Remove lightbox.linkbolic.com from Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer

browser status bar, ,

This page shows how to remove lightbox.linkbolic.com from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Did you just interrupt your work because you noticed lightbox.linkbolic.com in your browser’s status bar? You are not alone. I also got the lightbox.linkbolic.com status bar message while browsing. Please read on…

Here is a screenshot on lightbox.linkbolic.com from my system:

lightbox.linkbolic.com connection

The following are some of the status bar notifications you may see in your browser’s status bar:

  • Waiting for lightbox.linkbolic.com…
  • Transferring data from lightbox.linkbolic.com…
  • Looking up lightbox.linkbolic.com…
  • Read lightbox.linkbolic.com
  • Connected to lightbox.linkbolic.com…

If this sounds like what you are seeing on your computer, you presumably have some potentially unwanted program installed on your machine that makes the lightbox.linkbolic.com domain appear in your browser. Contacting the owner for the site you were at would be a waste of time. The lightbox.linkbolic.com status bar messages are not coming from them. I’ll try help you with the lightbox.linkbolic.com removal in this blog post.

Those that have been following this blog already know this, but here we go: Some time ago I dedicated a few of my lab systems and deliberately installed a few potentially unwanted programs on them. I have been monitoring the actions on these systems to see what kinds of ads that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the potentially unwanted program updates itself, or if it downloads additional potentially unwanted programs on the computers. I first noticed the lightbox.linkbolic.com in Mozilla Firefox’s statusbar on one of these lab computers.

lightbox.linkbolic.com was created on 2014-05-15. linkbolic.com resolves to the 46.105.156.71 IP address and lightbox.linkbolic.com to 72.21.91.50.

I also found the  cjs.linkbolic.com in use and it resolves to 93.184.220.50.

Update 2015-06-11: I’ve also seen ctx.linkbolic.com (93.184.220.5) in use.

So, how do you remove lightbox.linkbolic.com from your web browser? On the machine where lightbox.linkbolic.com showed up in the statusbar I had TornTV installed. I removed it with FreeFixer and that stopped the browser from loading data from lightbox.linkbolic.com.

The issue with status bar messages like this one is that it can be caused by many variants of potentially unwanted programs, not just the potentially unwanted program that’s installed on my computer. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the status bar messages.

So, what can be done to solve the problem? To remove lightbox.linkbolic.com you need to examine your computer for potentially unwanted programs and uninstall them. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

  1. Review what programs you have installed in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Do you see anything that you don’t remember installing or that was recently installed?
  2. You can also review the browser add-ons. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that does not help, you can give FreeFixer a try. FreeFixer is built to assist users when manually tracking down potentially unwanted programs. It is a freeware utility that I’ve been working since 2006 and it scans your machine at lots of locations where unwanted software is known to hook into your computer. If you would like to get additional details about a file in FreeFixer’s scan result, you can just click the More Info link for that file and a web page with a VirusTotal report will open up, which can be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did this blog post help you to remove lightbox.linkbolic.com? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.

Thank you!

What is Primary Result? – 40% Anti-Virus Detection Rate

adware

Hello guys and gals. Just a short post on an adware called Primary Result. Found this while reviewing some of the files recently submitted to FreeFixer. This is a BrowseFox variant.

Of the 57 anti-virus scanners at VirusTotal, 23 detected the file. The Primary Result files are detected as Adware.SwiftBrowse.CH by BitDefender, Tool.NetFilter.313 by DrWeb, W64/A-59c9c70a!Eldorado by F-Prot, HS_BROWSEFOX.SM by TrendMicro and HS_BROWSEFOX.SM by TrendMicro-HouseCall.

Primary Result anti-virus report

If you are using FreeFixer to remove Primary Result, just look for files digitally signed by Primary Result.

Do you also have Primary Result on your system? Any idea how it was installed? Please share your story the comments below. Thank you very much!

Thank you for reading and welcome back.

Remove hotchatdate.com Pop Up Ads Caused By Adware

pop-ups,

Did you just get a pop-up from hotchatdate.com and wonder where it came from? Did the hotchatdate.com ad appear to have been launched from a web site that under normal circumstances don’t use advertising such as pop-up windows? Or did the hotchatdate.com pop-up show up while you clicked a link on one of the big search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo?

