Possible banner Ad redirect problem

[mikeb]

Could well be just Ye Olde 'Puter playing up as per usual ... but I just did one of my routine clicks on the top banner Ad (was the everyclick.com Ad on this occasion) and effectively got a page not found error i.e. a redirect to /undefined">THIS efests page instead of wherever clicking on the ad should have redirected to. I cleared the cache and reloaded the forum page until the same Ad came up again several times but got the same result each time. No problems with any other banner Ads recently.

Edited April 2, 2010 by mikeb

[eFestivals]

thanks - it's getting looked into.

[mikeb]

This Ad went away after a few days but it's back again tonight and clicking on it still effectively results in a #404 so it redirects to /undefined">this efests page instead of (presumably) eventually ending up at http://www.everyclick.com

Here's a quicky screen grab of the tab that opened immediately after clicking the Ad when it appeared on a forum page just now:

The same banner Ad also came up on the redirect page on this particular occasion as well so it's the Ad on the above image that doesn't appear to redirect properly in case there is any doubt about which one it is. Unfortunately it's a Flash jobbie so I don't know how to give you any more info about what it should be doing and/or where it should be redirecting or even which Ad server it came from for that matter. I'm using WinXP with the latest updates, latest Flash player and FireFox browser (but still choosing to stay with 3.5.9 at the mo) just in case any of that is in any way relevant.

If you need any more info or a full size screen grab or whatever then give me shout

[mikeb]

Ah-ha, long time no see but today it returneth ... again ! Same issue with ending up on the eFests "The page you're looking for cannot be found" page when you click on it. Maybe it's just me but I'm b*ggered if I can understand how/why that could be

EDIT: Hmmm, not sure if this is gonna help or makes things worse but it doesn't seem to do it in Ye Olde IE8 now. Just tried outta morbid curiosity and clicking on it in IE8 ends up in the right place but whenever using my usual FireFox 3.5.9, it's always effectively the #404 for some no doubt bl**dy strange reason ! Defo not a cache issue and I've never seen it happen on any other Ad at any time but it obviously could be a FF issue or something at this end somehow screwing things up.

And another EDIT: A bit more maybe useful info. In IE8, the Ad seems to be this gif image http://i.xx.openx.com/5d381196d56d70d4f4744e8f2a48b750.gif whereas in FF it's a stupid flash jobbie - no doubt explaining the difference in results from clicking on it ! Bl**dy Adobe and their poxy bug-ridden excuses for software I currently have the latest 10.0.45.2 player installed according to the Abode about FP page.

Time to give up methinks

Edited April 26, 2010 by mikeb

[mikeb]

Not sure who's tweaked what or where but it's come back again as of just now ... but this time it's using gif images in both IE and FF browsers so everything is working just fine now

[scaryclaireyfairy]

i just got a warning about a malicious ad (avast blocked it).

[sinhala]

i just got a warning about a malicious ad (avast blocked it).

[mikeb]

I've not had an AV issue as such ... but there's certainly something way more than a bit odd going on with at least one of the current Ads tonight that's for sure. I can't seem to determine which Ad or Ads are involved or what the issue actually is but something is defo not quite right somewhere and all that. Whatever's going on, it's screwing up FireFox 3.5.9 no end as well as the system in general until the browser is killed off that's for sure.

Apart from anything else, I've been seeing a whole load of error messages regularly popping up allegedly from "Adobe Reader" and claiming that "A 3D data Parsing error has occurred" but only when browsing (or at least trying to browse) eFests. Not at any other time or on any other site, even 100% flash-based sites. I also have a sneaky suspicion that there may well be a pop-up that doesn't want to load or run properly (or perhaps isn't being allowed to run due to highly dubious activity) and that may or may not be related to the strange and unexpected error message. I don't have pop-ups or Ads in general intentionally blocked in any way on eFests so it's almost certainly not any sort of issue with some form of Ad blocking utility ... although it could easily be firewall related of course if there is an Ad trying to act dubiously.

A quicky look on Mr.Google suggests it might be a dodgy Ad or Ad house problem etc. but if it isn't one or more well dodgy Ads that have been sneaked into the rotation that are (at best) acting suspiciously or (at worst) actually do have malware embedded then it's no doubt down to bl**dy Adobe as per bleedin' usual !

