I never see them.

None here.

I believe it has to do with your browser and what antivirus and anti spyware you use.
Linda C

I never see them either....

Alexa

Lou, you are in control. With the proper software, you never see any ads at all.

In the past I've paid for the privilege of not having any ads.

Westelle, paying for this website ended about 3 years ago when Spike sold it.

Change your browser. Try Mozilla Firefox or Opera - no popups with either of those. You can also get assorted anti-spyware programs. All are free to download. Try Ad-aware, Spybot, SuperAntiSpyware, Spywareblaster, Greasemonkey, Popup Stopper.

I don't get any advertising at all on this site any more - thank goodness, thanks to programs like those. What one might let through, the others stop. You can have them all, or just one. They're not like anti-virus programs, of which you should have only one - they tend to conflict with each other.

Thanks Everyone: I went into my Popup Blocker and set it on HIGH instead of Medium. I'll see how that works.
I'll have to Refresh, because I'm getting overrun with them right now. It's a pain in the Ask Me no Qustions.
LOU

Fairgold: I have most certainly paid since Spike sold it because I had to do it through Pay Pal; and when I need to "log in" I always get the ads until I take the time to do so.... then the ads are gone.

Westelle, I think Helene (Fairegold) is correct. Many of us paid right around the time Spike sold to iVillage, but to the best of my knowledge, since they've owned GW, it's been a free service.

Daisy's right...try using Mozilla's Firefox as your browser instead of Internet Explorer. Since switching to Firefoz, I have no problems with popups, and I was having huge problems before the switch.

s

So, what have I been paying for? I remember this because of the BIG hassle I had trying to use Pay Pal.
(I don't think I paid this year tho'.)

Hi everyone: Thanks again ! I haven't looked in so I missed the last few threads . I jotted everything down and will give it a try.
Lou

Lou, sometimes when you have a lot of pop-ups, it is a sign that you have spyware on your harddrive, or a Trojan. There are a couple free and very reliable programs available that can help you clean out your system. If the other stuff you try here doesn't help, feel free to ask me and I can give you the name of the most reliable, free stuff that will take care of problems like this. (I had a particularly nasty one that required seven different programs to finally get rid of it, but usually a program called "AVG Anti-spyware" works well on almost everything.) Unfortunately, you have to be careful about anti-spyware, too, because a lot of so-called anti-spyware programs, in fact, insert spyware onto your computer while pulling out other spyware. Why can't people just be honest? :-(

Absentminded, how did you know you had something there? I run spyware blaster, spybot and avg - all the free ones! but sometimes I wonder if something is hidden. I also use Norton anti virus.

Bumblebeez, you should never run more than one antivirus program on your computer. Norton in particular is incredibly invasive and interferes with just about everything else. I suggest you choose between AVG or Norton and ditch one or the other. Of the two, I'd go with AVG, and not just because it's free!

Absentminded, yes, you need to be careful with anti-spyware. Some are viruses in themselves. I downloaded one recently - can't recall the name - without checking first with my computer-geek friends, and lived to regret it. It had some dreadful bug which wasn't easy to get rid of. The anti-spyware I've mentioned above are known to be goodies - Spybot, Ad-Aware, Spywareblaster, SuperAntiSpyware etc.

The alternative to having to have all these anti-something programs is to use another operating system than Windows. I also use SUSE, which works in a very similar way, but is not subject to attack. There are lots of different versions - the latest is Sabayon, if you want to do some hunting for information. You can always keep Windows as well - but you need 2 different hard drives - one for each operating system. They are very large downloads (like 4gb) but they can't be beaten for security. Windows really is garbage because it leaves itself wide-open for attack - but all the extra programs you need to protect it are good money-makers, no doubt about it!