I can't get Elad to explain to me

[clear eye]

why DU appears to be downloading as long as I'm on one of the threads here or composing a message to post. He won't respond to my emails. The little DU icon at the front of the tab never comes up, and the little circle icon in its place indicating download in progress just keeps rotating, no matter how short the thread. This doesn't happen w/ any other pages on the site, including the enormous content-heavy GD title pages or the front page.

I have an up-to-date star, so it shouldn't be the result of spyware ads. In fact those are the only pages w/o ads. Could that be it? That this is the only way to spy on activity on pages w/o ads?

I'd be really grateful for a good answer.

[Duer 157099]

1. Which browser?

If Firefox, I'd advise to try an add-on called ScriptBlock and then see if it still happens. Then you'll know it's a running script, and by process of elimination, can figure out which one.

[clear eye]

2. IE 8. - Does your response mean it's not happening to you?

I'm sure I should switch, but I'm such a computer dummy that I'm afraid I'll foul it up. For instance will the Firefox download ok while my Norton Internet Security, including firewall, is running, or if not, how to keep my computer safe w/the Firewall off? Also I've only got a laptop w/o a whole lot of memory so I try not to put a whole lot of stuff on it.

The whole situation, especially lack of response from the tech Admin, is making me feel paranoid.

[Duer 157099]

4. Correct, it does not happen to me

It may well be a google-analytics script that is running, as I see that that's one of the ones that is blocked when I use the script blocker. Or it could be blogads.

I, unfortunately, have no idea how to deal with this in IE as I stopped using that eons ago.

BTW, with script block, it gives you the option to allow or forbid scripts from various domains, so at each site, it tell you which scripts are trying to run. So that's where you'd use the process of elimination, allow one at a time and see if you get the behavior.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

[clear eye]

5. That Google thing sounds like the best guess

because if it were blogads I'd expect it to run on the pages with ads, not the ones w/o them. Also, DU uses the Google search feature which means Google has to have access to everything. I double-checked and found I'm still using IE7 not IE8. I think the update aborted on my less than perfect system. (I have a slightly corrupted BIOS which would need a whole new system card to fix, so I'm making do until I can afford a new computer. No, flashing my BIOS doesn't correct the problem.) My search results tell me that IE8 does have a limited XSS filter which blocks some types of scripts.

I'm going to try to learn how to download Firefox, and if I succeed, I'll dump IE altogether. From what I've just read, IE is significantly more vulnerable than Firefox. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

[Duer 157099]

6. Good, I think it's wise to go from IE to Firefox

if only for security purposes, but also because people here can be more helpful cuz I think most computer savvy people here use FF.

It really should be easy to download and install.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask questions here

(but I am curious about your BIOS problem now that you bring it up... why do you say that flashing doesn't correct it?)

[clear eye]

3. Someone would also have to help me w/ that "process of elimination" part.

Even if I did find it was running a script, I wouldn't know how to find out which one. The weird thing is that it only happens on DU.

Thanks for at least a partial answer. Running a script does make sense, but of course leaves open the question of whether DU is generating it or an outsider.

Maybe an IE ace will come along and tell me how to do something similar for this browser.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

7. If had similar problems with IE8

It's almost as if it's trying to block certain content, but the content insists on being downloaded, and the two get in a "tug of war" (for lack of a better word).

Were I you, I'd download and install Firefox. I'm a Microsoft Professional that hasn't used IE for anything other than troubleshooting for other people since at least 2006. Here's the link to download Firefox from the official site: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html

[clear eye]

9. Thanks for the link n/t

[pokerfan]

8. It's pretty straightforward

I can only speak to http://noscript.net/">NoScript as I am unfamiliar with script block. But anyways, it will pop up and tell you the site you're on is try to run scripts. There are good scripts and there are bad scripts. I always start by disabling all of them on a page and then when something isn't working quite right I start enabling them one by one until I find the one(s) I need and leave the rest disabled. It's a little bit of a pain at first but once your whitelist set up for the pages you visit most often you will come to appreciate it.

And Firefox won't screw anything up. It happily coexists these days with IE. It will even import your favorites (bookmarks), settings and passwords from IE. IE will still be there whenever you want to use it.

[madokie]

10. I see the same thing and when I turn off adobe

shockwave flash object it quites doing that. I hope someone comes along with the cure for this because it is quite annoying. I tried to go back to an earlier version of adobe but can't seem to find where to download it.

I would like to add: This only happens on DU and not on any of the other websites I go to, which I must admit is not very many.

[madokie]

11. I keep coming back to see if you find a solution

to this problem. Like I said in post 10 I have disabled adobe flash and that takes care of the problem but that work around creates other problems. I don't go to youtube often and not to many websites I go to need the flash plugin but I would like to not have to disable and re-enable adobe flash though. What gets me is this is only a DU thing, I see it being a problem on no other sites. whats the deal with that???

[Why Syzygy]

12. It's "clearspring".

I have that issue with Opera at times. I noticed it when using IE8 and Safari as well.

Clearspring is the "share/bookmark" widget in OPs.

[madokie]

13. Sounds fair enough

Is there anything we can do about it?

[Why Syzygy]

14. I don't know.

It's possible DU gets revenue from them.

You could check out their forum:
http://www.clearspring.com/forum/

[madokie]

15. When I disable adobe's flash player the problem goes away

then when I re-enable flash the problem returns. This has been going on for about a month now and in that time I've reformated and reloaded xp twice thinking it might be something on my machine. Nothing has changed so far. When I look at inprivate filtering clearspring is not listed at all. I'm not trying to be obtuse I'm just trying to get enough info out there so as someone may be able to help me. It's not a big deal but it annoys the heck out of me. This only happens here at DU, no where else.


Add: this is what shows up in the status bar if it helps any.

(1 item remaining)waiting for http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address

When I clicked on that link I just added this is what I get>

Access Denied

The page you requested cannot be displayed because you do not have access to this forum or this forum is currently offline. If you wish to access this forum, please contact the administrator of this site.
If you have any questions, please contact the site administrator.
Click here to go back to previous page.

[Why Syzygy]

16. That may be because the image

is stored in the DU image directory. What if you disable images from loading? Do you know how to do that in your browser settings?


http: //www. democraticunderground. com/images/share-bookmark.gif

The button leads to:
http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php

I also read Roy giving this clearspring explanation to someone else. I didn't know what clearspring was until I looked into it.

[madokie]

17. The issue I've been worried about seems to have been fixed

:woohoo:

[Why Syzygy]

18. That's good ..

I would think that resolving it has to save on DU's server load and bandwidth.

[madokie]

19. Nothing changed on my end

DU was all wonkie last night when I went to bed but this morning its back to it's old self.
my thanks go to the fix it man