Firefox still getting pop ups: from Fusion something?

[TallTravel]

I use Firefox's Mozilla as my primary browser, and have pop ups turned off. However, one pop up keeps appearing, some sort of security pop up, and I am getting tired of seeing it.

Any ideas how to get it gone? Is it necessary to manually place this in a spot on the Firefox block pop ups page, if there is one?

XP Media Center is OS.

[AnotherMuggle]

Turn the pop ups on. Off means it is not functioning!

Does the popup appear at random or when you view a certain page?

[Alaron]

I'm guessing it is the Tribal Fusion popup on the PCMech homepage?

Edit your hosts file and you'll never see it again: http://www.funkytoad.com/hoster.htm

[TallTravel]

Originally Posted by tomkear2006 Turn the pop ups on. Off means it is not functioning! Does the popup appear at random or when you view a certain page?

No, the box is clicked, and the blocker is working. It is simply not working for very specific pop ups. Sounds like the post below has it nailed, though. I did not notice this pop up before coming to this site. At least that explains it, if that is the specific pop up.

I guess the people who write that particular pop up know a LOT about getting around the Firefox pop up blocker....lol!

[TallTravel]

OK, now I know this is not a problem related to this web site, it comes up at different times. The specific web site:

a.tribalfusion.com

This pop up comes up when the Firefox browser has pop up blocking enabled. Any ideas how to stop it? Other than this, Firefox stops all pup ups. I have, at times, enabled a specific pop up to come up temporarily via the option just below the toolbar.

[glc]

As already suggested, blackhole that site in your hosts file. I did a long time ago. Get a copy of HijackThis and run it.

Config, misc tools, open hosts file manager. Open in Notepad. Add this line at the bottom:

127.0.0.1 a.tribalfusion.com

Then click File, Save As. Change type to All Files. File name should be hosts (with NO extension).

[TallTravel]

Originally Posted by glc As already suggested, blackhole that site in your hosts file. I did a long time ago. Get a copy of HijackThis and run it. Config, misc tools, open hosts file manager. Open in Notepad. Add this line at the bottom: 127.0.0.1 a.tribalfusion.com Then click File, Save As. Change type to All Files. File name should be hosts (with NO extension).

Thanks. I was missing details, and can't even come close to understanding the message above, so I'll let it be and put up with it.

[glc]

If you download a copy of HijackThis and run it, what I posted should be fairly obvious. This is a simple one line edit of an existing text file. You don't even need HijackThis - you can open the hosts file directly in Notepad, but I suggested it because it makes it easier to find the active hosts file.

[terryleaman]

I got rid of it by editing the registry and removing all entries with tribalfusion in them. I could not find any other simple way of removing it apart from this.

[glc]

That's not necessary, Terry. A simple hosts file entry takes care of it.

[24giovanni]

Come on GLC...that's the easy way out.

[glc]

Which is EXACTLY why I suggested it. Why make something more involved than it needs to be?

[TallTravel]

Originally Posted by glc If you download a copy of HijackThis and run it, what I posted should be fairly obvious. This is a simple one line edit of an existing text file. You don't even need HijackThis - you can open the hosts file directly in Notepad, but I suggested it because it makes it easier to find the active hosts file.

I am a lot dumber than you think then. I don't even know what a " host " file is, or where to find it, so my hands are tied if I spend time with hosts files.

I have known for years how to search for and find registry entries, so I can easily use Regedit to find all mentions of tribalfusion and simply delete them with no risk of deleting anything truly important.

I did a search with the registry for any mentions of tribalfusion, and that search yielded no results, so I am left wondering what a host file is and where to find it....I am not a programmer, and never will be, so I don't know where to search for it, and don't know how to use HiJackThis.

[glc]

If you can use regedit, HijackThis is a piece of cake. I described EXACTLY what to do, probably so concisely that you did not recognize that those are the steps.



Download a copy of HijackThis. Run it. It will open to a menu, choose "Just run the program".

Look for the "Config" button. Click it.
Look for the "Misc Tools" button. Click it.
Look for the "Hosts file manager" button. Click it.
Look for "Open in Notepad". Click it.

Can you go from here?

[TallTravel]

I just added this to the bottom line, and saved as prescribed.

127.0.0.1 a.tribalfusion.com

Then click File, Save As. Change type to All Files. File name should be hosts (with NO extension).

I am looking at the Hosts file as I type, and the very last line is this:

O23 - Service: SymWMI Service (SymWSC) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe

I have done all this and will now reboot.

EDITED TO ADD:

I have done all of this as described above and used the Internet for some 4 hours since making the changes in the host file. The tribalfusion pop up has come up twice thus far, so my fix did not work.

Did I do this correctly, from the information available, or did I make a mistae?
Thanks!

[glc]

When you opened the hosts file, did it have a bunch of stuff already there - like this?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open it again in the HJT viewer and make sure your new entry is still there under the 127.0.0.1 localhost line. If it isn't, you didn't get a good save, it may have saved it as hosts.txt. Try resaving it as "hosts" (using the quotes) after the next Notepad edit. You can blackhole any adserver you want this way, just point it to 127.0.0.1 the same way. That is how a hosts file works.

There are some 3rd party utilities out there that add a predetermined list of ad sites and/or spyware sites to your hosts file.

If you are looking at an O23 entry, you are not looking at the hosts file, you are looking at the HijackThis report from actually running the program. This is used for other purposes, if you are curious, browse some threads in the Security forum. It's used for ferreting out spyware that the usual tools can't get rid of.

[TallTravel]

Originally Posted by glc When you opened the hosts file, did it have a bunch of stuff already there - like this? 127.0.0.1 localhost

Yes, it had precisely that sample file in it, and I saved it as I thought you suggested last night but it did not save properly. This morning, with me much happier because the Damn Yankees are out of the baseball season AGAIN this year (YEAH!!!), I opened the file again to see I did not save it correctly. I went through the whole process again, knowing the only difference was the huge loss by the Damn Yankees, and....

It saved it! So all I have to do now is reboot to make sure it uses the file, eh? So I'll do that.

EDITED TO ADD:

Well, now I think I understand how easy it was to do this, once I knew about the home of the hosts file. However, lacking the details you provided about the location and importance of the hosts file I would never have found the darn thing. It is in some sort of etc folder? Never heard of it....did not even know it existed, but once I found it and followed your suggestions it was easy to edit it.

After rebooting, I pulled the file up again and confirmed it had saved the a.tribalfusion.com line at the bottom of the file.

After a few hours of surfing and computing, no tribalfusion ads have appeared on my computer, so glc's time and effort has paid off. Those ads are not the worst I have dealt with, but they are now a distant memory.
Thanks a million.