I get a popup from safecount.net a lot to take some sort of survey and I would like to block it. I have NIS 2008 and Norton Addon, so how do I config NIS to block this popup in IE7. There is no "opt-out" provided in the popup.

Thanks
Gumboman

Hi Gumboman,

This is Mike from the Norton Authorized Support Team responding to your question about Norton internet Security 2008. Due to the ever-changing ways in which advertisements are displayed on the web, along with the fact the both internet Explorer and Firefox contain pop-up blocking features, the pop-up blocking feature is no longer included in the Norton add-on pack.

I would suggest that you clear all temporary files, cookies, etc from both browsers and make sure that the pop-up blocker is enabled.

If you continue to receive pop-ups, please try running a Full Scan on your computer to make sure that it is not infected.

Thank you,
Mike

You might be able to block the popup by blocking the web site from where it originates with either a blocking Hosts file or a suitable firewall.

Safecount claims to offer an opt-out cookie:

http://www.safecount.net/cookies.htm

I don't recommend permanently installing the cookie, but by temporarily downloading it you might be able to trace it to it's source and then try blocking that.

The safecount.net pop-up isn't a new window type pop-up, it's a flash crawler.

It seems to be malware related, but I'm not sure of the infection mechanism. It seems to be ActiveX based, but this machine has ActiveX disabled; yet it still gets in somehow...

AVG8 free can remove it, but doesn't prevent it from latching on. Spybot S&D doesn't detect it or stop it as of the current version. Windows Defender seems blind to it too.

With AVG8 Free it isn't removed automatically, you need to check your Scan History, and then select View Details, then check the Warnings tab. You'll probably have a whole load of HKLM/ActiveX Compatibility listings showing as adware. Select RemoveAllUnhealedInfections, and you should be free of it; for the time being...

Right Click on the safecount ad (it is flash). You will see the context menu for flash moves. Click Settings, and it should immediately display the "Local Storage" setting (the middle setting icon should be highlighted below it), and ask "How much information should www.safecount.net be allowed to store on your computer?"

Move the slider all the way to the left to indicate 0 (zero) Kb, then click the checkbox saying never ask again, and then press close.

You shouldn't see the dern thing again.

Thanks, I will give that a try when it pops up again.