Justin Weber

These ads popping up on top of the threads are most annoying.

I got no popup probably because I have uninstalled Adobe flash player. My only complaint is that every thread I open to read comes with the following banner in a small horizon bar similar to IE7 Information bar:

This website wants to install the following add-on: 'Adobe Flash Player' from 'Adobe Systems Inmcorporated.'

i_Xp/VistaUser

I think these over the text ads just started this morning.

Do you mean the ads that pop up when you have your cursor over certain underlined words in a post?
If that's what you mean, they have been doing that for a while - it's not a recent thing.
I don't get the pop ups when the Flash Playback app I have installed is set to OFF.
Edit - Flash Switch is the program; Flash Playback is what it toggles.

No, those are also annoying. I am talking about ads that are top center of the page and then expand downward. They require you to close them in order to click on your selections. Ads are typically 6" wide x 3" tall.

Even still, you could try installing Flash Playback and turning OFF flash while on this site.
Edit - Flash Switch is the program; Flash Playback is what it toggles.

Here is a link to a picture of a typical ad.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/...

I don't need to come to this site that badly. If these don't stop I'm out of here.

Update, the ads don't seem to expand in Firefox like they do in IE6. The height stays narrower so it doesn't block anything and there is no close button on the ad.

I assummed Justin monitored the site for his name so I didn't send a PM.

I too really dislike the new ads by HP.

I was on earlier and was annoyed by them but they seem to be gone now.

Regarding Disabling Flash.
http://flash.melameth.com/togflash....
Offers an IE addin to toggle Flash objects.

I am on a corporate PC so will not install it but it looked helpful and simple.

Bryan

I'm not going to disable flash and then deal with the nag screens everywhere else.

Those ads appear to be gone. Thanks Justin.

Dear All, having adds helps pay for the site, and this is understandable.

I do not mind when adds are included on a webpage *sensibly* and in fact on occasions follow some up.

However I have noticed in recent times that pages from computing.net seem a long time downloading and then building in my pc before eventual full display. This did not happen in the past and I do not seem to have problems with other websites.

I suspected this delay related to the construction of those adds that contain moving (e.g. data recovery and crucial memory adds) or excessive graphics (maybe also hidden ads?) as this must increase transmission and display (on my pc) overheads.

Any thoughts? Regards - Mike

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

However I have noticed in recent times that pages from computing.net seem a long time downloading and then building in my pc before eventual full display

Good grief - I thought I was the only one to experience the above now I know I am not alone!

Justin Where are thou?

i_Xp/VistaUser

Hey,

Don't they automatically roll back up after a few seconds? I haven't seen them yet.

Justin

P.S. I e-mailed my ad people. I didn't know it was an HBSC ad until I looked at the screenshot.

Update: They are going to take down that ad... Let me know if you see it anymore.

Otherwise, thanks for letting me know about it.

Justin

They aren't there anymore. The same box right below the CN logo is back. Look at the link in response #6. That is what was appearing. Now gone. And no, the ads didn't roll back. I needed to click on the close button.

While I have your atention there is another issue that has been occuring for at least a week. I will be typing a reponse and when I look up at the screen the cursor is no longer in the response box and not all I typed is present. Seems to happen like one third of the time. It happened at the beginning of this response.

edit

This text thing just happened again. I typed a total of one word and the cursor disappeared. I can click back in and finish the post but this is most annoying. Haven't noticed this behavior anywhere else.

Hmmm,

Well, obviously the reason some of what you typed is gone is because the cursor moved while you were typing. You know what I mean, like if you click out of a box while you are typing in it, what you type will either do nothing or do weird keyboard commands?

I have sometimes seen this happen in various places (including this site). Wait a bit longer and let me know if you keep seeing it. The only reason I say that is because I really have no idea how to troubleshoot that.

Justin

Well I can wait longer but it has happened at least 20 times. I can't see what I could be doing to cause it.

One other weird thing happens. I use the back button on CN quite a bit. I have a MSoft 7 button mouse. One of the buttons defaults to BACK. Using that button places me in a hold state. Clicking the back button in IE does take me back. I would suspect my mouse except my mouse back buton work everywhere else. Now that I am relating this to you I think I will try the same moves while using firefox to see if it is browser related. I kind of doubt it though as i do use the same functions at other sites.

Ok,

Let me know if you have the problems with FF. I use FF, and really haven't seen anything like that. As you can imagine, troubleshooting this I don't see is almost impossible.

