Green double underlined key works

[rahli]

Has anyone else started noticing the green double underlined key words that link to some dodgy site popping up on the forum lately? I think I've seen them elsewhere too. Are people putting them up on purpose or is this some parasitic ad campaign spread through some dodgy virus? Really makes me want to avoid buying their shit if this is the case.

If this is a virus maybe someone can suggest a cure and start running an immunization campaign to ride the Corroboree of this pest.

Any suggestions?

[rahli]

Fark I've got it too now!!!

What is the go??

Is this a new feature of the site or a pest??

[rahli]

Never fear folks I've just noticed it on the goggle home page so it has just struck me that it is most likely my own computer doing it.

I'll run some scans and report back if it has got rid of the text pest.

Thanks

[Amazonian]

Hey rahli. I get some words underlined too. But what i see is a row of small diamonds under certain words. I recently worked out that when i search a word up on Google, they show up here underlined with the diamonds??? strange huh. But its not permanent and it seems to disappear after a few days. Example .. I might search up the word 'random' and then if i use the word in a post, it gets underlined with diamonds... I get diamonds cause i am special, and you just get shitty lines ,lol.

[rahli]

Yeah, but green lines are just annoying. Now diamonds, they would make me want to scratch my eyes out!!!

Hope I can get rid of it.

[Amazonian]

To make them go away, just close your eyes rahli

[rahli]

Good advice Amazonian. They'll be safe tucked away behind my eye lids.

Found it only happens with firefox. Checked Internet explorer briefly and it was gone, though it might become evident if I browsed a bit longer.

This is fucked. If this is to become the norm of Internet browsing I'm pissed. I like to know what is in place, not what some piece of shit bug wants me to think is there. Call me old fashioned but I'll be disappointed if the whole Internet is destined to be overrun with bullshit spam.

[dollarjuice]

It's your own pc. Have you tried clearing out all your cookies? If that doesn't work I'd try downloading and running a scan with "Malwarebytes" it's a great anti malware program (do not read as "anti virus program")

If this still doesn't fix anything try using Google's browser chrome instead, in my opinion it loads pages much faster anyway.

PS: to clear out cookies I think the hotkey for firefox is something like CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE.

[rahli]

Thanks for your help dollarjuice.

I can't shift it. I think it's attached to the firefox browser somehow. I think I might just change browsers.

[ThunderIdeal]

spybot search and destroy sometimes helps particularly with this kind of problem. its free but i'd only use it to run the scanner, no realtime shit (realtime is called "teatimer")

failing clearing it up with other software or finding a decent alternative browser, just start from scratch, format your machine. i bet you haven't done it in over two years which is probably why it's glitching out

[Foo]

Id bet good money that it has something to do with a toolbar.

If your broswer looks like this, then im right.

on a more helpful note, check to see if you have the same prob in I.E

Edited August 23, 2011 by eatfoo

[dollarjuice]

Hahaha brilliant.

2 of those are actually the exact same toolbar too. bloody vista.

The best program for getting rid of this stuff if the above mentioned don't work, would be HijackThis. But be very careful because HijackThis doesn't differentiate between malicious or not. It just lists everything.

[rahli]

I reckon it might be a toolbar called apps4u. Just have to figure out now how to kill it.

Thanks for all your advice and suggestions folks. Dam unwanted add on and shite.

[tripsis]

A forum like this one might help. I got a virus on my girlfriend's computer a while back I just couldn't shake. Was a pretty frustrating one which would redirect all Google searches to random pages so I couldn't search anything. Only in Firefox. Had to use the horror that is I.E. to find out what the problem was. In the end I joined a forum like the one I linked to (might have even been that one, I can't remember) where I got incredible personal help, walking me through every step of the removal process, posting logs from various programs, until the system was as clean as they get. I was very thankful.

[Marcel]

It's amazing how online communities like the one Tripsis mentioned (and indeed this one here!) can often be so incredibly helpful and generous with their time and efforts. I sometimes tell my parents about forums (they don't really use the web) and they just can't get their head around why people would help total strangers for no pragmatic reason. (And from here I go on to submit them to my well rehearsed rant about the glorious anarcho-syndicalist future that such phenomena foretell.)

[tripsis]

It really is amazing. The sort of help I received was the sort of help you'd pay a technician $100/h to give you, but it was done purely to help out of the goodness of that person's heart. I suppose that if there are people nasty enough to create viruses just to hurt people, then there will be people out there who want to combat them to the best of their abilities.

[mescalito]

Yup Google hey!

Run Firefox with adblock plus,No-Script and don't let ANY go0ogle/yah0o/assk etc have access on sites,run only what you need for the site.

Don't run Private Browsing,it doesn't do shit.Go to Tools/Options/Privacy and check the top box ;)

Use Revo to Uninstall programs it creates a restore point by default and don't rely on the inbuit one.I use the slow more deep mode remove selection and remove ALL bolded items,sometimes you need to click the tree out to see more.

NEVER install toolbars EVER and yes if it is a legit program they will allow you to install the software with all ticks gone!!

Use ATF cleaner AND CCleaner regularly.

As for search engines use Ixquick https for searches(add on or use Startpage).

The above mentioned forum is a good one and there are many,so be sure to have HiJack This installed as they will want to see the report.

Kaspersky is the finest bit of gear out(it will pick up bad installs before they get you) and I use it alongside SpywareBlaster,SpyboyS&D and Malwarebytes.

Immunise and update more than you pick your nose ;)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHEFmg1Cr0Q

[rahli]

Thanks for all the great advice everyone. I set to seek and destroy the little green line suck some time soon when I have move time to follow through the advice.

Cheers

[rahli]

Opting out of text enhance

Took me a while to get around to looking into this properly because I've been slack and using an Eyepad instead of my laptop. Was pretty simple to sort out after all, but god knows if there is something still lurking behind the scenes. Pretty rude that they think people will appreciate getting their computers invaded by trash like that.

Thanks for all the great leads folks I'm sure they will come in handy one day when m computer starts blowing smoke out the back and wereing bits out the front.

Cheers

Edit - just noticed this message -

* This will set an opt-out cookie on your system to prevent you from seeing Text Enhance links. If you clear your cookies, the links will appear again and you will have to come back to this site and opt-out again.

So the trash is still on there and they wont remove it only block it.

Edit again -

Added the Adblock plus add on as recommended on some forum and it should now be fixed. It is supposively completely legit for these monkeys to force this crap onto peoples computers

Edited August 27, 2011 by rahli

[mescalito]