Annoying Android adverts

[SnoopZ]

Is the phone on now?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Is the phone on now?

Sorry just seen this. Not sure why you're asking but it's never off.

The GFirewall app suddenly reappeared (after over a week) along with GSearch yesterday at 7pm. Quite by chance I discovered this about 15 mins later. I immediately checked the dubious Playstore app and found that it had no extra data stored at that point. In the past I've noticed that when the apps have reappeared the 'playstore' app seems to acquire data even though it's disabled. Guess I'm going to have to live with this...

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by Osem

Things is I haven't downloaded any for quite a long time and these ads just started appearing less than a week ago. There are loads of apps I don't recognise on my phone so is there any way I can see when apps were actually downloaded?

There's a reference to a process 'com.zgs.gg.pack' in what little I have found about these apps but that means nothing to me.

Oops! i meant to type is the phone OK now? lol.... must be because i did it on the tablet.

Are you still getting those full screen ads? If not then live with it or possibly just do that simple phone reset, although those ads may come back if they're built into the dodgy Chinese firmware.

[Osem]

The ads stop when the 2 apps are removed but reappear shortly after they do.

http://www.bloglovin.com/viewer?post...click=0&user=0

Done a bit more searching and eventually found a few things of interest which seem to indicate these apps are associated with:

http://www.pandawillforum.com/showth...tphone-MTK6582

I have faeiteng h9500 mtk6582 8gb, and it's infected with uupay.d virus,
it install apk's - "gsearch" and "gfirewall"

http://chinamobilemag.com/android-tr...ular-expected/

and this:

http://securelist.com/blog/virus-wat...pre-installed/

[joglynne]

Interesting links Osem. Seems that these built in apps are rife on Chinese mobiles. At least your's seem to be benign compared to some of the pre-installed apps out there.

Just a random thought but I wonder if an advert blocker would do anything to help.

http://getandroidstuff.com/5-best-ad...p-for-android/

[Osem]

Yes it looks like it. I'm hoping the intimate details of my boring life will soon cause the eavesdroppers to commit suicide.

Might try an adblocker when I get time. TVM

[bubblegun]

Can't you root it and then permanently remove these apps?

[techguyone]

I'm curious as to how much the chinese phones cost, The best value phone from the branded makes is the motorola G which you can pick up for around £120. I have one myself and can attest to its quality.

Unless the Chinese phones are like £50 or something I don't see the pint in getting, especially as the build quality & indeed the components within are likely to be, well... crap really.

Add to that they deliberately load as part of the ROM itself. Malware apps, and you really do need to be asking yourself why you'd want to walk that road.

[Osem]

@ Bubblegum - I have no idea how to root a phone and would be concerned about bricking it.

@ Techguyone. Mine was around £80, 5.5 inch screen, dual sim, quad core and unlocked. I like the phone very much just not the 'freeware' it came with which of course I didn't know about at the time. lol

When I was looking, I checked out the Moto G and it was much more expensive, didn't have an SD card and wasn't dual sim both of which were features I wanted. Users were also reporting problems with their batteries after the 4.4 update which was the final straw.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by techguyone

I'm curious as to how much the chinese phones cost, The best value phone from the branded makes is the motorola G which you can pick up for around £120. I have one myself and can attest to its quality. Unless the Chinese phones are like £50 or something I don't see the pint in getting, especially as the build quality & indeed the components within are likely to be, well... crap really.

Well this is a Chinese phone for £229:
http://oneplus.net/uk/one#overview

Yet it has comparable specs to current £500+ 'name brand' models.

It's not about being cheap, it's about value for money.

[Osem]

Just a thought... I have Lookout AV on my phone and I appreciate it can't do anything about what was loaded onto the phone back in China but it scans and accepts GSearch & GFirewall as safe even though we know they are some form of pernicious 'unwantedware' and they almost certainly contain permissions which could easily be abused in all sorts of ways and therefore represent a threat. That being the case, it seems to me that AV has a gaping hole in it.

[adzii_nufc]

Rooting and flashing new ROMs are quite easy tasks. I think people are just put off by things they don't recognize. I'm not sure if rooting alone would rid you of this bloatware as its likely it's been implemented in the manufacturers version of the OS, quite like when you buy locked phones from British companies. With that said it's pretty likely that factory resetting the device will simply just reinstall the craps at some point. Rooting may provide a half fix otherwise. Flashing a new ROM would provide a full fix. Never dabbled with these phones so unaware if popular ROMs like CM 10.2/11 are available.

[joglynne]

If it gives you any reassurance about how doable it is Osem then I installed cyanogenmod on my phone last year.

There are vids on YouTube that show you how to do it and the cyanogenmod site has really detailed instructions and a forum that is only to happy to help you. The only thing I will admit was keeping my eyes closed at the end whilst I waited for the new ROM to finalise.

Installer

Installer forum area

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by joglynne

The only thing I will admit was keeping my eyes closed at the end whilst I waited for the new ROM to finalise.

Re-flashing anything be it phone, router, BIOS or smart TV is always something of a buttock clenching moment. Just make sure that the power can't go absent during or it'll likely be bricked.

Depending on how the original software writers set up the boot loader program you may get a second chance.

[Osem]

I must say I've never been into flashing. Far too risky...