Ken B.

I made the mistake of Googling a fix for the chroma keyboard problem (chroma key effects freeze on Orbweaver and require a reboot to clear, a known bug with Razer software) and clicked on a link to Tom's Hardware. After only reading for 10 seconds the screen was interrupted with a notice stating that the site wanted me to share location information to continue viewing. I made the mistake at taking them at their word, DON'T CLICK ON THE BUTTON ALLOWING THEM INFORMATION! Just leave the site, quickly!

I made the mistake of trusting clicking yes and from that point on began having annoying popups appear in the bottom right hand corner of my Firefox browser with no apparent way of removing them. MalwareBytes, nor Kaspersky could find any trace of what appeared to be malware installed. Finally, I figured out on my own what had happened, though not how to permanently reverse what evil they had done.

Apparently they use a combination of cookies to track your movements on the web that transmits this information back to one of their servers that pushes ads over top of the page you are viewing. The use of a push server makes trying to find them a bit of a chore, they have also added keys in the Windows registry so that deleting and reinstalling Firefox will do no good. The only way I found to stop this nonsense was to do the following...

1. Go to the three bars just under the red exit button at the upper right of the Firefox browser. Select "Options", on the left side menu, go to "Content". The third category down will be "Pop-ups", click the "Exceptions" button and in the dialog box that appears, delete any and all site URLs that have "tomshardware" in them.

2. Download AdwCleaner from MalwareBytes and install. Don't trust any third party sites, just go and install it and run a scan. It will find the crap in the Windows registry and in your AppData folder where the lowlifes from Tom's installed keys to "phone home". Delete these (AdwCleaner will do this for you).

3. Now we've eliminated the Tom's push server from the equation, unfortunately for us though the scumbags at Tom's have opened the door for other push servers (including this site) to interrupt our enjoyment of the web. That is where AdBlocker Ultimate (free) comes in. It is available via the "Add-ons", accessible in the same menu I refer to in step 1 to get to the "Options" in Firefox. Be forewarned, there are several add-ons that purport to block ads, the most prominent being "Ad Blocker", which is nothing more that a trojan that actually allows certain ads to always get through. Thank God I looked at the number of users, user reviews and the stellar rating the software had before installing.

It appears the popups are dead for the time being. As for Tom's Hardware, not only was the information that I was looking for bogus (clickbate?), but in Googling a fix for this problem guess what URL appears in over 3/4 of the "how to fix" links... Tom's Hardware. The most often seen response, "Well you clicked on it!" Way to go you pond scum.

UPDATE: A few added notes to fix your Firefox browser. Clear any and all cookies with "ad" in the name (or for that matter, any you don't immediately recognize), and of course the "tomshardware" cookie(s). Just don't delete the ones for sites you regularly log in to. I also found the door they kicked open in my browser and how to close it, courtesy of "jscher2000".

There are two different preferences for notifications, a master switch, and one which is specific to background (web push) notifications that can appear after you leave the site which sends them.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste "about: config" in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste "webno" and pause while the list is filtered.

(3) To disable PUSH NOTIFICATIONS, double-click the "dom. Webnotifications. Serviceworker". Enabled preference to switch its value from true to false -- sites can still generate desktop notifications while you have a tab open to the site

(4) To disable ALL NOTIFICATIONS, double-click the "dom. Webnotifications. Enabled" preference to switch its value from true to false -- this is a master switch, you won't get any desktop notifications from any sites.

Over the years I have ordered several items from Amazon sellers. So far, I have yet to be disappointed. As long as you abide by the seller reviews, you can't go wrong. Shopping is easy and unlike many websites who force you to enter your credit card permanently on their website, Amazon give you the option of not saving you card information. Important in these days of servers being hacked on a routine basis.

I had been an ImageShack user for over 5 years and it was great. No fees, lots of space for uploads, no maximum bandwidth limitations, and I routinely used it in hosting pictures and artwork used in websites I constructed. Then 2 months ago they converted to a "for pay" service. This ended my relationship with ImageShack.

With all the tools that users, not ImageShack employees, built to interface with their service, you would think that good will of its users would have been worth something. Instead they decided to rob their devoted following for as much cash as they could get. With the large number of alternatives out there, this strategy will ultimately relegate them to the same fate as AOL. I would suggest that all the disappointed ImageShack user try postimage.org for their photo hosting needs.

After having made the mistake of ordering 4 X-Box controllers from this company, not only did the "5-day" ground shipping turn into 10 days, I opened up 2 of the 4 controllers shipped and they were defective right out of the box (didn't even bother opening any more controllers, I just wanted my money back). I then made the mistake of trusting that any of the contact methods listed for this sham company even worked, none did. The 1-800 number rolls over to voice mail, the long distance number rolls over to a mobile phone with the recording "this subscriber cannot receive any calls...", email and web forms disappear into a black hole. They had my money, what did they care.

Thank God my credit card company noted this was a fly-by-night operation and stopped payment.

Summary: Don't walk, run in the opposite direction! Scam artists with a slick website.