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Where did those links come from? by Mitch Cohen Webmaster A few weeks ago, I was talking with a customer on the phone. She reported that links were appearing on her web page that she didn't put there. Underlined words were popping up all over her page. When you click on one of the words, it would take you to some other website. I checked my computer, and her website looked just fine. I suggested that it sounded like a virus or something had attached itself to her computer.  A couple of days ago, another customer reported the same thing. When she viewed her website, links were appearing all over her page, and she didn't put them there. I checked, and again, her website appeared just fine on every other computer. The only computer that had a problem was hers. I suggested again that she picked up a virus or some other sort of ad software that attached itself to her computer.This morning, I turned on my computer, and opened my browser. I opened up SiteRightNow.com, and to my horror, links were showing up on phrases, such as "make a website" and "make your own website". When I clicked the link, it took me to one of our competitor's site. Well, that wasn't a great way to start the day on a Monday morning. I quickly checked our site on one of my associate's computer. As I thought, it showed up just fine on his computer. My computer had picked up something that was causing these links. I thought to myself that it was very unlikely that I picked up a virus, since I have Norton's Antivirus loaded on my computer, and our email server has AVAST Virus protection built in. I looked through my computer's ADD AND REMOVE PROGRAMS. This is a control panel that is on all Windows computers. Behold, I found a program called "TOPTEXT ILOOKUP". Well, that looked like the one, so I clicked REMOVE and finished the uninstall. I went back to my browser, and with a sigh of relief, my browser was back to normal and the extra links were gone.  After doing some further investigating, I found out that TOPTEXT ILOOKUP is made by a company called EZULA. They can be found at ezula.comSo how did I catch the EZULA parasite? Yes, I would call this a parasite. The software attaches itself to your browser and lives on the words that show up on your web pages. Somehow the program reads the words as they come up in your browser, and the parasite creates a link whenever it finds a match with an advertiser's keyword. It then links these words to the adverisers' websites without your knowledge. I find it pretty outrageous how professional companies come up with ways to attach themselves to your browser and sneak into your computer. I thought back and tried to figure out how I could have picked up the EZULA parasite. After doing some reading, I found that many of these parasites come with free software that you download from shareware websites. Yes, it's free, but it comes with a little extra surprise! I remembered that on Friday, I was helping a customer find a utility they wanted to use to convert some music files. I downloaded a number of them to try out on my computer first. I must have picked up the parasite from one of these shareware sites. We do have a few free downloads on SiteRightNow.com. I have rechecked our downloads, including the picture resizer, the screen capture utility, and the MP3 Rip converter, and they all checked out OK in my tests. These files are all located on our own servers, instead of having to get them from a shareware site. If you go to a shareware website where you download free software, I urge you to be very careful. It is also reported that these parasites are coming from KaZaA.com, which is the popular music sharing website, so be careful if you like to share music with other KaZaA.com members. So how do you get rid of the parasites? After doing some more research on the EZULA parasite, I discovered that just using the ADD AND REMOVE programs method that I did earlier wasn't enough to completely remove the parasite from my computer. I found that there are new programs that look for hidden "Ad Ware" on your computer. I found one that looked reputable, and I gave it a try. Yes, it did feel a bit risky to download another free software program to get rid of the parasite that I caught when I downloaded a free software program, but that's why I have a computer set aside that I can use for testing. I understand that most users don't have the luxury to set aside a computer just for testing. It can be very unnerving to open up your main computer to potential attack by downloading unknown software. Always be advised to download software at your own risk. Here is the link to the LavaSoft Ad-Ware remover. They have a free version along with other versions that will monitor your computer for new ad ware parasites, much like an antivirus program would protect you from viruses. I just ran the standard scan and it located the EZULA parasite along with a few others I didn't even know were sitting there waiting to grab me at the right moment. Lavasoft Ad-Ware Remover I also found StopScum.com by Geek Village (one of our guest book providers). If you would rather not download the Ad Ware remover right away, you could go to StopScum.com. Their page will detect whether you have a parasite attached to your browser. They call parasite software "theftware". They are targeting KaZaA, eZula, and Gator as some of the main contributors to the problem. UPDATE January 2004: Download SPYBOT S&D Here's another great program I am now using on my own computer that protects and immunizes you from adware parasites. It's currently free, and I have had great success using it to clean and protect our computers. It's called "SpyBot S&D". You can read about the product and download it by Clicking Here If you have any questions about computer parasites, feel free to email us at help@siterightnow.com.  | Add E-mail | Table Capture | Affiliate Programs | Table Builder | Web TV | Change CreditCard | User Tips | What's New | Instant E-commerce | Tell a Friend | Browser Compatibility | Mal's Shopping Cart | Hide a Page | Terms of Use | We're Growing | Network News | Ad Ware | Authpro Setup Request | Auto Cart | Change Checking Account | FTP Request | Zoom Feature | Froogle | More Graphics | Thumbnails are Here | Email or Password Change | Domain Change Request | Selling Website | Request Pixel | Marketing Upgrade Request | Project Info Request | update billing | Jazz up your site | Maintenance Request Form | | Return Home | SiteRightNow Pricing | START HERE | SiteRightNow NEWS! | FAQ Page | Virtual Tour | Marketing Your Site | Free Graphics | Contact Info | Customer Login | |
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