Text Enhance?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

For some reason people's posts are throwing up various links to adverts and pop-ups that appear like the poster intended to provide someone with a link like this. It's caught me out twice and I've only been online for an hour.

Is anyone else getting this?

[I accept the terms of the]

Probably some shitty browser toolbar that some software sneakily installed. Check your add-ons, run some spyware removal software, etc.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ahh. What a cunty piece of pointlessness.

I've just updated the browser and removed a few things, I'll have a browse and see if it's sorted that shit out.

Thanks!

[biniput]

Why not get Noscript installed. It's a bit to get used to but once you do it saves an awefull lot of bother and stops alsorts of shite getting itself onto your PC.

[I accept the terms of the]

That's not really what NoScript does. It might stop ads that are part of a web page, but that doesn't have much to do with software that installs toolbars or what those toolbars can do. JavaScript isn't a usual vector for shit like this.

[sirhenry]

This started happening to me a couple of weeks ago, at the same time as Google started adding all sorts of shit above its listings. Now, if I google anything in Firefox I have to wait about 30 seconds for it to stop jumping around while it loads a social media bar, an ad or two at the top and another ad box on the right, all of which move the list down. If you click on a link before it stops jumping you end up on the wrong site. It's like going back to 1990 on a 14.4 dialup connection.
A couple of days later the server got infected with the Google images redirect virus (which strangely affected only Firefox) and I've been using Safari almost exclusively since then.

To get rid of text enhance you have to go to their site and block yourself (and then never delete cookies or it starts again).

Bastards.

[Rachel]

You have a proper anti-virus, right? (I use ESET NOD32 Antivirus personally, it catches anything dodgy going on in the browser instantly. The free anti-viruses I've tried in the past didn't tend to do that so I am a little adverse to recommending one of those) This sounds like malware that's installed itself in your browser. I'm not up to date of the good malware scanners but I used to use Spybot - Search & Destroy back in the days before Firefox with NoScript and Adblock Plus. I even have ad servers/trackers and dodgy sites blocked in my hosts file now, it's ace (http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/)

[sirhenry]

You have a proper anti-virus, right?

Nope, just a mac. It's not needed any anti-virus stuff for the last 20 years, so why start now?

[Rachel]

Nope, just a mac. It's not needed any anti-virus stuff for the last 20 years, so why start now?

Hmm, I am unfamiliar with Macs, but while there may not be very many Mac-specific viruses, there is still malware abundant for browsers, as evident by your awkward browsing experience :/

[jutl]

It sounds like it is adware that maintains extensions in your browser. Uninstalling the extensions wont work unless you also uninstall whatever the adware is lurking inside, as the adware will reinstall the extensions periodically. Opting out at their site will only work as long as they allow it to work; you need to remove the client software from your computer. Try some anti-adware software like Ad-Aware or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

edit to add: although I see you are on a mac... have you killed the relevant extensions? Just opting out is leaving them in control of your computer.

[I accept the terms of the]

Nope, just a mac. It's not needed any anti-virus stuff for the last 20 years, so why start now?

I think you've already posted a good reason!

[sirhenry]

edit to add: although I see you are on a mac... have you killed the relevant extensions? Just opting out is leaving them in control of your computer.

Yes, I spent a jolly afternoon going through the extensions, checking out everything that had been downloaded in the previous week and searching the net for clues. The google image redirect was cleared from the Virgin server a couple of days later, but I assumed the twat bar and buzzdoc ads were part of Google's new 'we're watching you' antiprivacy campaign.

To be honest I'm rather enjoying Safari's cleaner look and feel (and it renders very similarly to Explorer, which is useful when testing sites).

eta: the mac bit was intended as a joke, ok?

[ziggy starbucks]

Nope, just a mac. It's not needed any anti-virus stuff for the last 20 years, so why start now?

things will change when Ra returns

[sirhenry]

things will change when Ra returns

Ra Ra RavMonE, buggers up the odd PC...

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

I got this a couple of weeks ago, uninstalled my most recently installed thing, sorted. For a few minutes I was convinced Neil had sold CaB to some sort of Megacorp.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Me too, I was about to go on this big rant about revenue streams.

However, it turns out flushing out a few add-ons and updating Firefox worked nicely.