Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 (edited) Could be, but since I am not having the problem, I can't begin to try and troublshoot it. You should try a traceroute to ads.adcorps.com from both locations. I'm betting one of them never reaches the destination. Really? I just tried it on my computer and it works perfectly. I didn't even have to reboot. Wait, you said you weren't having the problem so you couldn't troubleshoot it? How can you be fixed when you were never broken? EDIT: OK so the ads aren't popping up for you now, I get it. The ads aren't the problem IMO. Edited August 4, 2006 by Cherni Link to comment
smithkt Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Wait, you said you weren't having the problem so you couldn't troubleshoot it? How can you be fixed when you were never broken? If you read ALL my posts you would also see that I added a rule to my corporate firewall to block access to ads.adcorps.com and was able to duplicate the problem everyone was complaining about.... Link to comment
Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 If you read ALL my posts you would also see that I added a rule to my corporate firewall to block access to ads.adcorps.com and was able to duplicate the problem everyone was complaining about.... Settle down smith, no reason to get pissy. And that's not the problem that everyone is having if you had read ALL of my posts. My config. doesn't block any ads, they come up fine, it just takes a very long time to get there. They're not blocked so blocking ads.adcorps.com isn't a duplication of the problem. Link to comment
smithkt Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Settle down smith, no reason to get pissy. And that's not the problem that everyone is having if you had read ALL of my posts. My config. doesn't block any ads, they come up fine, it just takes a very long time to get there. They're not blocked so blocking ads.adcorps.com isn't a duplication of the problem. I think I love you, but what am I so afraid of?, I think you are the one that needs to settle down. You questioned my methods. I responded. The ads may not be YOUR problem, but I don't see anything in here that suggests they are not causing others problems. Some of the posters in this thread specifically said that when the pages finally load for them, the ads are not there. This would support the theory that a corporate block may be effecting them. Just because it is not your specific problem does not mean it should be disregarded. There are several reasons this could be a problem. It could be a hard block like I did where it blocks the entire IP. It could be a content filter which is trying to strip the offending content from the page. It's really hard to say exactly. It could be bandwidth throttling to certain sites, though this would be an extremely unlikely scenario. It could simply be a crappy connection between ISP. I'm just trying to help. If you don't want help, ignore me. Link to comment
tonyr0802 Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I'm also having the same issues everyone else is reporting. And like others, I'm behind a corporate firewall. It's stuff like this that draws attention from the wrong people and ends up getting the huddle banned at work places. I too will have to quit visiting the huddle at work if this continues, just can't spend the extra time sitting around watching my screen load. And it really blows because I'm in two BoTH leagues that I'd like to keep up on during the day. Link to comment
Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I think I love you, but what am I so afraid of?, I think you are the one that needs to settle down. You questioned my methods. I responded. The ads may not be YOUR problem, but I don't see anything in here that suggests they are not causing others problems. Some of the posters in this thread specifically said that when the pages finally load for them, the ads are not there. This would support the theory that a corporate block may be effecting them. Just because it is not your specific problem does not mean it should be disregarded. There are several reasons this could be a problem. It could be a hard block like I did where it blocks the entire IP. It could be a content filter which is trying to strip the offending content from the page. It's really hard to say exactly. It could be bandwidth throttling to certain sites, though this would be an extremely unlikely scenario. It could simply be a crappy connection between ISP. I'm just trying to help. If you don't want help, ignore me. I'm not going to ignore you I'm just saying you didn't replicate the problem. Blocking the ads and then editing the hosts file is not the issue here. As I've previously stated nothing in my network is blocked. Not a single site. I also wrote back and mentioned that the hops are taking a heck of a lot more time on my problematic pc. This gives me the indication that it's not so much ad related. Every one of my 15 offices is mirrored in the same fashion, the same config, etc. If it's not slow in one office and slow in another it can't be the ads, as that's not logical. Either way it's all good. I'm going to print out what I need using my terminal server connection and say peace to the message boards and head on over to another site that works. Link to comment
