Frustration with the internet

[avalen]

Can't surf the internet anymore, it just doesn't work the way it used to.
First Firefox updated to 36, it worked for a few days the I get this box
and I couldn't even close it out. Had to do the control/alt/delete thing
open my task manager and shut it down. So no more Firefox. Using google
Chrome but the millions of popup makes it impossible. Popup settings and
popup blockers do not work. We're down to internet explorer now, and it doesn't
work right either. It's all so frustrating

[BarbaraRose]

Wish I could give you advice, but I am clueless when it comes to computers and internet. Just switched to my old internet service because my new one (that I have only had for a month) is horrible slow, constantly gives me "this page cannot be displayed" messages, and I can't play any video clips on Facebook. So I understand your frustration!
Good luck in figuring it out!

[Bethers]

I had to do a system restore today because of Firefox issues. That has, for the moment, taken care of my problems. But I do jump over to IE when necessary.

You should be able to disable popups on Chrome - if it's not working, it may be an issue with your computer - hate to say that.

[MandysMom]

And IE is being phased out per MS announcements. Opera is another browser option. I go between it and Chrome, since Firefox just did not work well with true 64 bit.
Velda

[Bethers]

And IE is being phased out per MS announcements. Opera is another browser option. I go between it and Chrome, since Firefox just did not work well with true 64 bit.
Velda

They are replacing IE - will be interesting to see the replacement. Used to love FF, never cared for Opera and prefer FF over Chrome - but every one of them has had problems. FF the least until recently, in my experience. Oh well ... all good things seem to come to an end. Maybe I should try Opera again.

[MelissaD]

From what I have read, Micro Soft has developed a new browser for Windows 10 and it will have a new name to separate from the issues associated with "Internet Exploder" ... I mean Internet Explorer.

Sorry Ava sounds like your computer caught a virus.

[Colliemom]

Ava, like Melissa said, you may have a virus. I"m using IE at the moment cause I don't like Chrome in this new Windows 8.1. Going to be glad when 10 comes out later this year. I would highly like to recommend Trend Micro to you gals for your security software. It's top rated and also does an excellent job of protecting. I've been using it for over two years now and haven't had an issue since I started with it. Spybot is another one to install too as it surfs for spyware, malware etc. Between the two, computer is protected. I also have my internet through my cable company and use their .net address as my email. It has saved me getting a lot of the problems associated with Hotmail, Yahoo etc.

[IrishIroamed]

Ditto for virus opinion. I'd get your computer to the Geek Squad. Office Depot also do computer health checks too. I think the price was about $90 and sometimes there is a coupon you can find.

Good luck.

[avalen]

I've done a system restore several times, run two different virus scanners, malware scanners, so if I acquired a virus then its a really sneaky one.
However, it is comforting to know I'm not the only one having little issues with firefox. I've used it for years until now. I too read where IE is going away.
Its so time consuming to even do my research to resolve the issues as each time I click on a link it opens another tab with a popup.
I've been working on this issue for a week now, hopefully I'll get something figured out soon, as this is just driving me crazy.

[brendac]

I had problems last week. Remember it's spring break season and those small minded hackers have nothing else to do.
I am running Firefox 36.0.1 with Windows 8.1 and no issues.
I use AVG free, AD AWARE free, and Malwarebytes free.
CAUTION: Do Not use adware it is a malicious clone of Ad Aware.
I did have to uninstall and reinstall AVG last week, I also had to reset my home page in firefox. Things have been running smoothly since. (fingers crossed here)

Hope this helps

[Wanderer2]

Have you updated all of your plugins, or try disabling one by one to see if that is causing the problem. Also, here is a link to older firefox versions. Although they say that they are not supported and more vulnerable. I use Kaspersky Internet Security and love it.
We love our computers, but yes they can drive us crazy! Sometimes it takes me hours to figure out what the problem is, but usually find a way to resolve it. Good luck and I hope that this helps.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

[Acadianmom]

When I had my Dell I started having a bunch of pop-ups and couldn't get rid of them. I did an internet search for the problem I was having and found the instructions for how to stop them. This was over a year ago so don't remember what I did. I have an Apple now and have not had any problems. My email is with MSN and they are good at picking up junk emails.

Martha

[Cudedog]

Can't surf the internet anymore, it just doesn't work the way it used to.
First Firefox updated to 36, it worked for a few days the I get this box
and I couldn't even close it out. Had to do the control/alt/delete thing
open my task manager and shut it down. So no more Firefox. Using google
Chrome but the millions of popup makes it impossible. Popup settings and
popup blockers do not work. We're down to internet explorer now, and it doesn't
work right either. It's all so frustrating

Ava -

Ack. Sorry to hear about your computer problems.

I'll go along with others here that have said you probably have a virus or a trojan or a worm or somesuch. I HIGHLY recommend Norton 360. I have used Norton products on my computers for more than 25 years, and have only had a problem when I neglected to run updates. If Norton doesn't find something on a regular scan, it has an added feature called "Norton Power Eraser" that will almost always find everything.

Ladies, something to keep in mind about computer protection software: You get what you pay for. Free virus protection is definitely worth the price (free, after all) but probably won't be able to do the heavy lifting.

Something else to remember is that Norton is made by Symantec. Symantec is the company (and only company) that discovered the Stuxnet worm. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

. . . that was used (by "someone". . .) to infect the Iranian computers controlling the centrifuges used to separate their nuclear material. Fried them. About one-fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges were suddenly toast.

Norton/Symantec definitely has their s--t together.

Try Norton. Get Norton 360 (not just Norton antivirus) 360 has the whole ball of wax. A bit pricy, but definitely worth it. I buy my yearly updates from Amazon. If you have something going on with your computer, if your computer is compromised in any way, I would not be putting my credit card info into a website to buy something online. Go to a store - I suggest Fry's Electronics, they probably have one in the greater Phoenix area.

You can also reformat your hard drive - which is doable, but a major pain as I am sure Beth can tell you.

Anne

[chalet05]

I'll go along with others here that have said you probably have a virus or a trojan or a worm or somesuch. I HIGHLY recommend Norton 360. I have used Norton products on my computers for more than 25 years, and have only had a problem when I neglected to run updates. If Norton doesn't find something on a regular scan, it has an added feature called "Norton Power Eraser" that will almost always find everything. Anne

I also use Norton 360, but I know nothing of the 'Power Eraser' - will have to look into that. I have had Trojans make it past Norton and found with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on two occasions. The first time found 4 Trojans and 1 the second.

I have recently found some pages slow to load and the computer seems 'frozen'. These are sites I have used forever and discovered there are usually video ads loading! Really annoying especially with my Yahoo e-mail.

[Bethers]

Personally, I've used and dropped both Norton and McAfee. They use up lots of your computer and often slows it down. If you don't have trouble with it, continue with it. But a couple of the free services actually get better rankings among the "geeks" than the ones we all know about. I've run most all of them at some point over the years. I only went with the paid version of one of the free services because I have multiple devices being covered.

The only two viruses I've ever had, both came while using the Norton software. Just sayin' - none of it is foolproof - but I was lucky both times. I caught the first as it was taking control and was able to go into safe mode and get the tool to remove it before it did any damage. The second was pretty non-invasive, just annoying and again, got the tool to remove it. But after the 2nd, I moved off Norton and never went back.

Ava, the pop-ups are probably some type of spyware not a "normal" virus.