Here’s how the hotchatdate.com pop-up looked like when I got it on my computer:

hotchatdate.com pop up

Does this sound like your experience, you most likely have some adware installed on your system that pops up the hotchatdate.com ads. So there’s no use contacting the site owner. The advertisements are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the hotchatdate.com pop-ups in this blog post. To do this, we need to remove all the adware from your machine.

I found the hotchatdate.com pop-up on one of the lab machines where I have some adware running. I’ve talked about this in some of the previous blog posts. The adware was installed on purpose, and from time to time I check if anything new has appeared, such as pop-up windows, new tabs in the browsers, injected ads on website that usually don’t show ads, or if some new files have been saved to the hard-drive.

hotchatdate.com was registered on 2014-05-05. hotchatdate.com resolves to the 94.199.251.101 IP address and the domain is protected by Domains By Proxy LLC.

So, how do you remove the hotchatdate.com pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the hotchatdate.com ads I had TinyWallet, BlockAndSurf and TinyWallet installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the hotchatdate.com pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

Judging from Alexa’s traffic rank, hotchatdate.com is getting quite a lot of traffic:

hotchatdate.com traffic rank

The issue with pop-ups like the one described in this blog post is that it can be initiated by many variants of adware, not just the adware on my computer. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

So, what can be done? To remove the hotchatdate.com pop-up ads you need to review your machine for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

  1. What software do you have installed if you look in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel? Something that you don’t remember installing yourself or that was recently installed?
  2. You can also review the add-ons you installed in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that did not help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Here’s a video guide showing how to remove pop-up ads with FreeFixer:

Are you a Mac or Linux user and get the hotchatdate.com pop-ups? What did you do to stop the pop-up in your browser? Please share in the comments below. Thanks!

Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the hotchatdate.com ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!

Remove iam.avafymm.com fromFirefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer

browser status bar

This page shows how to remove iam.avafymm.com from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

iam.avafymm.com connection

Did you just see iam.avafymm.com in the statusbar of your browser and ask yourself where it came from? Or did iam.avafymm.com show up while you search for something on one of the big search engines, such as the Google search engine?

The screenshot above is from my network log. https://iam.avafymm.com/kerr/?d?=… appeared there when I did a Google search.

Here are some of the status bar messages you may see in your browser’s status bar:

  • Waiting for iam.avafymm.com…
  • Transferring data from iam.avafymm.com…
  • Looking up iam.avafymm.com…
  • Read iam.avafymm.com
  • Connected to iam.avafymm.com…

If this sounds like what you are seeing on your computer, you almost certainly have some potentially unwanted program installed on your computer that makes the iam.avafymm.com domain appear in your web browser. Don’t flame the people that owns the website you were at when you first spotted iam.avafymm.com in the status bar. They are most likely not responsible, but from the potentially unwanted program that’s installed on your computer. I’ll do my best to help you remove the iam.avafymm.com message in this blog post.

Those that have been spending some time on this blog already know this, but here we go: Recently I dedicated some of my lab computers and intentionally installed some potentially unwanted programs on them. I’ve been monitoring the actions on these machines to see what kinds of adverts that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the potentially unwanted program updates itself, or if it downloads additional potentially unwanted programs on the systems. I first observed the iam.avafymm.com in Mozilla Firefox’s status bar on one of these lab machines.

iam.avafymm.com resolves to the 5.153.38.133 address. iam.avafymm.com was created on 2015-01-05.

So, how do you remove iam.avafymm.com from your web browser? On the machine where iam.avafymm.com showed up in the status bar I had TinyWallet, BlockAndSurf and BrowserWarden installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the web browser from loading data from iam.avafymm.com.

The issue with status bar messages such as this one is that it can be caused by many variants of potentially unwanted programs, not just the potentially unwanted program running on my computer. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the status bar messages.

Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the iam.avafymm.com removal:

  1. Check what programs you have installed in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Do you see something that you don’t remember installing or that was recently installed?
  2. How about your add-ons you installed in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Anything in the list that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that did not help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the potentially unwanted program. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did this blog post help you to remove iam.avafymm.com? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.

