The ISP you're connecting through may be injecting ads while you're visiting ATS...

We've been saying this for years when we see complaints from our members about obtrusive, obnoxious ads that are doing things we don't allow ads to do here on ATS. Obviously we've had issues with ad networks over the years so we won't try to claim this is the only problem but...

One of the "big boys" has been caught injecting ads at Dulles airport and they finally admitted that they really are injecting ads into their user's sessions... shocking(!) @@

Naturally they're saying it was only a "test" on a free WiFi hot spot, but I've been around long enough to know that big companies can't resist free money so I'm not buying that story.

Here's the article:
www.mediapost.com...

Finally vindication. Does not surprise me one bit. Is there anyway that we can detect this when we log on from these sources? That way instead of a gripe, we can be a part of the solution to keeping their grubby ads off.

a reply to: Springer

Well, now we know where it's coming from. What can we do about it?

is it against the law to inject ads into a freely provided wifi?

You would think that once you click the little disclaimer about it being an "unsecured connection", or once you assign it a public profile when the connection dialogue is working, that you would be pretty much exposed from a legel recourse standpoint.

There is no shortage of insidious advertising. Directional speakers that you can only hear as you walk into a certain spot. Texting when you are in a certain spot. I can buy FB ads ("Boost this post") and target specific people in specific places. I assign a budget, and everytime someone falls into my ad filter criteria, they get an ad on their timeline, for example.

Ill tell you what is insidious: advertising usurps our natural environment in the most copyrighted of ways. For example: i am a man painting a picture of the scenery outside my window . Part of that scenery is a billboard with a big Nike swoosh. If i paint that scene and sell it....Nike has legal claim to the proceeds.

I am not a fan of ads.

a reply to: Springer

how did i know that it was gonna be ATT, that company is the scum of the earth.

where i live we have cable and DSL. i stuck with DSL when the cable company started providing internet service, i didn't want to pay equipment fees and limit on bandwidth. With DSL i get unlimted time and no equipment fee other than the cost of the modem when first purchased.

ATT finally got U Verse out here where i'm at and i thought that i might change. no way. the deal they want me to take is cost to install, less speed, limit on bandwidth, equipment rental for the same that i pay now for DSL. plus they keep telling me that they are gonna drop DSL in the future.

i tell them that will be the day i go to cable, i can get triple their top U verse speeds, still have the draw back of equipment rental, and bandwidth limit, i can install the software, router and run the cables if need be my self all for less than their top package. that just chaps their a@@.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Depending on the cable provider in your area you can buy a cable router and avoid the "rental fees". Look into it.

Amazon.com might be your new best friend.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Uverse doesn't enforce traffic caps. I used far in excess of 250GB every month for over a year on it. Now on gigapower I'm using in excess of 1TB and nobody has got a letter over traffic yet.

Not sure why people would even question if it's against the law. You're getting a free service. This is the basis for ads on "free" sites. Nothing is free.

I'm thinking this is coming from more than one angle. It's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that hidden code is within ATS, though it could easily be all outside not only from free wifi injections, but simply malware on people's home systems and lappies.

Hrmmm don't like this at all. If any point on passage along the network, if any router can inject adverts, they're able to inject what they want, potentially to appear as a legit login for a website, and behind the scenes log you in so it appears you've logged in once, but now a third party may have your details.

Any company/service/organisation caught doing this should be outed and boycotted. idk, but that's like a hdtv manufacturer intercepting digital signals and injecting adverts every 10 seconds over the adverts you're going to get form a free service anyway - 99% of the internet that we use.

I'd be adding many additional filters to destined advertisements and serving IPs... that sort of intrusion boils my bacon.. it's one thing if a website offers adverts. Still a bit rude imo but it is what it is. But at the ISP level. If they were not making profit already they wouldn't be trialling free wifi. This is just an additional revenue that has thus far been left untouched and is about to be pounded in the backside by anyone with thing to provide.

a reply to: Springer

My ISP is lying down on the job, dagnabbit!!!
I want my share of ...erm hold on...

