Meaya Popup Ad Filter

If you have been around for a little while, I'm sure you have come across those irritating pages that generate one or more pop-ups.  You know, a new web page will mysteriously appear over the page that you are looking at, or perhaps underneath (pop-under) it.  In some cases, closing the pop-up can spawn more pop-ups and for the very unlucky amongst you, you will have uncounted a machine gun like barrage of pop-ups that fill your task bar with new windows and lock your PC as tight as a can be.

If you are reading this page now, you will have encountered a pop-up from Tripod, the people hosting this particular site.

A very effective way of stopping 99% of all pop-ups is to use a pop-up killer.  Meaya have an application called Popup Ad Filter that is particularly effective.  It launches when you start your PC and sits patiently waiting to crack down on any web page that tries to launce a pop-up.  You know that it is working because it emits a beep on your PC speaker every time it encounters and blocks a page from popping up.

There are times that you may want a new page to pop-up.  An example is on Yahoo mail when you are trying to get to your address book.  In this case, you can simply tell the program that you want to allow pop-ups from that particular site location.  From that point forward, it will remember that it is okay to launch a pop-up on that particular site.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

I think everyone knows what a computer virus is, but have any of you come across the phenomena of spy ware?  Spy ware is a piece of code that 'finds' its way on to your computer and sends information about you or your surfing habits over the internet when you are on-line.  At it's most innocent, it will tell the interested party when and where you have been surfing the Internet.  At it's most malicious, the digital code on your machine will enable someone to take over the controls of your computer and or extract your passwords and credit card details that might be stored there.

It all sounds very frightening and I'm sure if you were one of the unlucky ones, it could be a devastating breach of your privacy.  For the most of us, though, it is an annoyance and an irritation that someone is taking such liberties.

"Does this spy ware apply to me?" you ask.  I am confident to say that if you have done any significant wandering around the Internet or installed any programs on your computer, you have probably picked up some spy ware.

Spy ware is often  poorly written and can cause computer instability (frequent crashes).

There are several programs out there that specialise in spy ware removal.  None of them are perfect, but the one I would recommend is from PeppiMK Software, a German software company, called Spybot - Search & Destroy - and best of all it's free.

You install the software to your PC and run it periodically to check for any new spy ware.  Anything that is found is listed with a check box next to it.  You look down the list and uncheck any pieces of spy ware that you want to leave on, then click on a button to have the software remove the checked items.

Why wouldn't you remove everything it finds?  Well there are some applications that you may use that will only work with the spy ware installed.  An example of this is Kazaa (an Internet file sharing application) that generates money from the information it gathers about its users - that's why it is free (or maybe it isn't free after all?).

Kazaa Lite

For the Web-savvy amongst you, this is peer to peer file sharing.  Not to be confused with Kazaa, which is loaded with spy ware, Kazaa Lite allows you to share files across the Internet without restrictions and the invasion of your privacy.

You simply download the free application, install and go searching for music, video, picture and even software.  All your downloads go into a directory at C:\Program Files\Kazaa Lite\My Shared Folder.  Everything in this folder is also available for upload by other users on the FastTrack P2P network.

There are risks sharing files.  You are exposed to downloading files infected with a virus for example, so it is a good idea to have a good antivirus program installed with up to date virus definitions.  You should also avoid downloading files that have an .exe file extension.  These are executable files that are more likely to contain a virus.

Searching is easy using the application.  You key in a word or two, select the typoe of file you are looking for (music, video etc) and hit the search button.  Moments later, a list will begin to grow of all the potential download locations for files containing the keywords you just specified.  If you can't find what you are looking for, change a few words and try again.

Qurb

Do you find that your inbox is home to more and more junk mail (referred to as SPAM)?  There are many software solutions that rely on filtering, in other words, you have to provide the software with a set of rules for sorting the good from the bad.

Another approach is to create a 'white list' of all the good people that you know and to ditch everything else.

Qurb is one such application, designed for Outlook only.  When the program is initially installed, it searches through your address book and message folders entering the e-mail addresses into its white list.  Subsequently, when you bring in e-mails, Qurb checks the senders address against the white list and allows those on the list through, whilst other messages are always diverted to a quarantine Qurb folder.

If someone sends you a message and it ends up in the quarantine folder, it is easy to add it to the white list - just click on an icon on the Outlook toolbar.  Similarly there is another icon that you click on to remove a sender from the white list.

The program sells for $24.95, but the demo has no restrictions (time or functionality).