Pop-Ups: how do they do it

[Rob Lister]

No matter what pop-up blocker you have, pop-ups happen.

How the **** do they do it and why do they think it is profitable (as it probably is).

[Denver]

No matter what pop-up blocker you have, pop-ups happen.

How the **** do they do it and why do they think it is profitable (as it probably is).

My Yahoo Mail last week began inserting an On the Border banner ad at the top of the page. It's the dreaded roll-over type: and I think it is very cleverly placed, since my mouse always seems to find it's way over the in the middle of my reading an email. POP.

I don't know how they do it: but I know I won't be visiting On The Border any time soon.

[Rob Lister]

My Yahoo Mail last week began inserting an On the Border banner ad at the top of the page. It's the dreaded roll-over type: and I think it is very cleverly placed, since my mouse always seems to find it's way over the in the middle of my reading an email. POP.

I don't know how they do it: but I know I won't be visiting On The Border any time soon.

I'm just sick of it. I can't understand why they can't make a browser air(pop-up)-tight.

Then again, there is a dichotomy in me; something in me wants the leaks to exist. I have no idea why except that possibly, just maybe, I too might someday profit from the fallibility of software.

[Soapy Sam]

If you are really serious, you might try the text-only browser, Lynx.http://www.vordweb.co.uk/standards/download_lynx.htm

[shadron]

The problem is the same as it is for blocking bogus email - they strive to make their pop-ups look just like the pages which you voluntarily link to, so there is no handle by which your blocker can say "this is a pop-up". And the technology allows for multiple of ways to open a linked page, and each one has to be treated specifically. It's not a technical problem, but a wants/needs societal one.

[Rob Lister]

If you are really serious, you might try the text-only browser, Lynx.http://www.vordweb.co.uk/standards/download_lynx.htm

I'm rarely if ever really serious. But even were I so, and coincidentally 10's of millions of my fellow interweb users, I'm almost beyond certain that somebody, somewhere, would find a way of popping-up a block of text right in the middle of the text-only block I was supposed to get.

[Rob Lister]

The problem is the same as it is for blocking bogus email - they strive to make their pop-ups look just like the pages which you voluntarily link to, so there is no handle by which your blocker can say "this is a pop-up". And the technology allows for multiple of ways to open a linked page, and each one has to be treated specifically. It's not a technical problem, but a wants/needs societal one.

I find it incredible to believe that. Yet I do...('cause I like you and I personally don't really know). I just assumed the instantiation of a new window required a client-side approval a little more divorced links.

So can we at least assume that the pop-up-blocker creators are actively looking at each pop-up that makes it through so as to learn?

[Dancing David]

The issue is that the code for web pages varies a lot, different authors use different platforms and differnt ways of coding.

For example I make web pages on what they have at work :Front Page 2003, something like a rock and stick approach compared to Dreamweaver.

And they all have to be compatible with HTML code. (I think they all do, I guessing) So basically a webpage is a stored document that is a set of directions that tells your browser what to do and they can sneak in code all sorts of ways.

Then natural selection occurs and the rest is history. You could button up your browser settings. I am sure there are web pages that tell you how to.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=strict&ei=mFytSaPzHoj0MoK21eYE&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=majorgeeks+blocking+popups&spell=1

[BigAl]

I find the host file downloaded from these folks has blocked 99.99% of pop-ups. I only use Firefox and use it with the defaults set and don't need any add-ons for the sake of this discussion. I've put it on countless systems. In many ways it speeds up my browsing experience.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

If you don't know what a "host file" is, read the description on that page.

The 0.01% that leak through get handled by FF's pop-up manager and I get to chose how to handle them.

There is one new exception to the above. Weather.com has a pop-up that gets through everything.

I download a fresh host file when it occurs to me or when a new pop-up shows up that needs to get blocked. So far, with the excepyion of the above, it has always worked.

[Z]

If you are really serious, you might try the text-only browser, Lynx.http://www.vordweb.co.uk/standards/download_lynx.htm

Hard to interpret the porn sites in these browsers...