I just suck monumentally, not even my ISP will abuse me.
Thanks anyway!

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Uverse doesn't enforce traffic caps. I used far in excess of 250GB every month for over a year on it. Now on gigapower I'm using in excess of 1TB and nobody has got a letter over traffic yet.

haha man how times have change. Many years ago I knew a guy who worked wit me in IT at a TAFE here, and he was doing weekend work in one of the campuses, where he had access to a dialup account within the TAFE's local student ISP learning area... he downloaded over a gig one weekend and everyone got in big poop, first the BUC was accused, then finally it trickled back to the dopey git who had to do fun things like talk to the manager with explanations... Downloading drivers and forgot.. but 1gb was such a huge deal.. now it's a movie downloaded in less than 20 mins..

and today I still only have 125gb on peak between 12pm and 12am and 125gb off peak.. for $59 a month AUD.

I trust my ISP though, one of the big ones that tells places like the RIAA and MPAA to go suck an egg, and have the lawyers and resources to play the games they like to play. At least they were, I feel change building within it, like google, they're getting too big for their grass roots and are becoming a behemoth.. but a sterile one, fake faces and saccharine smiles.

a reply to: sn0rch

I can get a movie in less than a minute, but a gig over a weekend with 56k? That's about 5.4KBps if everything is going smoothly after overhead.

3600x72/1024x5.4

You would have been using at least 70% of the bandwidth for the whole weekend, no wonder it was an issue.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: sn0rch

I can get a movie in less than a minute, but a gig over a weekend with 56k? That's about 5.4KBps if everything is going smoothly after overhead.

3600x72/1024x5.4

You would have been using at least 70% of the bandwidth for the whole weekend, no wonder it was an issue.

Ahh but you see I live in the stupidest country on the planet when it comes to broadband. we've got politicians here making policies, they all have big white whiskery moustaches, top hats and waistcoats with watches dangling from their mid pocket, as they guffaw and look down on the lowly peasants scrapping up the pittance they ditch towards us.

We will have slow internet and we will love slow internet.

I sync at about 13000kbps down / 900kbps up. out of a possible 21000kbps. I'm lucky if 20 mins. for a movie, usually less than an hour though. hurray adsl2+ -- we do have a NBN roll out, which will give some people maybe 60000kbps.

While some countries have ftth. We have worse broadband than romaina ffs.. :/

a reply to: Springer
First let me say that I'm as computer illiterate as a person can be and still operate the beast....
So, thank you for this thread that explains why I suddenly began seeing hotel ads when I came to ATS last night after searching for a hotel. I usually just get those annoying Jeep or shoe ads.
It is AT&T I suppose after reading this but I'm not on Wifi and I'm nowhere near the places mentioned.
I'll admit that I'm a bit ticked at finding this out since I pay what I consider a king's ransom for the service. They keep "reminding" me that I can bundle their services to save money but that would require me to get mobile service and cable tv through them, two services of which I have no need.
I would call them to complain but I'm sure they would just put the blame on the site and since I'm dumb as dirt in this area, I wouldn't be able to refute their claim.
Maybe it's just being old, fuddy-duddy grump but I liked it a lot better before our local ISP providers were gobbled up by these multi-national corporations.

originally posted by: Chansi3
Finally vindication. Does not surprise me one bit. Is there anyway that we can detect this when we log on from these sources? That way instead of a gripe, we can be a part of the solution to keeping their grubby ads off.

When you login from a wireless hotspot, it often adds a plugin in the background of your browser that will inject ads into the browser, not into the ATS site specifically.

This is easy to stop. Get software like Adblock to stop this from happening.

Im curious as to why these adds are only injected when Im on ATS, Im a member on 4 other forums I frequent and never had this stuff happen. i know there are adblocker programs but why only here?
Cheers