{"id":4032,"date":"2012-03-11T16:03:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T20:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2012-03-11T16:03:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T20:03:53","slug":"a-strange-message-from-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/a-strange-message-from-google\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strange Message From Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carole is getting a strange message from Google<\/strong>
\nHELP\u2026 the last few days when ever I do a search in Google Chrome, this warning comes up \u201cunusual traffic from your computer network\u201d. \u00a0What is going on. \u00a0I haven\u2019t been on it for hours, and then when I started doing searches, after a couple, this comes up. \u00a0 \u00a0Says something like I am blocked. \u00a0Oh, and I can fill in that box, can\u2019t remember what they call it. \u00a0Also they want to make sure I am a real person not a robotic! \u00a0I don\u2019t get this at all. \u00a0I never had trouble on IE8 like this, could put in many searches, one after another, but can\u2019t do it on Chrome. \u00a0 I \u00a0still have IE8, so will go back to that I guess. I would really\u00a0appreciate\u00a0your take on this.<\/p>\n

Our answer<\/strong>
\nWhen Google detects that a computer on your network may be sending automated traffic to Google they may show the following message: \u201cOur systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network.\u201d Automated queries are against theri Terms of Service.<\/p>\n

The error page displays a CAPTCHA (a squiggly word with a box below it). To continue using Google; you need to \u00a0type the squiggly word into the box to continue \u2014 it\u2019s how Google knows you\u2019re a human, not a robot.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t see a CAPTCHA image or if you continue to encounter the CAPTCHA over and over\u2026your computer is most likely infected with malware,spyware<\/span><\/a>, a Trojan or has become part of a botnet.<\/p>\n

The first thing you should do is check for malware on your computer:\u00a0Malicioussoftware<\/span><\/a>, sometimes bundled with free downloads without your knowledge, can trigger Google to show this message.<\/p>\n

Make sure you have adequate\u00a0antispyware<\/span><\/a>\u00a0protection. That would be one good primary antispyware and one good secondary antispyware\/antimalware. We currently recommend\u00a0SUPERAntiSpyware PRO<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 but you can use\u00a0the freeware version<\/a>, along with the\u00a0free version of Malwarebytes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Make sure you use a good antivirus. We currently recommend\u00a0Microsoft Security Essentials (Free)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALWAYS keep your\u00a0security\u00a0software<\/span><\/a>\u00a0up-to-date as well.<\/p>\n

You should also\u00a0scan\u00a0your\u00a0computer<\/span><\/a>\u00a0once a week with a good online scanner \u2013 There are several. One we\u2019ve used before is\u00a0http:\/\/housecall.trendmicro.com\/<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

In any case, if you\u2019re getting a warning about suspicious network traffic, it almost always indicates your computer has been compromised either by an intentionally installed \u201cFreeware\u201d program which contains bundled spyware (like SmileyCentral, Facemoods, and many others) or by a Trojan or Botnet that infected your computer when you clicked on an attachment in a phishing or spam email.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carole is getting a strange message from Google HELP\u2026 the last few days when ever I do a search in Google Chrome, this warning comes up \u201cunusual traffic from your computer network\u201d. \u00a0What is going on. \u00a0I haven\u2019t been on it for hours, and then when I started doing searches, after a couple, this comes up. \u00a0 \u00a0Says\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}