The Gaming Club Online Casino (problem solved)

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

When this banner ad is the one to appear at the top of the page, I notice several irregularities while that particular page loads. In the status bar, as usual, I see the notices of the picture fetches for people's banners and what-not, but I also see several other things that (where do they go?) are loaded in ONLY when this casino banner is chosen.

A few screen grabs show some of the things loaded in are from:

Mr. A · Trick Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: INTERNET

Wierd, sounds like malware/spyware, you got scanning tools Drench?

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

I ran spybot and adaware already... just usual cookies.

Repeat: This *ONLY* happens when the banner is that damn "Gaming Club Online Casino" one!

I don't have superfast cable internet now, just the 5x (vs dial-up) "light" version, so I notice when pages load slower, AND have time to see what sort of nastiness is coming in on the status bar. Once the page is loaded, nothing out of the ordinary is seen, yet 200K of stuff was loaded in behind the scenes.

This banner doesn't always bring in a pop-up (but when it does, it does it aggressively) and since most people have blockers (I do too, don't always use it) they might not notice this.

I just got the Casino banner again... this time, it loaded in over 500KB worth of crap, and opened a pop-up window too.

Alpha, anyone! Just start a message here, type a bit of crap, and use CRTL-ALT-DEL and click "Networking" to watch the bytes come in. Then click "preview" (for the message you are writing) and note the amount of bytes that come in before things settle. Do it again and again, until you get this pesky Casino banner at the top. THEN see what you get.

Why doesn't anyone else find this annoying?

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

Turn off your pop-up blocker, and take note when the casino banner occurs.

Edit: When submitting this message, I got a windows message asking me "Would you like to install our casino software while viewing our site?"... my pop-up blocker was on, and that banner was there again!

IguanaGrrl · Staff Member Joined: 17 Jan 2002 Location: Sacramento, CA

Odd, because I'm not getting that at all, and I've specifically left my browser on my home computer with open holes and no pop up blocker.

What browser are you using? You might want to consider updating it...
_________________

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

But is the current banner at the top of the page the Casino one? This crap doesn't happen for the dating one, the spyware thing, or any of the other banners DDR Freak is currently cycling.

I use IE version 6.0.2800.1106 and was forced to turn on my blocker upon arriving here. DDR Freak isn't a safe place to come to anymore! I *can't* be the only one experiencing this.

But hey, the two top dogs (er... dogg and cow) read my complaint, so I guess that's all that can be done until they get further evidence. Someone's getting their money's worth advertising here, that's for sure.

Phrekwenci · Administrator Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Location: New York, NY

I gave up on IE because all it would do is produce pop-ups. There's so much useless junk running on my computer even AFTER I run the spyware.

But alas, I've never seen this pop-up either.
_________________

Best thread on DDR Freak winnar | Second best thread | Posting and You...

diddrstrait · Trick Member Joined: 01 Jan 2004

I read this thread before on my computer that is running Mozilla, but now I'm using my brother's computer which only has IE, and I am looking at 2 blocked pop-ups that happened the second the online casino banner loaded. not only that, but just as drenchfur stated, it began downloading random files constantly. I'm on high speed cable, so it really isn't a problem for me, but I'm sure some of the users on dialup would find this annoying.

Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

You know, I don't wanna echo what I already said in the spyware sticky thread (hint hint), but if you're on dialup (like me), then just give up on Internet Explorer already, and download Mozilla Firefox, and learn how to use the hosts file. The amount of time/bandwidth you'll spend downloading it will be more than made up by the amount of cruft you'll avoid.

Lemme put it this way - I run a fairly naked Windows XP box now, with my connection routed through a Win2K laptop. I use Moz 1.4, though I'm upgrading to Firefox right now. And I haven't been compromised at all. I haven't gotten any unwanted popups. And I can block all manner of obnoxious, unwanted bandwidth waste at my end so that I don't even have to *download* it.

If you're a cable/DSL user, I can understand some complaints because of obnoxious banner ads or popups, and you can fix that with the Google toolbar if you have to cling to Internet Explorer for some reason.

But if you're stuck on dialup, there's no excuse for you to *not* use Mozilla. It's only 4.7 MB.
_________________

Sentient Mode is capable...

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

BTW, I did tell the advertising people about this the same day I saw your post, so I'll let you know what they say after the weekend.
_________________

PDub · Trick Member Joined: 22 Jun 2004

Drenchfur, I'm not doubting that you ran a spyware scanner... but it *really* sounds like you have something else going on not related to the adverts. Some malware actually replaces standard-size adverts on webpages as well as causing a host of other issues.

Do you experience this type of activity or behavior on any other websites you visit?
_________________

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

Random reply to all:

- at least Syncognition has confirmed what I've noticed
- we should not need to change browsers to sidestep this behavior
- some people still use IE and not everyone will complain here
- thanks J Dogg for getting the ball rolling on this (but will they care?)
- this behavior happens only here, with the "gaming club" casino banners
- saw the sticky, but wasn't sure of posting there
- I'm on slow-cable internet, about 5x dial-up speed at best
- am considering changing browsers

Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

VxJasonxV · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:14 pm Post subject:

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Some good news, I think. The host responded with: "Ill talk to the ad guys about it, if its anything bad they'll feel my wrath"
_________________

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Drenchfur, you edited your subject to say problem solved. Everything is ok now? What happened?
_________________

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

It seems some "wrath" was dished out somewhere along the line. Haven't seen the casino banner since. Good riddance to those guys and their sneaky ways. None of the remaining banners are problematic.

All is well on the 'Freak once again.