Yup.. I won't have to avoid DA. I figured out what was going on. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, read my previous journal entry and all its frustrations.

This morning I decided to do a little bit of research with google to see if there was anything about this issue in the DA's news section. I simply typed in "deviantart news virus" into google and found a journal entry someone made. So risking another attempt to attack my computer by a virus, I clicked on it and viewed the entry (thankfully nothing happened).

I'm glad I did the research. I was right.. and apparently this has been happening for some time. I'll try to explain it for those also having this problem:

At the top of Deviantart, right below the quick login is a banner, right? An advertisement banner. These banners use Flash to run their ad; in no way are they a part of DA itself other than being displayed on the site. Whats happening is that some of these Flash banners are running a redirect program that makes your browser go to a different page automatically without you clicking on it. The page it loads usually is a bogas site, usually trying to tell you that "your computer might be infected scan it now with our free antivirus scanner!" or some crap like that. Even visiting the site might give you a virus/malware if you don't give in and click on whatever's there.

So with that in mind, the problem I was experiencing may have been that those banners where directly trying to attack my computer from the banner itself, without redirecting my browser to the malicious page.

So with that said and going back to the journal entry I found; the person was experiencing the same problem (being redirected) and basically shared a program for Firefox that completely gets rid of banners and other ads that may cause problems or give you viruses. So I downloaded Firefox and installed the AdBlock Plus.. and here I am! No banners whatsoever and I have yet to have a problem.

Like I mentioned before, it was only happening with this site, so I knew it had something to do with it. My browser had occasionally just randomly change to a different site for no apparent reason before, even then I didn't get a virus or get attacked. It was only these past two days that my antivirus kept popping up when I was on this site and on pages that had those banners on them. That was the last straw for me and I figured I would just avoid this site for awhile, until I found the journal entry.

So pretty much I'm going to be using Firefox for Deviantart and the rest I'll use IE for. Until I get some other page that tries to attack me, then I'll use Firefox for that too.

The journal also noted that the people who decide what ads to display (The Advertisement Team I think..) discourage the use of this adblocker because then they won't be able to figure out what ads are doing the attacking if no one reports them. I understand that, and I would love to help, but I am not going to risk my laptop (the very thing I need for school right now and has practically everything on it) just to let them know what ads are bad and to know whether or not they'll get rid of it.

I rather just avoid the banners entirely, even though these viruses seem to be low-threat viruses in the 'temporary internet files' folder and not viruses that literally put themselves into the system and spread to take over your computer (which is what happened with my desktop computer), I'm taking no chances.


With that taken care of, what's going on with my life. Well.. THERE PLAYING LOONEY TOONS ON CARTOON NETWORK AT 10AM!!! YAY!! No its not weird for a 20 year old to spaz out about cartoons, Looney Toons from my childhood. No no.. they ARE my childhood I love them so much. Same with Scooby Doo, not the new crappy ones the old original ones from the 60s. This is why I wish my parents would invest in getting Boomerang added to our cable list of channels.

Anywho, I'm going to an anime convention this weekend! w00t! It's gonna be fun since all my friends get to go along this time! And we'll be able to beat all the little psycho naruto cosplay girls with sticks! Or those struggle weapons from KH.


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Old Account: ~ChronoDragon77