Anybody else have unwanted links showing up on their threads?

[mammallama]

Not sure if I'm asking the right question, but today I'm finding all kinds of words highlighted and underlined. Some of the words are 'travel', 'cars', 'hotels'... Are these links to ads? Anybody else have them? How do I get rid of them? [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=4169e1&cdt=2004;6;6;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] to get me on the ADVENTURE OF THE SEA

[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=9483049477"]Roll call AOS 6/06/04 click here[/url]
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=454100691"]Roll call for Majesty 09/06/04 click here[/url]

[Globaliser]

They are indeed links to ads, but that's because you've contracted some spyware. I got hit by this a while back but I've now forgotten exactly what it's called.

Do you have Spybot or AdAware installed? If not, the first thing I would suggest is to go to [url="http://www.download.com,"]www.download.com,[/url] search for each of these, download them, install them and run them. (Recommendation - immediately after installing every piece of software, restart your computer before doing anything else.)

If that doesn't fix the problem, post again and I'll see whether I can dredge up the old information.

[mammallama]

Do you see the links? I have spykiller installed, just ran a virus scan and found 2 unwanted programs. I HATE these computer bugs. It's still happening, though. I appreciate your help.

[Globaliser]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mammallama:
Do you see the links? I have spykiller installed, just ran a virus scan and found 2 unwanted programs. I HATE these computer bugs. It's still happening, though. I appreciate your help.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I did have links on the same words, which was what makes me think you have the same problem that I had. The links will go when you do fix the problem. What were the programs that you've found? I'm happy to have a dig further to try to find out what it was that I got, if Spybot and AdAware don't do the job.

If you fancy some light reading on this subject, try:-
[url="http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/"]http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/[/url]
[url="http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=117136"]http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=117136[/url]

[mammallama]

One was adware--NOT AdAware, and the other was a trojan, downloads-JuU. I scanned and cleaned and scanned and cleaned again. Thanks for the articles. Ooh, I'm so pi**ed!!!!!! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img] I'm also getting pop-ups, never had THAT problem before either.

[Globaliser]

Your popup hell is being caused by the same bit of adware.

If you want to prioritise which of those programs to download because you have a slow connection, go for AdAware first. It's only about 1.7MB.

Spybot is now about 4.2MB so it's one of those leave-it-to-run-all-night jobs if you're on a dialup connection to the Internet.

Also, sorry, I've just noticed that the download.com link before won't work because it was automatically parsed. You need [url="http://www.download.com"]www.download.com[/url].

[mammallama]

[B]GLOBALISER[/B]--You are my HERO!!! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Downloaded and ran both and it seems to have fixed it. There were 56 problems on my poor, poor computer. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img] Kisses and hugs to you! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[mammallama]

And you're SMART, too! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=4169e1&cdt=2004;6;6;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] to get me on the ADVENTURE OF THE SEA

[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=9483049477"]Roll call AOS 6/06/04 click here[/url]
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=454100691"]Roll call for Majesty 09/06/04 click here[/url]

[Globaliser]

< blushing >

It was my pleasure - it's easy to pass on what you've learned from having been there before! Just like this board generally, isn't it? I'm glad you're sorted out now.