[boxturt]

v1.0.1 Firefox and the pop up blocker doesn't work worth a darn. Box is checked to be active.

I installed this 3 days ago along with Thurnderbird to replace the Mozilla Suite I was using. The blocker in Mozilla is amazing but this one is horrid.

Anyone else with the same problem or solution? Other than this I have no complaints, in fact I really like it but this behavior will not do.

As always - thanks

[John Carney]

boxturt, on Mar 16 2005, 09:42 PM, said:

v1.0.1 Firefox and the pop up blocker doesn't work worth a darn. Box is checked to be active.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It had been working just fine for me -- but I believe a new, more insidious type of popup has popped up (er ... sorry about that) in the past month or two. I began noticing this, and then the comic strip User Friendly made reference to it a couple of weeks back.

This post has been edited by John Carney: 17 March 2005 - 12:14 AM

[TCH-Don]

I use firefox 1.01 and the popup blocker is great!.
I did have to goto
options > web features
and check
block popup windows.

[stevevan]

I also am using ver 1.0.1. and don't have any problems. I have seen some sites that "pop up" whole new browser windows...fortunately I don't visit them often enough to be a problem. Maybe a program reload may help.

[youneverknow]

Using FF 1.01 and I too have noticed ads for Vonage actually popping under. When I close a window there is that Vonage ad. It can be seen at certain sites like
drudgereport.com.

Quote

but I believe a new, more insidious type of popup has popped up (er ... sorry about that) in the past month or two. I

I think I have to agree.
youneverknow

[borfast]

I'm also using FF 1.0.1 and never had any problems with pop-ups or pop-unders. I Also tried drudgereport.com but nothing happened.

PS - youneverknow, that sig of yours is pretty nice

[andypeat]

Can the plugin be developed to avoid all websites that use pop-up banners?
this way website developers will be forced to stop adding pop-ups.

Better still, can it allow the pop-up to appear but instead replace the content with a picture of something you like, like a family photo, favourite pet, the new girl, you get the idea.

Sorry to butt in. I'll get back to my lunch, and the sun is shining

AndyP

This post has been edited by andypeat: 17 March 2005 - 08:29 AM

[GroovyFish]

youneverknow, on Mar 17 2005, 06:18 AM, said:

Using FF 1.01 and I too have noticed ads for Vonage actually popping under.  When I close a window there is that Vonage ad.

Same here...the last week or so Vonage ads popping under.

[TCH-Bruce]

I use a modified hosts file on my machines to prevent ads and popup/popunders in addition to the popup blocker built into FF.

The one I use is from http://www.hosts-fil.../downloads.html

This hosts file will cause problems accessing some sites but when that happens I just rename my hosts file something else temporarily and then rename it back to turn the protection back on.

[TCH-Thomas]

I just tried drudgereport.com with Firefox 1.0.1 and pop under showed up.
I´ll just keep relying on Norton Antispam in future.

[boxturt]

Thanks for all the input. It's a lot morte than the Vonage ad too. Still it strikes me odd that i get these ads with Firefox and never with Mozilla on the same machine and yes, "block popup windows" is checked.

I will keep plodding. Reinstall I guess and then try the hosts(.txt) file idea.

Thanks

[TCH-Bruce]

If you go the "hosts" route and you find that it's blocking some content you don't consider to be an issue you just simply edit out the block.

What this hosts file does is set known sites for ads, popups, popunders to just request them from you own machine 127.0.0.0 and since they don't exist on your machine you never see them.

If you are using Windows 2000/XP please follow the directions in the readme.html file in the archive. It explains about turning off the DNS caching which if not done will slow down your computer. I missed that step when I first installed it and wondered why everything was so slow.

[TCH-Don]

LOL
I see the popup in firefox 1.01
but not in IE 6.0.2900....

[TCH-Bruce]

Don, do you happen to use SpywareBlaster?

It adds a lot of restricted sites to IE as well as FF.

