Originally Posted by Flyingmama
Okay technical geniuses - help me! My "Avenue A" problem is back - with a vengeance this time. I couldn't get on to Flyertalk earlier today - tried twice - because every time I clicked on "Forums" I got the "Avenue A" warning from Spybot. When I elect to block the download, everything stops. Dead.
The thing is, I visit a lot of websites where I also receive the "Avenue A" warning from Spybot (MSN and Hotmail are hotbeds of "Avenue A"), and I always elect to block it. Then those sites load normally and I go about my business.
Not Flyertalk, though. Elect to block Avenue A on Flyertalk and you block access to the whole website. Why is that? And can anything be done about it?
Flyingmama,
Several thoughts: (1) if you are working on a company computer, talk to the technical support and don't try any of the following; tech support may have settings in place to accomplish certain goals, but may be interfering with your browsing; (2) if you have not set a blocker cookie (see #26 above), do that; (3) you haven't mentioned what versions of Norton programs, Windows, and Spybot you are running (if there is a pattern of people having problems with Norton Internet Security 2004 versions, for example, that would help Dan and other to find a resolution); (4) after doing 2 above, try (a) setting Internet Explorer (or other browser) to reject all cookies from AvenueA or (b) setting your browser to ask you each time a site wants to set a 3rd party cookie (you will get a lot of such requests). I believe IE default setting is to accept all cookies. If the browser blocks the cookie, my guess is that you won't get the message from Spybot.
Here are some other general suggestions (follow at your own risk; consider setting a restore point (from within the Start->Help portion of Windows)): (a) consider deleting temporary files in Internet Explorer; (b) consider emptying the Windows temporary folder (this folder should only contain temporary files, but it is possible that some files end up in there that you need to keep; thus confirm there are no important files in this directory before deleting); (c) run general utilities such as Disk Doctor and WinDoctor; and (d) (the first thing any tech support will tell you to do, so I've assumed everyone has done this) reboot your computer and then go directly to the site (without opening your browser first, from Windows Start menu, go to Favorites and select Flyertalk); this is to see if you then still have a problem (one reason is to evaluate the possibility that another site you are visiting, including your home page, may be doing something that is causing interference).
Let us know how things go.