help with pop-ups?!?!

[dalemacv]

right now, everytime i sign onto windows, it won't let me log on to my mozilla firefox browser right away.. i have to wait about two minutes until a window pops up with this url: "downloads.thecompetentone.com/httpdownloads.thecompetentone.com.html"
and then i have to close that window before i can log on to my mozilla firefox browser.. so it seems that this window is stopping my browser from loading.. does anyone know what i can do to fix it??
please help!!

[doddsy]

run some spyware scans, and an antivirus scans.

you might want to start up in safe mode fro scannong and turn off system restore as well. some nasties will "hide" in system restore.

ms antispyware. spybot search and destroy. hijackthis.

avg is a decent free antivirus. although trendmicro offer a free online virus scan thingummy....

http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

hjt analyser

http://www.hijackthis.de/index.php?langselect=english

run msconfig too....uncheck any unnecessry entires on the startup tab.

ccleaner too is a useful tool.........

http://www.ccleaner.com/

post back when you've cleaned up........let us know if you found anything nasty.

[BluesMan1]

Create a log with HijackThis and post it in the Security and Privacy forum. You can also use this here: http://www.hijackthis.de/, copy the log there, click Analyse and see if you have something lurking in the dark...