One thing's for sure.

This place is the only new addition to my browsing habbits. And the infections my ad-aware is picking up has gone up 10 fold. What's the snip deal here? I'm a little annoyed about it (to say the least).I hate ads at the best of times,but to come to a site which is supposed to be anto stuff like that,only to find that it's a major culprit is a little dissapointing.

If I can isolate the bits of this site that are infecting my pc,then I will be blocking it. If I can't,well it's good bye ATS. Which is a shame,cos this place has potential.

sort it out,and STOP infecting my computer


like I say,I know for a fact it's this place,as this is the only change to my browsing habbits in the last month (when all these infections magicly appeared)so don't try shirk the blame.


Please Do Not Evade the Automatic Censors

[edit on 30/0308/08 by neformore]

I'm loaded to the teeth with firewall, antispy, anti hack software. I've had no problems except for some low threat tracking cookies. I have not experienced your problems. But I still won't provide direct linkies for security reasons.

I'm going to back up JPM on this one.

I run AVG, Spybot and McAfee in active mode to report to me immediately when there is a problem and I do not get the issues to which you refer.

I would suggest - in the interim - that you make sure you are patched up properly if you are on a Windows PC as Microsoft recently dropped some more security patches. Also, if you haven't, update your flash player because there were massive problems with Flash until Adobe patched that recently.

Also check any downloads you've made recently, and make sure your browser is set to only run ActiveX with your express permission or - more securely - not at all.

ATS members are - rightly so I think - some of the more "security" aware people on the net and if this was a site specific issue we'd have been innundated with complaints by now and we aren't - which suggests that the problem is potentially at your end and not with the board. Thats not a criticism of you by the way, its just simple logic.

Having said that, I will U2U SO and point him at this thread and ask him to comment accordingly.

I'm on ATS constantly, I'm like a permanent fixture around here. That being said, I just ran Adaware last night and had nothing. As long as I've been on ATS, I have not encounted any problems with spyware being installed on my system.

cheers for your replies,I'm fully patched and ready to roll.

I re-read my post,and it was a bit sharp,so I'll appologise if anyone took offence. And it's not big infections,just low level tracking cookies as we all get. It's just they've gone sky high after me joining this site. I had like,10 or so per week max (same ones usually) but but after joining up here I'm getting 50 or so.

I have not had any problems with ATS, atleast I have'nt using The Shield Deluxe!
It's all running nice and smooth, and I am drunk...byee!

I have noticed that the entire time I am on, the page keeps loading something up , the bar at the bottom of the screen ( I don't know what you call it) that shows when a page is finished loading will end, say 'done' then a few minute later it is like another page is opening and it goes through all that again. It does it over and over, only while on ATS. I have been concerned, because I am at work, I would hate to expose this computer and all the customers info in it to anyone who could use it for ill will.

mine does that at work (in firefox) but not here at home (in ie) Constantly refreshing and reloading pages. It's not normal for a website to do that.

There's nothing wrong with cookies.


The conspiracy of "tracking cookie" paranoia


We have a lot of page impressions, and no one ad network can fill our available inventory, we use:
Google
ValueClick
TribalFusion
Casale Media
Advertising.com
Pulse360
Kontera
Specific Media

The cookies you receive do nothing more than help the ad providers ensure you don't see the same ad too often... no personal info is retained unless you expressly provide it to them.

---

Previous coverage...
ATS and spyware/cookies
Why does the ATS website load tracking cookies and adware onto my PC?
ATS AD Server pings Trojan ports


[edit on 30-3-2008 by SkepticOverlord]

Cheers.That's kind of put my mind at rest,but they still annoy me

Why did they call them tracking cookies in the bloody first place,if they didn't want to get people all paranoid about it. mumblemumblemumblebloodyadvertisingscummumblemumblemumble

"They," being the makers of web browsers (Netscape was the first to use cookies), never called them "tracking cookies." The term was simply, "cookies" which was first actually called "cookie crumb" to indicate a text file that enabled the website's server to define and remember a particular user from page to page within a web domain. It was soon shortened to "cookies" sometime around 1995.

