OzarkEdge
Part of the Furniture
I have no facts, but the net affect is the same, imo. ASUS definitely supports Asuswrt-Merlin which is the major part of this website and community.
OE
Last edited:
***** Malware Alert: Phishing ads on this website! *****
- Thread starter OzarkEdge
- Start date
I have no facts, but the net affect is the same, imo. ASUS definitely supports Asuswrt-Merlin which is the major part of this website and community.
OE
Neither ASUS nor any specific company sponsors this site.
I have to ask @OzarkEdge, if this website is so “crappy”, why are you still here?
I have to ask @OzarkEdge, if this website is so “crappy”, why are you still here?
People really trust a third party stranger for firmware in the router?
OzarkEdge
Part of the Furniture
We'll have to differ on the meaning of sponsor.
The ads are crappy; crappy ads make the website experience crappy.
I'm here to learn and help other users with their home networking... there's a big need. Why are you here? If it is to keep the lights ON, then I am trying to help you, too.
OE
Last edited:
ColinTaylor
Part of the Furniture
Yes. Eric is not a "stranger". He identity is known. He has an impeccable track record (more so than Asus) going back over a decade.
All of the code is available on github for you to examine. That's what you said you wanted wasn't it?
@OzarkEdge You can stop reporting.
The question is, why is there only one single person so far who seems to be seeing these ads (and it's always pushing the exact same site)?
I have been actually paying attention to the ads pushed to me here over the past two days, and they all are fairly legitimate.
By now, I don't think the word "stranger" applies in my case, as I have a long history of public software development.
I have been actually paying attention to the ads pushed to me here over the past two days, and they all are fairly legitimate.
I have been interacting with the public as a software developer for over 30 years now. I was a well known Amiga software developer back in the 90's. I was a developer on the WDLXTV project. And I've been the developer of Asuswrt-Merlin for 12+ years. In addition to a few other side projects like Rostermaster Standalone and LOTRoster.
By now, I don't think the word "stranger" applies in my case, as I have a long history of public software development.
OzarkEdge
Part of the Furniture
Good question... that bothers me the most as it implicates my machine. I can't find anything here. I'll stop reporting it as was requested.
OE
It looks like the window user needs to run spybot search and destroy or malwarebytes.
Tech9
Part of the Furniture
Officially - no. In reality - yes.
Asus provides directly to one of the Admins of SNB Forums software unavailable to others and free hardware for development, sometimes pre-release. This is how Asuswrt-Merlin is created and kept alive. It generates perhaps >90% of the traffic on SNB Forums - it's mostly Asuswrt-Merlin related and free Asuswrt support. This benefits Asus. Asus has user accounts registered on SNB Forums - we've got beta firmware posted few times for testing. The feedback benefits Asus again. Asuswrt-Merlin increases Asus sales. Folks often say without it they wouldn't buy an Asus product. This benefits Asus again. Eric does it because let's say he likes coding and creating things for others. You do it because... you like to pay? I see it as missed opportunity to secure a deal with the company which has pretty real financial benefits. SNB Forums is de facto sponsored by Asus, but you were not included in the deal.
Not fair to you and the reason we have quite intrusive ads everywhere. Not fair to the users because ads open doors to inappropriate content and abuse. Most users run ad-blockers for this reason. So what's the point of all this? You pay, we watch or block the ads, someone else eats the cake.
dave14305
Part of the Furniture
I went bareback on the forum earlier after:
I do wish the business model could be different. I’ve gotten to the age where paying to avoid annoyances isn’t so bad. I just upgraded to Apple iCloud+ just to avoid the messages about my iPhone not being able to be backed up. Well worth $3/month for my family of 4.
That all said, it’s hard to find the ads here if you consider all 3 steps I had to perform above. Firefox should have more market share than it actually does.
- Disabling my DNS adblocker
- Disabling uBlock Origin for this site
- Disabling Firefox enhanced privacy protections for this site
I do wish the business model could be different. I’ve gotten to the age where paying to avoid annoyances isn’t so bad. I just upgraded to Apple iCloud+ just to avoid the messages about my iPhone not being able to be backed up. Well worth $3/month for my family of 4.
That all said, it’s hard to find the ads here if you consider all 3 steps I had to perform above. Firefox should have more market share than it actually does.
joe a
Regular Contributor
Never go bareback.
You have it backward. I am a moderator only so I can help with the moderation of the traffic my users might be bringing here. I don't own nor admin this forum, thiggins does. I have no financial, legal or ownership ties with these forums. What hardware I receive from Asus benefits in no way the owner of these forums.
Look up the meaning of the word "sponsor". It's not what you think it is, otherwise by your own criteria, Asus is a sponsor of X and Reddit because they have employees actively posting there, and receiving user feedback.
A sponsor implies a brand pays you money or provides you with some goods/services, through an established deal, in exchange of the visibility you provide their brand. Tim doesn't get a dime from Asus AFAIK. Asus potentially benefiting from these forums is not the same thing as Asus sponsoring them.
