My computer is moving extremely slow. When I am waiting for a website to load in Google Chrome (with Duck Duck Go) I noticed that in the lefthand corner of the browser screen there’s a blue box that says “waiting for glassdoor.com”. That’s just one example, sometimes it says “resolving host” followed by a random site name (please see the two screenshots attached). In some instances it’s a website that I visited 6 months ago and other times it is a site I don’t recognize. I’ve cleared my browsing data but that didn’t work. I ran multiple virus scans but nothing was found.
I have the paid version of Avast Premium Security (program version 22.12.6044 – build 22.12.7758.769) and Avast SecureLine VPN (software version 5.22.7134).
I know it’s the holidays and everyone is extremely busy, I would be grateful for any advice or expert opinions you can lend. I am really concerned that someone has accessed my computer.
It could simply be the VPN is slow or you have slow internet connection. What is your internet speed?
What sites you visit on daily basis could also help but if you’re uncomfortable sharing that obviously then it’s fine.
Google ads which is used by many sites have a million different trackers and sites, taboola or whatever it’s called usually used by news journalism sites along with other ad networks, they also connect to these weird sites you never heard of.
It is extremely difficult for a site to infect you so you’re not infected. Most of these ad based sites just hijack your search engine preferences lol and make you visit a random site to earn some ad money. They need a toolbar install which usually comes from pay per installs like VLC media player etc has but since you have Avast which blocks pay per install offers, you’re not infected with these toolbars either.
Probably just slow internet connection. Get Adblock plus, ublock origin and noscript extension, ask your browser to block all trackers and you will only have connection to the site you’re visiting.
Half the sites I don’t know but I probably got them from visiting quttera which this forum recommends or Facebook or discord. You will be surprised how many connections the ad networks/CDNs etc make but they are by no means malicious.
It’s downright impossible to infect someone through a site lol, gone are the days when you could make someone download an exe. You use chrome which runs in its own sandbox which means even the malwareist site full of malware can’t do anything to your computer. Those days are gone, modern browsers are too good.