New Pop-ups

[GGorman04]

Guys
I have noticed a new type of pop up on various sites. When I open the site, a window will pop up that automatically plays a news feed or commercial.

Is there anyway of preventing this from opening?

 

[wwillson]

You shouldn't be seeing these on BITOG - just making sure. We've always shunned annoying ads.

 

[Jimzz]

Run a malware program first like spybot

https://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors162/

Many times its on your system if its the same "ad" on different sites.

 

[DBMaster]

GGorman is not talking about ads. I know what he is talking about. There are several Chrome extensions in the Chrome Web Store that will at least freeze the offending videos until you click on them to allow them to play. You basically have to search and try a few out to find one that works for you.

 

[GGorman04]

DBMaster,
You are correct. For example, Monday Morning QB site.(MMQB.SI.Com.
Without any requests from me, it will start playing a video I did not request.

Any Firefox extensions?

 

[DBMaster]

I would go to their online "store" and search for "video autoplay block" and see what you get. I don't use Firefox.

I get the same autoplay garbage in Yahoo and Bing news.

 

[GGorman04]

Will try.
Thanks.

 

[paulri]

If this isn't spyware, I believe it can be controlled by FF itself, without an extension.

Type in about:config into the URL bar, and hit Enter.

The search for "autoplay" without the quotes.

I see two settings.

media.autoplay.enabled should be clicked so that it reads False.

media.block autoplay till in foreground should be clicked so that it reads True.

Does this resolve the issue?

 

[paulri]

BTW if you are leery of going into about:config, you can always click those settings again and restore to default if you decide you aren't ok with that...

 

[Brons2]

NoScript+ADBlockPlus

NoScript is annoying at first because you have to enable scripts on every site you go to, but it gets better over time.

 

[GGorman04]

Paulri, Thanks so much for the help. It worked. Do you think this was changed on my settings somehow?

 

[paulri]

If by that, you mean that some program went ahead and changed it, that is unlikely. The settings I gave for you to change, were already their default, so there would have been no change to those settings. When you clicked on them, that changed them from tehir default.

Not sure what could have caused this, if this is only a recent annoyance. The following is sheer speculation: perhaps you had a Firefox extension take care of this for you, that is no longer working. Perhaps a new behavior by a site you have been visiting for a while? Perhaps you had an adblocker that took care of this for you, but then you changed filters or adblockers?

Anyways, all's well that ends well.

Originally Posted By: GGorman04
Paulri, Thanks so much for the help. It worked. Do you think this was changed on my settings somehow?

 

[GGorman04]

Either way, thanks for the help. Nothing more annoying than trying to read an article when a video loads up to play.

 

[paulri]

No problem. I agree those things are annoying.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: GGorman04
Either way, thanks for the help. Nothing more annoying than trying to read an article when a video loads up to play.

It does drive me nuts, too. If I want to watch a news story, I'll turn on the television.