Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Blocking pop-up windows

Using the latest version (14.0.1) of Firefox with "Block pop-up windows" enabled, I am finding at least once or twice a day a "commercial" pop-up window opens up surreptitiously behind my main browser (such that I don't see it until I close the main browser window). Prior to updating to the latest version this never happened.

How might this be happening and what might be done about it?

EDIT: I am also noticing some bizarre loading behaviors (such as many sites taking much longer than usual to load with no apparent explanation, such as widget apps updating in background).
I switched back to the previous Firefox version (13.0.1) just to see if it made a difference, and the loading issue seems to have corrected itself. I'm going to leave it there for a while to see if it makes a difference with respect to the theme of this thread.

So far, so good. No extraneous/unwanted pop-up windows or cookies sneaking in.
Thus, 'twould seem that the problem resides somewhere in Firefox 14.0.1 – perhaps a defective "Block pop-up windows" subroutine (although why Mozilla folk might have changed a properly functioning feature or how it might otherwise have become corrupted is a mystery – and trying to query them via their Byzantine bug reporting system is an exercise in frustration and futility).

I spoke too soon. Another surreptitious "commercial spam" window popped up (behind the main browser window) with the URL
http://loans.moneymart.ca/?utm_source=ad...amp;utm_sid=138
with no source identity or ownership information determinable.
All permissions are blocked, and yet there it is.
There is also a referring URL, namely
http://engine.4dsply.com/Redirect.engine...;Country=Canada
and that source (engine.4dsply.com) has also long since been blocked.
And whenever this happens my system log shows the following entry:
[0x0-0x11e11e].org.mozilla.firefox: NOTE: child process received `Goodbye', closing down

Now are there any thoughts on the matter?!

I've just installed Adblock Plus 2.1.2 (onto Firefox) to see if that might make a difference.

There are different and ever changing ways to generate pop-up and pop-under windows, and the blocking function of a particular browser version may not be able to deal with all of them until (appropriately) updated. In those cases you could try 3rd party blockers, but since they have similar limitations there is no predicting whether particular windows will be blocked, and some trial and error would be in order.

It's also good to know that cookies you accumulate from visiting various web sites can affect pop-up/pop-under behavior, and controlling those cookies or their acquisition may help. Unfortunately, it's not always clear which web sites affect your pop-up/pop-under experience.

Yes, I pretty much follow such protocols in terms of monitoring cookies, clearing unwanted cookies, etc on a daily basis. That's why the sudden appearance of these commercial spam windows is all the more peculiar (since my viewing habits and normal cookies haven't changed). However, I'll be monitoring the coincidence carefully (should my new ad blocker not function as hoped).

It's an arms race. Advertisers are finding increasingly sneaky ways to create popups--by using complex JavaScript or Flash, for example. As advertisers find new ways to create popup windows, the browser manufacturers take apart their code and block those ways to create popups. (Many popup blockers forbid any window that is not opened by a user click, so the popup advertisers write code that tricks the computer into thinking the user has clicked a link to create the popup.)

I find that concept particularly scary. Isn't it just a step or two away from tricking the computer into thinking it's clicked on an "Okay to install"?

That would certainly reduce the sense of security one gets from thinking that 'bad stuff can't be installed unless I say so'.

That's the whole point behind a "drive by download," making the compute believe you have clicked a link to download a file. Many computer malware distributing Web sites do exactly that.

On Windows, it's also possible to trick the computer into believing you have clicked the "install" button once the download has happened, which is how silent installs work. On the Mac, it's harder to do this, for technical reasons (Windows has a common event stream that all apps are informed of events from, so a malicious application A can make another application B think that the user has clicked buttons, whereas on the Mac, each application has its own event stream; the browser can not trick the Installer program into thinking the user has clicked the Install button).