satelliteguys

[shankle]

This is a forum specializing in Big Beautiful Dishes.
In the past I was on it with no problems running Vista, K-meleon and atts web browser for email.
Now I am using Gmail.
Recently they changed the format of the board and stuffed it with never ending ads.
Now messages I post are covered by ads and I can no longer read my posts in the
1st two positions of a forum.

The head Guru says he never heard of K-meleon and that I should get a decent browser.
I wonder what Hutch would have to say about that. K-meleon works fine for me
anywhere else. :bg

[dedndave]

lol
well - they are trying to make a buck
i would use Firefox with Adblock to block the ads
it can also "collapse" the area where the ads would otherwise be

it works great in yahoo games
this screenshot has the ads enabled (although they are blocked in my HOSTS file so they still do not load)


the same place, with AdBlockPlus enabled


you just have to figure out how to write the filters   :bg
if you want to mess with it, let me know Jack
i will go into that forum and make some filters for you

[shankle]

Hi Dave,
I quit Firefox and Thunderbird because I didn't like the direction they were headed.
I find K-meleon much cleaner and it does what I want and not what they want.

On the SatelliteGuys site, if I wait till my message is moved down two positions I
can then read it. I just IGNORE ads like I always do.
The Satelliteguys site is in competition with ATT for having the most garbage
on a window that I have ever seen. I have divested myself from the annoying att
email and what a blessing. Soon I will replace ATT with fiber optics.
Jack

[FORTRANS]

(although they are blocked in my HOSTS file so they still do not load)

Hi Dave,

   Care to show a representative blocked HOSTS file entry.
And maybe walk through how to set one up in Windows?

Regards,

Steve

[dedndave]

sure thing, Steve
to disable a URL, you just loop it back to Local Host...

Code Select Expand

127.0.0.1  ad.doubleclick.net

this line is added to the HOSTS file located in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc
notice that only a full URL can be looped back
you cannot loop back a specific page on a site without disabling the entire URL

you can google around and find different pre-made hosts files
i did that, then added some lines to prevent some viruses and advertisements
the HOSTS file can start to get pretty large, then
that can slow things down if the DNS client service is enabled
i do not use a DNS router/server, so i disable it

also, there are times when the ads need to be enabled
watching a video on Hulu is one example
in that case, i have a batch file that switches back to the original (more or less empty) HOSTS file by renaming

so, the attached archive contains 3 files
1) hosts1 - place this file in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc (named as hosts1 with no filename extension)
2) DnsOff.bat - run this batch file once to disable the DNS client service - this can also be done manually in the Services snap-in
3) hosts.bat - run this batch file to toggle between the original HOSTS file and HOSTS1
if it says "hosts are opened", that means the original file is in use
if it says "hosts are closed", it means that HOSTS1 is in use

[scottct1]

Sorry for not hearing of k-meleon as a browser.  To many to keep up with today.

Two weekends ago we moved SatelliteGuys from vBulletin 3.08 to vBulletin 4.07 the move was necessary as we were having database issues with searches.  vBulletin would not support us since we were not using the current software.

The ad layout we are using is default ad layout in the vBulletin 4.0 software.  If your having problems at SatelliteGuys you are going to have problems at other sites running vb4 and have the ads turned on.

To be honest I would rather not run ads on the site, but we have another bandwidth cololocation bill coming up and need to pay the bills. :)
In addition we are soon to be in need for a 3rd server.  These things are unfortunately not free.

The ads display correctly in Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari and Chrome, so not sure whats wrong with k-meleon in displaying them correct.

I am sorry for the issue, but I didn't write vBulletin 4. (Which I HATE btw...  the old software was SO much better)

And there you have it.

Scott
SatelliteGuys.US

[dedndave]

hi Scott - welcome to the forum, even if it's just for one post   :P
i went to the site and all the ads loaded fine for me with Firefox
all the images are on the satelliteguys server, so cannot be blocked by using the HOSTS file method
well - except for the magazine pic on the homepage - i don't think that is the one Jack is having trouble with

i have never tried k-meleon, although the forum administrator here swears by it - lol
it is supposedly a light-weight and fast browser
i think a certain amount of compatibility is going to be the trade-off, and can be expected

[dedndave]

Jack - maybe a better approach would be to post in the k-meleon forum
they are likely interested in making their browser compatible with the server's software   :U

http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

   Thanks Dave and Scott.

Regards,

Steve

[shankle]

Thanks fellows for the replies.
The problem might be some setting in K-meleon.
I will try to check it out. Not expecting much luck.

[scottct1]

Thanks for the welcome.  :U

I will have to give the K-Meleon browser a shot and see what its about.  I try all kinds of browsers all the time  (I use PC, Mac and FreeBSD) so I am always trying things out.  Just have not heard or tried this one.

Yes all of our images are on our server, although most are served off of the cloud.  We started moving to the cloud for static things so that way its a much faster load time for everyone and it has made a major improvement.

The magazine one however comes directly from the magazine, its hosted by them as its changed as the magazine is updated.

[scottct1]

Thanks fellows for the replies.
The problem might be some setting in K-meleon.
I will try to check it out. Not expecting much luck.

I do hope it is a simple setting. :)

I do test the site regularly using a wide array of browsers.  By having ads on the site it is just to pay the bills, not to drive folks away.

[shankle]

Thanks Scottct1 for putting up with a cantakerous old man.
Still checking K-meleon settings.

[shankle]

No, the problem seems to be with vBulletin 4.xxx not accepting K-Meleon.
So I will go on the SatelliteGuys site with the horrible internet explorer.
NO Where Else. Pity.....

The K-Meleon gave an answer to my question that I did not understand.
Something about turning off Javascript........

[dedndave]

hiyas Jack
i installed the latest version of k-meleon
i had no problems loading the forum pages with JavaScript enabled or disabled

1) it is version 1.5.4 - maybe you have an older version
2) JavaScript may be disabled....
Edit menu
Preferences
on the left, JavaScript
in the right pane, there are 2 tabs with several settings
the first tab at the top - Enable/Disable