Yellow Moxie, coupon drop down etc

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JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
May 20, 2009
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Recently I started noticing something that primarily seems to be happening on this POA board. Various words will be a different color and underlined. As I scroll over them I get an annoying popup offering to take me to a search engine.

I have run MalwareBytes, and the paid version of Avast. That didn't help so I removed Avast and bought Kaspersky AV and it didn't find anything either.

I don't know if this is something on my computer or on the POA site. I suspect it is on mine but I thought I would ask.

Any suggestions for finding it?
 
They're called interstitials, and a lot of sites will add them to collect revenue. POA is not one of them.

You've got adware on your computer. I would look through your Add/Remove programs section and see what you installed. You probably have a toolbar at the top of your browser as well.
 
What Nick said.

PoA doesn't accept advertising and doesn't use that kind of stuff in our feed to you.

It may be a browser issue, a plug-in, or some kind of Malware that's not detected by Malwarebytes. It may be the result of one of those insidious toolbars that some download sites want to install.
 
Post which browser you are using.

Open POA on a different browser and post results (though the answer can be anticipated with a high degree of confidence.)
 
Ok, as expected, the problem exists in one browser (Firefox) but not another (IE 8).

I did attempt to install a "missing codek" the other day because the system said it was needed to download a streaming video. It also began downloading other things that I didn't want so I blew it off and tried to remove all the things it downloaded. I suspect I missed a few.
 
JOhnH said:
I did attempt to install a "missing codek" the other day because the system said it was needed to download a streaming video. It also began downloading other things that I didn't want so I blew it off and tried to remove all the things it downloaded. I suspect I missed a few.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine loaned her computer to someone who also tried to install a codec. It screwed the computer up royally - downloaded all kinds of additional crap, installed Chrome (and set it as default), and reset a number of the default programs.

The only way it got completely cleaned was to reinstall from a backup.
 
JOhnH said:
Ok, as expected, the problem exists in one browser (Firefox) but not another (IE 8).

I did attempt to install a "missing codek" the other day because the system said it was needed to download a streaming video. It also began downloading other things that I didn't want so I blew it off and tried to remove all the things it downloaded. I suspect I missed a few.
Click to expand...

Missing codec? Was it in an embedded video on a website? If so - that's the culprit. The fix isn't going to be easy. However, for prevention's sake, if you ever see a prompt to install a codec or an "updated Flash player," you should go directly to the source to get it instead of downloading it (i.e. adobe.com).

The solution may be to dump IE, which you should have done eons ago anyway :) Or, if you have a backup from before this happened, revert.

Have you considered Linux? You wouldn't be in this mess if you had :D
 
SkyHog said:
Missing codec? Was it in an embedded video on a website? If so - that's the culprit. The fix isn't going to be easy. However, for prevention's sake, if you ever see a prompt to install a codec or an "updated Flash player," you should go directly to the source to get it instead of downloading it (i.e. adobe.com).

The solution may be to dump IE, which you should have done eons ago anyway :) Or, if you have a backup from before this happened, revert.

Have you considered Linux? You wouldn't be in this mess if you had :D
Click to expand...

It happened to his Firefox browser which in my experience is even more susceptible to involuntarily extension installation. Probably its only weakness in comparison .
 
SkyHog said:
Have you considered Linux? You wouldn't be in this mess if you had :D
Click to expand...

Oh, good grief, who wants an OS with a fat penguin as its mascot and simple commands such as escape-x-alt-control-left shift-b

Linux did give CP/M a run for its money and won.

Anyway, the double yellow underline stuff is a "feature" of windows and soon you'll grow to love it. Somewhere along the line I got it off of my machine. Don't know what I did. It hung around for a year or so and then went away.
 
Well, I deleted a whole bunch of things through the control panel "add/delete programs" that I didn't recognize. It didn't help but at least I got rid of what I hope is a bunch of junk.

Then I restarted FireFox without add-ons. That got rid of the issue, and Firefox is a lot faster now too. I suppose I will have to add some of the add-ons back occasionally.

I did abandon Internet Explorer years ago but every once in a while I run into a web site that won't work without it. I have Chrome loaded, but I really haven't found anything about it that I like better than Firefox. But I do have periodic issues with Firefox too.

There is no way I could ever go to Linux, or any Unix variant. Way back in another life I was a VAX/VMS guru and Unix was a complicated, inconsistent mess with no standards. It was much more of a rivalry than Mac vs PC is today. I still think VMS was better but it was an old business model that couldn't adapt.

Any, thanks for the suggestions.
 
tinerj said:
Oh, good grief, who wants an OS with a fat penguin as its mascot and simple commands such as escape-x-alt-control-left shift-b
Click to expand...
Don't confuse VI (which is pathetic) with Linux, man. You're doing it a disservice. Besides, anyone that's used Linux in the last 10 years should be using nano anyway. Its dirt simple and doesn't require you to memorize a 80,000 character man page to use. :D

JOhnH said:
Well, I deleted a whole bunch of things through the control panel "add/delete programs" that I didn't recognize. It didn't help but at least I got rid of what I hope is a bunch of junk.

Then I restarted FireFox without add-ons. That got rid of the issue, and Firefox is a lot faster now too. I suppose I will have to add some of the add-ons back occasionally.

