Static cling

While surfing yesterday evening one of those PC optimizing software offers latched onto my Internet Explorer and wouldn't let go. You know the type. All of a sudden a dialog box opens on the screen wanting you to download the product. The box won't take "no" for an answer and keeps coming back no matter how many times you X it out. Finally shook loose from this thing. Not sure how I did it.

What is this kind of pest called? Is it something that my NOD should have intercepted? If not, what is the best defense against these things?

 

I think those are just pop-ups.

Anyways my advice is to not use Internet Explorer and instead use Firefox or Opera. Second, use an ad blocker such as AdBlock Plus (for Firefox only) or Ad Muncher.

 

You might want to also check and see if Windows Messenger Service is enabled. When I say that, I'm not talking about the Instant Messenger chat program, but a service that runs by default in XP. With his service enabled, and using Internet Explorer, the service can allow UDP packets to generate popups. I've seen a lot of these when using a packet sniffer, and they usually are telling you that you have spyware, or your registry is corrupt, or your comptuer has some other problem that their software will "fix." Usually they also include some kind of link for you to click on that will only mean trouble. I would suggest going to this Microsoft page which explains and service and instructs you how to disable it:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/learnmore/stopspam.mspx

I also second WSFuser's comment about using Firefox or Opera browsers instead of IE. I know I haven't used IE for a long time and don't miss it at all. Opera is the lightest and quickest, and Firefox has add-ons that IE could only dream of. Anyway, hopefully I've provided some useful info.