To discuss anything which relates to the FLYER Airportal or the magazine
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By PaulSS
#1671552
Have to say I'm yet to see a compelling argument for using anything other than Safari on Apple devices.


The only thing I use Google Chrome for is making voice calls on FB Messenger 'cos Safari won't let me do that. Messenger, yes. Messenger calls, no. Of course, this wouldn't be needed if a certain spouse of mine would just listen for two seconds on how to use FaceTime or even WhatsApp :roll:

(She doesn't "like all that technical stuff")
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1671555
Must say, no problems with the experience on my £150 android Huawei phone. There are ads between some posts.
On my work laptop, most of the ads seem to get blocked by the company access gateway (I don't have ad blocker installed).
User avatar
By flybymike
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1671630
Of course, this wouldn't be needed if a certain spouse of mine would just listen for two seconds on how to use FaceTime or even WhatsApp :roll:

Do you have a number of spouses?
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By KeithM
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1671661
For those who have not seem my recently started topic about I-pad (and then PC) issues with the Forum, it looks like the ads might have been the cause.

Until a few minutes back, ads were missing, from the right column whilst maintenance was in progress and whilst that was the case both PC and I-pad were back to normal.

Now ads are back up, I-pad and PC are still fine.

Thus far, looks like the "fixers" have cleared an issue which was slowing my I-pad to a crawl and throwing up alerts (one genuine and one seemingly bogus) on my PC.
User avatar
By Grelly
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1671686
flybymike wrote:
Of course, this wouldn't be needed if a certain spouse of mine would just listen for two seconds on how to use FaceTime or even WhatsApp :roll:

Do you have a number of spouses?


Isn't that spousi? Spi?
flybymike liked this
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By seanxair
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1671730
Grelly wrote:
flybymike wrote:
Of course, this wouldn't be needed if a certain spouse of mine would just listen for two seconds on how to use FaceTime or even WhatsApp :roll:

Do you have a number of spouses?


Isn't that spousi? Spi?


Trouble :D
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1672074
stevelup wrote:Don't forget that Chrome ignores your system wide DNS settings and -always- makes sneaky requests to Google's DNS servers. And even if you block 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 on your firewall, it tries using myriad other addresses as well. But if you're cool with that, that's also fine!

I mean, on that basis you could argue that it's virtually malware.


I've seen various similar claims about this - so have been monitoring for a few days.
Firewall level monitoring catching all port 53 requests.
Not seen any DNS requests going to anything other than my own DNS servers, and to OpenDNS servers for the kids devices.
Content is correctly blocked with opendns as expected, which wouldn't work if DNS was being bypassed. I see similar behaviour in e.g. public wifi networks that use DNS blocking - if I change my system DNS to 1.1.1.1, then Chrome seems content to use it.
That's across Android, Mac, Windows, and iPad versions of Chrome.

From a bit of Googling - the implication is that Chrome did/will attempt to use Google DNS servers if you are on an IPv6 enabled network, and your DNS server returns invalid AAAA responses - not sure if that's the only scenario.
By KeithM
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1672099
rikur_ wrote:
stevelup wrote:Don't forget that Chrome ignores your system wide DNS settings and -always- makes sneaky requests to Google's DNS servers. And even if you block 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 on your firewall, it tries using myriad other addresses as well. But if you're cool with that, that's also fine!

I mean, on that basis you could argue that it's virtually malware.


I've seen various similar claims about this - so have been monitoring for a few days.
Firewall level monitoring catching all port 53 requests.
Not seen any DNS requests going to anything other than my own DNS servers, and to OpenDNS servers for the kids devices.
Content is correctly blocked with opendns as expected, which wouldn't work if DNS was being bypassed. I see similar behaviour in e.g. public wifi networks that use DNS blocking - if I change my system DNS to 1.1.1.1, then Chrome seems content to use it.
That's across Android, Mac, Windows, and iPad versions of Chrome.

From a bit of Googling - the implication is that Chrome did/will attempt to use Google DNS servers if you are on an IPv6 enabled network, and your DNS server returns invalid AAAA responses - not sure if that's the only scenario.


I haven't the faintest clue what you guys are talking about! :roll: :)
AndyR liked this
User avatar
By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1672190
rikur- try putting some garbage in the address bar rather than real addresses. Something that will trigger a search.
User avatar
By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1672206
Yes, but that's then actually contacting the google search engine to do a search rather than going to a specific address. You're *asking* it to "google" something.
rikur_ liked this
User avatar
By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1672225
stevelup wrote:rikur- try putting some garbage in the address bar rather than real addresses. Something that will trigger a search.

Tried as requested - no stray DNS calls observed.
Some https calls made to Google servers - presumably doing the search for what I've entered.

I guess that's the grey line between features and malware - is the software doing what you would reasonably expect it to do. For me, this seems like a feature - I've typed a search term in a browser provided by Google and it's searched Google for it. I guess others could regard it as malware if they didn't expect or want that feature. Or bloatware.

It reminds me of a colleague who proudly blocks all cookies on his browser - and then always curses Google maps when he goes to plan a journey with "you would think this stupid thing would have learnt where I live by now rather than having to type it in every time".

I wonder if those seeing weird adverts on here, might also be cookie blockers, as all the ads I'm seeing are in some way related to previous searches or websites I've visited - or clearly targeted at Flyer.
User avatar
By mmcp42
#1683315
is it at all possible to make the top-of-page ads stay one size?
I get frustrated, the page starts to load; I move the mouse to the thread I want to read
and as I click the ad size changes and I click entirely the wrong thing

I'd pay a modest fee to remove ads (premium subscription)
poll anyone?

how much does Ian make per user from advertising?
I'm guessing notalot
Rob P liked this
By Colonel Panic
#1683556
I can imagine that most many some a few current forumites might be willing to contribute a small amount to go ad free (me included), I think it would represent a significant barrier to entry for newbies, and as such could end up being counter-productive.
Flyin'Dutch', flybymike liked this
User avatar
By mmcp42
#1683679
Colonel Panic wrote:I can imagine that most many some a few current forumites might be willing to contribute a small amount to go ad free (me included), I think it would represent a significant barrier to entry for newbies, and as such could end up being counter-productive.


if t'were an option then you can choose your own flavour :)

@Ian
go for it!
Colonel Panic liked this
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