yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[About XDA developers] [] AL []:
I never, never see any app banners on my phone.

1. for apps that do not really need Internet, I use a firewall to block their access;

2. Use a custom hosts file that I (rarely) modify if need is;

3. For apps that need Internet and still show ads after 1 and 2 above, I hack them to make any banner invisible (make their size in layout 0x0 dip);

And if all that doesn't do it, then it's more than likely that this app is not for me...

Search my threads for more info on all 3 points.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
When I saw only the first line of your post earlier today I thought "I bet he's using a firewall" :). The problem isn't really the ad banners them selves, it is the fact that in the XDA app the banner sometimes (during instances where it says please wait rather than just show an ad) tries to load Google Play Store and or default browser. When it actually pops a regular ad into the bar the hand-off to Play Store or Browser does not occur. The more I test, the more unique to the XDA app this seems.

I don't see a way to manage it at the app level since I do use the XDA app, Google Play Store and browser (Dolphin), and I don't see how I could keep up with identifying the individual advertising sites. Good suggestions though, especially the hosts file. Considering the # of times I've been in a hosts files on PCs I should have thought of that one but didn't :o. Adblock Plus seems to cover it for now.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Perhaps this is not on XDA, although it I don't see why this could not be prevented with changes to the XDA app. That said...all the spammy links do go to the Play Store...and this just months after Google yanks ad blockers from their store. Grrrr.

- Open XDA App.

- IF: Ad banner at bottom of page says "please wait..."

- THEN: Google Play Store app and or web browser open to advertising for whatever product was trying to load in the bottom ad bar in XDA app. These 2 are common.

- After going back to XDA app, the ad bar may or may not be populated. If populated clicking on ad link takes you to the same Google play or browser page as before.

- When a "proper" add fills the adbar there is no jump to play store or other intrusion.
[About XDA developers] [] AL []:
[MENTION=5119654]IronTechmonkey[/MENTION]

Message edited after I've realized that this thread WAS XDA specific...

..

Because it sure doesn't look right to me and I sure hope that it was not designed to do so. Some sort of adware/malware maybe?

Did you try checking your logs to see if there is a common denominator that could be added to the hosts file? And btw, I've tried 2-3 ad blocking apps before, but none has convinced me to keep them installed. Just a custom hosts file included in my "flash_this_after_rom.zip" has always fine as good of a job for me...
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
I've been trying but unable to reproduce the intrusion in other apps that have similar (or any) ad bars. Now I'm thinking that the advertising methods/scripting have recently gotten more intrusive, enabled/facilitated by Google, outpacing and finding a way through a weakness in the XDA free app.... or that XDA is complicit and intentionally allowing this (I don't want to believe that but it must be considered). This also makes me wonder about the XDA premium app which was updated in November while the last XDA free app update was in August. An admittedly cynical view of this timeline:

- Google kicks ad blockers out of play store

- XDA updated ad-free app

- Ad spam renders XDA free relatively useless (selling XDA pro)

- While force opening Play Store (selling Google)

Good golly, these forehead slaps are hurting my brain. I assumed it would be multiple sources at an unmanageable level (denial or laziness at play there) but this is the most logical next step. :good: Thanks.

I'm not a fan of such apps either and even though Ad Block stops it it's not really worth the overhead just for this and it requires that a different hole be opened by requiring background data on to work over mobile data connection.

[EDIT] I'm still logging and trying to get a good comparison between an instances of "acceptable" and "intrusive" ads. As a primer:

For both acceptable and intrusive instances, in the log there are long complicated spammy links to known back-end ad generators. Blocking them may indeed stop the pop-ins to Play Store but I still want to know the source of the intrusive behavior since this indicates it's not the ad generators alone.

Also for both acceptable and intrusive instances this part of the log with an outdated warning:

"I/Ads (14392): Request scenario: Online server request.

