Drudge Pop Ups - Now More than spyware. Now downloading

Drudge ^ | December 31, 2004 | Pop Up Author

[BJungNan]

My computer is set to advise me if a site I am going to is trying to download something onto my computer and gives me the option to download or cancel. I just went to Drudge's site and got a warning about an attempted download.

Drudge has been dumping at 3 to 7 spyware programs on my computer each time I visit - I've checked by clearing all spyware and then going to his site and checking again. That's bad enough. But, now to have direct downloads from from Drudge, that is not alright.

Likely it is from the same pop-ups and not specifically from Drudge's page, one of his advertisers. Some will say you a pop up blocker but those get in the way of the some of the functionality of sites I use on the net. I tolerate the pop-ups because it is less trouble to click them away than to turn on and off a pop-up stopper program.

The questions are these: Is Drudge being careful enough with the pop-ups he is facilitating through his site? Was there malicious code in the download that was attempted? Will Drudge address this? I have found no such instance on any other site I frequent except those in Asia that seem to love this practice.

One other question: Is anyone aware of any sort of malicious code that can be delivered through a site that wants to download to your computer just by visiting it?

[feedback doctor]

Long ago I quit going to Drudge because of all the pop-ups.

Mozilla will be targeted before long. Thankfully I have been using a few months. Recently I had had drudges site lock my computer up, so I DO NOT go there anymore.

[birbear]

After a ten day trial with Firefox, in my opinion it loads slower even after the tweaks, and many web pages are distorted even to the point of being unreadable.

I'll agree with you, Firefox is a bit slower (although after the tweak I did (found here on FR) it loads pages just as quickly as IE did.)

But I'm curious, which webpages were distorted? I've been using Firefox for about 3 months now I guess, I haven't encountered that problem. But admittedly I tend to stay on the same dozen or so pages each day. But even when I was researching stuff during the election, I didn't come across a distorted page.

I will submit, however, that when if I have three or four instances of the browser running, each with 6 or more tabs, it does tend to overwhelm the CPU a little.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>She's still as charming as ever, I see.

Sounds as charming as a root canal.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I worry that as Firefox gets more and more popular the scum-slimebeings will begin to attack it also.

[auggy]

I visit Drudge daily. I have Opera browser, I have never had any problems with the website nor any programs trying to download their spyware.

Opera is definitely the fastest of all browsers and it's good on security too. I use to have Mozilla as my browser, until, I tried Opera.

There's no going back once you use it.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I worry that as Firefox gets more and more popular the scum-slimebeings will begin to attack it also.

Yep, only a matter of time.

[Rebelbase]

I use IE and Mozilla. There are some websites I must access for my work that do not support Mozilla. No big deal.

[OldFriend]

Lucianne's site is so full of crap that my virus scanner rarely let's anything on her site load.

Drudge is becoming just as bad.

[dljordan]

Firefox baby.

[mupcat]

I had Drudge set as my homepage for a long while, but on occasions I found if I were visiting other sites that lo and behold, without warning, I'd be taken back to Drudge. No reason, and no pattern, just be reading something else or placing an order for something and bingo I'd find myself back on his page.

That was bad enough, but then I'd be on OE, without closing IE, answering emails and it'd happen there also---back to Drudge. Couldn't figure out what on earth was going on. Then as luck would have it I finally got so angry at him for his slanted reporting on President Bush that I changed my homepage from his site to FreeRepublic----haven't had any trouble since.

[lemura]

Firefox/T-Bird are awesome - I love the tabbed feature in FF. I kept IE on our PCs (but deleted all short-cuts & icons) only to be able to access Windows updates.

I just ran Ad-Aware, Spybot & TrendMicro on each home LAN PC and got -0- hits. Before I cleaned up my wife's system and removed IE last month, she had over 80 spyware/ad tracking programs! With all the crazy shopping sites she goes to, it's a real testament to FF that her PC is now clean as a whistle.

It's gotten to the point that I'm paranoid about opening IE for anything - even going to MS's site.

[relictele]

Mozilla or other alternatives to IE are definitely a first step but not the panacea some imply.

A software firewall such as Outpost (www.agnitum.com) is a must if you wish to control what you see and how you see it (in addition to its anti-hacking benefits). It allows/permits all sorts of active content (Flash, Javascript, etc.) as well as blocking ad strings in the HTML code of any web site. I block tribalfusion.com (among many others) and Drudge's ads are nowhere to be seen. Same for L.com's site - I think L.com are getting a bit desperate as well as beyond bitchy about their posts, the posters, content, etc. FR is much more relaxed.

Free spyware scanners are great, but PestPatrol also will actively block spyware, cookies, etc.

[Dubya-M-Dees]

"I worry that as Firefox gets more and more popular the scum-slimebeings will begin to attack it also."

The thing that makes IE so vunerable is ActiveX. It's the root cause almost all the spyware and adware out there. Internet Explorer uses it, but FireFox does not. This is the primary reason that FireFox is so safe. Some other browsers like Opera are merely a shell to Internet Explorer and it makes them no safer than IE. Mozilla is a stand alone browser, and this is what makes the difference.

[relictele]

er, that should be "permits/denies" active content.

[dljordan]

"And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble. from The Book of Mozilla, 3:31 (Red Letter Edition)"

You forgot:

Mozilla, 6:13
And the followers of Mammon shall in the last days tremble in their nakedness, and shall flee but the earth will not cover them, for a saviour shall come to lift up the oppressed. The wicked shall fall as if struck by a mighty sword and shall download no more.

[lemura]

FF does load a little slower and does render many sites - including mine - differently than IE.

IE is very forgiving in HTML coding errors and table displays. I'm still working on margin definitions to get my site looking the same way as with IE. IE understands a FrontPage generated page that just says 'p style=margin-top: 6', whereas I think FF needs a complete style sheet definition to get it right.

So now I use FF for everything and run IE now and then to check the site.

[Mr Rogers]

I've been using Mozilla for several years now & love it, including the Firefox version.

However, it does have some limits. If I access my work's web-based Outlook, I can only read messges - I cannot reply. I have to go to IE for that.

Likewise, this site:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/78440?it=0

is an excellent one for watch freaks (Seiko & Citizen). If I want to post a picture, I have to use IE - Mozilla is missing the buttons for uploading.

That said, I always run Spy Sweeper afterwards - I can go for months without getting spyware using Mozilla, but rarely make it more than an hour of surfing with IE before the spyware starts arriving.

So while I love Mozilla, the protection it offers has a small price - one that I pay about once a month by opening IE just long enough to do what I need.

[Mr Rogers]

Just curious - how can something be easier to use than Firefox?

Are all the displays in crayon?

[Dashing Dasher]

ditto