Laptop upgrade advice

[seanc]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice

That too. Either way, the AV program (quite often paid for) has failed to do its job.

[lti]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice

Actually, I think they get trapped with a Firefox window that won't do anything, so they click on the malware and initiate the destruction. I saw it happen to my Mum, but she asked me for help before she did anything stupid.

That's when you pull the plug. The modem my parents use is located so they can unplug the network cable or turn the modem off very quickly.

But, do the ads install rogues by themselves even in Firefox?

I haven't seen a rogue download silently, but I have heard of it happening. The ads I have seen either redirect you to the fake Web-based scanner or pop up a message saying that the computer is infected. Whether you click on OK, Cancel, or the X in the corner of the message box, you are then sent to the fake scanner.

This thread went really far off topic.

[seanc]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC > processes tab - firefox.exe > delete.
Fixed.

[momaka]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice

That is done by an Active-X Control.
Either turn it off or get SpywareBlaster which blocks Active-X Controls in web pages.
It's 'light weight', runs in the background, compatible with anti-viruses [can use both at the same time], and free if you choose manual updates.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

That's what I use as well since IE6 is still my choice for primary browser.
I don't think SpywareBlaster runs in the background, though. Last I checked (some years ago), all it did is it just created a list of blocked websites in the registry that are not allowed to run Active-X and/or not allowed to download content at all on the computer. Can't seem to remember where it was, though.
Regardless, it's still pretty effective and I highly recommend it too.

"Apparently". I've never seen it happen, but when I tell people they should be using Firefox rather than IE, they say 'oh I was'.

Kind-of happened to me just few days ago. Was looking for some solution manuals. Knew I'd run in some rogue websites so I was using my designated "file search/download" computer.
On that computer I run Firefox 3 with Adblock Plus. This didn't stop the website from opening a bunch of popup windows at me in Firefox. Luckily, none of them had anything bad. But it just goes to show you that even Firefox is not immune.
I checked with MalwareBytes afterwards, and the computer was clean. AV didn't see anything either. Not that I care that much anyways - again, that was my designated download computer.