I/Ads (14392): Received log message: <"string": "<Google:HTML> You are using version 6.4.1 of the AdMob SDK which is non-compliant with the Google Play Ad Policy (http://goo.gl/6OZelH). On August 1st, 2014, Google Play will stop accepting updates to apps using this SDK. Upgrade to Google Play services now to avoid this deadline.", "afmaNotifyDt": "null">"

The last update to the XDA free app was only 3 days after the deadline mentioned above, for what that is worth.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
[MENTION=4895937]palmbeach05[/MENTION] I'm still logging and testing this, sort of hoping that one of the new CM12 ROMS will take care of is so I don't have to chase it. If you are interested in chasing this I have some logs and from what I see in them so far I'm curious about the possible involvement of the Gapp's package (PA nano 12/14) and subsequent GS updates.
[About XDA developers] sharonbw:
I'm SICK of these! Am I understanding right that it does not occur on Tapatalk? Latest upgrade got really bad reviews but I cannot stand xda right now!

Sent from my GT-p511x
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Now dismissing involvement of Gapps package used as possible cause. This is an XDA issue. Refuse to purchase XDA paid version under these conditions but will gladly do so if I see this issue fixed. AdBlockPlus is effective but they were apparently paid off by Google to allow some ads that users chose to block. AdAway uses less resources (since it does not run as an ongoing system service) and seems just as effective... if you are rooted. Both have varying degrees of effectiveness depending on root status, Android version and ROM build/version. So after finding a happy compromise where people accepted banner adds in part of the screen, this new form of intrusive advertising encourages people to accept no ads. S-l-o-w c-l-a-p.
[About XDA developers] agentfazexx:
Correct, XDAs ad issues do not happen on Tapatalk
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
btw: I did find 3 or 4 domains the blocking of which might help but that would be an ever changing target. I've switched from AdBlockPlus to AdAway which merges a few on-line sources into a host file along with your own items. It's default of all the lists that it makes available is effective and even works over mobile data (thanks to CM proxy in the APN being blank, I believe). AdAway should use less resources but its 38,000 line 1MB host file is being handled somewhere at resource expense.
[About XDA developers] sharonbw:
I tried Tapatalk and found it essentially unusable. I've installed Adaway (which I'm not sure I understand) so well see what happens. :)
[About XDA developers] cobyman7035:
U will still get the occasional ad that adaway wont block using tapatalk… kate uptons game of war popups like her boobs lol

Via my NeXus™ 7FHD on XDA Premium app
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
As for AdAway: There is a file on the droid (also on PCs) named hosts. Internet domain names from which you want to block traffic can be entered into this file. On PCs, entries in the hosts file can also be use by cracked software to prevent license checking, and by malware to prevent antivirus software from updating. In our case on the droid, AdAware adds a whole bunch (nearly 39,000) domains of known advertising sources to be blocked to the host file - if you enable all 4 of it's sources of advertising domain lists. You can select less sources for a smaller hosts file but I'm still testing the full list.

The contents of a default hosts file may look like this

127.0.0.1 localhost

or this

127.0.0.1 localhost

::1 local host

A hosts file populated with entries to be blocked may look like this

127.0.0.1 ihatepops.com

127.0.0.1 ad319m.adk2.co

etc

etc

You can view the contents of the host file from within AdAway (Menu - open hosts file) but if it is full of all 39,000 entries it will take time to open. If you were to encounter a pop-up ad that made it through (as suggested in a previous post) you could add manually it to the host file. Some of the ability to manage the host file and get full functionality from AdAway (particularly over mobile data) will depend on having Root and on what ROM you use.
[About XDA developers] [] AL []:
On any rom, the file is in: "system/etc/" folder.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Ha!. I think that line or something like it is still in a buffer on my PC - a cut and paste never finished. Thanks.

Also, now I'm curious about who the host file is handled - how frequently it gets read, at what moments it gets read, and how processor intensive that is.
[About XDA developers] [] AL []:
My hosts file is ~300kB.

I've tried a larger one (can't remember exactly it's size; maybe anywhere 1.5< x <3MB) and I serous hindered the phone's performances but it had 512MB or ram only...

