POP Ups

[under water]

Charles,
I had this happening on one of my PCs. It was flash advertisements for movies and scuba related stuff and only happened on Scubaboard and only on some screens and always near the bottom of the screen.
I removed Flash and reinstalled.. problem NOT fixed. ,, EDIT.. problem came back.. but see later post. It is how Google flash ads are handled on Scubaboard. Only solution that really works is turning off Adobe Flash in Tools - Manage Add-ons.
..
Hope this helps you.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Thanks Frank. None of my malware or virus scanners identified the Flash Player I got from the ScubaBoard site as malware. Now I have removed it. I do notice the message I get without it says this site uses pop ups using Active X. So, to the techies the site doesn't use what is generally called "PopUps". But, to the general public an ActiveX is so similar it is a distinction without a differenc.

I went to the MS Help page on Active X. Here is the lead paragraph:
"Should I install ActiveX controls?
Maybe. You should be cautious about installing ActiveX controls on your computer, even if they have a valid digital signature. While ActiveX controls can enhance web browsing, they might also pose a security risk, and it's best to avoid using them if the webpage will work without them. However, some websites or tasks might require them, and if the content or task is important to you, you will have to decide whether to install the ActiveX control."

Gosh, it has been a long time since I even thought about the impact of ActiveX. Thanks for bringing it, and its' dangers, to the front again.

Strange though that the problem is only on ScubaBoard.

 

[CBulla]

This is weird that you folks have pop ups. I use both IE7 and Firefox on XP and Linux boxes and have not had anything except the "new message" window that fails to open ever try to pop up on SB. My local news paper site (news-press.com | The News-Press | Southwest Florida news, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Southwest Florida, Florida) occaisionally presses one through default supression, but never have I experienced a pop up on SB.

 

[DandyDon]

I've never had one and spend entirely too much time here. :11:

 

[ArcticDiver]

CB: See my edited comments.

Actually it isn't that strange at all. With all the different computer configurations, etc it isn't that unusual to find something like this PopUP/ActiveX problem. Or, for that matter, the problem that the SB log in redirect page doesn't work for me. There is something in their code, or hardware that happens to trigger for certain folks. Of course the SB Staff doesn't know what it is and figure it is with the user. Since it only happens at SB the user figures it is a ScubaBoard problem.

My experience from the early days of computing leads me to believe the problem is actually with the ScubaBoard setup somewhere, not with the users. Some dark night when of the maintainers is doing something totally unrelated the cause will be found. In the meantime some people will see strange things and others will not be able to log in and will go away and the planet will keep on spinning.

 

[Web Monkey]

Thanks Frank. None of my malware or virus scanners identified the Flash Player I got from the ScubaBoard site as malware.

For What It's Worth, SCUBABoard doesn't (or at least shouldn't) have any FlashPlayer downloads. The only legitimate place to get flash is:

Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

If you can find the place on SB that prompted you to download it, please let us know.

Terry

 

[under water]

Terry,
A site should not direct you to download flash from their site, but if configured properly, it will redirect you to Adobe to download it in the background. SB does have ads on some pages that use flash including the top forum page. The Dancer Fleet ad is one that I can think of. That ad, if hosted properly will download flash if you do not have it (with your permission of course).
I am not sure, but I suspect that the regular ad was triggering some other flash ad stored somewhere else. It was strange.
A lot of ads are served up by ad farms and it might be there that the problem is/was. For me it has gone away when I removed flash and then went to a site that uses flash (delargy.com) to get a new copy installed.

Frank

 

[under water]

OK.
Here is the culprit code below.
It puts a flash advert at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately if the cursor moves over certain kinds of objects (like the scroll bars, hyperliinks, etc) the code seems to think you are doing a mouseover and it will force the ad to expand even if you are not at the bottom of the page. Very annoying!
It is most certainly a ScubaBoard problem and those folks who aren't seeing it might have ads blocked because you are supporting members.

<!-- Begin Ad Blocking for Supporting Members -->
<!-- Begin Generic Google Ads Bottom -->
<table align="Center"><tr><td>

<!-- Begin Ads Bottom Divedomain Zone 75 -->
<script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='http://www.divedomain.com/adx.js'></script>
<script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript'>
<!--
if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ',';
phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11);

document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='");
document.write ("http://www.divedomain.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random);
document.write ("&amp;what=zone:75");
document.write ("&amp;exclude=" + document.phpAds_used);
if (document.referrer)
document.write ("&amp;referer=" + escape(document.referrer));
document.write ("'><" + "/script>");
//-->
</script><noscript><a href='http://www.divedomain.com/adclick.php?n=aaee2613' target='_blank'><img src='http://www.divedomain.com/adview.php?what=zone:75&amp;n=aaee2613' border='0' alt=''></a></noscript>
<!-- End Ads Bottom -->

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Yes I have had the exact same problems. For the last two weeks I have gotten annoying pop up ads that appear from the bottom of the screen and only on scubaboard. The advertisements are mostly for Circuit City, Vonage, and the New York Times. When I get back from ITK I'll re-read this thread and try some of the solutions. It has been getting super annoying.

 

[ArcticDiver]

For What It's Worth, SCUBABoard doesn't (or at least shouldn't) have any FlashPlayer downloads. The only legitimate place to get flash is:

Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

If you can find the place on SB that prompted you to download it, please let us know.

Terry

Just about everywhere a graphic or an ad loads. You use a lot of Flash ActiveX items. Everytime one attempts to load and the user, me, doesn't have Flash installed there is a prompt from ScubaBoard to go to the furnished link to download it.

Supposedly that link goes to Adobe. But, I strongly suspect that, as has been pointed out, the link is faulty and goes somewhere else, or has been hijacked. So, the copy of Flash I got through ScubaBoard link was not the real thing. That is where I got my immediate past copy of Adobe Flash, which I have now deleted.

This time to get a copy I went straight to the Adobe site using a link that I use for web pages. I downloaded a copy from there. It is unlikely that one has been compromised.

In addition recently there have been a lot of seemingly random 3rd Party cookie requests on ScubaBoard. Of course no one in their right mind accepts 3rd party cookies since they are almost always tracking cookies or malware. So, I also suspect that in addition to the code pointed out above there has been a policy change among the owners that makes us, the users, a bit more vulnerable to data mining. That's fine, it's your board.