Problems with pop-up blockers not working

[Carakeel]

To the wonderful Ethel or anyone else who can help : I used to use IE (Internet Explorer) but changed to Mozilla Firefox as my pop-up blocker on IE wasn't working, despite being set to block all pop-ups! I use Google as my home page and even the Google pop-up blocker won't work for me. Despite having changed to Firefox, I am still having the same problem. Although I set my pop-up blockers to block everything, they simply won't work. Any ideas on why this might be happening and how to fix it would be gratefully received. Ta! :o)

[Ethel]

Now you are using firefox install an add on that may help;

Adblock Plus

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Have you got adequate firewall, antivirus and spyware software and is it up to date?

Download this free program and run it frequently, if you don't already have it:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_f ree.php

[Carakeel]

Thanks Ethel, you're a star! XXX . I use AVG (the free version) and it updates automatically. I run Windows XP SP2 and use the firewall that came with it. I also have AVG's spyware program, but while it finds spyware already on your computer and will get rid of it for you, it doesn't block further spyware from downloading. I'll follow your advice, thanks. :o)

[Ethel]

You need to use a better firewall than windows.

I recommend Comodo, which I use:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

It is free.

I also suggest you look at Spybot, XCleaner, and A Squared.

These are all free, and do not conflict with each other. It sounds very 'belt and braces' but I see nothing wrong with that.
As always it is important to keep updating this software - it's no good if it's out of date.

You can download all of these from this site:
http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUs erPage&userid=cuddly-hippo

Aimed at eBayers but good for everyone.

If you still have problems, let us know and we shall try turning off system restore before running some of them.