New Window?

[hobbsyoyo]

Please and thank you.

It took 7 refreshes to post this.

The opera issue probably isn't linked to this as this just started today and this most assuredly is a serious issue. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's breaking the forum for myself and others.

 

[Nintz]

I am seeing this also (on Firefox). The blank window states I need to update my Flash player (which I don't) and is trying to direct me to the site update95 dot com. I can't find any information on this site.

Just going to add that I'm getting this on Chrome, on a regular PC.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks.

 

[Gucumatz]

Yea I am having the same problem, I have to mess with my security settings to be even able to post on civfanatics atm. This stupid blank page is making it fairly unbearable.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I just close the blank window if it appears and I go back to where I wanted.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

No, it prevents you from doing anything. Every single click, say, to put your cursor into a text box triggers a new box. Every click. You can't just close the blank window because when you go back to cfc and try and type something another box opens.

 

[Gary Childress]

I'm getting this annoying "about:blank" crap too. I don't know of any other legitimate website on the net that has so many problems with malware and intrusvie adds as CFC does. It's time to change advertisers or something because this is just ridiculous. It seems like every other month there's some new bogus adware scam or something.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

While this problem is infuriating, I'm not sure it makes CFC one of the worst sites out there as far as bad ads go.

 

[jshetley]

My antivirus software has given me warnings on this site today and just now a page opened up showing a video on youtube.

 

[RegentMan]

Yep I've been getting it too. Sooo many blank pages to close.

 

[Quintillus]

I've been getting the Flash update from update 95 popup, too. I would consider this serious, as I suspect that if you went ahead and tried to "update" Flash, you'd get a virus. Obviously I'm not going to test that theory. Did run a full anti-virus scan after the first popup, and at least nothing turned up then.

 

[ainwood]

If people can give me more information, it would help. I have no problems here....

 

[BvBPL]

There isn't really a lot of information to give. What is happening is that frequently new, blank browser pop ups come up when browsing the forums and the main site. These are just full screen "about:new window" things that show no data (but see below, may vary by browser). Some information:

• 
  These windows happen, for me, very frequently, but not all the time.
  Sometimes just one window will pop once when the page loads.
  Sometimes a window will pop up every time I click or type anything in the browser window (this makes the site unusable)
  Refreshing the page may make it go away or may enable the problem where it has not happened before.
  It appears to happen on nearly every forum that I've visited on the site.
  To me, this seems to have appear right around the same time new ads showed up that were twice as high, but half as long.
  However, sometimes it happens when no ad has loaded (blank ad space)
  This behavior seems to happen more frequently w/ IE than Firefox.
  W/ Firefox I seem to have more banner ad loads than IE, but fewer pop ups (although I've still experienced popups)
  Doesn't seem to matter what the ad is for.

My information:

• Win 7
  IE 9, primarily (gets blank screen)
  Firefox 19.0.2
  but in Firefox, I don't get a blank screen, I get this url: "http://update95.com/flash-player/index2a.php?&_mcnc&af=abe01c4d31a913d9a32a62be7cd403bf&of=g-5-usa%20%20&p=[c4]&al=WARNING!%20Your%20Flash%20Player%20may%20be%20out%20of%20date.%20Please%20click%20to%20continue&fi=Upgrade" w/ the message "your flash player may be out of date" and a "click here to update" button. (weirdly, "upgrade95.com" does not have a Whois entry w/ Network Solutions, which suggests to me that this is some malicious stuff)
  W/ IE I have an opt-out cookie w/ your ad provider, but I do not think I have on Firefox. Not sure if that is relevant.
  No ad blocking on either browser.

I've found that the following work arounds are helpful:

• Set CFC to restricted sites in IE. Seems to stop these all together, but further impairs ability to use site.
  Stop (press ESC) the page after it loads. May stop additional popups for that page (but I could be wrong. Note that sometimes the pop ups appear for each click, sometimes just for one page load)

 

[ainwood]

OK - I see you are using Modern CFC style as well. What are other people using? I ask because we removed a dodgy link from the Modern CFC style yesterday that wasn't affecting other styles. I can't see any obvious issues in the Modern CFC style templates at the moment though...

 

[Bamspeedy]

I am using the forum default style and in IE I get this for everything in the forum I touch (even clicking on an empty space.....no links or anything, will get the 'blank page'). I can view member profiles and some of the other side stuff with no problem, but other stuff like changing the options cause it to happen again.

I was only able to reply by using google chrome because in IE I couldn't get the cursor in the reply window (or I briefly had it to write a half sentence, after that I couldn't type one letter without the pop-up window, and then since I clicked on the screen 20 times, I got 20 windows). But even in google chrome I get the update95 link when trying to view forum posts.

Edit: Problem seems to be gone with google chrome. IE still has the popups last I checked.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I am using the default CFC style and still having the problem. It happens on my android phone as well, about half the time a blank pop up appears, other times a full page pop up ad loads and takes up my whole screen on the phone.

 

[Biologist]

I have the same problem with this site. Started on 4/1/13, still happening. Frequency varies... sometimes I can click the screen and nothing happens, but most times anywhere I click on the screen opens a blank window. Antivirus scans don't show any malware after visiting Civfanatics, and my software is up-to-date.

All of Civfanatics is unfortunately nearly unusable with this issue. Sometimes it isn't even possible to log in, because trying to click on or type in the login box just opens more windows.

 

[steveg700]

If people can give me more information, it would help. I have no problems here....

What browser are you using?

I've found that the following work arounds are helpful:

• Set CFC to restricted sites in IE. Seems to stop these all together, but further impairs ability to use site.

• 
  Glad somebody else tried this and mentioned it finally. There's probably a scriptlet running.

 

[steveg700]

I tried selectively changing the settings under IE's Restricted Sites security zone. The one that causes the blank pages to stop appearing is under Scripting >> Active Scripting. If disabled, the pages don't appear. But this does affect other elements of the site. For instance, without scripting I can't use any of the text editor features.

 

[Xger]

I use IE8 at work and am having the issues with clicking only. I can type in boxes if I tab down to them but clicking is unworkable.

I have seemed to resolve it by setting IE8 pop-up blocker to the highest settings which stops all pop-ups period.

 

[Biologist]

Adding civfanatics.com to restricted sites for IE seems to fix the problem. I have no more pseudo-windows/blank popups appearing when I click the screen. Some features are limited and my browser will no longer automatically redirect on login, but at least I can post without going crazy.