If you have been visiting some of the links here you will see a pop up screen that says do you want to install gator. Gator is program that finds ads that are tailored to your websurfing. It tell you on the pop up install that after 10 seconds on a web page they will pop an add up. I don't mind someone making money on the website through banner ads...but someone tracking my every move on the internet and giving pops ads I don't want...I won't put up with. Norton now has a checking system for free to see if one of these companies had installed the software on your computer. Steve

Attached Link: http://www.lavasoft.nu

Gator has been around for a while and man does it suck. Check out www.lavasoft.nu for ad-aware if you haven't (and that goes for everyone). It's a nice spyware smasher, all free and sparkly. :) (Well, maybe minus the sparkles.)

cydoor is another company using ad popups and they're nicely squashed by ad-aware, there is another program around, not free tho, for those with Windoze try the tweak-xp/me/98/95 program, it does loads of damage to your system if you're not careful, BUT it does have a handy popup killer and ad stopper, you can find them at http://www.tweak-xp.de Rob

try ye olde pop-up stopper.. you can get it at www.cnet.com (search in Downloads) it's freeware and terribly effective. Ad-aware is great.. but if you're using something like Grokster or DAP watch you don't delete the adware that's keeping your app running. uhh. or it won't. :) Gator's a pain, pop-up's a pain.. but you don't have to suffer unless you really want to.. Dolphy :)

Maybe I take things too literally. It sounds like you installed a program designed to give you ads or popups, and then you complain that it does the job?! "Gator is program that finds ads that are tailored to your websurfing. It tell you on the pop up install that after 10 seconds on a web page they will pop an add up." I'd never install a program like that to begin with. If I want to see an ad, I can find it anywhere I go. Or I can go to a site to shop on my own!

Got caught by Gator myself. First, it downloaded itself onto my computer even though I didn't want it. Then it would just start running on its own in the background and it's a real memory hog that slows down my computer considerably (uses about 100,000K or more of memory). I couldn't rid myself of it completely until I found Ad-Aware. Before that I could only delete some of the Gator files and so it kept coming back.

Ron, as Redleaf said, there some instances where it installs itself WITHOUT your approval, hence the problem. And yes, Gator can be a major memory hog. If you ever notice weird things happening, it's a good time to whip out Ad-aware and see if there's anything there that shouldn't be. Often times just removing that stuff will "fix" the problems (provided it's not a virus or bad drivers or something like that).

Gator is built into the free version of the DivX 5 Pro video codec, also. The retail Pro version and the freeware regular version don't have this "extra feature."

I could be massively mistaken here, but I don't think so. Remember I've worked as an Internet Technical Support Engineer, etc. To my knowledge, no program can install itself on your computer without your consent. Now, the catch is that some "dirty, nasty" companies put up some banners or screens that look like legitimate Windows or program error messages. They have nice big buttons to click like "ok," etc. I've talked with others, and we agree that these messages, buttons or banners look close to the real thing.. but they don't fool most of us who've done our research. *** That's the key here. We need to stay informed, read, talk to others.. If you're aware of this dirty trick, you won't be hit by it! I hope you got rid of that nasty thing.. I think the people who do those dirty tricks should be prosecuted. Ron

Maybe someone can clear me up on this ponderous question of mine....Is a Virus not a program that can install itself on your computer without your knowledge? Or is it just a script being run by a program that you have knowingly installed on your computer?

TMGraphics, I believe that a true "virus" replicates on it's own, and attempts to infect others. Usually, a virus can only propagate if it is somewhat subtle in it's infection. Otherwise, they would be stopped more quickly. As for being able to run completely on their own, there is a bit of fuzziness here. Code Red was able to infect remote machines because of a bug in Microsofts Web Server. The job of a web server is to run other programs (generally not ones that come from outside the computer) so it technically was run willingly by the server software. As for internet browsing, if a script can perform system calls and can be run from a browser, you better believe that it could be running without your being aware. Also, active-X controls are a useful feature of Internet Explorer, but they can also do bad stuff, if they are designed to do so. You can configure IE to allow Active-X controls to install without asking (I think earlier versions defaulted to that state, until all these worms began showing up). If anyone uses IE, and is unsure of their configuration, I highly recommend pcpitstop.com (I have no affiliation with them). They can run tests on your machine and suggest ways to improve things. One of the tests is the security of IE and various email programs. eric