How-To Guides: Blocking Pop-Ups

Pop-Ups

We all want to keep our computers running well and that means keeping them healthy. But it is getting harder and harder to protect computers from hackers who attack with viruses, spyware, and pop-ups. This month we will discuss what “pop-ups” are, what they do, and how to prevent them.

Pop-up ads dominate the web and are annoying to most users. Pop-up ads appear without warning or consent as users visit various websites. Clicking a link in a pop-up ad takes the user to the advertiser's website. If the user clicks the pop-up ad, the original website receives a payment for the ad. In most cases, users can close pop-ups without visiting advertisers’ websites by clicking on the X in the browser windows, however, some of the newer ads have disabled that button. For those, right-clicking on the Internet Explorer tab in the task bar will usually close the ad window.

But you can block the pop-ups or at least most of them. The pop-up blocker for the latest versions of Internet Explorer actually turns on by default. To find out if your pop-up blocker is turned on:

  1. Open the Tools menu in IE and look for the Pop-up Blocker submenu
  2. Select Pop-up Blocker Settings
  3. Under Exceptions enter those web sites from which you will accept pop-ups. Hint: you can add these as you visit web sites.

Internet Explorer's Pop-up Blocker will block pop-up ads as you Web surf unless they are from the sites you list as "allowed" or Web sites in your Local Intranet or Trusted Sites zones. (These are security zones that your network administrator may have set up or that you can control yourself from the Security tab in IE's Internet Options dialog box.)

  1. Under Notifications and Filter Level, select default level (but you may want to turn off the audio indicator to disable clicking sounds).
  2. Set the Filter Level at Medium.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Browse the web to test out your settings.

If you still are deluged with pop-ups, and you are sure the Pop-up Blocker is turned on, you may be the victim of spyware. One sure indicator is if pop-up windows appear even when you aren't surfing the web. To get rid of these pop-ups, you'll need to run a good spyware-removal program, such as Ad-aware (free at http://www.lavasoft.de) and Spybot Search & Destroy (free at http://www.safer-networking.org).

 

[Posted on March 7, 2005]

 







© 1997-2008, Center for Schools and Communities or its affiliates.