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How do I prevent a popup after my own mouseclick (websites designed to cause this)

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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1. Where is the top level "community forum"? I've spent 10 or 15 minutes wandering around a maze of Mozilla support pages without ever getting to a top level "now you can look at postings" page. So... I'm stuck posting to ask where I could've avoided posting.

2. And the actual question at last!!  ;) One of my favorite websites for news, thehill.com, places annoying ads to partially obscure the text that you're trying to read. Sometimes (25%?) of the time when you click the "X" box, they then fire off a pop up. Now, this pop a) comes from an ad pretending to be a window and b) is a result of my mouse click. So the fact that I can find the setting menu and turn on the pop up blocker is not helpful, as discussed in the appropriate support page:

Is the pop-up shown after a mouse click or a key press?

Certain events, such as clicking or pressing a key, can spawn pop-ups regardless of if the pop-up blocker is on. This is intentional, so that Firefox doesn't block pop-ups that websites need to work.

Is it a true pop-up window?

Sometimes ads are designed to look like windows, but really aren't. Firefox's pop-up blocker can't stop these ads.

So what we have at last is a second-level question: now that we know the built-in pop up blocker is not the solution, is there one out there? A plug-in perhaps? Or perhaps soneone direct me to the forums and an appropriate discussion of (presumably NOT the popup blocker) the mechanism by which this is solved?

Thanks for any courteous replies in advance, Craig

PS: Amusing contradiction here... how am I going to find the answers... hmmm....

1. Where is the top level "community forum"? I've spent 10 or 15 minutes wandering around a maze of Mozilla support pages without ever getting to a top level "now you can look at postings" page. So... I'm stuck posting to ask where I could've avoided posting. 2. And the actual question at last!! ;) One of my favorite websites for news, thehill.com, places annoying ads to partially obscure the text that you're trying to read. Sometimes (25%?) of the time when you click the "X" box, they then fire off a pop up. Now, this pop a) comes from an ad pretending to be a window and b) is a result of my mouse click. So the fact that I can find the setting menu and turn on the pop up blocker is not helpful, as discussed in the appropriate support page: Is the pop-up shown after a mouse click or a key press? Certain events, such as clicking or pressing a key, can spawn pop-ups regardless of if the pop-up blocker is on. This is intentional, so that Firefox doesn't block pop-ups that websites need to work. Is it a true pop-up window? Sometimes ads are designed to look like windows, but really aren't. Firefox's pop-up blocker can't stop these ads. So what we have at last is a second-level question: now that we know the built-in pop up blocker is not the solution, is there one out there? A plug-in perhaps? Or perhaps soneone direct me to the forums and an appropriate discussion of (presumably NOT the popup blocker) the mechanism by which this is solved? Thanks for any courteous replies in advance, Craig PS: Amusing contradiction here... how am I going to find the answers... hmmm....

Modified by Chris Ilias

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Does this help? Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page {web Link} (There’s a lot of good stuff here) and search for a good ad blocker.

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Thanks FredMcD! It sounds like you're saying some extension might do the job. I'm right now starting trials on basically everything there: install one, see if it blocks, go on to the next if it fails. First up, Ghostery. Two trials so far. It did not block the ad itself within the webpage on the first page, but no popup bedeviled me when I closed the ad, and the popup is what worries me, not the advert, of course. However, thehill.com ads only seem to trigger popups (or more accurately, my own click on the ad "X" only seems to trigger a popup) about 25% of the time, so two tests are an anecdote, not data yet. I'll try to keep this window open and update as I go.

Oh, I am going to try and post a screen shot of the page with the advert in the corner, and the scary "X" in red.

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Fred McD was right. Ghostery has worked now for over a month without any popups! Like he said, you can find it at the Mozilla Addons page, see his entry above. Thanks again Fred!

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Chosen Solution

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.