Is the web threat getting more serious?

"inferior Microsoft browser"? my that was a subjective remark. have used every version of IE from their inception till the latest version that was included in my upgrade to Windows 8. Never had a browser issue, not even once. I tried both Firefox and Chrome, to make my son happy at one point, and took them off after a day, didn't see the point or any advantage over IE.

As far as the advertisements, I never see them either, just a little square that says advertisement. Funny how different it can be from one person to another, must be browser issues, I would think.

As far as anti-virus, been very happy with the basic Norton anti-virus s/w. Not the entire Norton suite, I don't want all their junk cluttering up my laptop, nor do I want their utilities. But in the past 3 years using only the anti-virus portion, never had a single virus get through, and it checks all my in bound and out bound e-mails, checks Facebook, etc. Automatically updates its own defintions, what could be easier?

david

No problems here - and no ads. (Sorry Peter.)
I am running XP , Firefox 18 - with pop ups disabled, AVG anti virus, and Ghostery.

For those of you who are getting the message: Please note which ad is being displayed. That would help with the diagnosis.

Dude:

No reason for you to try Norton again. If you are pleased with your current situation, why change. As I said, I was very surprised with the latest Norton.

Worried -- I can't tell what the ads are. The page will not open and the error message appears.

Anyway, so far no big thing -- a VERY minor annoyance as long as the virus is prevented from infecting my computer. I ran a full in-depth scan last night. No problems.

Mel

Yes I have received the message several times over the past week. There definitely IS a problem.

Bill in San Diego

Purgatory said...
"inferior Microsoft browser"? my that was a subjective remark. have used every version of IE from their inception till the latest version that was included in my upgrade to Windows 8. Never had a browser issue, not even once. I tried both Firefox and Chrome, to make my son happy at one point, and took them off after a day, didn't see the point or any advantage over IE.

As far as the advertisements, I never see them either, just a little square that says advertisement. Funny how different it can be from one person to another, must be browser issues, I would think.

As far as anti-virus, been very happy with the basic Norton anti-virus s/w. Not the entire Norton suite, I don't want all their junk cluttering up my laptop, nor do I want their utilities. But in the past 3 years using only the anti-virus portion, never had a single virus get through, and it checks all my in bound and out bound e-mails, checks Facebook, etc. Automatically updates its own defintions, what could be easier?

david

 

There's no problem with Norton. I'm just using what Comcast gives all for free. Like I said it appears to be yet another IE problem. Yeah Dave inferior browsers. Even microsoft admits now  that it's IE6 was one of the worse ever made and begs all to get rid of it, By this time most have.      http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/11/29/internet-explorer-sucks-less/

Hi all!  Thanks for the valuable info.  I've been trying to diagnose the problem the last week without success.  The server is clean, all the files are clean.  The only external scripts are from Google Analytics and Doubleclick (which uses other ad networks also).  I suspect the advertisements but haven't found a tool to capture it.  It does appear to be aimed at IE only.  I suggest using Chrome or Firefox to avoid the annoyance. 

By the way, it isn't a virus but an attempt to get you to download malware.

I'll post if I learn more.

Peter

Purgatory said...
ziggy - we will have to agree to disagree about browser choices, like most things, very subjective subject. I started out with the original version of dos, went through all its versions, then through every version of windows, and when the net was developed, have always stuck with the most current version of IE. Never had any IE problems in any flavor. however, windows ME and windows Vista were both bug-ridden dogs of the highest degree. ME was so bad, when I was the Systems Mgr of a private college way back, we had 2500 student computers and about 250 staff computers, and ME was so bad, that we had to ban it on campus, it was that bad to troubleshoot and support.

curious with any readers on this swtich, have many or any of you made the switch to Windows 8? I did last weekend. Had I not recently bought a HTC Windows 8 phone, Windows 8 would have spooked me, as all my previous Windows experience got thrown out the window with Windows 8. However, my Window phone acclimated me to the new look,, once your brain overcomes the change to live tiles vs. icons, I think its great. btw, this is the only smart phone I have ever had that made sense to my left-handed logic. I had a Droid phone for 2 years prior, and it never made sense to me, and I was unable to figure out most of its "smart" features, hated the phone. But in 2 evenings, had the whole Windows phone logic figure out. I think it's a great phone, especially for an old Windows minded dog like me.