Justin

I've heard of this happening when you accidentally touch the space bar with your thumbs.

Any chance that could be happening?

Larry

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
-

seawatch

I think that is exactly what is happening. How do you type without hitting the spacbar between words.

Justtypelikethisallthetime.

Actually what I meant was that you could be resting your thumb just on the space bar while typing and it can cause it to jump to other areas. Is a little difficult to explain, but try keeping you thumbs up a little while typing as a test. I actually switched keyboards because I found myself after years of using the same one (keyboard) of drooping thumb syndrome.

But I surely can not say that this is the same for your case.

Larry

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
-

seawatch

I understand what you are saying. The thing is I type the same way whereever I am typing. Why do I have this problem only here?

I've experienced a lot of what you're talking about when using IE6 (at work), but very little at home using IE7.

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

I have experienced all the symptoms noted by OtheHill, especially the delays caused by banner ads,HSBC,Crucial, etc.. all except current HP ads.

Have had same probles with typing to a dead end (shouldn't an inadvertant hit on the spacebar result in a Space?. Maybe a slight tic on the ALT key.

Back button results (frequently) in a blank Grey page with only the Computing.net Logo and a freeze. Refresh button often solves this after a long wait.

One thing I didn't hear mentioned is an erratic, rapidly flashing cursor as opposed to the normal off-on, off-on, regular rythm cursor. This happens only on Computing.net.

I blamed my mouse & changed it out 3 times plus a USB infrared Mouse, did not help.

Today none of these things are happening and the only thing that has changed is My ISP Software (AT&T) failed and I could not restore my account settings because of a failure in the AT&T Registration server.

So, today I am connecting through Dialup Networking, without any of the AT&T Software other than AT&T Accelerated and am experiencing NONE of the afore mentioned issues. Absolutely None???????

Running Win98SE, IE6 SP1 on Dial-up.eMachine 500Ix.

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Hmmm,

That's interesting that your problems seem to be related to AT&T's acceleration software... Not sure what to do with that, but it is interesting.

Justin

Dumbob

I have loaded this small program Flash Switch and I use it to turn off Flash while on this site - I have none of the problems mentioned in this thread when Flash is off in 98SE IE 6 SP1. It's especially helpful if your computer is a slower one (mine's a K6-III 450) and you get long delays while certain flash ads are loading.
http://www.flashswitch.com/

It works only for IE, you must exit IE to toggle flash on or off, but it only requires you click on the center of the icon in your taskbar to toggle it.

My ISP is WOW. They are a regional cable company in the midwest. So I don't think the issue is just with AT&T, if that has anything at all to do with it.

Justin, many of the above described issues occur with increased frequency just prior to CN going down. After you bring the site back up all seem well for awhile.

Hey,

I'm not sure how those would be related. The site hasn't gone down for over a month now, but you still seem to be having these problems.

Justin

Justin, I'm just saying. The issue I mentioned above about my back button has happened before and I believe stopped after a site crash. Same goes for the slow screen refresh.

Don't take this wrong. We all understand the nature of your business model and accept the ads. We bitch when they become too intrusive. Just reporting the conditions so you are aware.

BTW, the very first time I logged in using FF I had the same issue with the cursor happen. Guess that eliminates the browser?

Hi,

Yeah, I understand. The problem is, I don't know what is causing the particular problem. Its very hard to troubleshoot. Let me ask you... is it this rapid cursor problem still occurring? I made a change. Not sure if that will fix it.

Justin

That isn't happening for me now.

My biggest issue is when I attempt to go back using the back button on my mouse or the back button on IE the screen takes a long time to refresh. Sometimes I need to actually use the refresh button.

Another thing that sometimes happens is I will click on the confirm button and nothing will happen. I will wait a bit thinking it is just slow and then I will click it again to actually have the action taken.

Justin

I don't think it's the AT&T Accelerator Software cause it's still running. I think it's the AT&T ISP Software, still running without it due to problems with AT&T Registration Server.

I have not been able to Restore my account for over a month, so I tried to remove & reinstall but server problems prevented installing AT&T Worldnet Service 8.1GA for windows. I completely removed it and the problems stopped.

There are some other problems as a result, but CN works so much better, I'm not sure I want it back. AT&T has been a problem ever since their merger with Bell South. May try another ISP.

