Author Topic: disruptive ads on geekhack? Or is my computer to blame? (Read 5220 times)

wellington1869 · « **on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 22:56:40 »

Ok, I havent had a virus in like forever.

So I was surfing the web today, and everything was fine, and I came by to geekhack, and the following abruptly happened within 5 seconds of landing on the geekhack page.

1. my browser window closed.
2. in its place, was a dialog box: "from webpage: your computer needs to be scanned!!! you are in serious danger!!!" (or something along those lines.)
3. of course i closed the dialog box; then another "fake" window (falsely calling itself 'my computer' and listing fake drives and showing a fake virus scan proceeding) promptly opened. I closed that.

Now, call me crazy, but this feels like a crummy ad delivered from the geekhack page? It hasnt happened since on any other site...

anyone else see anything like this here?

cmr · « **Reply #1 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 22:59:29 »

For a while some of the ads were crashing my tabs in Chromium, but that's prealpha and was unsurprisingly a Chromium bug. I haven't seen a popup but, hey, that might also be a Chromium feature. Bug. Whatever.

rdjack21 · « **Reply #2 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:03:49 »

Same here haven't seen anything like that. I do see the normal banner adds but that is it.

wellington1869 · « **Reply #3 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:06:55 »

the only other 'disruptive' ad I got once on gh is one that opened up "full window" and forced me to close it (ugh).

well, i'll do a scan but i dont think its my 'puter... felt like an ad, esp with the timing (immediately after landing on this site, but not on any other site for an hour of surfing that preceeded it).

o2dazone · « **Reply #4 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:49:55 »

hehe
wait what?

cmr · « **Reply #5 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:52:12 »

FF crashes too much and is too sluggish

wellington1869 · « **Reply #6 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:55:17 »

Quote from: o2dazone;112449

hehe
wait what?

lol, seriously, i've been on IE all my life and i've had like 1 virus in 20 years (and that was likely from my thumbdrive).

and yes, firefox feels bloated, is slow, and crashes.

if i were to switch from IE (and i havent found reason to yet) I'd go with opera or something.

watduzhkstand4 · « **Reply #7 on:** Thu, 27 August 2009, 23:57:54 »

yea my NOD32 keeps popping up saying that a website has been blocked and that it might be a potential Trojan. This only happens when I navigate through geekhack. I wonder what's on the site =[

o2dazone · « **Reply #8 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 00:21:16 »

Go with whatever browser you'd like. Sweet justice has been dealt on wellington! More likely than not it has nothing to do with IE8...they've buttoned it down almost too much so I doubt that's the issue.

o2dazone · « **Reply #9 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 00:22:02 »

oh also updating a hosts file helps as a natural filter too

o2dazone · « **Reply #10 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 00:24:02 »

Quote from: cmr;112451

FF crashes too much and is too sluggish

I agree. But FF is the only browser with a wide support of nice developing tools. Once Chrome has support for Firebug and Web Developer, I know what browser I'll be using fulltime (in the meantime I use Chrome and run sites as apps like gmail, docs, reader, etc)

itlnstln · « **Reply #11 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 07:44:49 »

I had a popup from GH several weeks ago, but that's as disruptive as I have seen. Otherwise, I just see the banner ads.

ch_123 · « **Reply #12 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 07:53:46 »

Quote from: webwit;112472

I'd never use a browser from an ad broker. **** google. They are privacy rapists, and hire the best lawyers to erode your rights. I think an evil company that tried to get a reputation of not an evil company is much darker and more cynical than MS.

Well, it is an open source software project, so it's not as if they can really hide anything. At the moment I've only switched over to Chromium on my Linux machines, and Arch's packages build it from source straight from Chromium's SVN. So while I generaly don't trust Google, I feel safe on their browser.

Quote

lol, seriously, i've been on IE all my life and i've had like 1 virus in 20 years (and that was likely from my thumbdrive).

and yes, firefox feels bloated, is slow, and crashes.

if i were to switch from IE (and i havent found reason to yet) I'd go with opera or something.

I have gone off Firefox as of late, but anytime I've used IE, it seems to be infinitely worse... Pages seem to take forever to load on it, and it hangs alot.

cmr · « **Reply #13 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 08:48:43 »

Quote from: o2dazone;112463

I agree. But FF is the only browser with a wide support of nice developing tools. Once Chrome has support for Firebug and Web Developer, I know what browser I'll be using fulltime (in the meantime I use Chrome and run sites as apps like gmail, docs, reader, etc)

no doubt. i have two different versions of firefox installed.

wellington1869 · « **Reply #14 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 09:24:41 »

Quote from: webwit;112472

I'd never use a browser from an ad broker. **** google. They are privacy rapists, and hire the best lawyers to erode your rights. I think an evil company that tried to get a reputation of not an evil company is much darker and more cynical than MS.

hahahahaha. yea, i have to say i think so too... and whats more, thats pretty much what i think of apple too, lol.

cmr · « **Reply #15 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 11:37:55 »

i am not a huge fan of google, but typing into the chromium "omnibar" produces the same traffic as typing into a firefox search box. in both browsers, the suggestions can be disabled to preclude transmitting that data.

o2dazone · « **Reply #16 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 12:40:29 »

Quote from: webwit;112472

I'd never use a browser from an ad broker. **** google. They are privacy rapists, and hire the best lawyers to erode your rights. I think an evil company that tried to get a reputation of not an evil company is much darker and more cynical than MS.

