Adware popups, new tabs and opening App store - ***

Question

Since the last iOS update (to 7.1.1) on my iPad2, new tabs open in Safari and AVG safe browser to adware, sex sites, etc with popups that tell me I have been selected to win... click OK to continue or Is your battery running out tooo quckly? Click OK to sownload a fix.... or opeing up the App store.
This is droiving me crazy. The only solution is to clear history and cookies data - I may have stumbvled on another fix, which is to switch to airplane mode so I can click OK and then shut down the tab.
In any case, there doesn't seem to be any answer on the search engines other than delet cookies and history. That is not a good answer and doesn't fix the issue. iOS is not supposed to get viruses or mailware, but this is one of those things that if it smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, craps like a duck...it must be a duck.
Has anyone else had this problem or is everyone except me happy as a clam in the mud.
Apple wants 20.00 to talk to me.., and then would probably deny any knowledge. But there is something wrong and I neeed the community help.
Please, short of resetting back to the factory defaults (which I mad do anyway, just dont have the time to spend on it right now) there has to be someone that knows about this and how to remove the problem. I am open to eveything.
Thanks,
M

Answer 1

There are really only a few possibilities here, and unless you have jailbroken your iPad, malware isn't one of them.
1) It's the sites you're visiting. If you only see this problem when your browser tries to load specific sites - perhaps sites that were already open the last time you used your browser - then those sites are probably the cause. The fix in this case is something people are strangely reluctant to hear: stop visiting those sites.
2) It's a compromised network. If the problem stops when you take your iPad somewhere else, and use a different network, and recurs when you return home, then your home network is compromised. Most likely this would be due to a hacked wireless router, but could also be due to a domain name server issue at your internet service provider.
3) It's a crap network. Are you using your own network, or using someone else's free network? Sometimes free networks will inject all kinds of advertising stuff as a means for paying for the service. The solution here would be, as with #1, stop using that network.
For more information on the second option, see:
How to manage a hacked wireless router
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