Thank you!

id.google.com – What’s the purpose of this connection?

Uncategorized

Recently I’ve been examining a lot network logs. A connection that often appears is to id.google.com when visiting the Google search engine. Sometimes you can see the status bar showing “Waiting for id.google.com”

id.google.com waiting

Here’s the id.google.com screenshot from the network log:

id.google.com connection

In some cases the request is for a .gif image:

http://id.google.com/verify/EAAAAJPGOkdVdwuY72Nn4-GBxGU.gif

Perhaps it is a Web Bug, but those are traditionally used by third parties.

I have not found any reliable information about the purpose of these connections. Do you have some input on why these connections are triggered when searching at Google?

The id subdomain seems to be available on each of Google’s top domains. Thanks to VirusTotal for allowing me to find these:

id.google.se
id.google.com.my
id.google.mu
id.google.co.in
id.google.rs
id.google.com.gh
id.google.at
id.google.com.ua
id.google.bj
id.google.de
id.google.com.pe
id.google.fr
id.google.com.mt
id.l.google.com
id.google.com.ng
id.google.com.eg
id.google.pl
id.google.ps
id.google.co.uk
id.google.iq
id.google.com.tj
ww.google.it
id.google.co.ma
id.google.com.mm
id.google.hu
id.google.sn
id.google.sc
id.google.com.iq
id.google.be
id.google.com.ph
id.google.gr
id.google.ga
id.google.es
id.google.co.cr
id.google.co.il
id.google.co.kr
id.google.co.tz
id.google.com.au
id.google.com.eg
id.google.dz
id.google.fi
id.google.ad
id.google.im
id.google.lk
id.google.sk
id.google.co.za
id.google.com.pg
id.google.ch
id.google.com.gi
id.google.com.np
id.google.gp
id.google.al
id.google.co.id
id.google.com.pe
id.google.com.pr
id.google.la
id.google.ne
id.google.bi
id.google.com.bd
id.google.com.ng
id.google.hr
id.google.mu
id.google.ro
id.google.tn
id.google.com.pa
id.google.com.pk
id.google.mw
id.google.sr
id.google.co.in
id.google.com.hk
id.google.nl
id.google.st
id.google.com.uy
id.google.ee
id.google.fr
id.google.cz
id.google.co.mz
id.google.az
id.google.bg
id.google.by
id.google.com.cy
id.google.com.kw
id.google.pt
id.google.ba
id.google.com.co
id.google.com.om
id.google.dk
id.google.at
id.google.com
id.google.lu
id.google.bj
id.google.bs
id.google.ca
id.google.com.ua
id.google.nu
id.google.it
id.google.je
id.google.jo
id.google.pl
id.google.com.sv
id.google.com.vn
id.google.kz
id.google.me
id.google.co.zm
id.google.com.br
id.google.com.mt
id.google.com.my
id.google.ie
id.google.tt
id.google.cg
id.google.co.nz
id.google.co.th
id.google.de
id.google.ge
id.google.tg
id.google.cl
id.google.cn
id.google.com.bh
id.google.com.ec
id.google.com.mx
id.google.li

Remove checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org Pop Up Ads

pop-ups,

Did you just get a pop-up from checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org and wonder where it came from? Did the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org ad appear to have been popped up from a web site that under normal circumstances don’t use aggressive advertising such as popup windows? Or did the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-up show up while you clicked a link on one of the big search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo?

Here’s a screenshot of the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-up ad when it showed up on my machine:

checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop up

If you also see this on your system, you almost certainly have some adware installed on your computer that pops up the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org ads. So don’t write angry emails to the website you were browsing, the ads are probably not coming from them, but from the adware on your computer. I’ll try help you with the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org removal in this blog post.

Those that have been visiting this blog already know this, but here we go: Not long ago I dedicated some of my lab machines and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. Since then I have been tracking the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware auto-updates, or if it downloads additional unwanted software on the computers. I first found the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-up on one of these lab computers.

checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org resolves to the 207.244.83.9 IP address. checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org was created on 2015-02-20.

