How to get rid of those banners on ICQ messages!

[techg7]

all of the sudden, ICQ started doing this:
http://www.powerlink.net/acamarata/icqwtf.gif
it puts a stupid banner on the bottom of every message, incoming and outgoing.
it does it in both 2000a and 2000b. what is going on here? im going mad looking at this ugly crap. if i wanted to look at ugly banners, i would use aim. what's strange is they started appearing suddenly today, even after ive used icq for 3 years.

has this happened to anybody else? is there something that can be done? please advise before i email mirabilis and give them a peice of my mind.

thanks

 

[Slikkster]

It's not happening to me on ICQ, but maybe on certain servers? I did find I had a banner-ad piece of software on my pc called "tsadbot.exe" that was running before zone alarm flagged it. Maybe ICQ is using it now to add banners? I deleted the program myself. It's a program that calls itself "TimeSink", and installs to the C:\Program Files\TimeSink\AdGateway\ folder.

 

[techg7]

i was thinking the same thing...adware programs....
thanks for the help ill give it a try....

 

[Sukhoi]

This just started happening to me today too! :|

I also have the Tsadbot running, but that's for GetRight and PKZip, and it's never caused a problem.

So, any idea why this banner is suddenly appearing? The few friends I've talked to lately on ICQ don't have it.

BTW, that banner is identical to mine. I'm running ICQ 2000a.

 

[techg7]

finally! somebody with the same problem!!! i sent a message to mirabilis complaining about it.... we'll see if they reply. i used ad-aware to scan and remove all the ad programs on my machine, and the banner is still there. i dont understand how it could just start happening like this unless it was coded into icq itself, but its so random. keep this thread going...hopefully we'll find a solution

 

[Slikkster]

Well, the one common thing you guys mentioned is icq2000A (although you said it happens on 2000b, too). No one I know has it going on at the moment, so I'm assuming it's coded and server-based at the moment.

 

[techg7]

yeah that sounds like a valid assumption. i want it gone. i might switch back to 99b, but i kind of like the features in 2000a, and that might not even fix it. any ideas?

miribilis tech support hasnt replied yet....figures....

 

[rootaxs]

hey, i have the same exact problem. when i rebooted the computer and fired up ICQ i started having ads tooo.. ssooo annoying

 

[Slikkster]

Still not getting ads here, but take a look at the 3 subkeys of this registry key...I have a "Data Files", "Partner", and "Reader" subkey off this key below:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mirabilis\ICQ\DefaultPrefs\UpdatedFiles

Partner and Reader also have a "Transaction" value set to "Yes", and there's a link in all 3 keys. When I go to that link, there's text referring to url's that lead to Gif files.

See if any of the URL links there look anything like the ads you are seeing. Right now the only thing I'm getting is a little "SMS" banner on my contact list, and that's definitely referenced in the URL links in the subkeys I listed. If you follow those links, take a look at the gif url's and see if any correspond to what you're seeing. If they are, maybe it's just possible to set the settings in those keys to "Transaction No" vs. Yes like mine currently says.

I'm using Win2K, btw...but Win98's registry settings should be similar. ICQ 2000B Beta 4.60 Build 3278

 

[rootaxs]

slikkster, thanks for the tip... unfortunately that doesn't seem to help. in fact there's no reference to any .gif at all.. just a coupld of .cb files which i presume would be cab files or something.

*sigh*

 

[techg7]

dammit! ill give it a try anyway. i bet this is because aol owns them now. this sucks. there has to be a way...
keep thinking....

look at this:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mirabilis\ICQ\DefaultPrefs\Ate
i found something. in there, youll see 6 keys. each of them have things inside that almost relate to the banners on the bottom of the messages. they each also have "sizex" and "sizey" values (maybe for the banner size)? all this crap is linked to cf.icq.com/whatever, same thing in what slikkster said.

anybody else have ideas?

 

[rootaxs]

reinstall icq perhaps? not sure if 99 series still works though since i remember with my 99 at home one day it just wouldn't connect and it offered me a download link for 2000... so if that applies to all then i guess 2000b would be our only choice if we don't find a fix for this one now

 

[Slikkster]

The .cb files I'm talking about are the ones containing the links...you have to go to the url...the .cb url that's in that reg key. Then, it will open up into a text page on a browser and that's where you can see the .gif links. Paste the URL for the .cb link and then look at the contents.