So I'd say, even it is not apparent at first glance on a better spec'd phone, the size of that file will have an impact at some point..

A bit vague as a statement I realize, but just to say that I see no point in concatenating different lists together...

Another thought: the bigger the file is, the more chances you have that one of the entry is actually one that you don't need blocked one day. That happened to me a few times on the PC before. So now both my phone and PC use the same one which I edit if needed...

The one found here is a good start:

http://someonewhocares.org/

Dan P. listens/responds and edit the list upon users feedback.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Looks well tended. 10,000 or so items broken into different categories. I'm now testing AdAware's own server list which is the smallest of the one the app can autodownload at less then 500 entries at 16KB. Stops everything I need. Will whittle it down from there making comparisons to Dan P.'s list. Thanks.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
BTW, In AdAway menu, "Host sources" The last entry which is AdAware's own list of servers to block is the smallest at less than 500 items and seems effective. It and blocks the XDA ad spam others while coasting less system overhead.
[About XDA developers] sharonbw:
Thanks - that's working! What a relief! :)

Would it also be blocking pop-ups for chat? I couldn't get the AT&T chat box for customer service and don't see how Adaway would block it but don't know what else.
[About XDA developers] mediawiz:
Since installing the last version (or perhaps the one before), everytime I start the XDA app on my phone, it launches a page in my browser and/or brings up Google Play Store and tries to get me to install some app. It's really annoying!!!!!!!
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
If the chat pop-ups contain content from any of the blocked advertisers there could be problems but I don't now how AT&T's CS chat works. You'd have to test with AdAway disabled to know for sure.

---------- Post added at 03:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 AM ----------

Are you talking about XDA Premium or XDA Free? XDA Free has not been updated since last August and Premium was updated about 2 months ago. For many people these ads started more recently, which indicates other factors like changes in the advertising and Google landscapes.
[About XDA developers] Janne79:
Same issue here with xda free. It's trying to open a browser window or the playstore. What makes it suspicious for me is that I cannot use my browsers (chrome and dolphin) to watch the xda forums too. As soon as the xda forum page is loaded it redirects me to an add and it's impossible to get back to the xda forums (constant redirecting). That makes me think it's not (only) a xda free app problem but a xda problem. Hope I'm wrong.

Btw the phone's new. Almost impossible I have malware on it, especially since this only happens on xda, no other website.
[About XDA developers] sharonbw:
Same here. Adaway blocks it, whatever the source, thank goodness!
[About XDA developers] [] AL []:
I've read before that in theory all it can take is a few minutes on line to see infection probably skyrocket; just a few seconds to start being tested for vulnerabilities. So with all due respect, the fact that the phone is new is not really relevant (unless you've never went online or used data at all...which is very unlikely).

I never had that issue with Tapatalk app or with my phone's internet browsers and as mentioned recently here, I use no third party ad blocking (just a custom hosts file). On a few occasions I had xda pages to load on browser, but I don't think it was directly related to the issue being discussed here.

All this to say that to me, I does seem likely that xda app as some security holes being exploited... But that's just my wild guess don't take this for cash...

[emoji12]

Why don't you guys try Tapatalk for a test drive for a while?

It takes some getting used to, but it has almost the exact some options as xda app with just a few layout variations... Someone said it's "unusable" before; I say you're doing it wrong then.

[emoji16] [emoji111]
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Not a wild guess at all. Very likely the case that the app just needs to be updated to keep up with more aggressive ad tactics (which are perhaps enabled by Google.)

As to infection time (the testing of which was part of my job)...for 2002 era auto propagating malware, seconds was indeed all it took.
[About XDA developers] evga_I:
Or something like that popped up when I visited xda on my nexus. It is almost impossible to have any virus on my phone, since this was literally the first site I visited after I flashed my new ROM.

Also I'm kinda worried now, avast didn't find anything and I immediatly closed chrome after that pop up came :(
[About XDA developers] Einheit-101:
Please fix your website, XDA, those redirects get more and more annoying everytime.....