Update 2015-05-04: I’ve also see the getupgrade.safesystemupgrade.org (62.210.93.163) in use:

getupgrade.safesystemupgrade.org pop up

So, how do you remove the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org ads I had TinyWallet, BlockAndSurf and BrowserWarden installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

If you are wonder if there are many others out there also getting the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org ads, the answer is probably yes. Check out the traffic rank from Alexa:

safesystemupgrade.org traffic

The issue with this type of pop-up is that it can be launched by many variants of adware. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

So, what should done to solve the problem? To remove the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-up ads you need to examine your computer for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

The first thing I would do to remove the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-ups is to examine the programs installed on the machine, by opening the “Uninstall programs” dialog. You can find this dialog from the Windows Control Panel. If you are using one of the more recent versions of Windows Operating System you can just type in “uninstall” in the Control Panel’s search field to find that dialog:
Uninstall a program search

Click on the “Uninstall a program” link and the Uninstall programs dialog will open up:
Uninstall a program dialog

Do you see something strange-looking listed there or something that you don’t remember installing? Tip: Sort on the “Installed On” column to see if something was installed about the same time as you started seeing the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org pop-ups.

The next thing to check would be your browser’s add-ons. Adware often appear under the add-ons menu in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. Is there anything that looks suspicious? Something that you don’t remember installing?
Firefox add-ons manager

I think most users will be able to find and remove the adware with the steps outlined above, but in case that did not work you can try the FreeFixer removal tool to identify and remove the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’ve developed since 2006. It’s a tool designed to manually identify and uninstall unwanted software. When you’ve tracked down the unwanted files you can simply tick a checkbox and click on the Fix button to remove the unwanted file.

FreeFixer’s removal feature is not crippled like many other removal tools out there. It won’t require you to pay a fee just when you are about to remove the unwanted files.

And if you’re having difficulties determining if a file is safe or adware in FreeFixer’s scan result, click on the More Info link for the file. That will open up a web page which contains additional information about the file. On that web page, check out the VirusTotal report which can be very useful:

FreeFixer More Info link example
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Here’s a video tutorial on how to remove the pop-ups with FreeFixer:

Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the checksoft.safesystemupgrade.org ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!

Remove lko.jafyzfyu.com from Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer

browser status bar

This page shows how to remove lko.jafyzfyu.com from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Does this sound familiar? You see lko.jafyzfyu.com in your web browser’s statusbar while browsing sites that normally don’t load any content from third party domains. Perhaps the lko.jafyzfyu.com domain appear when performing a search at the Google search engine?

Here’s a screen capture of lko.jafyzfyu.com when it showed up on my machine in the network log:

lko.jafyzfyu.com connection

The following are some of the status bar messages you may see in your browser’s statusbar:

  • Waiting for lko.jafyzfyu.com…
  • Transferring data from lko.jafyzfyu.com…
  • Looking up lko.jafyzfyu.com…
  • Read lko.jafyzfyu.com
  • Connected to lko.jafyzfyu.com…

Does this sound like your story, you probably have some potentially unwanted program installed on your machine that makes the lko.jafyzfyu.com domain appear in your browser. So don’t send angry emails to the web site you were browsing, they are presumably not responsible for the lko.jafyzfyu.com status bar messages. The potentially unwanted program on your system is. I’ll do my best to help you remove the lko.jafyzfyu.com message in this blog post.

For those that are new to the blog: Some time ago I dedicated some of my lab computers and knowingly installed some potentially unwanted programs on them. Since then I have been following the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the potentially unwanted program auto-updates, or if it downloads and installs additional potentially unwanted programs on the machines. I first found the lko.jafyzfyu.com in Mozilla Firefox’s status bar on one of these lab computers.

lko.jafyzfyu.com resolves to the 81.95.152.220 IP address.

So, how do you remove lko.jafyzfyu.com from your browser? On the machine where lko.jafyzfyu.com showed up in the status bar I had installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the browser from loading data from lko.jafyzfyu.com.

The problem with status bar messages such as this one is that it can be caused by many variants of potentially unwanted programs, not just the potentially unwanted program that’s installed on my system. I think that potentially unwanted programs such as SpeedChecker, WebWaltz, PriceFountain and YTDownloader can also be responsible for lko.jafyzfyu.com appearing in the browser. And there are probably other variants too. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the status bar messages.

Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the lko.jafyzfyu.com removal:

The first thing I would do to remove lko.jafyzfyu.com is to examine the programs installed on the machine, by opening the “Uninstall programs” dialog. You can reach this dialog from the Windows Control Panel. If you are using one of the more recent versions of Windows you can just type in “uninstall” in the Control Panel’s search field to find that dialog:
Uninstall a program search

Click on the “Uninstall a program” link and the Uninstall programs dialog will open up:
Uninstall a program dialog

Do you see something strange-looking listed there or something that you don’t remember installing? Tip: Sort on the “Installed On” column to see if something was installed about the same time as you started getting the lko.jafyzfyu.com status bar messages.

Then you can examine you browser add-ons. Potentially unwanted program often show up under the add-ons menu in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Is there anything that looks suspicious? Something that you don’t remember installing?
Firefox add-ons manager

I think you will be able to find and uninstall the potentially unwanted program with the steps outlined above, but in case that did not work you can try the FreeFixer removal tool to identify and remove the potentially unwanted program. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’ve developed since 2006. Freefixer is a tool designed to manually identify and uninstall unwanted software. When you’ve tracked down the unwanted files you can simply tick a checkbox and click on the Fix button to remove the unwanted file.

FreeFixer’s removal feature is not locked like many other removal tools out there. It won’t require you to pay for the program just when you are about to remove the unwanted files.

And if you’re having a hard time deciding if a file is legit or potentially unwanted in the FreeFixer scan result, click on the More Info link for the file. That will open up a web page which contains more details about the file. On that web page, check out the VirusTotal report which can be very useful:

FreeFixer More Info link example
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did you find any potentially unwanted program on your machine? Did that stop lko.jafyzfyu.com? Please post the name of the potentially unwanted program you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!

Remove smartprofits.org Pop Up Ads Caused By Adware

pop-ups

Does this sound like what you are seeing right now? You see pop-up ads from smartprofits.org while browsing sites that usually don’t advertise in pop-up windows. The pop-ups manage to circumvent the built-in pop-up blockers in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. Perhaps the smartprofits.org pop-ups appear when clicking search results from Google? Or does the pop-ups appear even when you’re not browsing?

Here is how the smartprofits.org ad looked like on my system:

smartprofits.org pop up

Does this sound like what you see your computer, you presumably have some adware installed on your machine that pops up the smartprofits.org ads. Contacting the site owner would be a waste of time. The adverts are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the smartprofits.org pop ups in this blog post. This is done by removing unwanted adware from your machine.

If you have been reading this blog already know this, but if you are new: Recently I dedicated a few of my lab systems and intentionally installed some adware programs on them. Since then I have been observing the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware auto-updates, or if it installs additional unwanted software on the machines. I first found the smartprofits.org pop-up on one of these lab systems.

smartprofits.org was registered on 2014-03-18. smartprofits.org resolves to 88.85.68.248.

So, how do you remove the smartprofits.org pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the smartprofits.org ads I had installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the smartprofits.org pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

Judging from Alexa’s traffic rank, smartprofits.org is getting quite a lot of traffic:

smartprofits.org traffic rank

The issue with pop-ups such as this one is that it can be launched by many variants of adware, not just the adware that’s installed on my computer. I think that adware such as PriceFountain, YTDownloader, WebWaltz, Movie Wizard and MedPlayerNewVersion can also be responsible for the smartprofits.org popups. And there are probably other variants too. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the smartprofits.org ads removal:

The first thing I would do to remove the smartprofits.org pop-ups is to examine the programs installed on the machine, by opening the “Uninstall programs” dialog. You can open this dialog from the Windows Control Panel. If you are using one of the more recent versions of Windows OS you can just type in “uninstall” in the Control Panel’s search field to find that dialog:
Uninstall a program search

Click on the “Uninstall a program” link and the Uninstall programs dialog will open up:
Uninstall a program dialog

Do you see something strange-looking in there or something that you don’t remember installing? Tip: Sort on the “Installed On” column to see if something was installed about the same time as you started getting the smartprofits.org pop-ups.