[TCH-Don]

No, just zone alarm and norton antivirus
I had IE 6 something on win98 and saw lots of popups
But using new XP and SP2,
I don't see them, just a yellow bar that says popup blocked, click for options.

[boxturt]

Update : I updated my SpywareBlaster and at the moment I am popup free - including drudgereport.com. Let's see if it continues to behave itself

[bellringr]

I get popups when I go to my local newspaper, snopes.com, and one or two others I frequent. But sites like Trip Advisor that I know have popups are fine.

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.

[TCH-Don]

I just checked
IE6 > tools > popup blocker > popup blocker settings
I have it set to medium, block most automatic popups.
The only site I have in the allowed sites
is here (TCH)

[carbonize]

One known way of bypassing the popup stoppers is to use Java (not javascript) to open the new window. I think they will start to abuse plugins such as java to start making their ads appear.

[Deverill]

Here's something I found on a website today that may help with some of the popups on Firefox...

Quote

The cure is not entirely obvious, but available nonetheless. Remember those pesky white windows that sometimes open up when you click a download link? At least a majority of the pop-unders seem to exploit this loophole. Just install the extension "Disable Targets for Downloads" which will rid you of both these problems.

[boxturt]

Interesting - I'll certainly try it because I'm still getting those stupid poppers.

[carbonize]

that so called exploit doesn't make sense to me. Yes some downloads open a new window but Firefox only opens that window if you actually click a link. Automatically created windows get stopped.

[youneverknow]

Thanks TCH Jim on that extention. "Disable Targets for Downloads" Since installing it I have not had any pop unders using FireFox....(knocking on wood )
youneverknow

[youneverknow]

Update: Today I found that the pop unders have returned....Boooooo
youneverknow

[annie]

First time I noticed the problem was when visiting a Tripod site. Some newspapers and disc.server forums.

It blocks most pop-ups, but the ones that sneak through are getting more numerous.

[carbonize]

Can anybody supply any exact links to sites where the pop ups are getting through? I'd like to have a look when I get home in 12 hours or so.

[TCH-Thomas]

I was gonna ask same thing as Carbonize.
But please make them non-active if possible since its just links for us to try.

[bellringr]

ht*p://www.pantagraph.com
ht*p://www.snopes.com (click on What's New if you don't get one
ht*p://www.3fatchicks.com/food/

[youneverknow]

Good examples...If you watch the screen you will see a flash of the pop under going through and sure enough a pop under appears. I checked out the forums at Firefox and it seems like it could be a java type execution. I tried a few suggestions from the forum members but nothing seems to work all the time.
I even tried downloading "Ad Muncher" and it did nothing but screw up FF so I uninstalled it. Its weird how now Microsoft has found a way to stop this and it is now being exploited in FireFox....Bummer
youneverknow

[TCH-Bruce]

Sorry, tried all three of those sites and clicked on a lot of links to get one. Nope, nada, not one pop-up or pop-under.

[carbonize]

Been reading the code on pantagraph.com. What is in the pop under you see in firefox? I'm at work so stuck with IE5.5. The code just uses window.open so should be blocked.

[borfast]

Same result as Bruce. Visited all three sites, clicked around and not even one pop-up or pop-under appeared.

I really think this has to do with settings...

[boxturt]

bellringr, on Mar 22 2005, 06:11 PM, said:

ht*p://www.pantagraph.com
ht*p://www.snopes.com (click on What's New if you don't get one
ht*p://www.3fatchicks.com/food/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I got -

z1.adserver.com
patientsactionnetwork.org
z1.adserver.com (again)

I don't see how it can be settings.... there's only one right?

[TCH-Bruce]

Do you want to stop them. Edit your Hosts file. On Win 2K and XP it's in the Windows --> System32 --> drivers --> etc folder. Open it with Notepad and enter the following lines.

127.0.0.1 z1.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 patientsactionnetwork.org

Now go back and try again. You shouldn't see them. What you have done by editing the Hosts file is tell it to look at your machine for those sites. Since they don't exist they don't pop-up/under.