smithkt Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I'm not going to ignore you I'm just saying you didn't replicate the problem. Blocking the ads and then editing the hosts file is not the issue here. As I've previously stated nothing in my network is blocked. Not a single site. I also wrote back and mentioned that the hops are taking a heck of a lot more time on my problematic pc. This gives me the indication that it's not so much ad related. Every one of my 15 offices is mirrored in the same fashion, the same config, etc. If it's not slow in one office and slow in another it can't be the ads, as that's not logical. Either way it's all good. I'm going to print out what I need using my terminal server connection and say peace to the message boards and head on over to another site that works. I honestly believe your problem may be different from the others. Atomic's suggestion is worth trying for many of the others as it may resolve the issue for them. You must know how hard these things can be to trace down with the number of routers between you and your destination. A bad config on any one of those hops could cause a lot of grief. Anyway, all I can say is that with a complete block in place, I can duplicate the complaints of many of the posters in this thread, with 20-30 second delays on every page and no ads visible when the page finally loads. Using Atomic's solution of modifying the host file to redirect traffic for ads.adcorps.com to the local host resolves those issues and I still think it was a great suggestion and worth a shot. Link to comment
PantherDave Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Well, I could just get my 22 oz Plumb Framing Hammer and completely rectify the situation, but then I'd miss all my Huddle brethren and have to buy a new PC. Link to comment
tonyr0802 Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Do your corporate permissions allow you to change your hosts file? I'm guessing probably not... but I found this attempt at a fix on the web: Go to the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc folder. (Your system folder may vary depending on the version of windows). Open the file called "hosts" in notepad. It should just be "hosts" with no extension. At the bottom of the file, add this following line: 127.0.0.1 ads.adcorps.com Save the file, and reboot the system. Now, whenever you load a Huddle page, when it goes to find any content from ads.adcorps.com, it will look on your local computer for it (127.0.0.1 is an alias for "this computer"), and immediately come up with nothing instead of going out to your corporate DNS server over the network, and trying to resolve the IP and load the content. This should theoretically avoid the firewall altogether since it is never leaving your computer. Theoretically it should time out in milliseconds as opposed to minutes. On my PC, I get nothing where the ads would be and it took no time at all to load the page. This worked for me, thanks Atomic for doing the research on this and providing the help. Still miffed though that something I'm paying for is causing me this much of an issue, would gladly pay more to see the ads go away. Link to comment
Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I honestly believe your problem may be different from the others. Atomic's suggestion is worth trying for many of the others as it may resolve the issue for them. You must know how hard these things can be to trace down with the number of routers between you and your destination. A bad config on any one of those hops could cause a lot of grief. Anyway, all I can say is that with a complete block in place, I can duplicate the complaints of many of the posters in this thread, with 20-30 second delays on every page and no ads visible when the page finally loads. Using Atomic's solution of modifying the host file to redirect traffic for ads.adcorps.com to the local host resolves those issues and I still think it was a great suggestion and worth a shot. I guess it could be different. I tried Atomic's method a bunch of different ways. Cleared out the DNS, changed security settings, messed with active x controls, tried using IP instead of DNS name, different browsers, flushed my dns and other settings. This is very strange. And I'm not a web guy so I'm certainly not the authority on this subject. Link to comment
rajncajn Posted August 4, 2006 Author Share Posted August 4, 2006 (edited) Go to the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc folder. (Your system folder may vary depending on the version of windows). Open the file called "hosts" in notepad. It should just be "hosts" with no extension. At the bottom of the file, add this following line: 127.0.0.1 ads.adcorps.com Save the file, and reboot the system. THIS WORKS! Awesome job Atomic, I owe you a beer. I can see it still hang up, but now it only takes half a second to clear rather than 30-60. Edited August 4, 2006 by rajncajn Link to comment
smithkt Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 THIS WORKS! Awesome job Atomic, I owe you a beer. I can see it still hang up, but now it only takes half a second to clear rather than 30-60. Yep, Nice job. What you are seeing now is the difference between a failed response and no response. A no response requires you to wait for the browser to give up trying. The failed reponse gives back an immediate response saying "I've got nothing" Link to comment
