any free programs to fix speed of internet

  • 8 December 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 22 views

ive been on internet for yrs i cant figure why we have anti-virus software but cant keep it off r systems

2 replies

Userlevel 7
Hello bustbrosing, welcome to the Community!
 
Could you be a little more clear over what you are needing to detect or remove?  (I am not able to find a reference for a program called "speed of internet")
 
Thanks!
Userlevel 7
Hi David / Hi bustbrosing
 
I think that bustbrosing is referring to Internet Speed Checker, which as far as I can tell from my research, is an adware program, that displays pop-up ads and advertisements on web pages that you visit. This particular nasty is advertised as a program that will allow you to measure your Internet speed.
 
However, there in comes the sting...though this may sound like a useful service, the Internet Speed Checker program will display ads whether you want them to or not, these being shown as boxes containing various coupons that are available, as underlined keywords, pop-up ads or advertising banners.
 
So in summary, from what I can see this is a non-malware program we commonly refer to as a PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application), and as you can see from experience these are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-us, redirect your browser home page, and other behaviour that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools. But they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
 
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behaviour that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
 
However, the best thing to do is to Open a Support Ticket and ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you.  There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
 
Also, we have had a lot of discussion regarding these recently, and David (aka shorTcircuiT) has in fact posted an Idea for Webroot to consider asking them to increase PUA detection.  The more users that need help removing a particular PUA the more likely and faster that PUA will be added to detection.
 
I hope this helps?  Either way please come back here and let us know how you get on.
 
Regards, Baldrick

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