banner ads problem

[Calluna]

I'm writing on behalf of Kieran McConville. He is unable to write himself because every time he tries to view the forum his computer crashes. We believe this problem is connected to the new banner ads that were put in last night because he never had that problem until today. Kieran uses IE 4 and he doesn't have a problem viewing banner ads on other sites but something about this new one makes his computer crash every time. I suspect he is not the only interferencer experiencing these problems. We hope that there is some solution to this problem so he can continue to post and read at interference.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Hey Cal,
I'm not sure how he can get around this. Elvis knows more about this kind of thing that me anyway.

I'm just moving this to Forum Help. Perhaps others will have the same problem indeed.

Sorry!

 

[Calluna]

Oh thanks, angie. I should have thought to post it here to begin with.

 

[Elvis]

Ok... first... why is he using a generation 4 browser still?

Internet Explorere 5 was first released in 1998, and made standard by early-1999.... thats over four years ago.

The banners are a product of Google, and I'm sure well tested with all browsers.....

However, I have this concern:

If Kieran has not updated his browser at all, it is most likely he has also not updated his computer for any security problems, such as for the blaster worm - which reboots your computer whenever it feels like it.

Ask Kieran if this also happens to him if he just goes to http://www.interference.com as that page has the banner also.

 

[Sicy]

Ok... first... why is he using a generation 4 browser still?

That was my first question too

 

[Calluna]

I dunno why he's still using IE 4 other than the fact that his computer is kind of old and that is what it came with. It hasn't been a problem until now. We will look into the possibility of downloading a newer version and see if that helps. The security issue is a good point as well.

I'll pass the message onto him and hopefully we can work something out.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Popmartijn]

Banners? Haven't seen those...

C ya!

Marty (using Mozilla Firebird)

 

[melon]

IE 6 should work on most all computers, including old ones.

If I had to guess, if he is using IE 4, he is probably not using an NT-based Windows version (Windows NT 4.0, 2000, and XP), and, rather, is using a member of the Windows 9x family (probably Windows 98), which does not have an RPC Procedure Call to be exploited, and, thus, he will never be affected by W32.Blaster.

Yet, there are plenty of other nasty things out there that visiting Windows Update would be a good idea.

Melon

 

[Calluna]

Yes, IE 6 *should* work on his computer but there is no guarantee that it will. And if it doesn't work he'll be totally screwed. He might not be able to go back to the way it was before. We think that is too big of a risk to take just so he can read and post at interference so I guess he just won't be able to do it anymore. Because everything else still works fine, it's just this forum that is causing problems.

 

[Popmartijn]

Hello,

He might try Mozilla Firebird (available at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird ). This is a browser that does not replace anything when installing. Just download the zip-file, unzip it in a directory and you can start the program.
It has
- a built-in popup killer
- no big, open, unpatched security holes
- tabbed browsing
- a nice cookie manager
- can be configured to block banners from showing in your browser

Try it, you might never use IE again...

C ya!

Marty

 

[Angela Harlem]

Sounds like a great solution to Kieran's problems Marty. Mozilla is becoming quite a popular browser.
I hope Calluna can pass this on to him.

 

[Calluna]

Thanks, Marty. We will look into that.

 

[ABEL]

I tried downloading that Mozilla Firebird browser, but it keeps giving me an error message and quitting the download