Gargoyle -

I don't use a popup blocker, simply because I don't often go (and almost never go back to) places where I run into a lot of popups. (One of the reasons I quit using McAfee AV.) Most of them can be "killed" by just clicking them off. There are a couple of known notorious ones where the "X" button connects instead of killing, but you just ignore them.

As with email, a lot of the less benign popups have phony addresses, which change frequently, so blocking the source isn't really very practical. When I first got a Hotmail account, I got rather upset at the amount of SPAM, so I tried the "block sender" thing, but Hotmail won't process more than 100 entries, so you soon run out of space to list them.

I once tried saving (unopened) two weeks worth of SPAM email messages and going through the return addresses (on a sequestered machine) - and found only 2 of over 400 that did not have phony source information. One specific message, obviously all from the same source, showed over 25 different phony source addresses just in that 2 week period.

Blocking "by source" is just not very practical, except in the case of a few specific and recurring annoyances. If you habitually visit only a few "known" places, you might eventually make some progress; but if you're out there "researching" in strange places the only applicable instructions are "IGNORE" and "DELETE."

Additionally, the "net send" messages referred to above do not come in as "browser messages." I frankly haven't looked seriously, but there is no obvious address to block. (Right click doesn't show any properties, for example.) They look exactly as if they originated on your own LAN.

NEVER CLICK A POPUP TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING. The web is full of phony "we'll save you" crap disguised to look like something you might need, but actually intended to place spyware or worse on your machine.

If something offered by a popup looks interesting, you can always find the real product with a simple search (if there is a real version) and get what you want from a known and (possibly) reputable site.

One of the nice things about the 'net' is that you don't have to know a lot of arcana to get by. While a pause to think about "what's going on here" is helpful, "Ask A Friend" is a legitimate and acceptable troubleshooting procedure.

John