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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 11:15:01 am

Title: Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 11:15:01 am

I have started to get a popup from Media Center (even when Media Center is not running)
The popup says: "Please Update Media Center Library" Missing Files: some gif's and swf's and says the path is "ADS"
Library Path:
C:\Program Files\J river\Media Center\Data
and
Library Path:
C:\Program Files\J river\Media Center\Data\ads\50574

I don't find anything on this topic in the archives.
What is going on?

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 11:24:58 am

And I also believe it only happens when I visit msn.com

Hmmmm
 ?

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 11:53:07 am

Here are some pics of what I am seeing


(http://home.comcast.net/~nickso/ads1.bmp)
(http://home.comcast.net/~nickso/ads2.bmp)

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 12:09:05 pm

 ?

Ok, I believe I found out WHAT was causing this, but not WHY.

I had Media Server running and have it configured on port 80 (for firewall at work) I moved to port 443 and the popup has stopped.

The question is still WHY?

Why are these ads pointing directly to Media Center?

Is Media Center supporting ads?
 ?

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Marko on February 16, 2004, 05:51:15 pm

I've had a quick think, and here's the best I could come up with....

Do you have any ad-blocking services running? If the msn adservers are present in your hosts file, you're browser will hit your local port 80 to find the files for the advert, the theory being that you won't have the files present or available, so you get a rapid 404 error in your browser. Problem is, when it arrives at port 80, your browser is greeted by media server, and it's then throwing a wobbley trying to deal with the request.

How's my theory?

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: Juice on February 16, 2004, 06:01:15 pm

I am running Spybot and I have the Host file changes in place.

I also tested more and I was getting popups on other pages than just MSN.com.

Your theory sounds good.

I am hoping someone from J River will respond or someone else who has seen this issue.

I really don't think MC is using any Ads.

Thanks,
Nick

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: JimH on February 16, 2004, 06:04:24 pm

We have no affiliation with popup ads if that's what you mean.  We do have some ads on our web pages.  There's nothing hidden going on.

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: gpvillamil on February 16, 2004, 06:07:48 pm

I came across something similar. Marko is right. Try running Media Server on another port (81?), easy enough and probably better for security.

Not MC's fault. Media Server is doing the best it can.

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: John Gateley on February 16, 2004, 07:11:06 pm

Sounds like Marko got it right. Media Server is a limited purpose web server, and if you break DNS by using the host files, weird things may happen. Moving Media Server is good, I'll also suggest looking for a different solution to spam/pop-ups than breaking DNS.

j

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: KingSparta on February 16, 2004, 07:16:14 pm

the same thing (or did) happen when media server is running and you browse the internet. Sometimes media server thinks the image files should be in the file listing and it comes up with this message about files missing.

this is nothing new and has been around for sometime, this has also been reported before more than once.

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: John Gateley on February 16, 2004, 07:21:02 pm

To be clear: the problem is NOT with Media Server, it is with using the host file to break DNS.

j

Title: Re:Missing Files ?? Ads in Media Center ??
Post by: John Gateley on February 16, 2004, 07:46:40 pm

I've never used any of the host tricks mentioned here, but why do y'all map the bad hosts to 127.0.0.1? Instead, I'd suggest 0.1.1.1 (an unroutable address).

j