Avast Anti Virus and TractorByNet

[fixitman123]

When surfing tractorbynet I keep getting the popup from my avast software telling me that "avast web shield has blocked a harmful webpage or file"
It also shows tractorbynet as having a bad reputation. I think it is coming from one of the advertisements. The file is listed as coming from Http://symonash.org
Is it really a harmful file or is it just a "false positive" I thoroughly enjoy tractorbynet but this is annoying to say the least.

 

[davesl708]

I have to clean my PC after every visit to TBN. I have dozen to hundreds of meg of junk downloaded. A lot of tracking cookies. Symonash is not good. My security blocks it automatically.

 

[Sysop]

It really isn't TBN, it is the advertisers. If you want, I can provide you with information on how to eliminate many web advertisements without the need for additional software and cut down on the rate at which that sort of stuff clogs your system.

After doing it, any places in webpages that used to have ads will show the page cannot be displayed within the ad region, as shown:

 

[Soundguy]

I agree, it's something in an add. kaspersky constantly complains about something when i'm on tbn. What it boils down to are a couple issues. page redirects always look fishy to malware software, and 2, sometimes adds get hijacked.

 

[Sysop]

What I'm recommending will make any browser unable to reach the advertisers servers. No data ever changes hands between your system and the advertisers, and it totally eliminates the extra work your security software is doing. It also eliminates a legitimately malicious advertisement from slipping by the security software and infecting your system.

About two years ago one of the advertisers on NBC.com had a bad ad cycling for a few hours and infected over a quarter million visitors. It happens more often than people realize, that is just one that happened to make major headlines...

 

[fixitman123]

What I'm recommending will make any browser unable to reach the advertisers servers. No data ever changes hands between your system and the advertisers, and it totally eliminates the extra work your security software is doing. It also eliminates a legitimately malicious advertisement from slipping by the security software and infecting your system.

About two years ago one of the advertisers on NBC.com had a bad ad cycling for a few hours and infected over a quarter million visitors. It happens more often than people realize, that is just one that happened to make major headlines...

What is it you recommend?

 

[aczlan]

What is it you recommend?

I would hazard a guess that he is recommending a hosts file ad block (such as Using a Hosts File To Make The Internet Not Suck (as much)) which sends all requests to ad servers to the bit bucket. The downside is that you need to update it frequently or it will get out of date.
I like Ad Block Plus (for Firefox, Chrome and IE) as it knocks out 95% of it and its easy for the user to bypass if needed.

Aaron Z

 

[Sysop]

Correct, it is a modification of the HOSTS file in Windows. I can provide instructions and a list of well known malicious advertising URLs to add. Anytime any program wants to communicate with one of these servers, the entry in the HOSTS file provides an 'incorrect' address for the URL and makes it unreachable. I update mine about once a year or when I see something that starts to appear on sites I frequent. It is a good solution as it prevents the communications from beginning without any extra software processing on the side.

 

[MikePA]

I solved the problem by not running Windows and using AdBlock

 

[MossRoad]

I solved the problem by not surfing **** on the internet....

But seriously, I've been on TBN for 14 years and never have problems... until someone at our house goes shopping on the computer. Then when I go to TBN, I get ads for female clothing, shoes, chick flicks, etc... everything they were shopping for shows up on anything linked to google ads.

Right now, on this page, I see an ad for Xfinity at the top, John Deere on the right, and low and behold, an ad for AVG Antivirus below the Deere ad. Its all based on what you look for at home or work, and what the conversation is about. It found keywords for anti-virus and targeted the ad to that.