Rude Interruptions

[Topiary Lady]

I have a geek talk question. Now remember though, I am not a geek and understand very little about computer stuff.

Lately when I have been here enjoying my favorite site typing away my much wanted commentary:icon_wink on any particular thread, my screen suddenly goes from this site to Webroot SoftWare Inc. and an announcement that my software is out of date and .....blah ....blah.....

This deletes the post I am typing! If I close the Webroot thing or even try to click the 'Back' button, it still deletes what I have just written. Very frustrating!

What can I do to get rid of this Webroot thing that keeps coming up? Remember, it's T.L. asking this. Splain it simple:confused1: if you can help.

[Bumblebee]

Well, TL, seeing as yet, none of the computer nerds have answered your question, I'll answer it, but I know as much as you. :icon_mrgr hmm...why don't you just update your webroot software like it says?

[Dagummit]

Webroot makes Spy Sweeper, it is suppose to be an anti-spyware product...but for it to just spawn stuff like that sounds like adware.

check out the free program at http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/ and see if it picks anything up.

[BushRocks]

Its a virus....

[shotdrops286]

see if you have webroot installed and if you do update it if not your probably hitting space or enter on a pop-up ad and should get some adware remover like what dag suggested or ... i use StopZILLA (http://www.stopzilla.com) but it cost money. If you are one of those people that still uses IE i would suggest switching to firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com) its alot more secure of a browser and blocks most pop-ups

[Topiary Lady]

I have the spysweeper thing. There is also a "firewall" thing and all sorts of other stuff.

Truthfully, is this just something that will be over my head? If so I could take the computer into BestBuy where I purchased it and have their "Geek Squad" take a look. I'm not unwilling to pay to keep things virus free, I'm just not computer savy enough to know when something says I need to "download" or "update" if it is good or bad.

Oh, I run the Spysweeper thing at least twice a week. Enough?

The Webroot thing has only popped up (and it takes up the full screen by the way) when I am posting to a thread on this site. I've never had it pop up during regular email or when just READING this site or others, it's only when posting to this site. Does tha mean anything?

[erichthewebguy]

TL, here goes the final answer:

See if there is an option in the Webroot software to turn off automatic updating. But, you will need to update it yourself, once a week is usually ok. Running it twice a week is fine. Don't go into your task manager and kill the processes like MC suggested, and for sure don't go and delete any files from Webroot. While MC's suggestion is good for spyware, remember that it's an anti spyware program. Killing the process and deleting the program files leaves you vulnerable to attack by spyware.

You shouldn't have to take it to the "Geek Squad." They are mostly worthless hacks anyway.

As far as updating only from this site, I think that proves that they are part of the vast left-wing conspiracy to silence us!!!:icon_mrgr

[Topiary Lady]

Okay, I will give this a try Erich. Actually I will have my husband take a look at your suggestion and do this. I have no idea what a "task manager" is. :frown:

Thanks you guys!

[Peace_by_superior _power]

i would recomend using norton system works ( a combo pack of firewall and anti viruis and and a whole boat load of tools you need) its simple and very user friendly. iit comes with free updates in your protection for a year and is both safe and effective. if your getting this to pop it maybe virus or spyware so i would recomend protectiong yourself by deleting any personal info and not purchesing anything online. dont use best buy ( i hate best buy) those guys are idoits who just normaly send your computer to the company so you end up paying both them and your computer company ( i have warrenty so they dont send anything out for me).

[erichthewebguy]

Everyone:

Stop the madness/insanity/whatever! There are free programs that work as well as, if not better than, the ones that are fee-based.

Anti-Virus: AVG AntiVirus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5)
Firewall: Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en)
Anti-Spyware: Ad Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/)

[Jimbo]

Everyone:

Stop the madness/insanity/whatever! There are free programs that work as well as, if not better than, the ones that are fee-based.

Anti-Virus: AVG AntiVirus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5)
Firewall: Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en)
Anti-Spyware: Ad Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/)

I agree with Erich, AVG, Spybot, Ad-aware, thats all you need :D

[MVillani1985]

SpySweeper isn't a virus, it was given to us by Circuit City to clean up a huge virus onslaught. However it does come up with too many false positives, meaning reading things as malicious that aren't.

Reminder: WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT DOWNLOAD ADDESTROYER OR VIRTUALBOUNCER!!! THEY WILL DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER AND DESTROYED MINE IN THE PAST!!!! THEY ARE SPYWARE, NOT SPYWARE PROTECTION PROGRAMS LIKE THEY ADVERTISE THEMSELVES TO BE!!!

Just thought I'd be nice enough to let everyone know. :icon_mrgr

[SubJunk]

AVG constantly scores the poorest in antivirus software comparisons. It's better than nothing but not up to par with most others.

The top rated antivirus programs are NOD32 (my favourite), Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee. NOD32 usually scores marginally higher than all of them, but is better in other ways like it takes up hardly any resources (it's sitting at 24mb on my machine).
Kerio is the best firewall software in my opinion also.
Antispyware software winner recently is CounterSpy, made by the same company as Kerio (Sunbelt Systems)

Spybot and Ad-Aware are the best free ones but they miss a lot of things CounterSpy picks up.
Spybot's immunization feature alone is worth installing though and it has a cool GUI for managing other things (the System Tools options)

[Jimbo]

I would give my soul for NOD32 but I just don't have enough money to buy it.

But somehow I lucked out and now hav ethe full version of AVG for free. You see I was just downloading the trial every 30 days when the protection kicked in and that stopped working, so I downloaded an earlier version of AVG 7, it updated, and its been months and it just operates as the full version. Awesomeeee