The term "tracking cookies" was coined by anti-virus/anti-malware firms. There's no good reason to alert you to the cookies websites create other than to fool you into believing the software is doing something beneficial as a means to justify your continued use. In all my years online (and I was on the beta-team for Netscape 0.9b that first introduced the cookie as we know it), I've never deleted any cookies.

reply to post by Acidtastic

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Because most people are too lazy to delete cookies every time they browse, companies use them more and more. Any parasitic organism uses the same approach; get the host so used to you that he stops dislodging you, and you get a free ride and a meal ticket.

I often logout every so often and clean my cache and cookies, and log back in. I find it keeps me running faster too.

Good cyber hygiene is as important as good dental hygiene. So floss your browser.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Wait, you've never deleted any cookies? Really? hmm, mm'kay, I delete cookies about once a week. It just takes up room (not a whole lota room mind you) but it takes up room and shouldn't it be cleared out every so often?

I have never had any problems at all browsing this site. [edit] that didnt boil down to being my own fault [/edit] As far as tracking software and other things went. My anti virus never even murmered at logging on to ATS.

Really never deleted your cookies?

[edit on 3/30/2008 by whatukno]

I have Zonealarm, AVG and have no problems either. SO is correct, they're just cookies that won't harm your computer. But it's a good way for Spyware companies to use it to show you their spyware or whatever it is they're selling is working good.

Funny about this post. Last week I deleted pages and pages of cookies from my 2 month old computer. Before the deletion - not one problem with ATS. After - It's horrible. Forever to load and some weird repetitious line scroll effect. Now I miss the good old days before I was suspicious of cookies and obsessed with deleting them.

Well... only on the rare occasion where I needed to either test the code that creates the cookies, or to reset the delivery of ads from a specific ad network.

But yes... never, not on a PC, not on a Mac have I ever felt compelled to delete cookies for performance or privacy reasons. Since cookies only come into play when you're on the specific site that wrote them, retaining them actually tends to improve performance.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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right cuz if i have this right, which i of course may not...if you go to a site, it downloads a cookie, then you delete it, return to that site, it has to redownload the same one which will slow you down while it does so yeah? (granted not much on broadband but some of us are speedfreaks)

not to mention if you delete the cookies dont you get inundated with the same ads over and over? cmon who doesnt like some variety in their ads lol

of course i may be wrong...

but also doesnt setting that slider telling IE etc how much space to allocate to such things insure that your HDD isnt going to fill up with cookies over time anyway?

reply to post by Damocles

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You are completely correct. The great cookie scare is nothing but security software maker hype. Think about it, if they simply named them "cookies" instead of "TRACKING cookies" you'd wonder what the big deal was.

As mentioned above, when you delete cookies you are actually screwing yourself over a little on any sites you regularly visit. You'd be amazed at the number of emails we get via "contact ATS" about people who have registered, NOT read the instructions, and can't log in because they have all cookies blocked in their browser settings.

If the site can't identify your member name you can't log in. That's for our protection as well as yours.

The humble cookie is pretty much what allows the internet to operate, it's how sites like ATS can remain free of charge. The ad networks pay us based on "caps", caps are the maximum number of times you see the same advert in a 24 hour period. Without a cookie telling the ad server you've already seen a specific ad three times today there's no way to manage it. They also save your preferences for certain functions or features on websites.

That's what the evil cookie does, it keeps you from seeing the same bloody ads over and over again. That's what it's "tracking", NOT you or your surfing habits.

Springer...

it's still witchcraft



if this was 400 years ago,they'd burn'em all!!

Well I have watched the large number of cookies being racked up on my pc just simply logging on.I have never had a problem with them and as said before they tend to make your performance better than not.The only one that has ever slowed my pc has been TribalFusion and that one has always slowed my pc's down in the past as well....so I just delete it.Most cookies are innocent enough.It is the cookies that have scripts that embed themselves in your registry and create the annoying non stop pop ups that you have to watch out for;but I have never run across that here.