No one should wonder about why people use Adblocker these days.........
[About XDA developers] mamdroid:
Help with Private messages please

Hello I have ran into a little problem with my P.M's. on my lap top. When I go to veiw a P.M that was sent to me the Messages, Threads, Forums box and the XDA Portals posts over lays my message and makes it so I am unable to read the right hand side of the message. I have attached some screen shots of the over lay. I would really appreciate any help I can get to resolve this issue. Thanks a bunch:cowboy:
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
That question is a bit off topic but some suggestions for testing:

- Create a new user profile for Chrome (which seems to be the browser you are using, unless it is Chromium) and test in that.

- Test in a different browser.

- Test on a different computer.

Also, that interface does not look like the regular XDA interface I use so you could try the flat XDA website perhaps even find a thread about it somewhere ;).
[About XDA developers] mamdroid:
Thanks a lot for getting back with me. Sorry for the question to be off topic, for I was sent to this thread by XDA assist and told to post my problem here. I am not sure where to post a problem like this. Okay so you are thinking its my browser and not the site itself. I will most definitely try everything you have suggested. Thanks again greatly appreciated:cowboy:
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
No worries, and now that I give the thread title another look, it is not specific to Android as I thought so your question is actually on topic, not that it matters to me that much. I don't recognize the interface in your pictures and I don't use the XDA Portals feature (or even know what it is). I log in from http://xdaforums.com/ and the PM interface looks like the screenshot below from Chromium browser. I also have XDA notifications disabled, which may be another thing worth trying.
[About XDA developers] mamdroid:
Ya bud same its the same place I am just on the dark theme thats all. If you scroll down to the bottom of the the page you posted on the left hand side there is a little black or grey box that says site map next to it click on that and you will be able to change your theme of the interface. You should check it out. Mine is the dark theme. Okay then THANKS so much for your help. Going to try everything you have suggested. You should really check out the interface themes for XDA you might find 1 you like better anyway just a suggestion. You can also find the themes for XDA in the settings all the way at the bottom I believe lol. Thanks again buddy:cowboy:
[About XDA developers] dan0zone:
Hello everyone..

http://xdaforums.com/general/xda-assist/advertisements-t3023949

The link above is where I posted about this issue. In that post is another link to an article about these ads/pop ups. But, as the member that responded to me said, the article does not mention XDA. If you the article it gives the best explanation of the pop up issue so far.

Please read the article and help fix this issue. Its not an XDA issue, as it is happing on other sites.

As per the article, if we copy the URL of the AD, accompanied by a screen shot, the web site owner MIGHT be able to track the ad to its distribution firm and ask that firm to not use that form of ads on its site. Its better explained in the article, please read it.

My intention is not to cause anyone stress, but to get this fixed ..... Its so annoying .

I have experimented a bit and this is what I've found so far for my issue .

The pop ups only occur when the Ad it belongs to is on the page, for Me it's an antivirus Ad. On every page the ads cycle every time you go to that page, so what I did was wait five mins after the last pop up and go to the page again, and bam! Pop up again . I got two antivirus Ads and a click to download a game Ad that are my culprits.

Hope this can help find and fix this annoying issue.

Thank you for your time guys.
[About XDA developers] jsage:
Intrusive audio/video ads

These began popping up again starting sometime over the weekend. Two identical ads on every page, upper right and lower left in my Chrome browser on Windows. The audio starts playing full-blast as soon as the page loads. Even if I mute the sound using the controls in the ad, they audio resumes every time the page auto-refreshes. It's gotten so bad that I have to mute my speakers.
[About XDA developers] bitpushr:
These are so annoying - we have alerted our ad partner and they are working to remove them.
[About XDA developers] jsage:
Hi bitpushr, thanks for the quick response!