While that's a reasonable choice on not liking google, they are pushing the boundaries of what's new in open standards and the web in general. For being such a big company, they sure are making leaps and bounds in the "new web technology" department (particularly Wave, and what they're doing with it in HTML5). You can like or dislike Google for a couple good reasons, but what they're doing for standards is nothing but positives for web developers.

clickclack · « **Reply #17 on:** Fri, 28 August 2009, 20:40:20 »

when I went to geekhack today my computer said this was a "known site to have spyware, mallware, viruses", or something to that effect =P. It was spysweeper that said that and I then got some odd scaning computer thingy telling me I need to do something to check for viruses (kinda looked like a spam type popup thing though).

This was the first time that has happened to me on "this" site. I have a bunch of glitches on this site but I figure it has to do with the my version of IE or some sort of "refreshing" problem...idunno :S

I am just tired of "page not found" everytime I post something

I then have to go "back" and then find the page again and then "refresh", what a pain! Ugh! the price I pay for not being more computer literate. But then again my focuses are generally elsewhere.

wellington1869 · « **Reply #18 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 00:38:53 »

by the way it happened again today on a totally different computer, again only when I visited this site. Similar thing, ie8 got 'redirected' to some ad site. Didnt happen on any other site but this one.

iMav · « **Reply #19 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 01:09:20 »

Enjoy the new, ad-free, geekhack.

(significant malware threat vector eliminated)

wellington1869 · « **Reply #20 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 04:16:58 »

Quote from: iMav;112822

Enjoy the new, ad-free, geekhack.

(significant malware threat vector eliminated)

well its prolly not necessary to remove ads altogether. there must be alternative ad suppliers if google ads was putting up some questionable ones. Also IIRC before the last update non-registered folks saw ads but registered folks didnt. That model could work too, no?

wellington1869 · « **Reply #21 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 04:17:55 »

Quote from: clickclack;112802

and I then got some odd scaning computer thingy telling me I need to do something to check for viruses (kinda looked like a spam type popup thing though).

thats exactly what happened to me

lal · « **Reply #22 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 05:30:20 »

Quote from: iMav;112822

Enjoy the new, ad-free, geekhack.

Thanks, iMav! Was no problem for me though (Adblock Plus). Let us know if you'd like some financial support to continue running GH.

ch_123 · « **Reply #23 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 05:55:19 »

Quote from: wellington1869;112836

well its prolly not necessary to remove ads altogether. there must be alternative ad suppliers if google ads was putting up some questionable ones. Also IIRC before the last update non-registered folks saw ads but registered folks didnt. That model could work too, no?

Agreed, I have absolutely no problem with ads as long as they don't screw up people's computers.

Speaking of which, has this problem been exclusive to IE users?

microsoft windows · « **Reply #24 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 08:33:35 »

I never had problems like that and I always use Internet Explorer.

erricrice · « **Reply #25 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 08:36:24 »

I've never come across anything of that sort, but I'm using Google Chrome.

ch_123 · « **Reply #26 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 08:36:37 »

Judging by your system specs, the IE you're using is probably too old to be affected =P

Rajagra · « **Reply #27 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 19:16:05 »

Quote from: webwit;112472

I'd never use a browser from an ad broker. **** google. They are privacy rapists, and hire the best lawyers to erode your rights. I think an evil company that tried to get a reputation of not an evil company is much darker and more cynical than MS.

It's easy to opt out though!

wellington1869 · « **Reply #28 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 20:48:43 »

Quote from: ch_123;112846

Agreed, I have absolutely no problem with ads as long as they don't screw up people's computers.

Speaking of which, has this problem been exclusive to IE users?

Ya i'm perfectly happy with imav making at least enough to cover his hosting expenses. Ads being there doesnt bother me, the issue is only if they're causing browser trouble, in which case maybe just change the source of the ads. No need to get rid of them altogether.

lexicon · « **Reply #29 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 21:45:16 »

I noticed a while back there were Adbrite ads on this site. People have complained that they host dodgy ads. I dropped them from my websites because they were so sleazy, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were running bad scripts, too. I've never had any problem with Google Adsense ads, though I deeply dislike Google as a company.

watduzhkstand4 · « **Reply #30 on:** Sat, 29 August 2009, 23:19:50 »

It got much better now, thanks iMav!

wellington1869 · « **Reply #31 on:** Sun, 30 August 2009, 22:13:04 »

fwiw, i havent had a single redirect after the ads went down. Though I want to reiterate again that I'm not opposed to ads on the site, as such. It might have been just a bad set of google or adbrite ads, who knows.

News:

Author Topic: disruptive ads on geekhack? Or is my computer to blame? (Read 5220 times)