[TECH] 3SA loads spyware

I've been visiting 3SA for a good while now but
I recently installed SpyBot and its browser spyware blocker

and today I went to the 3SA forum and my spybot intercepted 'fast click' and something 'avenue'

just thought i'd give a heads up if the programmers/owners want to check their systems/programming of the website for these hacking spyware stuff that i guess you may not be aware of coming from your boards(umm yeah im kinda illiterate when it comes to these terms)

 

Sounds like it could be some sort of cookie that the banner ads are trying to load.

 

Jeff is right. There is spyware in the banner ads for the site(not just 3SA). If you don't want to get the ads(and you're using Firefox with adblock), you can right click the ads and say 'adblock image'. That way you don't have to worry about them. Either that, or Spybot should catch them. As far as the ads go, they come from IGN, we can't really control them, I believe.

 

So your saying that by going to this website my computer is being infected by Spyware?

 

If you don't have Mozilla+adblock, a good anti-virus(Norton, for example) or Spybot, then it's likely you do, yes. But then again, you probably have it from many other sites online as well

 

1). Download an effective Ad and spyware remover (Ad-Aware 6.0 is what I use, and it is very good)
2. If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, enable a firewall. This should do a pretty good job of stoping spyware installation onto your comp.

 

So your saying that by going to this website my computer is being infected by Spyware?

Yep. Sorry about that.

 

Dude this totally sucks.

Doesn't TFN generate enough income that they don't need to bombard us with ads in the Forums about erectile disfunction?

I can't wait for these movies to be over so I can be rid of this place for good.

 

Doesn't TFN generate enough income that they don't need to bombard us with ads in the Forums about erectile disfunction?

What sources of income do you think TF.N has?

 

Doesn't TFN generate enough income that they don't need to bombard us with ads in the Forums about erectile disfunction?

Income from what?

(Besides autographs, but I digress...)

IGN gives us essentially free hosting as long as we allow their ads. Given the size of these boards, it?s only really with something like IGN boards that we can run the boards we do. PHPBB can run boards these size, but it takes a lot of customization and feature-chopping to get them to do it. To the best of my knowledge, no one has tried running Invision boards with anything close to the load we use. There honestly aren?t a whole lot of options for boards this size, and given that we get these boards essentially for free, it?s a pretty darn good deal.

 

I can't wait for these movies to be over so I can be rid of this place for good.


Nobody is making you stay.

 

Nobody is making you stay.

[image=http://dimmona.shackspace.com/oh_snap.gif]

I just find that comment humorous.

 

The spyware from this site is mostly just user cookies. The ads do put stuff on explorer, but I can't think of a site that doesn't have that problem.

 

Kenwa has no idea what he is talking about.

 

This whole Spyware thing is being blown WAY out of proportion.
The only time you should be concerned is sites that try to install software on your machine. Like Gator for instance. IE is the only browser that allows this. That's the stuff that everyone should worry about. But that's not what's happening at this site.

Spyware/Adware is everywhere. And there's really no way to stop it short of just turning off your cookies. Which, of course, would cripple your browsing so bad it won't be worth surfing anymore.

Most of it is companies tracking where you go so that they can generate ads to you based on your possible likes and dislikes. For instance, if you are a 60 year old man who likes golf, your browsing habits will likely reflect that, and the ads you will see will be for Geritol, Depends, golf, and Viagra. I think you get the point...

Is it invasive? Maybe. But it's not gonna stop. If the ads bother you, block them. It's not like there's any shortage of methods to do that.

 

I was PMSing last night.
And besides, the spoilers own me.
So I'm stuck here.

TFN can generate income by running ads outside the forums.
Let the forums be.

 

Or YOU could just install Firefox.

 

We know that. It's been said several times already.

 

I was actually talking to Eeth who wants someone to go and alter our entire relationship with IGN and their agreements with advertisers just so he doesn't have to deal with spyware.

 

I'd like to interupt this thread to point out that, that is the funniest friggin title ever! It's an image!

 

For those who missed it

[RicOlieMode]

Cookies are not spyware. Spyware is software which installs itself onto your machine. The banners on TFN do not install such software.

[/RicOlieMode]

 

Unless it was already mentioned, it's good to be spoiler-free. This could be interpreted as an incentive to avoid spoiler threads.

 

That might be true if the issue was limited to 3SA, which I don't think it is. The banner ads appear across all the forums.

 

To the best of my knowledge, no one has tried running Invision boards with anything close to the load we use.

280 boards isn't it?
Well, I think the most on Invision is about 50.

On my Invisionfree I have 28, but its still quite quick. But it also has more ads than this.

http://s7.invisionfree.com/Hard_Venom

And it doesn't allow banner changes between sections.

So Invision is not great.

And phpBB sucks when you're using AOL like I am.

 

Block the ad servers in your host file