Adware causing questionable ads to display??

[lvrr325]

While obviously ads generate revenue to run the site, some of the current banner ads are giving me some navigation issues, and at least one tried to give me a pop-up window (the banner showing was a Verizon ad I'd never seen before).

Nav issues: Clicking the back button didn't seem to work, using the dropdown menu to go back to the main board even took two tries to get there. It was like I'd gone to the NY board six times in a row and had to click back through each one.

While I don't personally object to Jessica Simpson gyrating in the banner, those ads seem to be of a fairly mature subject matter for a site that gets all ages. I can see where a parent might have concerns about that content being only a click away - particularly when one comes up inviting you to check out a "horny" Britney Spears (it's interesting to note that Ms. Spears name is blocked from actually being posted in a forum message, too). I'm also sure those sites are loaded with malware, popups, links to actual porn, and so on.

Also, the RIT show and R&GV banners haven't come up once this morning, or any of the other rail related ads.

[David Benton]

Its not the site , youve picked up a virus , or malware .
Same thing happens when i use my fathers computer , somehow it replaces the sites ads with spam . usually of the nature you describe .

[stilson4283]

I think he is right because I have not seen any of the ads you discribe and all I see are the normal RIT show and Roch NRHS banner ads.

Chris

[Otto Vondrak]

None of the ads you describe are generated by RAILROAD.NET. The only ad banners generated by RAILROAD.NET are displayed *on* the site, at the top of every page of the forum. Mike Roque can explain it better than I, but yes, it sounds like you're infected with some adware that is generating pop-ups.

At RAILROAD.NET, we only solicit ads that are related to railroading. We personally sell each ad, we never solicit random ad generators. We believe they detract from the overall quality of the site. Likewise, if you can think of a product or service that should be advertised here, please send them our way!

http://www.railroad.net/advertise

-otto-

[lvrr325]

That might explain why to go back from one board to the main sometimes I have to click the back button 4 times. Strange thing is I run the antivirus and update it daily, and I only go to a handful of websites, I'm not sure where I could have picked it up.

Well, I imported a couple more spyware programs from my old computer and both found and removed some problems - and no more dirty ads.

Ad-aware SE has a nice free version and Spybot S&D also does a good job on this stuff, if anyone's in need of that sort of thing. I had Spyware Blaster on here and currently updated and it missed a bunch of stuff, but I suppose what one misses another will catch -

[John_Perkowski]

Adware is not necessarily a virus.

I use multiple layers of security on my home PC: The DSL modem is, thanks to AT&T, in and of itself a HW firewall.

Next layer is Norton Anti-Virus.

Then, I use Spybot and its realtime scanner, TeaTimer.

Finally, I use Lavasoftusa's AdAware.

I've not had a serious adware/malware problem (other than the fact I still run Windows ME) in three + years.

[Mike Roque]

Yeah, it sounds like you've got some adware on your machine. It's not coming from us...our banners are simply images with links at the top of the page. We don't do popups or anything that isn't rail-related.