Remove BuffStream Pop-up Ads — How to Fix Gude

Written by Wilbur Woodham
BuffStream pop-up notifications may appear out of the blue, covering the post of the website you explored or opening your browser when you don’t wish it to be opened.

Clicking the BuffStream ad can lead to the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guide of BuffStream popups removal in various manners, and also checking your computer for extra malware presence.

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What are BuffStream pop-ups?

BuffStream popups are a result of adware presence. Adware is a sort of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which produces a major amount of profit for adware distributors. These advertisements might contain explicit content, or have a link to harmful content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their single target is money.

BuffStream push notification

BuffStream push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is an excellent, affordable and also really successful advertising solution1. It makes it possible for the vendor to link the customers’ attention to their website, as well as the buyers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the consumer will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he desires to buy is offered at the online store he/she saw earlier with a 15% price cut, one will certainly use this chance and buy it. Taking into consideration the very small cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising tool is a much-loved thing amongst the marketing departments of large internet retailers.

Nevertheless, such a successful strategy could not be missed by virus creators. Option to demonstrate the popup advertisements forcibly to the victims of malware attack is an ideal basis for malevolent manipulations with the popup ads. And Buffstream.stream promotions is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a details for the BuffStream site
SiteBuffstream.stream
HostingAS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address104.21.34.118
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorToperes, Dating, Noddenknow
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the BuffStream virus?

There are a plenty of ways of becoming contaminated by the adware that trigger the BuffStream popups tornado. A lion’s part of this malware incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may additionally be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is presented as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of users frequently make use of the uncertain programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of tools that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these types of software are risky, due to the fact that it is extremely easy to build in a BuffStream malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

BuffStream popup virus can also be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the unusual web page. Such sites are usually filled with colorful and blinking advertisements, and their owners usually permit any type of promotions to be published on their page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider knows what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can also receive something a lot more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

The statistic shows that people dislike popup advertising more than other types of promotions

Potentially unwanted applications, like BuffStream pop-up virus may cause a lot of different problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-up notifications may display you the advertisements, where you are offered to download one more unknown application, or “a perfect security tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, may have spyware functions. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and pseudo antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also exploited as a distribution method by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these banners, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation can become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of BuffStream pop-up advertisements?

The guide of BuffStream adware clearing includes 2 parts. First, we need to deal with the malware, and then correct the effects of its action. The removal process is quite easy, due to the fact that it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – security program that is present on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its large resources consumption, as well as some bugs that can be crucial for some categories of individuals, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. Additionally, a wide range of trojan viruses are capable to turn off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to make use of the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I would certainly suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware device that will undoubtedly wipe out the viruses from your PC and also create an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection feature. But let’s take care of BuffStream adware initially.

Removing BuffStream popup virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

  • Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. After the installation, you will be offered to perform the Standard Scan. Approve this action.
  • Gridinsoft Anti-Malware during the scan process

  • Standard scan checks the logical disk where the system files are stored, together with the files of programs you have already installed. The scan lasts up to 6 minutes.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware scan results

  • When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of BuffStream malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware - After Cleaning

Now, when the computer is clean of viruses, we can proceed to the browser reset. You can do this step manually, as well as with the use of GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

Reset browser settings to default

Manual method of browser reset

To reset Edge, do the following steps :
  1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
  2. Reseting the Edge browser

  3. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :
For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :
  1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
  2. The first step to revert Mozilla Firefox

  3. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :
  4. The second step of Firefox restoration
    After choosing this option, you will see the next message :
    The last step for Firefox
If you use Google Chrome
  1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :
  2. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
  3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :
Opera can be reset in the next way
  1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :

  2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown :

When the browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your web browser will connect the right DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following content3:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Find the hosts.txt file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory. Rename this file to “hosts.old.txt” (to distinguish it from the new one), and then move the file you created on the desktop to this folder. Remove the hosts.old from this folder. Now you have your hosts file as good as new.

Nevertheless, there is one trouble that makes things much harder to restore, particularly without the anti-malware software. Most of adware variations that are utilized to show you the BuffStream pop-up promotions are changing the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your machine was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but huge lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and then it will be back to the typical, up until you attempt to open settings one more time.

Reset your browser settings with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

To reset your browser with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, open the Tools tab, and click the “Reset browser settings” button.

Tools tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

You can see the list of the options for each browser. By default, they are set up in the manner which fits the majority of users. Press the “Reset” button (lower right corner). In a minute your browser will be as good as new.

Reset Browser Settings tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

The browser reset is recommended to perform through the antivirus tool by GridinSoft, because last is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove BuffStream Pop-ups?

Name: BuffStream

Description: BuffStream - a lot of users became a target for the pop-up advertisements. I have a lot of friends who literally bombed me with the questions like “how to remove Buffstream.stream push notifications?” or “why do Buffstream.stream pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with BuffStream pop-ups, which may corrupt your browser’s correct performance, and create a lot of troubles while you are working.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Adware

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References

  1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and also the reasons why I recommend it for malware elimination.
  3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.

About the author

Wilbur Woodham

I was a technical writer from early in my career, and consider IT Security one of my foundational skills. I’m sharing my experience here, and I hope you find it useful.

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