[carbonize]

TCH-Bruce, on Mar 23 2005, 01:01 AM, said:

Do you want to stop them.  Edit your Hosts file.  On Win 2K and XP it's in the Windows --> System32 --> drivers --> etc folder.  Open it with Notepad and enter the following lines.

127.0.0.1  z1.adserver.com
127.0.0.1  patientsactionnetwork.org

Now go back and try again.  You shouldn't see them.  What you have done by editing the Hosts file is tell it to look at your machine for those sites.  Since they don't exist they don't pop-up/under.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not strictly true. Unless the code used to create the pop ups/unders is coming from them servers all that this will do is make the pop ups/unders display a server not found message in the pop up/under window.

[boxturt]

Oddly enough those particular ads have not appeared a 2nd or 3rd time revisiting the same sites and I haven't changed anything.

I will however drop those 2 items into the hosts file. Thanks.

[carbonize]

boxturt, on Mar 23 2005, 01:17 AM, said:

Oddly enough those particular ads have not appeared a 2nd or 3rd time revisiting the same sites  and I haven't changed anything.

I will however drop those 2 items into the hosts file. Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They use a cookie to track if you have seen the advert or not and only show it you once every 24 hours.

[bellringr]

But there still must be a reason why some of us are seeing them and others aren't. If you know of another general setting besides just turning on the popup blocker, please let us know.

[TweezerMan]

I've looked at the code at the snopes.com web site. The javascript is some nasty code (but I'll spare everyone the gory details).

The script on the page loads and runs a second javascript from media dot fastclick dot net. I was able to capture a copy of that second javascript's code to examine for myself.

To get around Firefox's popup blocker, the second script writes an 'embed' tag into the page that loads a Flash file (from cdn dot fastclick dot net). The Flash file contains code in it to open the pop-under window. Firefox's popup blocker does not stop this window from opening, because the popup blocker is not looking at windows opened from Firefox plugins such as the Flash plugin.

A preference was added to Firefox to control windows opened by plugins, but this preference is not visible by default. To create this preference in Firefox, go to the "about:config" page (enter about:config in the address bar).

Right click in the window where the values are listed and select "New", then "Integer".

Enter "privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins" for the preference name (without the quotes), then click "OK".

Enter "2" for the preference value, then click "OK".

The new preference should take effect immediately - it should not be necessary to restart your browser before the preference will work.

The privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins preference can take one of four values:

0 = Allow Popups From Plugins
1 = Limit Popup Windows From Plugins (to dom.popup_maximum, even with popup blocker disabled)
2 = Block Popups From Plugins
3 = Block All Popups From Plugins (including white listed sites)

A good site to test the preference on after creating it is liquidgeneration dot com.

If you use the Adblock plugin for Firefox, it looks like it would be a good idea to block fastclick dot net. Users who never see pop-under windows may have ad-blocking software that is blocking fastclick dot net and other advertising domains that may be hosting this code, may not have the Flash plugin installed, may have javascript disabled, etc.

Links:
- Bugzilla bug 176079 - "popup blocking does not stop Flash from opening windows"
- Slashdot article: "The Return Of The Pop-Up Ad"

Hope this helps...

[borfast]

You have hit the nail right on the head, David.

I have always used the "Flash click to view" plugin (highly recommended, pages load faster, no bandwidth wasted on unwanted flash movies... ) and those of use who also don't see the pop-up/under windows have some similar plugin installed. Or even that preference already set, who knows. One thing I was certain of: it had to be something done by the users, not a problem with Firefox because it doesn't have a will of it's own to pick who it will bother with pop-ups

[djk]

boxturt, on Mar 16 2005, 11:42 PM, said:

v1.0.1 Firefox and the pop up blocker doesn't work worth a darn. Box is checked to be active.

I installed this 3 days ago along with Thurnderbird to replace the Mozilla Suite I was using. The blocker in Mozilla is amazing but this one is horrid.