[rant]

Bl**dy Adobe and their totally cr@p bug-ridden excuses for software as per usual along with Ad houses various producing cr@ppy bloated and bandwidth/resource hungry Ads that rarely work reliably or sensibly even on a good day never mind actually warrant the excessive amount of bandwidth/resources they would appear to consider is acceptable and necessary If there was any realistic way of blocking absolutely everything Adobe related and specifically anything Flash-based in particular then I'd have done it donkey's years ago and refuse to use ANY site that expects or requires Flash to be installed as well as boycotting their relevant products or services regardless. Flash is the biggest totally unnecessary waste of time/effort/resources/space and just about everything else known to man IMHO. Totally unnecessary, totally cr@p, almost always has issues various regardless of OS or release version ... and it's never been any different for as long as I can remember. A complete PITA in every possible way and offers pretty much nothing that can't be done better and more reliably in other ways. Should be banned permanently !!

Die Adobe, die and all that ... do something useful just for once and make the entire world *very* happy for a change.

[/rant]

Sorry 'bout that ... just kinda slipped out

Unfortunately, whatever is going on means eFests is pretty much unusable for me at the mo and it's taken a whole load of poncing around just to get in and post this so time to wander off and play elsewhere I guess. Hopefully it will all get sorted soon in one way or another or even disappear of it's own accord so normal service will have resumed when I wander back tomorrow

EDIT: In case it's of any help, Ads in general seem to have been a bit cranky recently, maroonspider in particular appears to have been excessively cranky for me for quite a while now in fact. Just recently Ads appear not to be loading at all on some occasions or generally locking things up for whatever reason and necessitating a refresh to clear whatever is stopping them. However, something currently trying to load from ads.nu.mu.... looks like it might perhaps be responsible for these errors. Unfortunately, the full address is rather unusually being very suspiciously truncated on the FF status bar as well which probably says lots about it I suspect

Edited May 1, 2010 by mikeb

[timespeedsup]

Me too - AVG blocked it thankfully.

[rexclark]

My AVG blocked it too.

Edited May 1, 2010 by rexclark

[scaryclaireyfairy]

i just got a big warning that a virus has been detected on one of the ads. not the usual 'avast has bocked this' but the warning with sirens asking you to abort the connection.

[mikeb]

It looks very much to me like an Ad or Ad House/Server has been compromised and is trying to exploit a weakness in later versions of Adobe Acrobat in order to bring in something highly unpleasant Getting an error (a genuine AV or Acrobat error) is a 'good' thing I would suggest but seeing something unexpected running and demanding your attention is almost certainly NOT a good thing at all I'm afraid. It most certainly was trying to open Acrobat and run something dodgy last night it would seem but, fortunately for me, it failed dismally to do so for one reason or another - possibly because apart from AV running I have as much of anything Adobe manually disabled as I can get away with !

Whatever it is, it somehow seems to be managing to get around the obvious simple solution of disabling Adobe browser integration unfortunately but even when it can't run in a browser plug-in, it will then attempt to run in any Acrobat Reader(s) etc. you might have available in any case thanks to good old Billy Gates of course

As a quick fix, I've temporarily moved/hidden ALL Adobe stuff in "Program Files" as well as disabling the default Adobe plug-in in Firefox and that appears to have stopped it from being able to try doing anything much at all Hopefully anyway What I do know is that anyone or anything wanting me to use Adobe cr@pware for any reason whatsoever can fcuk right off until further notice

Fcucking Adobe ... I bl**dy hate the b*ggers with a vengeance on a good day but even more so than usual today

As for where it's coming from, today it seems to be DLing from def.ignorelist.com as opposed to the previously mentioned dodgy looking source. I was about to add that to Mr.Firewall but not sure I can be @rsed with b*ggering about as it'll probably be grabbing it's cr@p from elsewhere in due course I suspect.

Edited May 2, 2010 by mikeb

[eFestivals]

I believe that the issue is fully resolved, tho cannot be 100% certain.

If you believe that there's still an issue from this point onwards, please email webmaster@efestivals.co.uk to alert me to it, and please include as full details on what happened as possible.