Why have I been seeing a lot of pop ups online lately?

[Robert]

Just because you have an antivirus program doesn't mean it will block everything - generally an antivirus program only blocks 70% of the garbage you will find on the internet. It sounds like you have a malware program that pops up random ads. Sometimes torrent files will install a trojan that installs malicious files on your computer. They are hidden in the file you downloaded through the torrent. Try installing Malwarebytes Free. http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

It's one of the best programs that can help get rid of unwanted garbage. Usually you can't install 2 different antivirus programs together, as they conflict with each other, but Malwarebytes is not actually an antivirus program; it can install together with your existing antivirus program. It might not be a cure-all that will find everything, but it is the first step in the cleaning process. Do a full scan, and let it run for a few hours. Running it overnight before you go to bed is a good idea.

If your cleaner programs didn't find anything, there are several steps you can do to fix the problem. Try editing your Hosts file. This prevents certain malicious sites from showing up on your computer, mainly banner ads and popups. Try this http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm for more information. It can also block YouTube and Hulu video ads, I love it.

If you think you have a malicious program installed, first check your task manager. Hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc and check the 'processes' tab. Then do a search for the processes in that list that seem suspicious. When you find something that shouldn't be there, search for that process online and see how to remove it; some programs are more difficult to remove than others.
If you don't feel comfortable doing the work yourself, and think you might break something, try one of the 'free help' sites:
http://www.geekstogo.com/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/