Getting Spam, Viruses, or Popups from CrystalFire Software?

We take your privacy and Internet comfort very seriously here at CrystalFire Software. After all, we don't like getting spam any more than you do. Please note out Privacy Policy, which can be reached from the link at the bottom of every page.

In a nutshell, we'll only send you e-mail if you've asked for it. Even if you've asked to be put on one of our mailing lists, messages are rare (maybe one a month). If you're getting mail from "us" with more frequency than that, and haven't asked for tech support or otherwise initiated a conversation, it probably isn't from us at all--see below.

Mail/Spam/Viruses from CrystalFire Software

If you've been getting viruses from us....well, you haven't. There are some irritating worms going around the web lately that "steal" random e-mail addresses and slap them in the "from" field of infected e-mails. We've been getting a few bounces from messages that apparently chose the support address for CrystalFire Software as the fake return. To those affected, sorry, and it isn't us -- I promise! You'll only get mail of ANY kind from us if you either know a staff member personally, you ask for a response on something, or you're on one of the e-mail announcement lists we run. You can (and should) delete unread any message from crystalfiresw.com (or anyone else you don't have reason to be expecting a message from) that contains an attachment.

For the record, we scan regularly for viruses here, and don't use Microsoft mail programs (almost all e-mail viruses that exploit loopholes are attacks against Microsoft Outlook or Outlook express, or use their address books). We haven't had a virus infection in over a decade. I can say with some confidence that we're NOT mailing you virues, whatever the return address of the mail may say.

If you really want to help out, write your representatives in Congress (assuming you're in the US), and tell them to get their act together on a spam bill that might actually affect spam (unlike the recent "Can Spam" bill, apparently so named because it basically says "you can spam.") More immediately, tell your ISP that you want it to use (at least) "Reverse MX lookup" on mail being delivered to you. This won't eliminate the problem, but it would go a long way toward solving it.

Pop-up Ads from CrystalFire Software

Very occasionally, someone will complain about the pop-up ads on this site. It is the current policy of CrystalFire Software not to have paid third-party advertising on the site, either banner or pop-up/pop-under. We might someday want to use a pop-up window for something (they do have their uses), but at the present time there aren't any. So if you're seeing them, they're not from us.

How could this be? If you are seeing pop-up ads (ads for products or services that open a new window in your web browser) on this site, there are two possible sources: The first is fairly innocuous, although a bit underhanded: it's possible to create pop-up ads that appear when you LEAVE a page; i.e. they appear to be caused by the next page you open. If you're seeing them on this site, they're from whereever you were before you browsed here. Usually these are pretty obvious, because they'll advertise a product from the previous site.

The second case is more significant: recently there have been a spate of "products" that install "ad services" onto your computer, usually in the guise of something else. The most common of these is "Gator," but there are a number of others that do the same thing. Usually they'll tell you what they're doing when you install ... somewhere around the third page of fine print in the EULA. These products will cause ANY web page to produce ads, and are a headache to both web browser users and the businesses (such as CrystalFire Software) whose reputations are tarnished by irrelevant and obnoxious ads.

If you believe that you have such software installed on your system, don't panic: Do a web search on "Spyware removal" or "Gator removal" and you'll find products, many of them free, that can assist you in removing them. I don't want to endorse any particular product here, but if you need a recommendation, send us e-mail.