Posted on 12/07/2004 11:07:00 PM PST by grandpiano007
For the last two days, every time I visit Drudge, my computer gets hijacked by some pop-up virus. Am I the only one? I have to put the Yahoo-toolbar virus scanner on it and it tells me I got a Trojan horse hijacking my computer. It does get rid of it, but what's going on? Can someone please proof me wrong, so I can look for the cause somewhere else? Or have you experienced it too. Is drudge out of money or something to allow this scumware to infect his readers' computers?
I've had no problems with Drudge, but I've been using Firefox for months now... don't know if the 2 are related.
However, I DO know I've had NO problems with Firefox. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
Use whatever you want, but your claims that Firefox has problems are in contradiction to my experience.
Firefox has issues once you step past the consumer ranks and it will continue to have issues as HTML and Javascript, the basis for a lot of the web, give way to newer markup languages. I think they will adapt and that is a good thing but Microsoft and Macromedia are leading the way.
The W3C is a joke and should go away.
His claims are in contradiction to everyone's experience.
Well, that's just it - what could we do? They know we're trying to block them and they're adapting, CoolWebSearch being the most heinous example, because they're getting paid.
I use Spyware Blaster as well, which supposely immunizes you from ever getting hit to begin with. SpyBot does the same to a lesser degree.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
There are others who keep lists of sites like I referred to, where you enter them into the Restricted Zone. I have a little list of my own which I'll send anyone a Freepmail with instructions on how to enter it.
Other than that, and vigilance, I don't know what else to say. The guys at Spyware Blaster and AdAware and SpyBot, et al, do yeomans work as it is, and all they ask for is donations. Where would we be without them?
I suspect 'power users', so to speak, will find IE or others a better bet. I just use it for reading FR, buying books from Amazon and listening to Limbaugh on the internet. For my uses, it works great.
I'm convinced a lot of folks are paying money to MS for bells and whistles they never use. I use MS Office all the time because that's what the military provides - but 95% of my work can be done in OpenOffice just as easily.
I also figure some competition for MS would be a good thing for all concerned.
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
What it does ... The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Another feature of the HOSTS file is it's ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, as long the the entry exists.
You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, cookies, web bugs, and even most hijackers. This is accomplished by blocking the Server that supplies these little gems. Example - the following entry 127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net blocks all files supplied by the DoubleClick Server to the web page you are viewing. This also prevents the server from tracking your movements.
Now includes most major parasites, hijackers and unwanted Search Engines!
In my world, web development, it is a cesspool. We face different standards, no commonality, crappy languages to work with (HTML, JavaScript), and users with widely varying standards. The web, in its current form, was never meant to be more than a fancy bulletin board. We need changes and I will invest with the companies making those changes.
The only companies doing squat about making the web better, imo, are macromedia and microsoft. Macromedia doesn't adhere to Microsoft standards and vice-versa. The Firefox stuff is interesting but open-source doesn't fly with most corporations. They need a door to go knock on when things go wrong. And....if you use it at work, you'll probably use it at home. Firefox also suffers from a lack of research dollars to coordinate and do basic research on what comes next.
Microsoft needs competition but they make really, really good products, especially for developers.
Choose Tools at the top, select Internet Options ..., pick the Security tab, press Default Level, move the slider to High, and finally press OK.
You can set it back to whatever you want when you are done. I've been doing this for years with no problem. I like lynx, but I doubt you would.
I was thinking of mentioning the hosts file. As simple as it is, I have only tried it a couple of times. Somehow or another I messed things up once and decided not to use it. Just user error, I guess. I've pretty much depended on my "nasties" list I've accumulated.
Maybe it's time to look at it again.
I browse drudgereport.com with Mozilla without problem. I have heard that MSIE users find drudge to be a honeypot of virii and other crap.
Microsoft Internet Explorer sucks.
LOL MS was meant to rule 'til eternity. Sure.
Hubris huh?
Here we have the guys with the 4% share, and going nowhere, presuming to dictate to the guys with the over 92% share, then talking to the DOMINANT guys about hubris.
Yeah, hubris. You may not understand it, but you have demonstrated it. Delusions of invulnerability, presumptions of a privileged station, that sort of thing.
No company maintains a 90% market share forever. Bigness brings its own inefficiencies, and declines are inevitable. It will happen to Microsoft, sure as the Sun rises.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nf/20041124/bs_nf/28622
Hello n00b. No obscenity of that level is permitted.
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