[Cavemonster]

Hard to interpret the porn sites in these browsers...

(.Y.)

[Z]

Quit teasing.

[RayG]

No matter what pop-up blocker you have, pop-ups happen.

They do? I don't get pop-ups. What do they look like? Do you have some links where I might see what these pop-ups look like?

Weather.com has a pop-up that gets through everything.

It does? I just went to weather.com hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these elusive pop-ups, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

What am I doing wrong?

:D

RayG

[Prometheus]

It does? I just went to weather.com hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these elusive pop-ups, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

What am I doing wrong?

:D

RayG

I just tried it too. All I get is "Firefox prevented this site from opening a Pop-up"... :)

[GeeMack]

The issue is that the code for web pages varies a lot, different authors use different platforms and differnt ways of coding.

For example I make web pages on what they have at work :Front Page 2003, something like a rock and stick approach compared to Dreamweaver.

And they all have to be compatible with HTML code standards. (I think they all do, I guessing)


http://forums.randi.org/images/smilies/doglaugh.gif

Weather.com has a pop-up that gets through everything.
It does? I just went to weather.com hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these elusive pop-ups, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.


Nothing here, either. Firefox with Flashblock and a deftly maintained local hosts file can virtually eliminate such things.

I just tried it too. All I get is "Firefox prevented this site from opening a Pop-up"... :)


Not even that for me. Just a little "F" in a circle. :D

[BigAl]

They do? I don't get pop-ups. What do they look like? Do you have some links where I might see what these pop-ups look like?

It does? I just went to weather.com hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these elusive pop-ups, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

What am I doing wrong?


I'm not getting it now, either. It was well-behaved as pop-ups go, with a "close" button. It was a paid advert for some beverage.

[Rob Lister]

http://forums.randi.org/images/smilies/doglaugh.gif




Nothing here, either. Firefox with Flashblock and a deftly maintained local hosts file can virtually eliminate such things.




Not even that for me. Just a little "F" in a circle. :D

Emphasis mine. Perhaps each host has a different set of pop-up risks. Can you better define 'virtually'?

[GeeMack]

Emphasis mine. Perhaps each host has a different set of pop-up risks. Can you better define 'virtually'?


I set Firefox to stop pop-ups from opening when a web page loads. Flashblock, a Firefox add-on, prevents Flash scripts from automatically starting. That eliminates Flash based pop-ups. I only get pop-ups by my own choice, like when I click to zoom an image on a catalog site. I do get the JavaScript sub-windows that appear on the surface of web pages, but those don't actually open a separate window.

I've also eliminated any ads, images, or scripts that get sent from nearly 3,000 ad servers because my hosts file points those domain names to 127.0.0.127, a non existent address. And I turned off animated GIF's in Firefox. I've probably eliminated 99% of anything that moves, wiggles, or tries to sell me something, and 100% of pop-ups that open a new window without my express permission.

I still occasionally get some obnoxious JavaScript based scrolling text and/or images. But everything else that interrupts my browsing has been tamed.

[zenotter]

Anything like Flashblock for Interweb Exploder? That's what I use at work, and it's bloody annoying when I visit the Dallas Morning News website (dallasnews.com) - dread.

[Blue Mountain]

Anything like Flashblock for Interweb Exploder? That's what I use at work, and it's bloody annoying when I visit the Dallas Morning News website (dallasnews.com) - dread.

I noticed only one flash animation when I went to that page, but I have Flashblock running.

If you're allowed to edit your hosts file, I'd recommend you use the MVPS hosts file. That will block the worst of the ads. The file and installation instructions are at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm.

For the worst example of flash misuse, point your browser to www.kitco.com. They usually have ten -- count 'em -- TEN flash animations on that page :eek:. (Number varies depending on what their ad server sends you).

[Dancing David]

http://forums.randi.org/images/smilies/doglaugh.gif





I din't say they did, did I?

:D

I was just guessing.

[Dancing David]

Anything like Flashblock for Interweb Exploder? That's what I use at work, and it's bloody annoying when I visit the Dallas Morning News website (dallasnews.com) - dread.