But at least unlike many websites, the ads here are easy to ignore, at least on a desktop (on mobile I use a DNS based adblocker because ads on a mobile device are too often highly disruptive or cause increased battery drains). They don't cause page layout shifts mid-load, they don't slow down page loads either (they seem to all be fully async - I can navigate back to a sub-forum list and enter a forum before the ads even had time to load, without having to wait).
Tech9
Part of the Furniture
Okay, you are listed as SNB Forums Staff member. This is what anyone can see visiting the site with no further details. You and Tim.
sponsor
1. (of a business or other organization) to pay for someone to do something or…
"(of a business or other organization) to pay for someone to do something or for something to happen"
Payment can be in money or by other means. Providing commercial software and hardware for free is a form of payment for something to happen. I know Tim doesn't get a dime for what happens and he is in fact No.1 person in Asuswrt-Merlin donation thread providing the site, a monthly donation to you. This makes Asus and Tim sponsors of Asuswrt-Merlin project. SNB Forums exist because of Asus, Tim and you. Tim out - no more paying out of the pocket for the forum/host. Someone else will figure it out - SNB Forums will keep going. Asus or you out - SNB Forum dies shortly after.
So who keeps SNB Forums alive? - Asus and RMerlin. Who pays real money? - Tim.
I understand this is an arrangement by choice, perhaps inherited from SmallNetBuilder + SNB Forums, but currently not fair for one of you and leading to the need to run ads. Just like @dave14305 I wanted to see what it looks like with no ad-blocking and got offered online casinos and information about Tiger Woods new partner in 2 minutes. Some ads block the entire page view like this:
Edited to make it more clear.
Last edited:
Tech9
Part of the Furniture
Not necessarily. I run a non-profit, we mostly focus on computers for kids. My company as well as others donate hardware, labor, logistics, legal services for this thing to happen. This is all form of payment and we are all sponsors of the project. What kids see is DELL or HP logo on their computers. None of them are directly involved. The final product comes for free as a donation, most can't tell and won't remember who is actually making it happen.
What Asuswrt-Merlin project does - sells more Asus routers. Not refurbished and for free, but brand new at cost. Matches the description better.
Last edited:
OzarkEdge
Part of the Furniture
No one is going to visit this site on a small screen for long... it looks like crap on a bigger monitor... same ads, one in a frame, one floating over content...
Here's another take on the captcha click bait... the explanations out there vary because only a developer can grasp all of the backend technology being exploited, push notifications... in the browser or in Windows. The captcha click bait is not a push notification... those come after you take the captcha bait and explicitly Allow that site to push notifications to your browser.
Securedjointnetwork.co.in Ads
www.pcrisk.com
"We have inspected securedjointnetwork.co[.]in and concluded that it is a deceptive website designed to obtain permission to send notifications. It uses clickbait to get this permission. If allowed, sites like securedjointnetwork.co[.]in can deliver misleading notifications to trick them (the user) into visiting unreliable pages."
"Users often end up on such pages through unreliable ad networks (often used by torrent sites, illegal movie streaming pages, and similar sites), misleading pop-ups, or clicking on links in deceptive emails. They may also encounter these sites by following deceptive ads while browsing or through notifications from previously visited questionable websites."
If you take the bait, the browser drop-down then asks the user for permission to Allow push notifications for that site (see the helpful 'click Allow' tab label)... then the nefarious website has permission to push endless notification click bait to your specific browser... I never saw any of that because I never allowed browser notifications for that site. Users should configure their browser to block push notifications for all sites... the push API is being exploited by the bad guys.
I spent hours scanning my machine with several tools... it's clean, no resident malware. I have now set site permissions in Edge to block notifications (and all that other unnecessary stuff listed there) from all sites. No more deceptive requests to allow browser notifications for me.
I also suggest checking your preferences on snbforums to disable 'push notifications', however they work.
As for why I'm the only one being targeted with the same captcha click bait tab on only snbforums is anyone's guess. The captcha click bait tab is not a browser push notification. It all smells.
OE
Last edited:
Tech9
Part of the Furniture
I'm sure quite a bit of SNB Forum users open the site on their phones. I see often common Android/iOS networking related autocorrect errors. There was an issue before with "New posts" button moving down just before you press on it. An ad shows up and you open the ad instead. It was like tricking the user to press on the ad. Now this is "fixed" by large empty space pushing the "New posts" button down to the navigation bar. It looks weird.
OzarkEdge
Part of the Furniture
The ads over content on a desktop are always popping up or jumping around under the cursor right as you go to select content. Trickster crap whether it's intentional or not.
OE
That is just related to the forum permissions in an attempt to help me better take care of spammers, nothing more. I already stated so in a previous post.
You are trying really hard to find ways to link Asus with SNBForums and trying to read more into a situation without having any actual knowledge of what is actually going on. You keep talking about Tim receiving monthly payments in that post. Since you decided you know better how things are going on than the persons directly concerned, why should I waste any further time trying to correct you. You believe whatever makes you feel better, I don't care.