Anyone else with the same problem or solution? Other than this I have no complaints, in fact I really like it but this behavior will not do. 

As always - thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Someone has already mentioned it, but if you install adblock and use the wildcard feature it will help, also you can use cookie manager to block cookies and some sites will not respond if cookies are blocked. For me it boils down to using whatever tools are available. The HOSTS file someone mentioned is pretty restrictive so you'll find yourself editting that to your tastes, but that also helps. Popup block, cookie block, adblock, and HOSTS file have almost completely eliminated popups for me.

[TCH-Bruce]

Quote

The HOSTS file someone mentioned is pretty restrictive so you'll find yourself editting that to your tastes, but that also helps.

Since I am the one that mentioned it I will say that you are correct. However I have a batch file on my desktop that I can click to rename the HOSTS file so that I can see a particular site and then run a batch file to rename it back. This way I don't have to edit the HOSTS file.

[boxturt]

Blea - I put half a dozen urls in my host file last night and today they are back as blank pop-ups.

Just stupid little empty windows..........

I may go back to mozilla suite, even though further developement is kaput.

[TCH-Bruce]

Sorry, Ty.

In additon to my HOSTS file being altered to prevent ad servers from serving images I also use adaware, spybot search & destroy and spyware blaster.

I am behind a router too. Thankfully something is blocking these windows from appearing.

Also, I do not allow cookies except from the originating site and keep cookies only for the current browser session.

For sites that I want to store cookies I add them manually as exceptions.

[boxturt]

Ah.so it goes. Adaware, spybot and blaster all come up clean, I'm behind a router as well.

There are plenty of other things more worth worrying about for sure.

[TCH-Bruce]

Have you tried TCH-David's suggestion above?

[Deverill]

Even before adding the Hosts file Bruce mentioned, I eliminated most popups. The final help was SpywareBlaster as recommended earlier.

I also have the following extensions:
WeatherFox - irrelevant
Search Keys - irrelevant
Image Zoom - irrelevant
User Agent Switcher - irrelevant ?
Adblock - relevant
Disable Targets for Downloads - relevant

I also have not changed any of the about:config settings so it's not that helping me. Under options I have everything checked except "for the originating site only".

Hope it helps some. It's nice to not have all that junk when you power-close firefox at work to keep the boss from seeing you surf.

[annie]

Ah, the revelation that it was flash related makes sense. I've currently got java disabled (and have for some time), but for the first time in a long time flash is enabled.

Yep, makes perfect sense.

[boxturt]

oops - I missed David's post, thanks. I did as he suggested and then visited liquidgeneration dot com and I got the site but no popups. This is good? Of course it is, anything that helps to keep the little monsters out is good

[TCH-Thomas]

A new version of the modified hosts file that Bruce mentions above (and that I too use now) have been released today.

[borfast]

Guys, before installing anything else or having the trouble to modify the hosts file, I'd suggest you try installing the "flash click to view" plugin. Besides preventing those nasty pop-ups, it also prevents Flash movies from starting automatically. You only load the ones you want by clicking on them. I never had any problems with pop-ups and I don't use any of that anti-spyware stuff. Eell, I use Linux, so the anti-spyware stuff doesn't really apply to me but I also didn't modify my hosts file and I have no problems at all.

Edit: I'm not saying Bruce's suggestion is bad, on the other hand, for Windows users, having some anti-spyware software is always a good idea and modifying the hosts file is not bad at all, either, if you want to make sure some sites are really impossible to access from your computer. I'm just suggesting that if you simply want to get rid of pop-ups, try a simpler approach first, so you can eliminate the possible sources of the problem one by one.

[Don]

I've not had any problems, but I run ZoneAlarm as well. Anyway, FireFox version 1.0.2 is out, perhaps that'll fix you up.

[TweezerMan]

I believe the Firefox extension that TCH-Raul is referring to is the Flashblock extension.