 

[techg7]

there has to be a way to get rid of this. maybe deleting the registry keys?

http://www.powerlink.net/acamarata/icqwtf2.gif

thats what happens when you try to send a message when you arent connected, so its definately a web based thing...

 

[Slikkster]

There ya go...so follow the links in the reg files...

for instance, here's one of the Values in my registry key below:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mirabilis\ICQ\DefaultPrefs\UpdatedFiles\Partner

The Value is "URL" and the "Data" in that value is a webpage... http://cb.icq.com/cb/460/datafiles/partner.cb

Now, if you go to that webpage, here's what it shows (for me, anyway):

<field><name=url><type=string></field>
<field><name=path><type=string></field>
<field><name=date><type=string></field>
<field><name=time><type=string></field>
<item><url=http://cb.icq.com/cb/460/partner/partner.cb><path=partner.xml><date=07-02-2001><time=18:40:00></item>
<item><url=http://web.icq.com/lib/image/0,,3019,00.gif><path=smsbig.bmp><date=07-02-2001><time=18:40:00></item>
<item><url=http://web.icq.com/lib/image/0,,3021,00.gif><path=smssmall.bmp><date=07-02-2001><time=18:40:00></item>


Now, I can tell you that the url address on the page

http://web.icq.com/lib/image/0,,3019,00.gif will show you a gif of a small banner touting SMS that is now appearing on the top of my contact list.

Get the picture? Literally and figuratively? It doesn't seem like it's going to be hard to defeat this thing once we know where it's coming from. Virtually everything in ICQ that's linked has a URL reference in the Mirabilis/ICQ section of the registry. So, take a look at the keys and follow whatever arcane links they show ya and see if you don't find the gif files that are comprising the banners on your messages..

 

[Sukhoi]

I looked through that part of the registry, and none of the URLs in there seem to point to any pages that relate to the add we're getting.

 

[techg7]

i see exactly what you mean. when i installed 2000b, that stupid sms thing showed up too. show how do we defeat this? some creative registry editing?

 

[SonOfZeuz]

To remove that SMS crap - look in your icq > Partner folder and delete
the Partner.xml file(or edit it) then make a new filw called
Parter.xml and mark ir as read only. (make sure icq is not running
ofcourse)
To stop the Adds -
In your ICQ folder (usually C:\Program Files\ICQ) you can delete the
following.. (If you're timid, you can always move them to another folder)

icqateima32.dll (removes advertisement downloading)
icqateimg32.dll (removes the loading of images)
icqateres.dll (removes part of the advertisement function)

You will get &quot;ICQ ATEBROWSER 1.0&quot; instead of advertisements..

 

[rootaxs]

SonOfZeus, that was brilliant! That message is a whole lot better than those silly ads. Thanks!

 

[Slikkster]

I agree, great job. However, (geez, don't mean to sound picky!) there must be a mechanism whereby there's no extension of the message window no matter what's in it. For example, my ICQ is still ad/banner free in the IM boxes. There should be a way to keep it that way without anything extending the window size, no?

 

[techg7]

as the orgininator of this thread, i must say, you are a genius. thank you

but itd stil like the stupid grey box. keep working on it i guess..we're getting there

 

[Sukhoi]

Thank you!

techg7, you should edit the thread title to say &quot;How to get rid of ICQ banner add&quot;.

 

[Elledan]

I set the value of 'Transaction' under ..\Mirabilis\ICQ\DefaultPrefs\UpdatedFiles\Partner and ..\UpdatedFiles\Reader to 'No', replaced the Partner.xml file, made it read-only, deleted the three .dll files and the sms-ad and the box is gone.

Thank you, SonOfZeuz!

 

[techg7]

i did the same, sms box is gone...but...i still have the grey box that says atebrowser =( what did i do wrong?

check out \ICQ\DataFiles\regupdat.xml....looks VERY suspicious, like it changes those reg keys.

 

[Elledan]

Oops, I forgot to mention that I changed something else as well in the registry:

Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mirabilis\ICQ\DefaultPrefs\Ate\Networks I changed the value of 'link' to:

http://web.icq.com/welcome/interests/0,,455,00.html (notice the extension .html instead of the default .htm)

Further when I created the new 'Partner.xml' file, I first created a new .txt document and renamed that to 'Partner.xml'.

Hope that will make the difference...