IE7 blocked it.

:)

[Psi Baba]

NoScript for Firefox stops a lot of ads and pop-ups (and more insidious things as well), but annoyingly, it wants to update itself about every two days. I wasn't aware of Flashblock (I have noticed that the newest ads on Weather.com are of the Flash variety, which why Adblock isn't taking care of them). I'll have to add that one to the arsenal.

[Xulld]

No matter what pop-up blocker you have, pop-ups happen.

How the **** do they do it and why do they think it is profitable (as it probably is).

Fire fox with Noscript.

noscript dot net

[six7s]

NoScript for Firefox stops a lot of ads and pop-ups (and more insidious things as well), but annoyingly, it wants to update itself about every two days.

Every two days? :confused: Are these the sorta days mentioned in Genesis?

http://noscript.net/changelog

NoScript CHANGELOG

[+] new feature, [x] bug fix, [-] removed feature, [=] repackaging or cosmetic change

v 1.9.0.8
================================================== ===================
x Work around for Mozilla bug 453825

v 1.9.0.7
================================================== ===================
x Work around for SimpleViewer and other Flash movies replaced with
innerHTML breaking on nsIContentPolicy presence (thanks Steffen
Zahn for reporting).

v 1.9.0.6
================================================== ===================
x Fixed page-level surrogates in subframes being executed too much
early to be effective (thanks GossamerGremlin for report)
x Work-around for bug 4066046 (thanks Alice0755)
x Fixed incompatibility with the wfx_Versions extension (thanks
Archaeopteryx for report)
x Fixed double activation for nested OBJECT elements, e.g. apple.com
QuickTime movies (thanks al_9 for report)
x Fixed Silverlight applets not intercepted in Gecko 1.8.1.19-20
(thanks al_9x for report)

:eusa_think:

Let's see how many changes occur in the next few days

[Seanette]

The combo of Adblock and Flashblock, plus Firefox's built-in popup handling, seems to do the job for me. Can't recall the last time I actually got a popup.

I'm also grateful that the current version of FF fixed an annoying "feature" of cookie requests that switched the user from tab to tab without warning and would not allow anything else to be done until that demand was handled. (I strongly prefer session cookies for most Web roaming, to keep things a little tidier.)

[Monketey Ghost]

All I know is, the last two weeks I've been getting huge popup ads on my Mozilla. Firefox, save me!

[Dancing David]

All I know is, the last two weeks I've been getting huge popup ads on my Mozilla. Firefox, save me!

Drum beat.

You might want to check for spyware, malware and adware

Doom, doom, doom, doom.

[zenotter]

Hmm, gonna have to have a dialogue with our IT people, methinks. Thanks.

[six7s]

Every two days? :confused: Are these the sorta days mentioned in Genesis?

http://noscript.net/changelog

NoScript CHANGELOG

[+] new feature, [x] bug fix, [-] removed feature, [=] repackaging or cosmetic change

v 1.9.0.8
================================================== ===================
x Work around for Mozilla bug 453825
<snip/>



:eusa_think:

Let's see how many changes occur in the next few days

Three (earthly) days later:
http://noscript.net/changelog

NoScript CHANGELOG

[+] new feature, [x] bug fix, [-] removed feature, [=] repackaging or cosmetic change

v 1.9.0.8
================================================== ===================
x Work around for Mozilla bug 453825
<snip/>

It's just a jump to the left...

[moopet]

I can't remember seeing a popup for months. What sites/browser combinations do you have to stoop to to still see popups?

[zenotter]

We have IE7 at work, and only IE7. :( I heard they were looking into Flock, so fingers crossed.

[WildCat]

There is one new exception to the above. Weather.com has a pop-up that gets through everything.
I don't have any problems with weather.com, but snopes.com has an annoying popup that defeats everything I throw at it! "media.fastclick" or something like that.

[Blue Mountain]

I don't have any problems with weather.com, but snopes.com has an annoying popup that defeats everything I throw at it! "media.fastclick" or something like that.