have a great day,

John
[About XDA developers] brew1brew:
I run Chrome in Linux and have the same issue, this is so annoying I have closed the XDA tab and searched elsewhere.
[About XDA developers] cooldude5500:
I find this ad on Chrome Beta for Android without fail on every page I load. Doesn't happen on Firefox. Please do something about it, it's REALLY annoying as I mostly use Chrome
[About XDA developers] mediawiz:
I'm back to getting annoying popup ads and having the Google Play Store app get launch with a link to some app everytime I start the XDA app.
[About XDA developers] scottmcm:
Me too.... :mad:

Whats more annoying is that there is no way back to the xda app after the hijack to the play store. The back button just goes back to chrome.
[About XDA developers] Shakes The AssClown:
I keep getting annoying pop ups too. It really makes me start to hate this app.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Not only does this failure of XDA and it's advertising partners intrude upon us, but it also causes a loss of the distinction between malware and valid advertising thereby making the whole mobile computing world less secure. This also undermines the very advertising industry that they would want to preserve. In this context there is no obligation on us as users to "play nice" and not disable ads. If you have a rooted phone you can stop this nonsense (to varying degree) with AdAway.

https://sufficientlysecure.org/index.php/adaway/

Note: I am not a shill for AdAway but could no longer stand what was going on and found it to be effective.

XDA - I love ya and get a lot out of the site but you need to get the Ad partners and their delivery system in line or redesign the app to make it more resistant to advertising intrusion.

THE ANDROID MOBILE XDA APP IS UNUSABLE WITHOUT BLOCKING ADS

---------- Post added at 01:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 AM ----------

See above /\

---------- Post added at 01:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------

See above /\

---------- Post added at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------

Can anyone speak to what is going on between the Android XDA app and advertising intrusion that can be legitimately considered malware?

Thank you and...

Live long and prosper :crying:
[About XDA developers] naddie:
This auto-playing Zip News (reel feed, or whatever its called) is annoying. It plays ads first, then their own brand of news. I don't want either, and the video is a waste of bandwidth. Then there's the surprise audio attack! I did not expect this from a site like XDA.
[About XDA developers] sec6:
delete
[About XDA developers] agentfazexx:
Use AdBlock and be done with it.
[About XDA developers] IronTechmonkey:
Although it is apparently effective, droid app AdBlock plus (if that is what you are referring to as opposed to the browser specific plug-in called AdBlock) is known to have provided loopholes for certain advertisers. AdAway does not do this.
[About XDA developers] flarbear:
I don't tend to use an ad blocker as I view ads as a way to keep sites like this up and running and usually they have little impact on my forum experience other than taking up screen real estate.

However, on XDA they wreak havoc on the layout. It seems that the ad supplier supplies ads of an alarmingly diverse set of sizes and the forum makes no attempt to preseed the HTML layout with a predicted size for the ad. As a result, it takes 5-10 secons for all of the ads to appear and the layouts to shuffle the content around before I can trust to click on any link - and this is on a very fast machine with a 170Mb land line.

Is there no way to restrict the ad choices to a range of sizes and design the embedded sections so that they reserve the screen real estate while/before the ad is loading? I checked a few other sites and the ads were all well-organized so that they caused no layout issues even if they loaded late. They looked a bit more standardized in size and/or the layout was such that they only affected layout of things like "related links" and sidebars, not the main forum content. On at least one forum site a large banner ad (and it was only a dozen or so pixels larger than the space it was given) in the header was forced into a scrollable area so that it didn't cause a layout update.

I can't count how many times I've been punked by a slow loading ad into clicking into the wrong thread or some other link that was not my intention... :(
[About XDA developers] ram49:
I can understand your frustation when such ads not playing well with the layout. I personally felt the same many times and finally switched to XDA Classic layout. It does not show all those non standard sized ads which affects the forum layout. It have only Top and Bottom banner ads. Even XDA 2010 layout is much cleaner and have only 2 ads (at top and bottom).

Only gripe is that XDA Classic does not have "Thanks" button. But I can live with it.

Give it a try!
[About XDA developers] flarbear:
Thanks for the suggestion! I had looked around for a theme setting, but I didn't find anything. I tried again and found it this time. The 2010 theme seems much better in terms of layout stability...