Ad banners

Chase · Jun 15, 2003

Hi all,

Jade brough to my attention that one of the ad banners displayed on this site had sound with it which could easily cause problems for people that are at work or other public places, which brings up a good point.

It order to make revenue that will pay for some (and hopefully someday all) of the costs associated with running this site, I have elected to go with the advertising campaign you all see on this site. They will add and remove banners as they are purchased, and I may not always see all of the ads that may appear on this site.

So, if you come across an ad that you feel could cause problems, or is just absolutely obnoxious to look at, please let me know. I can easily exclude ads from the site, but I need to have your help.

All of that being said, please do visit our sponsors. This site is paid for out of pocket and needless to say I would love to have the site pay for itself!

Thanks all,
Chase

voodoocat · Jun 17, 2003

Chaseman, I've seen some problems over the last couple of days up where the ads are. About every 5 loads it will come up with a ÿþ on the left of the banner and the forum will not load. If I refresh, it is fine. I have experienced this at 2 computers.

Chase · Jun 17, 2003

Thanks for the input, I'll look into it and try to find out what is going on.

Chase

Chase · Jun 17, 2003

I *think* the problem was one of the advertisers that was causing the problems voodoo described. That advertiser has now been blocked.

Please let me know if you continue to see any problems, and if so, please let me know which ad is displayed.

Also, a few ad clicks would sure make my day! :wink:

Chase

JadeaDragon · Jun 17, 2003

Another thing I noticed is that Avenue and Gater bots were trying to download to my computer.

http://security.kolla.de/

Spybot Search & Destry caught them. Unfortunately it is things like this which drive people away.

Chase, PM me if you want alternatives to those banners.

=)
Jade

Chase · Jun 17, 2003

Gator was previously blocked a little while back for that reason, I'll have to look into the other one.

This is an ad service, and I do not maintain the banners myself, but I do reserve the option to block any ads I feel are inappropriate.

TwistMyArm · Jun 17, 2003

JadeaDragon said:
Another thing I noticed is that Avenue and Gater bots were trying to download to my computer.

http://security.kolla.de/

Spybot Search & Destry caught them. Unfortunately it is things like this which drive people away.

Chase, PM me if you want alternatives to those banners.

=)
Jade

I doubt that this forum is the cause for the attempted dowloads by Gator Corp. It's more then likely from other software installed on your computer. Probably P2P file sharing software

JadeaDragon · Jun 18, 2003

Sorry, I do not use any P2P file sharing software. :roll:

manda · Jun 18, 2003

Yeah those damned gator ads show up a lot of places. My bro says they somehow actually work their way onto system and they appear connected to IE and other browsers but looking as though they are popping up when u go to actual sites.

I didnt really understand what he was on about but you apparently have to go and uninstall the gator demon who crawled into your com yourself.

JadeaDragon · Jun 18, 2003

Ad Cookies: Certain banners will throw out a cookie to be placed on your computer. You do not even need to click on the banner for it to try to do this. Within the cookie is places a session key. This key can then be compared to the new cookie session and updated accrdingly. The thing about cookies is that there is a certain amout of public info available form your computer any time that you log on to the internet. This info is usually just an IP, your ISP and date session started and this info is sent through the cookie to the banners database without you even knowing it.

Ad Bots: These are a little more invasive as there is usually a POPUP that states a "certificate" of some sort and you can click "yes" or "no". If you click on that popup you could be letting in spyware on to your computer. Avenue A and Gater have been known to do this and there have been others far worse. What can happen at that point is really up to the writer of the spybot. The bot could access all areas of your computer, looking for password or log files and transfer them back to the spybots central database. The bot could allow access to your computer to run P2P sessions without you even knowing it KAZA was one who was instigating that one. If you downloaded KAZA then the little spybot was downloaded to. Then there are the downright Rude bots. These border on viruses, but are completely legal as you clicked "yes" on the little popup. These Rude bots, can contain viruses, trojans, or any number of spiders indexing your harddrive. These other Rude bots also run on the fact that you will click "yes" or "no" on the popup. Well the popup my aslo code the "no" button to download the spyware anyway.

Invasive Spyware. These are directly spawned when a site opens. Usually with a bunch of other popups and the user is unware that a bot has been downloaded and activated on their computer. The most popular one of these is the MSmessenger bot. This little bot exploits the admin messenger command and sends adds through the internet to your computer. Most annoying as a grey box will popup and have a "buy me" message with the "messenger" label at the top. You need to do a registry hack to change it or on XP you can turn it off in services.

Another thing the spyware does is use your own computer to send spam mail. These are akin to viruses, but if you said "yes" in the little click box then you are responsible for the spam.

Scan and scan often, there is a rush of new bots every week.

=)
Jade