Currently the cursor is working normally and I think the problems I'm noticing are probably related to an Old Slow System plus heavy CN traffic and using Dialup Networking to connect to the Net. Problems are not restricted to CN.

The freezes have turned to wait time for the page to load/reload. The Ads are no longer a problem, sometimes annoying but not a problem.

Thanks for listening, Justin. Wish AT&T responded so well. Their Tech Support SUCKS.

Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Tubesandwires

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a try. Don't really like having to disable Flash, but what works, works.

Bryco suggested an addin for IE but it says IE7 is required. Don't think I'll go there, at least not on this Machine.

Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

OtheHill,

And I assume that is still happening even after this change?

Dumbob,

Glad at least you were able to figure out a likely cause :)

Justin

Tubesandwires,

WOW, what a difference. Like a new computer.
Why'd you hide this for so long? LOL

Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

OtheHill,

Wondering if could be something like the TweakUI program that will cause the cursor to jump to a box that it thinks has the focus.

I use it and it jumps to the Shut Down box when I'm shutting down the computer for the day.

Larry

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
-

Dumbob

I'm glad to hear Flash Switch helped.

IE 7 requires XP or up, so IE 6 is as high as you can go with previous operating systems.

I would like to mention that I get short delays (e.g. 15 to 30 seconds) loading some threads on this site, or sometimes when I submit a follow up, the past few days even with Flash off, but with Flash on, the delay is much longer, as much as several minutes, and sometimes with Flash on my computer freezes when on this site and requires a soft off (press the power button in for 4 seconds) - IE 6 freezes (I can't close IE pages that are not responding, IE won't close) or a complete freeze doesn't seem to happen elsewhere on the internet.

Tubesandwires,

Flash Switch still working fine, Thanks again.

I'm getting the same delays you mentioned but at least it's just a delay , not freezeup.

I don't mind waiting for a page to load but having to start over pisses me off to no end. Sometimes I just shutdown and leave it down.

This thread can take some time to load fully, but it always loads now.

Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

seawatch

I don't have any tweaks installed.

Justin,

Any idea why I have to use the refresh button to get a thread to update new entries? Is there a setting I need to change, or could this be a result of having Flash turned off?

Also noticed that the Blue progress bar in Notification area stops at 1/4 even though the page is fully loaded and fully functional. (No hour Glass by cursor)

Not a big thing, just curious, if you have an answer.

Thanks,
Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Oh brother, did I ever stir it up for Justin.

Hey,

No problem :)

You probably have to use the refresh because it is caching the page. Not sure that is that abnormal.

Justin

Update:

I saw that fast flashing cursor myself. It appears that Flash ads might be the cause. If that is, I really can't have those disabled. Almost all ads on the site use flash. That's just the way the internet is going now. Blocking those would not be possible.

Justin

Dumbob

"Any idea why I have to use the refresh button to get a thread to update new entries?"

I'm not getting that problem with Flash off or on.

If you click on
"Click Here to View To Which You Posted"
after you "Submit Follow Up", or if you click on "Return to Message" after Editing a post, the thread should Refresh itself automatically.

However, if you use you Back button to go back to the thread, it will not Refresh the thread because you are loading a cached page.

Apparently, some internet browsers, but not IE, include an Auto Refresh feature that can be set to Refresh pages every xx seconds.
You can get freeware add-ons for IE that do the same thing, such as this one:
http://www.download.com/AutoRefresh...

Justin,

I don't think it's Flash causing the Cursor to flash. It stopped when I had to stop using the AT&T Software. I still had flash enabled till I got the link for Flash Switch.

The Refresh problem is nothing new for my system. I usually can fix it, but I'v never been able to determine what I'm doing that makes it work again. Also, it is not limited to CN. Was just hoping for an answer.

Tubesandwires,

I don't use the Back button, sooooo! I'll try the Auto Refresh. Thanks.

Now if you could just tell me how to stop the Flash popups. "Do you want to Download and install Flash Player". UUUUGGGHHHH

I probably will not get some things resolved till I resolve the AT&T issue. Registration server is still not available.

Many thanks to Both of you for your help.

Bob

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Dumbob,

Well... I saw it on a My Computing.Net Private Message screen. There is nothing really on that screen except for some pretty standard HTML code and an ad. That's why I am lead to believe the problem is related to a flash ad.

The only other thing I could think of would be it related to Google Analytics. That seems unlikely to me. A lot of sites use that.

Justin