rajncajn Posted August 4, 2006 Author Share Posted August 4, 2006 I think for the next hour or so I'm just going to go around posting random dancing bananna's just as fast as the flood gates will let me! Link to comment
Bengal Mania Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 somebody deserves a free membership! I was just about to (wait and) post "Last one out don't forget to turn out the lights", but now we're re-born! Nicely done! Link to comment
Hitman Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Brilliant, Atomic! Just have to have admin rights or it won't let you save the file. Link to comment
AtomicCEO Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I am available for hire as a troubleshooter and technical projects manager. I'm cheap too. Link to comment
BillyBalata Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Wish I would have saw this at work today, will have to give it a try on Monday. But I doubt I have the rights to make a change like this on my work computer. Might have to pick up a 12 pack for my IT buddy. Link to comment
AtomicCEO Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I guess the real question is... after applying this fix and avoiding adcorps content, do the pop-ups and trojan warnings stop? If not, you may have spyware. If they do stop... then you may want to report that to the site owners. Link to comment
Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Atomic, great job on the fix. It's not working for me, and probably some others and Smithkt figured out why. Smithkt determined that the ad site is trying to reach the server on port 8888 rather than port 80 which is the common port that internet traffic uses. So if anyone is still having trouble, thanks to Smithkt we have a shot at this. Good job!!! Link to comment
smithkt Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Atomic, great job on the fix. It's not working for me, and probably some others and Smithkt figured out why. Smithkt determined that the ad site is trying to reach the server on port 8888 rather than port 80 which is the common port that internet traffic uses. So if anyone is still having trouble, thanks to Smithkt we have a shot at this. Good job!!! This is only a hypothesis for now. Someone is going to have to prove it true first. I haven't really been able to duplicate I think I love you, but what am I so afraid of?'s specifc problem as of yet.... Link to comment
Guest Cherni Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 This is only a hypothesis for now. Someone is going to have to prove it true first. I haven't really been able to duplicate I think I love you, but what am I so afraid of?'s specifc problem as of yet.... Well I ran a Netstat with IE opened to google as well as IE opened to the huddle. I can see that the huddle is listening on port 8888. It's interesting to say the least. So basically as of now there are 2 reasons why people can't get on. 1. Corporate ad blocking. 2. Unorthodox usage of ports for listening. Link to comment
Trots Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Why can't they just set it back to the way that it was?? I'm not gonna change my work computers configurations to view theHuddle. I just will limit my time here, as painful as that will be. It's not worth the risk or frustration. Link to comment
BillyBalata Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 In my frustration with this experience this week, I may have left out one interesting piece of information. On Monday, Tuesday and then Wed morning this week I was using an older box with NT running it. On Wed afternoon, i was hooked up with a new unit with Windows XP. Same problems on both machines. I don't think I want to go messing with any files and botch up my new puter the first week I get it. New, fast, lean machine, and I can't use it at the huddle. Link to comment
WJW Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I'm closing this thread, not because I want the discussion to end, but because it will soon be unnecessary. First, I want to apologize for the craziness around here this week. Everything I've done has been in an attempt to put a stop to the occasional popup ad problem we were experiencing. I've been laser focused on that for weeks. With the help of our ad manager (a person, not a system) I did indeed solve that problem on Monday. Unfortunately that solution has caused a new issue with some company ad blocking and firewall software. I'm currently working on another solution that will involve going back to our original (and quite frankly better) ad serving configuration. We will then begin to put in place measures and settings that will deal with the occasional popup issues. That is a longer and more detailed process, which is why we chose to make the ad server switch since it was quicker and we knew it would work. The bottom line is that by Monday we should be back to where we were prior to the ad server switch. In the interim I've loaded up one of our default banners on the forums, so all should be well again for everyone. Again, my apologies. Rest assured, both David and myself take this stuff very seriously and are always working hard in the background to remedy undesirable situations at The Huddle. Link to comment
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