The Flashblock extension does put a place-holder where a Flash file would normally appear. On the snopes dot com web site I looked at, the 'embed' tag that the Flash file loads into is an area 1px x 1px in size. I don't think you would see the Flashblock place-holder since it is in such a tiny area - I'm not sure if this is a good thing, a not-quite-so-good thing, or if it even matters.

As noted by other posts in this thread, there's a number of ways this issue can be addressed. Each has its good and bad aspects - you'll have to decide for yourself which method works best for you.

[borfast]

David, there's also another one called "Flash Click to View", which is what I have installed.

I'd guess they do exactly the same thing but Flashblock seems to be more popular (many more downloads and updated more recently). Give them a try and see which one is best for you

[TweezerMan]

I did a little digging on the Firefox extensions web site - both extensions are written by the same author and are the same extension (more or less):

Quote

Flashblock 1.2.5
Released on December 20, 2004
This extension replaces the deprecated "Flash Click to View" extension. It is based on the same code but adds whitelist support and bug fixes.

[borfast]

Thanks for the info, David. I was too tired to check it out, last night

[carbonize]

I tried all three links Bellringr provided and not a single pop up. I get the pop up blocked message for pantagraph but nothing at all for the other two. I checked the source code and saw no embed tags nor object tags (which is how flash should be done as embed is invalid HTML). No I don't have either version of the flash block installed.

[stevevan]

Adding my $.02 worth here...

Using Firefox 1.0.2 (with Zone Alarm), I get no popups or pop unders on any of the referenced 3 sites from bellringr.

[carbonize]

As a webmaster/programmer I detest firewall pop up stoppers. They work by changing the code in the page which caused me a major headache with one of my programs that retrieved information from webpages.

[TweezerMan]

carbonize, on Mar 25 2005, 05:26 AM, said:

I tried all three links Bellringr provided and not a single pop up. I get the pop up blocked message for pantagraph but nothing at all for the other two. I checked the source code and saw no embed tags nor object tags (which is how flash should be done as embed is invalid HTML). No I don't have either version of the flash block installed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

After visiting the first site, the other two sites probably did not attempt to create a pop-under window. These scripts set a number of cookies to regulate how often the pop-under ads are served - they are not served on every page request.

You won't see the embed tag just by looking at the HTML source code, because it is located in a linked javascript (and the link to that script is itself written by a javascript). As long as it works, I doubt that the advertisers care that they "should" be using object tags.

I've now looked at all three site links Bellringr provided. They are all using the same code (the same identical script from the same site) to create the pop-under windows.

[djk]

TCH-Bruce, on Mar 23 2005, 08:26 AM, said:

Quote

The HOSTS file someone mentioned is pretty restrictive so you'll find yourself editting that to your tastes, but that also helps.

Since I am the one that mentioned it I will say that you are correct. However I have a batch file on my desktop that I can click to rename the HOSTS file so that I can see a particular site and then run a batch file to rename it back. This way I don't have to edit the HOSTS file.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

could you do a cut & paste of that batch file and post it? I was not aware that batch files could run from the desktop (learn something new everyday) Thanks for the help if you can.
Doug

[TCH-Bruce]

Here it is, use at your own risk. I didn't write it.

@echo off
cls
goto toggleRename
:toggleRename
	If Not %winbootdir%'==' Set HostsOff=%windir%\NOHOSTS
	If %OS%'==Windows_NT' Set HostsOff=%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\NOHOSTS
	If %HostsOff%'==' goto noIdeaOfOS

	If Not %winbootdir%'==' Set HostsOn=%windir%\HOSTS
	If %OS%'==Windows_NT' Set HostsOn=%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS
	If %HostsOn%'==' goto noIdeaOfOS