I did abandon Internet Explorer years ago but every once in a while I run into a web site that won't work without it. I have Chrome loaded, but I really haven't found anything about it that I like better than Firefox. But I do have periodic issues with Firefox too.

There is no way I could ever go to Linux, or any Unix variant. Way back in another life I was a VAX/VMS guru and Unix was a complicated, inconsistent mess with no standards. It was much more of a rivalry than Mac vs PC is today. I still think VMS was better but it was an old business model that couldn't adapt.

Any, thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...

I misread that you had already moved to Firefox - good on ya! That's halfway there. Linux ain't so complicated or inconsistent these days...
 
These things are hard to get rid of unless you do that sort of work every day. I used to start every morning by reading up on the crap that came out since I went to bed the night before. It's staggering how much new and modified malware comes out every day.

A simpler (and often effective) solution is to download, update, and run the free version of MBAM.

http://www.malwarebytes.org

The most likely snags in this case are being blocked or redirected elsewhere when you try to install MBAM. That's one of the ways malware protects itself. But if it's FF that's infected and you're sure IE is okay, then use IE for the download.

-Rich
 
SkyHog said:
Don't confuse VI(which is pathetic) with Linux, man. You're doing it a disservice. Besides, anyone that's used Linux in the last 10 years should be using nano anyway. Its dirt simple and doesn't require you to memorize a 80,000 character man page to use. :D



I misread that you had already moved to Firefox - good on ya! That's halfway there. Linux ain't so complicated or inconsistent these days...
Click to expand...

I'll give you 3 posts to repent. Pick any editor and give me vi, I'll win and that's not speculaton. OMG I may have to read a manual for 5 minutes... RUNNNN

:wq
 
bartmc said:
I'll give you 3 posts to repent. Pick any editor and give me vi, I'll win and that's not speculaton. OMG I may have to read a manual for 5 minutes... RUNNNN

:wq
Click to expand...

Lol. Nano doesn't require one to read a manual. Its a text editor for Christ's sake.
 
SkyHog said:
Lol. Nano doesn't require one to read a manual. Its a text editor for Christ's sake.
Click to expand...

I type gobs of code for a living, when I watch someone hunt and peck in nano, text pad or all the other noob editors. I can't stand it and it wears my patience thin. Some even use A MOUSE (God forbid). Get proficient with Vi, (yes it takes a day or two) and the first thing you'll do when you sit down at a new computer is install it, and if on Windows, associate it with every file extension.

I've been Linuxing since you had to build your own monolithic kernels (1993ish?), the recent distros are awful, The current Ubuntu is worse than Windows 8, that took some effort.
 
bartmc said:
I type gobs of code for a living, when I watch someone hunt and peck in nano, text pad or all the other noob editors. I can't stand it and it wears my patience thin. Some even use A MOUSE (God forbid). Get proficient with Vi, (yes it takes a day or two) and the first thing you'll do when you sit down at a new computer is install it, and if on Windows, associate it with every file extension.

I've been Linuxing since you had to build your own monolithic kernels (1993ish?), the recent distros are awful, The current Ubuntu is worse than Windows 8, that took some effort.
Click to expand...

"Hey sonny, back in my day we had to feed punch cards into computers to boot them up, and we liked it!! "

Its a text editor. Ubuntu is better than Mandrake ever was, and Linux is better now than it was 15 years ago.
 
SkyHog said:
"Hey sonny, back in my day we had to feed punch cards into computers to boot them up, and we liked it!! "

Its a text editor. Ubuntu is better than Mandrake ever was, and Linux is better now than it was 15 years ago.
Click to expand...

If you think nano is and advancement over vi :dunno:

Mandrake always sucked (roll your own n00b), but it never returned a suggestion for me to purchase a documentary about a 90's South African Indie Rock Band when I was looking for the DVD burning software.
 
bartmc said:
If you think nano is and advancement over vi :dunno:

Mandrake always sucked (roll your own n00b), but it never returned a suggestion for me to purchase a documentary about a 90's South African Indie Rock Band when I was looking for the DVD burning software.
Click to expand...

Quite frankly, writing on a pad of paper and taping it to your screen is as effective as vi. Its a text editor. Its nothing more.

Here's a step by step of using nano:

$~ nano

this is a text document

ctrl-x - do you want to save? Yes.

Done.

How many key strokes does it take to do the same in vi?
 
Actually, lets flip it a second - what can you do in vi, that anyone cannot do in nano? Obviously, for vi to be better (since its so much more complicated), it must have some functionality that nano doesn't, right?
 
$vi file.txt

a

this is a text document

<esc>wq

Done.


now convert this file to insert statements.

1,2,3,4,5
6,7,8,9,10
...
...
199,000,000 more lines

:%s/^/INSERT INTO TABLE (a,b,c,d,e,f) VALUES ('/g
:%s/,/','/g
:%s/$);/g

:wq
 
SkyHog said:
"Hey sonny, back in my day we had to feed punch cards into computers to boot them up, and we liked it!! "
Click to expand...

No, you had to have the computer booted to read the punch cards. :D And that meant flipping switches on the console.

Kids these days, I tell you. :D
 
Ghery said:
No, you had to have the computer booted to read the punch cards. :D And that meant flipping switches on the console.

Kids these days, I tell you. :D
Click to expand...

ahh yessss, when we didnt need blue pills or dual bath tubs to go from floppies to hard disk drives
 
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