To paraphrase the athiest bus ad:

AD SERVERS THAT BUG YOU ARE PROBABLY IN THE MVPS HOSTS (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) FILE.
So install it and enjoy your internet.

Line 13794: 127.0.0.1 media.fastclick.net

[six7s]

snopes.com has an annoying popup that defeats everything I throw at it:confused:

I suspect you have yet to add Firefox + NoScript (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722) to your arsenal

[Psi Baba]

Three (earthly) days later:
http://noscript.net/changelog



It's just a jump to the left...
Okay, slight exaggeration for effect, but at least a couple times a week, when I fire up Firefox, there is a NoScript update waiting. I don't think these are program updates, but perhaps updates to the script database, so perhaps your reference to the changelog is irrelevant. Either way, it's almost as annoying as pop-ups themselves.

[six7s]

noscript.net/faq#qa2_6 (http://noscript.net/faq#qa2_6)
Q: Yes, I love NoScript, but releasing new versions every few days is getting tedious, can't you limit updates to once a month?!
A: NoScript is a security software, hence its users expect it to do every effort to keep their browsing experience as safe as it can be, always.
This means that every time a new browser weakness is reported, a new kind of web threat is discovered or a bug is found in NoScript itself (hey, no software is perfect!), NoScript is immediately updated to react as needed.
Notice that almost daily builds containing cosmetic bug fixes or experimental features are available from http://noscript.net/getit#devel, but the updates pushed automatically through the addons.mozilla.org channel are only the "stable" ones, containing either important security features or major functionality additions.
At any rate, if you want automatic updates to be delivered with a lower frequency, you can raise the extensions.update.interval about:config preference.
You could also disable NoScript automatic updates by creating a new about:config preference named extensions.{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.update.enabled and setting it to false.
Furthermore, if you want to completely turn off automatic updates and perform all your upgrades manually whenever you want, you can simply set the extensions.update.enabled about:config preference to false.
Even more control over updates and other aspects of extension management is given by the excellent MR Tech's Local Install Extension by Mel Reyes.
Even if you disabled automatic updates, you could still catch up with new releases by subscribing the NoScript changelog feed.
Finally, if you're fine with automatic updates but you're just bothered by the welcome page displaying NoScript's release notes, you may want to read FAQ 2.5.

[BigAl]

I don't have any problems with weather.com, but snopes.com has an annoying popup that defeats everything I throw at it! "media.fastclick" or something like that.


I hit Snopes fairly often and I've never seen a pop-up. I just checked.

To repeat, my setup is stock firefox plus the mvps hosts file I described early in this thread.

[Psi Baba]

noscript.net/faq#qa2_6 (http://noscript.net/faq#qa2_6)
Thanks for the tips, Six7s. I increased the length of the update interval as described, rather than turning off updates altogether. As you can see, I'm not the only one to bring up the issue of the frequent updates. Thanks again.

[Beerina]

http://forums.randi.org/images/smilies/doglaugh.gif




Nothing here, either. Firefox with Flashblock and a deftly maintained local hosts file can virtually eliminate such things.

What about the other 99.9% of humanity who asks questions like, "I need 'memory'. Is that the same as a hard disk?"

[Aerik]

@GeeMack:

FlashBlock is NOT, I repeat, NOT a security measure. They don't even claim it to be on their website. Don't fall for that crap.

FlashBlock can’t be relied upon as a security defense (http://hackademix.net/2008/06/08/block-rick/):

If you want content blocked with security in mind, then you want extensions like Adblock Plus (http://adblockplus.org/), NoScript (http://noscript.net/), and Request Policy (http://www.requestpolicy.com/) and BlockSite.

RequestPolicy, if you set it to it's strictest mode, will tell you about all sorts of things you could add to your hosts file that you wouldn't have known about before, and helps you avoid these things before you're forced to update your hosts.

[six7s]

What about the other 99.9% of humanity who asks questions like, "I need 'memory'. Is that the same as a hard disk?"How do you answer such questions?