Is FireFox force feeding Adverts for profit?
Does anyone know the workaround to solve this annoying FireFox problem. This happens every time I launch FF browser. I hate to say it but it does not happen when I launch Internet Explorer. On every launch of FF two websites open up automatically. I get my home page in the back and in front there mysteriously appear an advertising website that I have no interest on. What I’ve been doing is taking the names of the websites and BLOCKING them but this is not working because the same websites continue to popup in front of my home page. I obviously close those pages but this is very annoying. I wonder if these advertisers think that by doing this sort of forced advertising we are going to buy their BS. Some of the websites are: trackimizer.com, redeemyourprize.com, channel1reports.com, kevinmoneytree.org, doubleclick.net, registrycleanout.com, cptgt.com, news4online.net, and the one that keeps popping up is TRKIT.S3.AMAZONAWS.com. Please don’t give me the generic answer to run every malware or virus scan program that’s out there. This has nothing to do with malware. It has more to do with some script in FireFox that triggers these Ads instead of the home page. This problem started with the last upgrade to 3.6.10 - never had this problem before.
Modified by Yag123
All Replies (7)
Check your list of home pages, Firefox can store multiple home pages and those sites may be listed there, for details see how to set the home page.
TonyE, Thank you for responding. This is what I have done since your suggestion. I have double checked my settings for "How to set the home page". I only have one home page at a time and not the multiple pages that you suggest. I have changed my home page to a different one and since this change I now get those annoying websites opening up at random. It’s always the same Advert websites I mention on my initial posting and they seem to rotate with every FF browser launch. So your suggestion does not solve the problem and again this started with my last FF upgrade.
Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database before doing a scan.
- http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
- http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
- http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
- http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website
Cor-el,
No disrespect to you, but, you obviously did not read my initial post on this problem where I ask you to “Please don’t give me the generic answer to run every malware or virus scan program that’s out there.
I have read throughout the help forums looking for a different workaround and you always respond with your usual copy and paste of your generic response to scan with all the malware programs in the universe. I got to tell you that before I do that; I’d rather just kiss Mozilla FireFox goodbye.
1. How are you "blocking" those webpages? What is your Homepage?
2. Do you have any extensions installed? If so, have you tried disabling them to see if that problem is related to an extension that might have been updated about the same time that problem started.
3. Have you tried the Firefox SafeMode?
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode
Check your add ons. I just had a similar problem on a customer's laptop with IE8 and channel1reports was in the IE history. The home page opened ok but as soon as you went to a different site another IE page opened on a malicious website saying there were problems with the operating system and to click to fix them. There was a Veoh Web Player add on that was disabled. Under 'show all' there were 2 more Veoh Web Player add ons that were enabled. I disabled those 2 and the problem went away. Then I uninstalled Veoh Web Player and everything is ok now.
Firstly, the answer to my question, Is FireFox force feeding Adverts for profit? The answer is DEFINETELY NO. Upon researching my problem further I’ve found out that I was wrong in asserting that my problem was with the FF browser only and that I did not have any problems with my InternetExplorer browser. I did have problems with both which led me to other forums like GeeksToGo.com where I found the solution to my problem. For those interested PLEASE go to http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/267407-how-to-fix-google-redirects/ you can read the forum as a guest without registering. You don’t have to buy anything; all the antivirus solutions are FREE.
I solved my problem without having to buy any antivirus programs or without having to run every antivirus program in the universe. My problem got solved following the few steps explained in the thread above. Like many, I was hesitant at first because I do not download anything that I am not sure about; but if you want to solve this REDIRECT problem you will need the following programs from geekstogo: ERUNT to back up your registry and OTM, GooRedFix, and TDSSKiller. These are small programs that install and run very quickly.
I still have other issues that have to do with the Windows Installer 3.1 which prevents me from installing the Microsoft Security Essentials program but I am working on this to find the solution on how to remove a particular bug that remains hidden in my system.
Thank you to all that took their time to respond to my post.