Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.smartadserver.com

[ftr]

Hi,

Whenever I click on a link in a mail in TB from my train provider I get
blocked and get the message:
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.smartadserver.com

I tried to solve the problem but did not succeed.
1/ I started all add-ons disabled: identical error message

2/ I manually added FF to the programs that are allowed to pass in the
exception list of the Windows Firewall I use. No effect.

3/ I followed the procedure in
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls#Windows_Firewall to no effect. The
windows firewall does NOT ask permission once deleted but opens internet
pages, and thus Mozilla FF does not get an exception.

Windows Firewall

The Windows Firewall in Windows XP filters only inbound traffic. In
Windows Vista, the Windows Firewall can filter both inbound and outbound
traffic; however, outbound filtering is turned off by default [18].

In some cases, you may need to remove Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla Suite
from Windows Firewall exceptions list, if listed, and re-add it.

Close Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla Suite
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall
General tab - Make sure the firewall is switched on and "Don't
allow exceptions" is unchecked.
Exceptions tab - Find the Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla Suite entry
and delete it.
Check the box next to "Display a notification when Windows Firewall
blocks a program".
Click "OK" to exit the Windows Firewall window.
Start Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla Suite.
Windows Firewall should then ask whether you want to keep blocking
or unblock. Select "Unblock".

What could I try now ?

TIA
ftr

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

ftr wrote:

> Whenever I click on a link in a mail in TB from my train provider I get
> blocked and get the message:
> Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at
> www.smartadserver.com
>

> I tried to solve the problem but did not succeed. [...]

>
> What could I try now ?

That site is (obviously) an ad server. I visited it directly and I see
"The premium ad serving solution to manage all your digital campaigns".
Are you trying to set up sending ads to people, or does this 'problem'
occur when you are visiting other sites? Specify one, if so.

Do you use a HOSTS file? If so, that domain name is probably in there.

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high

[VanguardLH]

ftr wrote:

> Whenever I click on a link in a mail in TB from my train provider I get
> blocked and get the message:
> Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.smartadserver.com

www.smartadserver.com

Look at it again.

www . smart ad server . com
*** . ***** ad server . ***

Obviously it's an ad server. You didn't mention if you are or are not
using AdBlock or other extension in Firefox to block ads, or you are
blocking ad sites in a URL block list in an anti-virus program or
other security software, or you use someone else's pre-compiled
'hosts' file that you never bother to review those 16,000+ entries, or
are perhaps blocking ad sites up on the DNS server to which you submit
DNS lookups, or wherever the link goes runs a script or uses
meta-refresh and you use NoScript that blocks them unless
permissioned. There are lots of ways to block "bad" sites.

Look at the link in the e-mail. No, not what is displayed in the
HTML-formatted message. At the *raw* source showing the href
attribute in the <A> tag in the HTML *code* of the e-mail. The sender
is redirecting you through an advertising and tracking server. So do
you really want to be clicking on links that track your e-mails?

Often you can determine the target of the redirection by looking at
the parameters of the URL. The first part will have the domain for
the redirection site. Somewhere after the "?" delimiter in the path
portion of the URL you'll find parameters which will list the target
site to which you get redirected. Alas, it may use URL encoding for
special characters (they look like %xx where xx is a 2-digit hex
value) that you'll have to change back to normal characters to use as
its own separate URL. It is also possible that you never get to see
the target site. A server-side script could use a table that only the
server-side script can see for the target site so all you see are some
incomprehensible parameters in the redirection URL. Then, again,
maybe the sender of that e-mail is actually sending you to an
advertisement page hosted by that ad server. You never described the
URL (what you see and what is the HTML code for it).

Tell the sender that such e-mails using redirection (for tracking or
any other covert purpose) are viewed as phishing attempts and will be
reported as such. I'm assuming the URL doesn't go directly to an ad
hosted by that server but is a redirection to somewhere else. If the
link doesn't go directly to the professed domain then the sender is
lying to you.

[ftr]

Sorry for the late answer.
The mail mentioned is sent by a the train company that sends me the link
for the train ticket I bought on their web site.

I don't know for HOSTS file. Where should I look for them ?

The same problem arises with other web sites but I was not able to
repeat that error. In fact, it was not only the site of smartadserver
that was blocked.

[ftr]

www.googleadservices.com gets also blocked, for instance this page:

http://www.prixmoinscher.com/search__keyword--sac+aspirateur+menalux+t65.html

when I click anywhere on

N°1 du Sac d'Aspirateur: - Toutes Marques et Modèles Un large Choix à
Prix Massacrés. www.sacs-aspirateurs.aspiplus.fr/
Sacs Pour Aspirateurs - Filtres Aspirateurs - Sacs Universels -
Accessoires Aspirateurs

[goodwin]

On 05/18/2013 07:46 AM, ftr wrote:

> I don't know for HOSTS file. Where should I look for them ?

I forget where it is in windows - easiest thing is to search for "hosts"
with explorer.
It sounds like your problem /may/ be related to the hosts file but if
you have no knowledge of it, it is unlikely the cause unless someone
else was using your computer that knew about the uses of a hosts file (a
single file) and edited or copied one to that box.

[Morgana]

hosts file location:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

--
M.

[ftr]

I find a file called hosts_ptbackup2.bak with the content

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

This does not look like a yahoo file hijacking my search procedures ..

[Danny]

ftr <non...@invalid.org> wrote in
news:AbmdnSXq0IdqegrM...@mozilla.org:

That's not your hosts file. That is a backup of your hosts file.
Your hosts file will be named "hosts" without any extension.

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

As Morgana stated... here is the fully qualified path and file name:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts there is no file extension

You can open it with Notepad as it is a text file. If you're not sure of
yourself, make a backup of the file first.

Yahoo has nothing to do with a hosts file.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file>

[VanguardLH]

Also make sure Windows Explorer is configured to show hidden and
system files.

[Mark12547]

In article <WeGdnezKFI2KxA7M...@mozilla.org>,
non...@invalid.org says...

> Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.smartadserver.com

The "Web of Trust" plug-in tags this as "poor reputation" and the
comments include such things as Spyware or Adware, Viruses, Phishing and
Other Scams.

If you are using OpenDNS with filtering, it is possible that the
filtering is blocking the site as "Advertising", so if you are using
OpenDNS to block sites tagged as "Advertising", this site would be
blocked, and one would have to add the site to one's "white list". Note:
the generic OpenDNS address with no filters does not block the site; I
was able to gt to the site using OpenDNS as my DNS server and telling
Web of Trust that, yes, I really want to go to that site.

It is possible that some anti-spam or anti-ad program is also blocking
the site (though AdBlock Plus with the FanBoy's AdBlock List doesn't
seem to block the site).

So, if you are using anything that blocks known bad sites, you might
check if it is blocking this site. (Some programs, such as Spybot Search
& Destroy, will load yoru hosts file with a lot of domain names for
advertising sites and route those to your home computer and, if
www.smartadserver.com is in the list, Firefox won't be able to load it.)

[goodwin]

Good point - I'd forgotten about Spybot altogether since using linux.

So the ball is back in ftr's court for now...