Flash Ads- I hate them

[Lzcutter]

I have the pop-up ad blocker so that's not the problem.

The problem is with newspaper websites (and other heavily traveled media sites) that have advertising. Many of the advertisements are flash driven.

Those flash ads annoy the crap out of me because they hold my computer hostage when I don't want them to! I want to read the articles not wait while the flash ad plays.

[knitwit45]

Lynn, Flashblocker does just that - blocks flash content. instead of the flash, you see a circle with an arrow in it. If you want to see the media, you click the circle. There is a "white list" of sites that you say can always allow flash content (TCM is a good example). Once on the "white list", you don't have to bother clicking arrows again. It's a process, but you only have to train it once per site, if you wish to see the flash content.

[Ollie]

I just wish I could install FlashBlocker way upstream in the Internet somewhere so MY computer never has to first receive the Flash crap (which consumes so much bandwidth - anyone using TCM UNION feels that choking sluggishness or, as mentioned, waiting for IMDB to finally finish pasting all of its crap on-screen. THEN FlashBlocker takes over and thwarts it.

But the bandwidth is first consumed, then blocked. I've love to reach down the Internet's throat and plug it up way earlier so my bandwidth is never syphoned off.

I need a FlashBangloreTorpedo, I think.

[MissGoddess]

I just wish I could install FlashBlocker way upstream in the Internet somewhere so MY computer never has to first receive the Flash crap (which consumes so much bandwidth - anyone using TCM UNION feels that choking sluggishness or, as mentioned, waiting for IMDB to finally finish pasting all of its crap on-screen. THEN FlashBlocker takes over and thwarts it.

But the bandwidth is first consumed, then blocked. I've love to reach down the Internet's throat and plug it up way earlier so my bandwidth is never syphoned off.

I need a FlashBangloreTorpedo, I think.

Oh wow...I hear always about "bandwidth"...does that mean, Ollie, we're only capable of using a certain amount and then what happens? It gets slow or stops altogether? What does that depend on? The type of internet connection or the type of computer we use?

When we exit that bandwidth-munching site, do we get it (the used up bandwidth) back?

[Professional Tourist]

Oh wow...I hear always about "bandwidth"...does that mean, Ollie, we're only capable of using a certain amount and then what happens? It gets slow or stops altogether? What does that depend on? The type of internet connection or the type of computer we use?

When we exit that bandwidth-munching site, do we get it (the used up bandwidth) back?

The term 'bandwidth' refers to the speed of a communications link, described in the amount of data it is able to transfer within a unit of time. Relative to the internet, this will ordinarily mean the amount of data within one second that can be downloaded from a server somewhere on the world wide web to a personal computer. So if your ISP (internet service provider) advertises that your link is a maximum of 5Mbps downstream, that would mean your bandwidth tops out at 5 megabits, or 625 kilobytes, that can be downloaded in one second.

To put this in practical terms, say you are loading the home page for your local newspaper, which has many ads, and let's say the page takes thirty seconds to load completely, and if there were no ads at all it would take fifteen seconds to load. That would mean that the ads were using up half of your bandwidth -- the connection isn't any slower, but half of it is being used to transfer unwanted data.

[knitwit45]

Our own Pro Tourist is a WHIZ BANG at Mac! A programmer, I believe, so direct any questions you might have to our resident expert!

The term 'bandwidth' refers to the speed of a communications link, described in the amount of data it is able to transfer within a unit of time. Relative to the internet, this will ordinarily mean the amount of data within one second that can be downloaded from a server somewhere on the world wide web to a personal computer. So if your ISP (internet service provider) advertises that your link is a maximum of 5Mbps downstream, that would mean your bandwidth tops out at 5 megabits, or 625 kilobytes, that can be downloaded in one second.

To put this in practical terms, say you are loading the home page for your local newspaper, which has many ads, and let's say the page takes thirty seconds to load completely, and if there were no ads at all it would take fifteen seconds to load. That would mean that the ads were using up half of your bandwidth -- the connection isn't any slower, but half of it is being used to transfer unwanted data.

SEE!!!!! I TOLD YOU!!!!!!

[Ollie]

ProT's put it well.

You can easily think of your internet connection as a Throat, swallowing, spitting back, swallowing more, spitting back more. As graphic as that is, it's a useful analogy. Because...

Once, things could be delivered into your computer that were simply known as 'viruses' - unpleasant things. During their first 'bad phase', they would delete or rename critical files.

In their second incarnation, there was an idea to create trojan-horse timeD bombs. Not just a time-bomb. But a timeD bomb. This used one of your computer's many "scheduling/calendaring programs" - that updated your screen's time, for example. When these timed-bombs went off, they performed some function, and you may never know it. They could be 'merely' destructive and delete or rename files, and you'd fairly quickly know about them.

