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 Post subject: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:26 pm 
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 10:19 am
Posts: 17
If you visit the ljworld site, you probably noticed that starting today, every page you visit and every click you make, you get presented with a new pop-under ad. These ads are being served by zedo.com, which is apparently a third-party national advertising service the ljworld is contracting with.

I should say for the record I don't mind ads in the ljworld's web pages for local businesses. They help pay the bills, and I appreciate the ljworld being free, but I draw the line at intruding, obnoxious national ads popping up unwanted on my computer.

While there's no permanent solution (other then the ljworld webmaster fixing their code), I found the following will put a stop to the ads for a while. Basically, you need to go into your cookies database and delete all cookies from zedo.com. In Safari you can go to Preferences/Security and search for zedo.com and delete them. Not sure how it works in other browsers, but I imagine they all have a similar facility.

Once I did this, the pop-ups stopped appearing...for now, at least :-)

Good luck


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 Post subject: A dangerous risk of spyware and advertisers
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:32 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:00 am
Posts: 23
I'll add that such ads administered by zedo, the third largest advertising provider on the Internet can sometimes include privacy and security risks.

While Zedo claims not to contract with spyware and malware producers, files have slipped through in the past. Remember to never click directly on these ads, always close them from your "taskbar". Clicking on them can sometimes enable a bad program to start.

It's foolish of the Journal World to do this since local companies advertise on the site and local ads will be trumped by the national ads that zedo buys.

I guess in this economy some companies will do whatever it takes, leaving the privacy and security of others in the dust.

I wonder if they'll give free virus removal after their website installs some nasty on your computer


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:49 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:00 pm
Posts: 1347
easy solution = Firefox browser with the NoScript plug-in.


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:19 am 
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:13 am
Posts: 900
I run spybot to dump the spyware / adware , use firefox as the other poster noted. Very few problems and I have not had the ad pop ups on ljw, is it a mac thing ?


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:58 am 
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Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:35 pm
Posts: 2536
There is a smooth talking lunatic liberal in the White House looting productive people like a local after Katrina and the liberals on this address are fussin over pop-ups on another address.

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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:35 am 
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Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:31 am
Posts: 134
easy solution = Firefox browser with the NoScript plug-in.

Thanks for the tip, Steve. I had an LJW page open while reading this thread, purposely did not click on the LJW pop-ups to close, and they still crashed my computer. Seems to be working now with the NoScript from Mozilla.
- Mike


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:21 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:46 am
Posts: 3835
Haven't had a recurrence since I dumped the cookies. Anti-spyware found nothing.

Also sent them some feedback telling them to lose the ads or lose my subscription. Not waiting for a reply.

_________________
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:28 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:00 pm
Posts: 1347
mikeriehm wrote:
easy solution = Firefox browser with the NoScript plug-in.

Thanks for the tip, Steve. I had an LJW page open while reading this thread, purposely did not click on the LJW pop-ups to close, and they still crashed my computer. Seems to be working now with the NoScript from Mozilla.
- Mike


Mike, NoScript if a wonderful thang, but the one caveat is to remember to glance down in status bar and check to see if it is blocking anything (will show a red circle/slash icon) if you feel like some functionality isn't happening on a website and you want it to. Just click the icon and it will show you everything it is blocking, then you can permanently or temporarily unblock just the things you think you may need to get what you want.

Example - YouTube, you won't see any videos until you allow youtube.com and ytimg.com. Very easy, but until you get in the habit of checking, you may wonder why a site "isn't working". Most of the time, you don't have to unblock anything at any site to see all the content, and you no malicious scripts can run, many bandwidth-consuming video ads that are embedded in web pages don't run, pop-unders don't run, it's great.

Definitely great for surfing on the wrong side of the tracks - i'll take it places i'd never take IE ...


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:35 pm 
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Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:53 pm
Posts: 2120
Removed the zedo cookies, and that worked for awhile, but now pop-unders are back, but zedo cookies are not.

Not sure how to get rid of them, other than avoiding the site-- which is what I'll do if that's what's necessary, at least while using Safari.


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:40 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:00 pm
Posts: 1347
mick wrote:
Removed the zedo cookies, and that worked for awhile, but now pop-unders are back, but zedo cookies are not.

Not sure how to get rid of them, other than avoiding the site-- which is what I'll do if that's what's necessary, at least while using Safari.


Might as well go with Firefox, then you get cool add-ons, including NoScript, and Safari has security vulnerabilities anyway - really not safe for browsing on the "series of tubes" ex-senator and now-felon criminal Ted Stevens of Alaska like to refer to the internet as ...


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:02 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:31 am
Posts: 107
Hmm, I usually use firefox, but lately it has been running really slow, or just knocking me offline, at which time I switch gears over to Safari. Is one better than the other? Should I always stick to one to avoid a virus spreading to everything? :D'oh:


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:00 am 
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Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:53 pm
Posts: 2120
I've been using firefox on the JW site, with adblock turned on. It's notified twice that it had blocked a pop-up, immediately after which, the pop-up (or pop-under) appears anyway.


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:54 pm 
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Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:33 am
Posts: 198
Location: Lawrence
I went into temporary internet files and deleted any cookies with zedo.com.

Then I went to Tools, Internet Options, Privacy Tab, Sites Buttons and tolde it to always block zedo.com. No problems since.


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 Post subject: Re: ljworld pop-under ads
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:26 pm 
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Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:53 pm
Posts: 2120
I did something similar-- View/Adblock Plus:Blockable Items (shift-command-V) you can block anything containing zedo. Seems to be working so far.


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