Crash Override

The Inqwire popunder/up is back and it seems to be a rather nasty one that seems to cause itself to load after exiting DH or when entering DH or even when surfing the forum on DH.

Before being asked about or being told to check my system. This is a new windows install from last week, with AdAware, CWShredder, Spybot S&D, and a few AV programs all saying I am clean.

I went through a ton of trouble to make sure the system was clean well before posting it.

I also cleared out everything except for my forum cookies from ieXbeta and DriverHeaven. So my Temp files folder and Temporary Internet Files folder was clear. I open up MSN Explorer and go to Driverheaven and start surfing the site today and poof Inqwire is still there.

After Inqwire pops up for the first time I get all sorts of fun click this to clean your system and other crap.

Really I do click the ads on DH to help support the site and such, but something really has to be done about this....especially when the popunder/up causes me to lose a full post that I was working on for a while.

Sorry for the rant but I just hate working on a post about an important huge bug in CCC and then poof all gone because the Inqwire thing caused an error


edit- Goddammit, I just tried to post my issue with CCC again in the Rate CCC thread and once again a popunder/up came while I was hitting the backspace key once again to fix an issue and poof I lost all data in my post. I'm going to just wait now to post it until this all gets sorted and post the CCC issue I am having over at rage so it will at least maybe get seen, because its a huge bug.

craig5320

There's no issues on this site, we don't run any popup code at all for the last two weeks. Thank you, good bye.

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pr0digal jenius

clean your temp files/cookies, and as sad as it is that you have to do this now, check your registry for hooks too, as some thigns have taken that road...or get a decent spyware program like the latest beta copy of the M$ one and run it, and it should do all that for you

Crash Override

you know what forget it

I'm editing this to take out everything I said

All I will now say is this

Anyone who had the courtesy of reading my above post would see that I posted I had already tried all the steps on this brand new windows install to fix the issue with several anti-spy/mal/virus/ware crap.

They would also see that I already cleared out my temp and temp internet files folder.

They would also recognize that craig is lying as Zardon himself on Nov1 said that this EXACT issue was taken care of with the EXACT SAME AD.

Obviously it's back and since this is THE ONLY SITE it happens with and I'm not some computer n00b sitting here.

Ah fuck it.....now im back to posting what I did before.

Let's just say I know what I'm talking about and the Inqwire ad is still showing up for some of us and to just say what you said craig was incredibly rude

Now onto posting at rage where I can actually post a topic without all my posts content getting wiped out.


In fact you know what.....just delete this whole topic and pretend that everything is happy in DHland. I mean what would I know about DriverHeaven right?

Like I said go ahead and delete this topic and abuse the next person who has this same issue. Thats the DH way right?

edit again

not that it'll do any good but heres a link to the thread in question

It quite clearly shows Zardons last post being on Nov1 of this year regarding this exact same thing
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/feedback/89051-popup-yesterday.html


edit again- I took out the profanity and some of the ranting for swimtech

I just can't believe how quickly I was treated rudely and it upset me

swimtech

Hate to say this guys, considering the tone of this thread (already, ) but I'm seeing the same as Crash Override...

I think PJ has hit on part of the problem for me though, I haven't done a scan for spyware in awhile...

Let's maintain an even strain and figure it out together, for ours and others sake, without attitude or profanity - please?

Edit: I don't see a pattern to the popup/behind...

__________________
It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

pr0digal jenius

I wasn't doubting your computing knowledge, I was actually suggesting trying the M$ spyware program, since as near as i can tell it is far mroe thorough about cookies and registry hooks then most others(ad-aware and spybot included).

And incidentally, I personally am a total noob when it comes to working with ad code and vBulletin, but have you tried a different skin? And does it occur on the forum or just the main page? or possibly just on reviews and articles?

I really am trying to help here, bud, so don't take it the wrong way.

Crash Override

I'm actually not upset with you pr0digal

I was only slightly miffed because it seemed you hadn't read my post. Craig is the one that my ire is mostly directed towards for the instant denial and then the lie about how long the Inqwire ad has been off for.

It's just a rather curious thing, no other website displays this ad other than DH. It does happen semi randomly but only on the front page or forum here.

I actually have used the MS Antispyware beta. I have also been testing windows onecare live but am not right now until they fix a big showstopper bug in it that causes a blue screen on startup.

I've ran multiple scans and hijackthis and used more than one product and my system is coming up 100% clean. I'm usually the person who is going when someone posts about a software or hardware issue going on, simply because I'm very careful with my systems and keep them clean and am very picky about what hardware/software I allow on my machines.

So when I see a popup ad on DH like this one and see that its been posted that its been fixed and the "fix" date is before the first time I visited the site since my latest windows reinstall then it is more than a little suspect. In my opinion it means that the ad may just be running again even though Zardon told em to stop it. It's not his fault if they brought it back in rotation. This thread was just to point out that it's back, the abuse by an admin nonetheless just wasn't needed

Now since it seems I've posted another novel I'm done for now lol

swimtech

Running Adaware as we speak...

