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spent ages not knowing pitfalls of popup-blockers

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  • 6 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Minni

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I was scanning search engines trying to find which might be the least problematic popup blocker.

I enabled the FireFox BlockAds add-on for my toolbar, but can't figure out whether it might not also block Adobe alerts which ask me if I should enable XXX "for now".

During my search I came across a poster stating that she used to like AdBlocker, but now finds that Unblock is much quicker, and someone else confirmed that AdBlocker had been sold to an anonymous party.

So what's the diff. between Firefox's BlockAds add-on, and the Unblock program? (not that I could find it)

I was scanning search engines trying to find which might be the least problematic popup blocker. I enabled the FireFox BlockAds add-on for my toolbar, but can't figure out whether it might not also block Adobe alerts which ask me if I should enable XXX "for now". During my search I came across a poster stating that she used to like AdBlocker, but now finds that Unblock is much quicker, and someone else confirmed that AdBlocker had been sold to an anonymous party. So what's the diff. between Firefox's BlockAds add-on, and the Unblock program? (not that I could find it)

Chosen solution

Just to be clear, Mozilla is not the author of any extensions for blocking ads in Firefox. If the author included Firefox in the name of their extension, that does not mean it is official.

Since there are many similar sounding names, let me give a couple links to clarify the discussion. These two are very popular:

The built-in Tracking Protection feature blocks some ads, but that's not its main purpose. See: What happened to Tracking Protection?

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All Replies (11)

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Hi Minni. Firefox is pretty friendly to 3rd party ad blockers. It's a constant battle with websites to block their more annoying advertising for sure.

I think you may be referring to a program called Ublock from Origin. Ublock has worked well with me and Firefox. I didn't check if there was a Unblock program.

I used AdblockPlus for a long time but in the last two versions, adblock was discovered to pass 'lesssor' advertising through on websites without our permission. This was a monetizing decision by adblock, which I didn't like at all, even though adblock put it a disable option, I don't trust that and went to Ublock. Until someone finds that in Ublock, it's working well with Firefox.

Unfortunately, I've never used Firefox's adblock feature to comment on it. Good luck.

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Chosen Solution

Just to be clear, Mozilla is not the author of any extensions for blocking ads in Firefox. If the author included Firefox in the name of their extension, that does not mean it is official.

Since there are many similar sounding names, let me give a couple links to clarify the discussion. These two are very popular:

The built-in Tracking Protection feature blocks some ads, but that's not its main purpose. See: What happened to Tracking Protection?

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oops, guys, my mistake. The firefox-adblock that I was referring to is actually Ublock Origin.

And also the program which that poster mentioned also must have been Ublock (rather than Unblock).

The reason I was muddled, is because I lack the observational sharpness which most people possess, and that gets me into alot of messes. Sorry about that, and thanks for your feedbacks and clarification.

I just hope that Ublock won't be suppressing the necessary Adobe questions as mentioned above.

Btw, I've been finding that Ublock hasn't successfully suppressed all annoying popups.

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Hi Minni, no worries, I don't actually use either of those add-ons, so I don't know what they will do with Flash content, if that is the concern. If you think a page might be awaiting your approval to use Flash, glance to the left of the address in the address bar for a gray "Lego-like" icon, which is the plugin notification icon.

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OK the below is what I had been referring to, and now I know that it's not being suppressed by Ublock-origin.

Firefox has prevented the outdated Adobe Flash from running on [ebay] [continue blocking] [allow]

I sometimes click ALLOW. Is that risky?

I also am confused as to whether to continually accept updates for: Flash & Acrobat & Firefox

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Minni said

Firefox has prevented the outdated Adobe Flash from running on [ebay] [continue blocking] [allow]
I sometimes click ALLOW. Is that risky?

Maybe. It depends on whether you can trust those eBay sellers to only provide non-malicious Flash media.

Regarding updates:

  • Shockwave Flash plugin: you can download a Flash 24 installer from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ -- make sure to uncheck any unwanted extras; normally Flash sets up automatic updating on your system when you shut down and restart Windows
  • Adobe PDF plugin: go into your Adobe Reader and use Help > Check for Updates to get the latest in the Adobe Reader XI (11) series. For XP, I don't recommend the newer DC series. The plugin check site will still consider this "outdated" but as long as the internal Check for Updates function in Adobe Reader is happy, that's the best you can do.
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jscher, again, thank you so very much! Though it was unclear to me what you recommended to avoid the newer DC series.

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The DC series was developed for Windows 8 and newer and has in my opinion a less productive interface design. I prefer to stick with the XI (11) series.

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Uh, sorry but I'm not adept at grasping tech lingo. When you say X(11) it sounds a bit as if your stating your preference as WinXP.

Anyway, I gotta hit the sack now, my eyes are drooping.

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I meant Adobe Acrobat/Reader XI (roman numerals for 11) is the version I prefer. When it comes to Windows, Windows 7 is the version I prefer. But enough about me -- I think you're set up pretty well for the time being, other than having an unsupported version of Windows.

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OK thanks!