I was never into Apple Computers, and I started with PC's back in 1985, so was never inclined to want to buy I-pods, I Pads, Macs, or any of the I phones. Not saying they aren't great technology, but just cant make myself get into Apple products. However, my wife just got an I phone 4s and loves it.

david

If we're doing PC back grounds mine starts with windows 3.1, soon after I was a beta tester for windows 95. One bug I had with it that once loaded it. it worked fine. Turn off the power and my cd drive disappeared. I would have to start dos to have the old PC rediscover it. That lasted for a month and many times I never turned it off, but I digress. The first browser I used came with Netcom and was a POS. Soon after Netscape appeared and it was the standard for awhile. Of curse microsoft did all it could to kill netscape off and their were numerous lawsuits. I also used Opera for awhile but went back to netscape/ Firefox to the present. The defunct Netscape Corp was the major developer of internet browsers and to this day deserves much of the credit developing them. On the other hand Microsoft did all it could to monopolize the market with yes inferior products. Achieving internet infamy for IE 6 the worse browser ever made so bad that for years now microsoft begged people to get rid of it. The modern versions are adequate I am told. I of course have IE with windows but rarely use it. You're correct about the bad window operating systems. I was lucky for never having ME or Vista. I never heard much good about 2000 either. I ran 95 from beta, 98se for a long time and XP for the longest. Hell that Dell with XP is still working but I couldn't upgrade the RAM anymore and finally bought another Dell last year with Windows 7. Of course I'm not online as much as I use to be back in the late 90s. I was a very active MP3 pirate back in the newsgroups. Oh well enough of past online memories. It's nice not posting about Pca for a change.

I don't have any Apple products either. Back in the 90s I always thought of them as like the Beta Vcrs which was a superior product but was out marketed by the developers of VHS. darn we're getting old.

Since we are discussing background, I am an old FORTRAN 4 Programmer.

I loved DOS and still use it via the command prompt every so oftn (sometimes you can do more with a single DOS command).

I worked in industry (NASA Flight Research Center) as a mathematician/programmer.

In short, my HW handle was well-chosen!

Mel

In my undergraduate days, I programmed on a CDC 6600 (Control Data Corporation).

It took up most of a room and we had to wear sweaters and coats because they kept the room at about 55 degrees so that the vacuum tubes would not overheat.

I will say that we were much more careful in our programming in those days. Heck, I would type out my program on an IBM 029 keypunch machine. I would have to deliver the cards and wait 8 hours for the output. The least error, of course, then we had to lather, rinse, repeat. Very frustrating.

The personal computers came out and the situation changed. I remember doing a lot of work on and old Commodore Pet. We could record our programs on a tape. That was the cat's meow.

Mel

you said...
With all of the computer experts and knowledge in this thread and forum why can't we find a way to fix this malware pop-up problem?

Unless you are one of the top-level experts in the malware-defense biz (only a few hundred of those guys in the world and none of them are any of us, I am fairly sure) then the way you fix this sort of problem is trial and error. You try a bunch of random stuff and look for what makes the problem budge or, hopefully, what fixes it. In short you dick around with the computer until the problem goes away. This is actually easier for non-computer guys because they are not plagued by embarrassment during the process.

So the reason we computer guys can't fix the problem is performance anxiety .

I would ask one of my brothers-in-law who is in the anti-business but I can't afford his rates.

Here's my claim to be a real old computer noob. My army MOS was 76P2g3 - Mechanized Stock Control and Accounting Specialist. Hey it got me out of AIT as a SP/4. Anyway if I remember right the g3 meant i was qualified on the old NCR 500 computer. We also were trained on the I believe Univac 1005? but never saw another one after AIT. The NCR was basically a huge posting machine with FSN supply account kept on the back of ledgers with magnetic strips. The "computer" was programed with 80 punch IBM cards that were also its means of supply requisitions and output to be tranceived for out of stock orders. The processor alone was the size of a freezer. One nice thing, due to the IBM cards it and the cards had to stay in an air conditioned environment so work was comfortable. In addition it was a 24/7 operation and I managed to work the graveyard shift where I had more freedom as we didn't have any bosses in fact I was the boss. That was computers in 1969-1971 in the Army.