"Door Slamming" Sound?!?

This is probably going to be the weirdest feedback you've recieved yet...

Anyway, everytime I load up the PointBuzz main page, my computer plays the AOL "Door Slamming" sound from Instant Messenger. The Problem being that I'm not running Instant Messenger, and none of the events on my computer are assigned to play that sound (i.e. exclamation, log on, etc.).

Not that it's really a bother, but interesting nonetheless.

(For what it's worth, I'm using Netscape 8.1, and the page is rendered in FireFox)

Anyone else "hearing things"?

I'm not. I'd bet money on some sort of spyware software being installed on your computer which is causing this.

I prefer just downloading and installing www.slackware.com ;)

Ad-aware worked wonders for me.

Psht. Ad-Aware? Nah. Try Windows Defender Beta or if you have it - Microsoft Anti-Spyware.

Both great products from the Microsoft Corporation ;)

Ben: I prefer SuSE 10.0 Professional (2.6kernel)

No Spyware! I'm pretty computer savy and keep up to date on that stuff.

On the otherhand, I've narrowed this anomaly down to just Netscape . Firefox doesn't make the sound, and neither does Internet Explorer.

rpms. *puke*

I still say it's spyware or some other browser plug in. I am very computer savvy, and my stupid Windows box managed to still get spyware (and I surfed at HIGH security in IE)

I use Windows once in awhile, but only because I have to for various reasons.
*** Edited 3/13/2006 4:14:03 AM UTC by bholcomb***

Ben,
There was a study released a couple weeks ago where they ran IE and Firefox side-by-side on High Security. IE let in 21 times more spyware.

"During Levy's and Gribble's most recent crawl of October 2005, 1.6 percent of the domains infected the first IE configuration, the one mimicking a naïve user blithely clicking 'Yes;' about a third as many domains (0.6 percent) did drive-by downloads by planting spyware even when the user rejected the installations."

"In the same kind of configurations, Firefox survived relatively unscathed. Only .09 percent of domains infected the Mozilla Corp. browser when it was set, like IE, to act as if the user clicked through security dialogs; no domain managed to infect the Firefox-equipped PC in a drive-by download attack."

Both quotes taken from this article.

Granted, these are with "unpatched" versions of both browsers, but its still pretty amazing that with IE, even rejecting a download didn't block it.

Which is why our campus standard is Firefox.

Considering AIM and Netscape are now both owned by the same company, I wonder if Netscape now takes on AIM sounds. *grins*

Nothing worse than having netscape come pre-infected with the worst computer virus of all time.

^lol

A couple things to keep in mind regarding the IE vs FF tests... Obviously, the vast majority of spyware/etc is written specifically for IE, thus making it the specific target of such attacks. Also, I'd be willing to bet the average user of FF is more tech-saavy than is a user of IE, simply because IE is vastly distributed, whereas FF isn't as widely available.

djDaemon said:

IE is vastly distributed, whereas FF isn't as widely available.

Yes, IE is a standard, but I believe FF is on the way up. Since we're on the topic, I might as well toss this out there. NEVER USE SAFARI. It is absolutely the worst browser I have ever used. I feel better now. ;)

Could be worse - try IE7. I've played around with it, and its in rough shape so far.

Ugh. I was hoping IE7 would fix a lot of the problems that IE has had. There are some sites I use (sportsline.com for one) that render better in IE than in FF. I'll be disappointed if Bill's software wizards screwed the pooch on this one.

This is what I have found to be the best spyware software and it is free!

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spybot.html

JuggaLotus said:
Ugh. I was hoping IE7 would fix a lot of the problems that IE has had.

Keep in mind that I'm testing a BETA version of IE7. For the most part, the benefits (see below) of IE7 outweigh the problems, but the issues it has can be befuddling at times. Some web sites take ages to load, writing text in forums (here, for instance) has bugs that don't properly display the text, and its just generally slower. Of course, the final version will likely have fixed these issues, and (as always) the final version will be optimized, making if much faster.

Some of the benefits of IE7:

• Tabbed browsing - even better than FF!
• Favorites - vastly improved bookmarking
• Streamlined interface - though could still use some work
• Page magnification - note that this is different from text magnification in that it magnifies the entire page.

As for spyware protection, I've found that no single program can do it alone. Using a combo of 2 or more greatly increases the security of your PC. Here are my favorites:

Lavasoft AdAware

Spyboy Search & Destroy

Bazooka Scanner

Windows Defender Beta

I currently use AdAware, Search & Destroy and Defender. Occasionally I'll also run Bazooka after the other 3, and it will still find crap. However, Bazooka requires a working knowledge of registry editing, as this program only tells you what/where the program is and how to remove it. Keep in mind, though, that Bazooka often finds stuff no others can.

*** Edited 3/15/2006 1:22:10 PM UTC by djDaemon***

I'll have to give it a try when it gets released. I would have thought that MS would release a slightly more refined version for Beta than it sounds like they did.

There's a simple answer to the original question:

Netscape 8.1 makes a door slam sound effect when it stops a pop-up window from opening.

http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/help/popups.jsp#blocking_options

Well... that certainly would explain it!

And thusly, I have turned off that option, since learning of it's existance!

*** Edited 3/15/2006 7:55:00 PM UTC by Jesmcsel***