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C'mon Afterdawn!

Discussion in 'AfterDawn feedback & suggestions' started by KillerBug, Feb 23, 2010.

  1. KillerBug

    KillerBug Active member

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    I can't believe that the admins allow banner advertising that forwards to a rouge spyware tool site...I'm done with AD.
     
  2. BIFF0

    BIFF0 Regular member

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    Yeah that doesn't seem right but I think you should let someone from AD respond before saying your done with AD.
     
  3. dRD

    dRD I hate titles Staff Member

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    Could you elaborate a bit? What advert?
     
  4. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    moved to correct forum as not a safety valve issue.
     
  5. dailun

    dailun Active member

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    I believe I hit was Killerbug is referring to, but I didn't catch which ad sent me there. I will try to be more specific.

    More details, it was one of those "your computer Is infected" websites. Still no idea what triggered it, but it definitely popped up while browsing AfterDawn.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2010
  6. cyprusrom

    cyprusrom Active member

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    AdBlock Plus.
    That doesn't cure the problem, just eliminates the symptoms, but I still cannot believe that anyone would be using the net without something as simple as AdBlock. I get 0.001% of any ads.
     
  7. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    I sometimes turn mine off.. just to see how horrid and annoying it is trying to read in a room full of jumping idiots... I can say without doubt adblock (and noscript) make the internet a much more civilised and pleasant experience..

    Have found a few things from ad's in the past that turned out to be pretty cool and interesting.. 2 of my friends got a 75% reduction on a hotel booking they were planning on already thanks to an ad on my site.. and I found meezmall hehehehe
     
  8. donewell

    donewell Regular member

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    I'm with killerbug on this one. I thought it was just me. seems like every 3rd or 4 th time i tune into afterdawn right after i click on one of the posts to read , a splash screen pops up and says many virus are detected and they want to run a scan. i always shut down right away with out clicking on anything, and reboot and run all my installed antivirus and maywarebytes. But find nothing. It is getting to be a pain in the A$$. No other web site causes this!!
     
  9. IRQtheCat

    IRQtheCat Member

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    From my Norton Security Log.

    2/27/2010 8:11 PM,High,An intrusion attempt by 217.23.5.233 was blocked.,Blocked,No Action Required,HTTP Fake Antivirus Install Request 4,"217.23.5.233, 80",217.23.5.233/hitin.php?land=20&affid=93101,"SUMIDOHOMEX64 (192.168.2.180, 54517)",217.23.5.233,"TCP, www-http",
     
  10. cyprusrom

    cyprusrom Active member

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  11. dRD

    dRD I hate titles Staff Member

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    Only place I can imagine this problem coming from, is via AdSense. I've added 217.23.5.233 advertiser to our blocklist there, which would take care of the issue if it is really coming from AdSense. Only other ads we're running are from IDG, who only have a handful of advertisers - the likes of Cisco and HP.

    Just to ensure we get this killed, let me know of what ads are showing on the site when this particular thingy pops up, as it might spark from a different banner entirely and AdSense only allows to block ads based on their originating address.

    The issue seems to be quite widespread, I'm hearing users of other sites seeing this as well -- which _might_ also mean that it is some kinda Trojan that has infected your PC before and now pops this type of adverts.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2010
  12. PantherM

    PantherM Member

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    Yeah, I just got the same one a few minutes ago...
     
  13. cyprusrom

    cyprusrom Active member

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    A mate was looking for some info on video converting/PS3 stuff. I recommended Afterdawn, of course, and he just called me to say "screw you buddy" :), he said his Norton AV blocked access to AD and the warned him the page contained malicious stuff...
    I never experienced anything using FireFox and AdBlock, only when testing with IE and no protection.
    So, is it possible that we're ALL infected with the same trojan that lies dormant and our AV/AniSpyWare software doesn't detect it? If that's the case, has anyone on this forum experienced that symptom when navigating on ANY OTHER site, except AD?(I won't use IE just to test it out on any other sites I navigate to:)!)
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2010
  14. dRD

    dRD I hate titles Staff Member

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    Only way for me to find out what causes this is:

    If this occurs again, take a screenshot or a note of _all_ the adverts that are showing on that particular page at that very time and post here. If I can get this info, I can track which advertiser is running this scam and block them. Without this info, I have nothing.
     
  15. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    I've been trying to track this myself and so far haven't been able to reproduce the problem.

    I loaded a number of pages across the sites through our US proxy using a variety of browsers from un-patched and unprotected IE6 to the latest Firefox 3.6, and no fake-AV popups have shown up.

    Which exact page did you go to? The AD front page, forums or a different page altogether?

    Getting to the bottom of this is our top priority. If nothing else, this goes to show that you always need to have your AV software up to date - no matter where you browse.
     
  16. donewell

    donewell Regular member

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    I just got this from malwarebytes while i was trying to read the last post here IP-BLOCK 217.23.3.234
     
  17. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    Could you provide some more details about the circumstances? I.e. what advertisements were visible on the page, which browser were you using etc.

    Thanks,

    Jari
     
  18. donewell

    donewell Regular member

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    I am using ie8 with microsoft security essentials and malwarebytes pro. the only thing i could see was the add for google (add more something or other, and it was show a conveerstion going on in a chat room? I only seen the bottom of the post screen
     
  19. Dela

    Dela Administrator Staff Member

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    Haven't noticed anything at all myself, don't run Adblock and use AfterDawn for a few hours each day. If it's Adsense then it should also be reported to Google as well as blocked from AfterDawn. If it's IDG... I think that'd be quite surprising.

    To reply to KillerBug's original comment, as dRD pointed out, the advertisements are fed by external sources, Google and IDG already named. It reminds me of a rant on IRC about AfterDawn one day when someone accused aD of showing erotic ads. I asked for a link and it turned out that the ad in question was from Adsense (text ad) and the reason it was "erotic" (well... it wasn't actually erotic... just didn't belong on a tech site IMO...) was because the discussion on the forum thread was about similar stuff.

    The point is, the ads reflect the content, and on the forum, the content is written by users, so AfterDawn with its staff of below 20 altogether trying to track every single advertisement is absolutely impossible when the ads are fed from Google's ten's of thousands of ads AND based on the content of the page itself. Whenever an objectionable ad is displayed and it's reported by a user, if its deemed necessary it can be blocked, but until the staff is aware of it, there's nothing can be done about it.

    As far as I know, and if I'm wrong I'm sure dRD will correct me, AfterDawn doesn't handpick any advertisements on its English sites.

    Hopefully in this case the blocked source will get rid of it and Google will purge it.
     
  20. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    If the problem occurs again, could you (anyone reading) take screenshots of all the advertisements on the page (i.e the top and bottom portions of the page). You can email the pictures to me at <mynickname>@afterdawn.com or to support@afterdawn.com.

    Edit: For reference, here's a discussion thread on Techarena.in regarding similar (or the same) advertisement.

    http://forums.techarena.in/security-virus/1310563.htm

    Most likely the advertisement originates from Adsense, since it is the only common denominator between the sites (wordtwist.org, gizmag.com and afterdawn.com). Looks like something slipped through Google's fingers.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2010

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