weird happenings with "able2know" link

But. . . . Well, you've only got one post listed. What were the emails in response to?

Never happened to me, by the way.

I've had two posts.. one just saying hi.. the other trying to find answers to uninstall Kazaa..
what could possibly cause something like this bombardment?

Mata may have lost posts in the great data loss of the last few days???

Until someone with expertise comes along, Mata, it may be worth knowing that the site has been up and down a lot in the last couple of days - and any weirdness might be explained by this?

One of the tech folk will doubtless stop by - but welcome!

dlowan.. TY for the welcome.. I did notice yesterday that the site was down.. anyway the whole experience just scared me a little.. i thought i was hijacked cheers mata

ps:im just running a virus scan.. and low and behold it has listed a whole lot of "adware/gator" entries !!!!

Here is the explanatory thread, Mata.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34631&start=0

I am no techie, so I do not know if this explains your experience.

Can I suggest you repost your Kazaa thread? Many were lost, and I believe this includes yours, since the posts are not showing in your post count.

Aha!!!!

First, an explosion of unwanted pages hasn't anything to do with A2K; its a clear symptom of yuckware infestation. Go to Safer-Networking-dot-Org and get Spybot S&D. While there, read the tutorial and pay particular attention to the procedures for updating Spybot and for configuring it to do a thorough scan. Once you've downloaded it, install it, update it, set it to "Immunize" (explained in the tutorial), then close it without running its scan.

Next, get KazaaBegone which will cleanly remove Kazaa, though at some risk to your LSP stack, which could render you unable to access the internet. . When you download KazaaBegone, and BEFORE YOU RUN IT be sure also to download LSPFix, as recommended on the KazaaBegone download page. Read and understand the documentation for both before attempting to use either. Its not a bad idea to print them out for reference. If you follow instructions, you'll have no problem. If you don't "do it by the book", you probably won't like what will happen.


Disconnect from the internet, close all browsers and running apps, run Spybot's scan, and have it "fix" whatever it finds. The scan will take a good while to complete, btw; don't be impatient, just go do something else away from you 'puter for an hour or so. When Spybot has completed and fixed what it found (it may ask for permission to run at next boot - let it do so), reboot and run Spybot one more time anyway. It should run through a bit more quickly, and should find nothing. When Spybot has completed a pass without finding anything, close it, then run KazaaBegone. When KazaaBegone has completed, try to connect to the internet. If you can, fine. If not, run LSPFix, and you should be OK. Remember, read, understand, and follow all instructions.

Hi timberlandko.. . thanks for your reply , i have been using Spybot for a long time, performing regular scans.. in this instance first i'd scanned with it, it didnt show anything at all.
Next i did a viruscan that showed up the " adware-gator" entries, ( i hope did the right thing and had McAfee delete all 20 entries)
after reading you reply i'd run the Spybot's " immunise" function and it told me that it had located 3 new problems.. following your instructions, I've closed it without running a scan.

I've never heard of "yuckware infestation" where does it come from?

I think I'll have to study the process to remove Kazaa before i attempt to do it.. I've saved your tips and will follow it up to the letter.
thanks for your help... cheers ..

Yuckware or malware is anything installed on your machine by a third party without your consent or generally even knowledge. It can be anything from ad-serving cookies to hijackers, worms, trojans, and viruses. None of it is good, some of it is very, very bad. P2P apps such as Kazaa not only are chief entry points for such crap, but almost universally bundle some form of yuckware along with their own install. See This Thread and any of the many other related threads here on the Computers Forum and on the Internet Forum

One of my threads was deleted sometime between Friday and yesterday. Didn't have any problems with my computer but couldn't get onto this site. It definitly deleted posts.

Kristie, due to tech problems since A2K moved to larger servers, some data was lost. That however, has nothing to do with yuckware or malware.

Kristie, there was a server-related major site glitch, discussed Here, which wiped out several days' worth of posts and data. Stuff wasn't "deleted", it simply was "lost". Nobody's very happy about it, but one can either fret over it or get over it. Steps have been initiated to make such an occurrence a more remote possibility in the future, but to err is human, to really screw up on a grand scale, repeatedly and in precisely the same manner, requires a computer :wink: :wink:

well, that's good news...I usually post here from my work computer. Don't want to have to explain why I crashed the entire network :wink:

Timberlandko thanks again.. it seems i have some work to do..I've not used Kazaa for years, the fact that its so tricky to get rid of it shows how harmful it can be. Incidentaly years ago i've had similar experiences with WinMx too..

does anyone else have trouble getting on to the " explanatory" page about data loss in the last few days?

when i click on the link i get " image replaced by hotlink protectio..etc"

That sounds like what happens when you're not logged in as a registered user, mata; "guests" don't see the avatars or images. Might be somethin' else, but that's what it sounds like to me. It could have somethin' to do with how you've got your browser set to handle cookies, or maybe something about your browser itself. Is it only that thread, and can you post to that thread?

i was logged in as a member at that time.. but now its working OK.. maybe it was just a teething problem ..

timber landko re my original problem ( the bombardment with endless webpages) dont you find it interesting that it only ever happened when i clicked on the " able2know" link? never before.. or since ?

im not suggesting foul play or anything sinister from this site's

Oh, I'd say it was interesting, sure, but I don't see any one-on-one correlation. Nothing in the A2K software would cause that, A2K is pretty solidly anti-adware/spyware, and in fact a feature of the A2K Toolbar is a very effective popup-blocker.
I'd note that every time I've hit a deer, I've been in a vehicle, but the one does not entail the other per se ... other stuff comes into play, you know.

I was thinking more of the possibility of something nasty attaching itself to the link..in the email .. can that happen?