an antiquated security model, one designed before the world realized the need for all out computer security.

Firefox is a much safer browser to use, it has been designed with an emphasis on computer security.
Plus you don't have to give up your IE bookmarks, as you can import them directly into Firefox upon install.
Safari and Opera, and Netscape are all dependable, free alternatives also.

I also recommend that you download some tools to clean up your computer.
My favorite one is called Spybot: Search & Destroy
Another good one is called AdAware, if you use both they tend to cover each other's rare gaps.
Sometimes there may be a few things that one won't find but the other will.
However, I think this is overkill unless you have something that Spybot just can't clear up.

Finally, I highly insist, not just for you, but for anyone that reads this and has Windows XP or Vista,
make sure that automatic Windows updates are set up. Microsoft is thankfully responsible enough to
check their backs for security holes so that they find them before hackers do. If you don't have a constant
internet connection or for some other reason can't set up automatic updates, be sure to visit update.microsoft.com on a regular basis.