__________________
It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

pr0digal jenius

Actually the reason I was asking about themes and where it occured is because there is no pop-up/under code anymore. They removed those ads all together....strictly banners now

Crash Override

I tend to use the Midnight Theme on here and at Rage.

I like the darker colors.

One thing I've noticed about banners is if they are a rotating ad banner sometimes code gets linked into the ad that causes a popup/under ad. Not often but I have seen it.

pr0digal jenius

Well that is always a possibility I suppose. For a fun experiment, use an "alternate" browser, and block banner ads, but not pop ups [I know firefox lets you do that, I'm pretty sure opera does too, but since i don't block banners, I haven't really looked] and see what happens

swimtech

...Still scanning, 54 critical items found so far, so much for my wireless router acting as a firewall...

Likely this item (if the problem is spyware/adware) came on in the last week or so, and it hasn't happened in the last half hour...

Edit: just like a problem, the doctors show up and the symptoms disappear...

Edit again: Just a bunch of tracking cookies. I'll post back again if I get any more insight - gotta go night night now...

__________________
It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

pr0digal jenius

yea, i'm off to bed and to watch Donnie Darko myself, let us know what comes of your "studies" crash

evrt63

same thing with me as is happening to crash i've scanned with spybot and adaware and got nothing. as a temp fix i set the ie popup blocker to block all, and even though i have to "open in new window" all the links i want to view its better than the pop under. if anyone finds out the cause let me know, it's a bit of a headache.

pr0digal jenius

EDIT - ok, upon further research, inqwire does appear to be a registry infestation that most programs simply won't catch, as it hides in not-so-common locations

check
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\URLSearchHooks
(go there in registry editor)

entris here will look like a bunch of gobblety gook, like
{944864A5-3916-46E2-96A9-A2E84F3F1208}

however, any that end in underscore, such as
{CFBFAE00-17A6-11D0-99CB-00C04FD64497}_
need to be deleted, this may be the cause of the problem
===============
then go here
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
look at the values of 'Search Bar' and 'Search Page'

search bar should be blank(google toolbar may change this, but if you know the entry isn't a bar you isntalled, edit the value to be blank

search page should be 'http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&ar=iesearch' by default, or google, or yahoo, or whatever you like..not anything like "searchmiracle.com" or the like
=============
also, check
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
anything you don't recognize in here can most likely go, and may very well be adware/malware/viral
==================
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
in here, look for the key "shell" it should just say Explorer.exe
if something is tacked on with commas or possibly semicolons, it's been hooked, and that's causing your problems....so make sure it just says Explorer.exe (or if you use replacement shells, perhaps it says Talisman.exe, or something liek that)
===================
C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files
this si your Active X folder...make sure there's nothign fishy in there labelled, say, inqwire
====================
lastly, check here
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall
this will list every unisntall file on your system, whether it shows in 'add/remove programs' or not....go through, and if yous ee anything resembling ads, or inqwire, or anythign else bad for that matter, it tells you what file unisntalls it and usually where that file is also. Even check the ones that looks like
{BBBCAE4B-B416-4182-A6F2-438180894A81}...which is my Napster, for example.

if it gives you an "uninstall string" value and no program location, try putting that string into the command prompt





sorry for the essay guys, but thats the best i can do for now. Lemme know how it goes, and you may also try running hijackthis, and it'll find mroe fro you

Falstaff

I have seen this pesky pop up that gets past Norton and Windows pop up killer, is this Malware I wonder?

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Dyre Straits

I'm not alone! Man, I've been seeing this 'inqwire' stuff way too much lately. One big problem is, it even pops up after I leave this site. That's led me to think that the problem is located elsewhere.

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Zardon

Wow, what on earth happened in this thread? I go to bed and wake up to a flamefest in feedback?

Seriously guys lets all step back a little and take deep breaths

Firstly Craig stated there is no longer any popup or popunder code on the site, HE removed it a while ago as I told him I couldnt be bothered dealing with the rogue code that sometimes caused issues for the members here, i was getting the runaround from my ad provider on this and they were denying it was possible, however I dont doubt my membership so the code was wiped out!. So let me state for the record, it is impossible for DH to be causing popups or popunders as the code has been removed from the HTML. I also noticed that the problem was occuring in this thread when a user was on Rage3d. Last time I was there with Internet explorer they had popup/under code so perhaps its a possibility something is wrong over there? Im not saying it is, but it might help narrow down any user specific problems, especially when im reading this site and Rage3d where loaded when the issue happened........

Im going to close this rather unappealing thread and hope we can maintain a higher standard of posting, especially when reporting problems in feedback, if anyone else is experiencing issues with the normal ads just open a new thread, thank you.