But the more insideous ones would run their own programs and force your computer's brain to spend lots (or all) of their time doing whatever this 'virus' wanted. Often, it could be merely running a calculation until your computer spent 100% of its time doing this background calculation. You'd see a slow, slower, slowest computer that would appear to stall. Your mouse wouldn't respond. The computer seemed 'locked up'. In reality, it was merely doing 100% of some function. Just because YOU didn't start that function, so what? Your computer was merely doing what it was told.

By someone.

Then, along comes the Internet and people are connected, and one of these 'trojan horse' style programs started "phoning home" - the ET Effect. You'd download them, somehow, and unbeknownst to you, they were sending out little messages, "I'm here... I'm here... send me something..." Sort of like an email system's InBox, but you'd never know it.

And of course, each of these 'beacon' or phone-home attempts uses bandwidth - your computer spits something out, their computer jams something back.

What happened if some poor user visited 10 of these websites? Well, that's ten times the bandwidth now consumed by trojan-horses 'phoning home'. The user didn't have a use for that... but the websites loved to beam info back - sales, flash-ad type programs...

If you ever stumbled upon a website that spawned dozens of windows, one after another, endlessly, then you know what one of these "attacks" looked like. Your computer had a little program that told the Internet site, "Pay no attention to the user canceling web-windows - just keep sending me more - here's my IP address! Send me more!"

All of which consumes bandwidth.

My use of the Swallow-SpitUp analogy means this 'bandwidth' gets consumed in both directions - when the Internet sends you something, and when your computer is sending info or requests for more screens back to it. And there can certainly be a 'gagging' effect. Pretty unpleasant.

The 'beacon' trojan horse programs are generally referred to now, politely, as "adware".

DO I GET BANDWIDTH BACK? You should. You should always get 100% back. In our Perfect World. (You DO live in a perfect world, yes?)

But in reality, there are always little, uh, droppings left behind. And the 'beacon' technology often calls itself "Flash Technology" or something so your computer's brains are still called up to do a lot more work than you anticipated.

When you access TCM UNION and you see an immediately sluggish response, THIS is not only a bandwidth-robbing 'technology', but it's also calling on your computer to perform certain tasks. Just because you didn't know what you were getting into, well, they're still on your computer. And you DID visit there once... voluntarily. "Dear Count, please come thru the window..."

Even with FlashBlocker or these style of programs, you've still got programs running things that few users would actually enjoy.

All of it is part of the SkyNet mentality - advertisers and websites saying, "We're muscling our way onto YOUR computer screen, and up yers, because WE demand to be there and you have no bleepin' choice about it." Signed, TimeWarner, or AT&T, or ComCast. Apple. Microsoft. Google, I suspect, too. Flash.

You've already invited Dracula into your computer once. It's his nature to visit whenever HE feels like it. And if you've got Auto-Update features installed on some software, the Count comes in and changes whatever it can, including any setting that prevents today's FlashBlocker from working tomorrow.

FlashBlocker just needs another auto-update cycle! ha ha...

I really dislike the 'giving away' of my computer's processing power, much less the bandwidth, to the internet sites. They don't know what I really like. (I mean, IF they were so bleepin' smart, why isn't my yard littered with Vegas dancing girls, all day, all night?!! Big feathery plumes, wonderful light shows, etc. I LIKE DANCING GIRLS!! But do they ever show up?!! Nooooo... Heck, Wifey even dismantled the minefield and said, "Fine! See if they show up NOW, smarty." Alas, she's right - the minefield wasn't the reason. Darn.)

[knitwit45]

:shock:I think we have an alien in our midst....

[MissGoddess]

My goodness, thank you ProfT and Ollie for those EYE OPENING (or thoat exposing?) explanations...I don't think I'll ever view my computer as a safe haven again. Should I call in the fierce internet Vampire killers?

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[Professional Tourist]

My goodness, thank you ProfT and Ollie for those EYE OPENING (or thoat exposing?) explanations...I don't think I'll ever view my computer as a safe haven again. Should I call in the fierce internet Vampire killers?

Not necessary -- just move over to a Mac.

[MissGoddess]

Not necessary -- just move over to a Mac.

In fact I am and I'm excited! However it's back-ordered something like three weeks so I may not get it until the end of the year. I can't wait.

[MissGoddess]

Irony of ironies. All of a sudden, Flash doesn't work on my office PC. It somehow got "uninstalled" and now I have to ask my IT department to install it again. "Yes, I need Flash sir because it's hard to navigate TCM's website and it interferes with my job productivity...."