The next thing to check would be your browser’s add-ons. Adware often appear under the add-ons menu in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Is there anything that looks suspicious? Something that you don’t remember installing?
Firefox add-ons manager

I think you will be able to find and remove the adware with the steps outlined above, but in case that did not work you can try the FreeFixer removal tool to identify and remove the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’ve developed since 2006. Freefixer is a tool built to manually find and uninstall unwanted software. When you’ve tracked down the unwanted files you can simply tick a checkbox and click on the Fix button to remove the unwanted file.

FreeFixer’s removal feature is not crippled like many other removal tools out there. It will not require you to pay for the program just when you are about to remove the unwanted files.

And if you’re having problems determining if a file is clean or unsafe in the FreeFixer scan result, click on the More Info link for the file. That will open up your web browser with a page which contains more details about the file. On that web page, check out the VirusTotal report which can be very useful:

FreeFixer More Info link example
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Here’s a video tutorial which shows FreeFixer in action removing adware that caused pop-up ads:

Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the smartprofits.org ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!

NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point) – 7% Anti-Virus Detection Rate – InstallCore

digital signature

Hi there! Just a short post on a publisher called NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point). I just found a download named adobe_flash_setup.exe that was digitally by this publisher, and it turns out that it is detected by some anti-virus programs.

NEXT-POINT OOO Next-Point UAC

You can also check the digital signature under the file’s properties. According to the certificate we can see that NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point) seems to be located in Moscow, Russia and that the certificate is issued by COMODO RSA Code Signing CA.

NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point) certificate

The problem is that adobe_flash_setup.exe is not an official Adobe Flash Player download. If it was, it would have been digitally signed by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Here’s how the authentic Adobe Flash Player looks like when you double click on it. Notice that the “Verified publisher” says “Adobe Systems Incorporated”.
Adobe Systems Incorporated - Adobe Flashplayer Installer

The current detection rate is 4/57, that is 7%. Avira reports adobe_flash_setup.exe as Adware/InstallCore.A.499, ESET-NOD32 detects it as a variant of Win32/InstallCore.XP potentially unwanted and K7AntiVirus reports Trojan ( 004b75ec1 ).

NEXT-POINT anti-virus report

When I tested the NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point) file it installed StormFall and MyPC backup on some product from Symantec. Don’t remember the name. Perhaps it was Norton 360.

Did you also find a file signed by NEXT-POINT (OOO Next-Point)? What kind of download was it and where did you find it?

Hope this blog post helped you avoid some unwanted software on your machine.

Thanks for reading.

Remove futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net Pop Up Ads

misleading advertising, pop-ups, ,

Sound familiar? You see pop-up ads from futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net while browsing web sites that in general don’t advertise in pop-up windows. The pop-ups manage to find a way round the built-in pop-up blockers in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Maybe the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net pop-ups appear when clicking search results from Google? Or does the pop-ups appear even when you’re not browsing?

Here is a screenshot on the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net pop-up from my machine:

futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net

Does this sound like your experience, you apparently have some adware installed on your computer that pops up the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net ads. So there’s no use contacting the site owner. The ads are not coming from them. I’ll do my best to help you with the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net removal in this blog post.

For those that are new to the blog: Some time ago I dedicated a few of my lab machines and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. I have been monitoring the behaviour on these machines to see what kinds of adverts that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware updates itself, or if it downloads and installs additional unwanted software on the machines. I first noticed the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net pop-up on one of these lab systems.

futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net was registered on 2015-02-20. The domain is protected by PrivacyProtect.org. futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net resolves to the 199.115.114.52 address.

YouGetSignal’s reverse WHOIS states that s.system-update.net resolves to the same IP.

According to Alexa, theperfectupdate.net is getting quite a lot of traffic:

theperfectupdate.net

So, how do you remove the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net ads I had BlockAndSurf, TinyWallet and BrowserWarden installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

The problem with pop-ups such as this one is that it can be launched by many variants of adware. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net ads removal:

  1. What software do you have installed if you look in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel? Something that you don’t remember installing yourself or that was recently installed?
  2. You can also review the add-ons you have in your browsers. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that didn’t help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Here’s a video tutorial showing FreeFixer in action removing pop-up ads:

Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the futureupdates.theperfectupdate.net ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!