May 11, 2005

"Curious, George: Browser popups in dsl" I have had dsl for a week and I have this problem of a new brower window popping up pretty regularly with the Mozilla homepage on it. I use Firefox and just updated to the new version but it keeps happening. Qwest has never heard of this prob. Any ideas? Thanks.
  • What is the pop up?
  • is it your start page? Could you be hitting Ctrl-N by accident?
  • Did you set pop-up blocking on (under Tools - Options - Web Features) and are you regularly running and updating anti-spyware (Ad Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy)?
  • With my Google toolbar, I don't get many pop-ups except for one particular website (sitemeter, which I cannot avoid). But my friend has issues with pop-ups regardless. If you have a pop-up blocker already, then I would switch to a different homepage. I do agree with steveno about running the anti-spyware; it's free, why not?
  • Speaking of this topic, are there any recommened freeeware/shareware anti-spyware programs for the mac?
  • There aren't really any viruses or spyware for the Mac. One of the main reasons people are switching to macs!
  • and you`ve cleared you firefox cache and history? Might also be settings in the tabbed browsing tools/options/advanced. And tech support from Qwest is like (enter joke here)
  • Well the homepage that my browser opens to is yahoo. . but this new *volunteer* browser always opens to Mozilla.org. Hardly a malicious thing, but still. It's baffling, so far.
  • oh and I run ad-aware and S-D regularly.
  • Maybe it thinks it needs to look for Firefox updates. What version of Firefox do you have?
  • I updated firefox tonight and it is still happening. . .
  • mouse settings
  • When you say "regularly", is it happening when you perform a particular action? Does it happen when Firefox starts up or in the middle of browsing something later on? Also, when you say it's the Mozilla homepage, what URL are you seeing? Different versions of Mozilla will take you to the version specific to your browser, or you might get a search page. Or it could be a fake, I guess. It's a weird issue and I can't help but think it's something in your FF settings.
  • Go here: http://www.iamnotageek.com/a/440-p1.php Read instructions and then get HijackThis and copy and paste result where they tell you to. Act accordingly. Be careful it is a powerful program. Read the rest of the site there are many good tips on it.
  • If you still have problems come to: http://pressf1.pcworld.co.nz/forumdisplay.php?f=4 You can get live online help there.
  • I don't think it is spyware. I think that somehow the shortcut you doubleclick is set to open two windows. If you save a link to the desktop (by dragging the icon next to the url to the desktop), close firefox and then double clik on the desktop link, does it still open two windows? If not, then the shortcut you are using to start firefox is screwed up. If it still does it, then the preferences are screwed up. Export your bookmarks (bookmarks->manage bookmarks->export) uninstall firefox, then go to any mozilla folders (usually in programfiles) and delete them since uninstalling usually leaves the prefernces behind. Also delete any mozilla folders in C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAMEHERE\Application Data Then reinstall firefox and see if that helps. (then you can go to manage bookmarks and import your bookmarks). If that doesn't work, I got nothin'.
  • Export your bookmarks (bookmarks->manage bookmarks->export) uninstall firefox, then go to any mozilla folders (usually in programfiles) and delete them since uninstalling usually leaves the prefernces behind. Which means the I would need to have MIE or maybe Opera in order to get a new version of Firefox. I hate MIE. . .and I can tell when my daughter uses it (even against my wishes) because there are a bunch of eZula files that I have to delete. Anyway, all of you, I appreciate the time you have spent to post about this. . .
  • No, you can download the new version of firefox with firefox, before you delete it, delete the old version, and then install the new one. No IE needed!