(Bleep)-ing Keenspace ads!!

[Archae99]

I just finished sending a somewhat nasty e-mail to Keenspace.

I mean, not only are they scaring the *&%$ out of me with the "Vroom" ads, now I get at random some bimbo saying, "Hey! Wanna chat with me?" or some other jerk saying "Click here if you have financial problems!"

I mean, I have to deal with spam in my e-mail on a regular basis.

Fortunately, as of today, it's illegal for telemarketers to call me on the phone.

But these ads with the sound effects....I mean, they want to get my attention.

Oh they got it, all right.

Just all negative though!

[ZOMBIE USER 12297]

I compleatly agree!!! there is nothing more annoying than a add that vibrated's continously while spouting repitive annoying noises!!!
an ad in perticular tht is gettin on my nervers is this same add that has been coming up for at least 2 months and it comes up at least twice an hour! Its just all these wome with thier heads cutt off and when you put your cursor over it thier head appears, and thay do that stupid trick there the close/exit htingie is hidden off the screen so oyu have to drag the window back in before closing it... ARRRRRRRGH *bang bang bang* (headbutts the desk continously severel times)

[ZOMBIE USER 12886]

If it's in a window, just right-click on the title bar. A menu will pop up and you should be able to close it from there.

If not, somebody has hell to pay.

[Arctyc]

Alt-F4, my friend. It's the best thing invented for pop-up windows that actually spawn their own frame.

Now, those embedded javascript ones -- those I despise.

It's worse than that, too. I have had the occasion to observe one add which attempted an install-on-demand for the computer. Spyware is the last thing I need.

[Msd22000]

I agree, the embeded javascript ones that cause the images to appear superimposed over the web page are the most anoying thing since fingernails on a chalk board. Worse is that there is no way to close or stop them. The guy that came up with that idea should have to sit through eternity in a small room listening to Yanni.

Now the Gator corporation. There is a truly evil amoral firm. It's incredible how these companies seem to think that they have the right to collect information on us without our permission or knowledge. All in the guise of giving us a 'helpful' little application.

[Andrick]

You mean there's a company following Microsoft's example?

Y'know, for all of the complaints I see about this I have personally not come across this problem.

[UncleMonty]

Well, you can always disable your browser's javascript function.
That can be annoying with things like online banking, some of which require javascript.
Otherwise, it sure gets rid of pop-ups!

[Solarfox]

There are a few simple cures for this nonsense.

First -- use Opera instead of IE or Netscape. It has the ability to selectively enable or disable pop-up windows, Javascript, embedded audio or video, and so on. Yes, IE and NS can do this too, but Opera puts those options in a convenient top-level "quick menu" (just hit F12 to bring it up) rather than making you drill down through layers of configuration options, making it easy to turn them on and off as needed.

Second -- edit your HOSTS file to point all of those ad servers back to your local machine. (Instructions on how to do this, along with pre-made HOSTS files you can use for this purpose, can be found in many places; just search Google. ) Whenever your computer needs to look up an IP address, it will always check the HOSTS file for a match before it goes to your internet provider's DNS server, so adding the advertising servers to your HOSTS file with an address of 127.0.0.1 -- which is reserved to mean "local machine" -- makes your computer try to load the banner ads and such from itself. (And since they don't exist on your machine, of course, all you get is the "broken link" icon instead of the banner ad. )

Third -- use a program called eDexter. It's a faux proxy server that resides on your system and offers up its own tiny image file anytime something asks for one from 127.0.0.1. This, among other things, prevents problems with Javascript code that halts the loading / displaying of a page until all images are successfully loaded. (Without eDexter, such pages will, if you use the HOSTS trick above, wait indefinitely for the images they want to be loaded -- which, of course, they can't be since they don't exist on your machine.)

I have all three measures in place, and I'm not seeing any of the stuff you guys are talking about.