	If Not Exist %HostsOff% goto deActivate
	goto Activate
goto end

:deActivate
	if not exist %HostsOn% goto noHostsFile
	ren %HostsOn% NOHOSTS
	echo.
	echo  ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
	echo  Ý                                          ÚÄÄÄ¿Þ
	echo  Ý HOSTS FILE BLOCKING IS NOW DE-ACTIVATED  ³ X ³Þ
	echo  Ý                                          ÀÄÄÄÙÞ
	echo. ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
	echo.
	echo. Advertising will be visible; Parasite protection off!
	echo  Renamed from HOSTS to NOHOSTS
	echo.
goto end

:Activate
	if not exist %HostsOff% goto noHostsFile
	ren %HostsOff% HOSTS
	echo.
	echo  ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
	echo  Ý                                          ÚÄÄÄ¿Þ
	echo  Ý HOSTS FILE BLOCKING IS NOW ACTIVATED     ³ û ³Þ
	echo  Ý                                          ÀÄÄÄÙÞ
	echo. ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
	echo.
	echo. Advertising will be hidden; Parasite protection on!
	echo  Renamed from NOHOSTS to HOSTS
	echo.
goto end

:noIdeaOfOS
	echo Sorry Unsupported OS.
goto end

:noHostsFile
	cls
	echo.
	echo  ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
	echo  Ý                                          ÚÄÄÄ¿Þ
	echo  Ý ERROR NO HOST FILES FOUND !              ³ ! ³Þ
	echo  Ý                                          ÀÄÄÄÙÞ
	echo. ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
	echo .
	echo Couldn't find "HOSTS" or "NOHOSTS" in the folder
	echo.
	echo please check that the HOSTS file is in this folder
	echo thanks..
:end
	set HostsOff=
	set HostsOn=
	pause
	exit

[djk]

<snip TCH-Jim> removed the quoted copy of the above-posted batch file </snip>

nice, thank you

[TCH-Bruce]

You're welcome

[djk]

TCH-Bruce, on Mar 26 2005, 09:00 AM, said:

You're welcome 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was kind of surprised that it worked because I thought that the hosts file was loaded
to memory at boot. I seem to remember if you made changes to the files it was necessary to reboot to affect the changes. But the little testing I've done seems to indicate that the hosts file is actually read at request time, which allows the name change to work. If it's there it gets read, if it's not there it does not get read. You have any idea when the change was made, or am I wrong about it once being loaded to memory at boot?

[TCH-Bruce]

If you have DNS Client turned on you are correct that is exactly what happens. DNS Client should be turned off and then the HOSTS file each time a request is made. It was part of the instructions from this site where I downloaded my HOSTS file from.

http://www.hosts-fil.../downloads.html

[djk]

TCH-Bruce, on Mar 26 2005, 02:51 PM, said:

If you have DNS Client turned on you are correct that is exactly what happens.  DNS Client should be turned off and then the HOSTS file each time a request is made.  It was part of the instructions from this site where I downloaded my HOSTS file from.

http://www.hosts-fil.../downloads.html

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah, my DNS Service was off.

[carbonize]

hmm Just got a pop up even with pop ups turned off. they used a double javascript to bypass the pop up blocking. The exact code is

//Pop-Under Code Here
 document.write('<SCRI'+'PT LANGUAGE="Javascript1.1" '); 
 document.write(' SRC="http://popunder.PayPopup.com/popup.php?id=cloudfive&pop=enter&t=1&
subid=28754&blk=1">');
 document.write('</SCR'+'IPT>'); 
//Pop-Under Code End

Hopefully Mozilla will soon fix it.

ps. I know this shouldn't open a new window but the new window appears but I get server not found so i can't even read the javascript source. The page this happened on was hxtp://www.bitoogle.com/

[TCH-Thomas]

I have tried this one (Pop ups must die) for a few days now with good results.

[TweezerMan]

I've seen similar code at another site, loading a script from paypopup dot com. I couldn't figure out how it was getting by the popup blocker - my guess was that it was fooling around with browser events (like clicking on a link) to get a window to open anyway.

I'm using Firefox here, and have AdBlock installed, so I just added "*paypopup*" to my ad-blocking list, and I'm not seeing any more popups from that source.