[RESOLVED] Does ABE fight with Hosts?

[Tom T.]

1.9.4.4 on F2-20.
http://forums.informaction.com/viewtopi ... 5127#p5127

Edit: On Yahoo Classic Mail page loads (e. g., after deleting one message, auto-goes back to Inbox) the page does a little "curtsey" ... dips down on the screen a few inches, then jumps back up. A little dizzying. Will comment at the "Slow Reload" thread.

This symptom has returned. I don't think it ever left, I think I just forgot to re-enable ABE (or re-enabled inside the Sandbox, which would have dumped all changes when closed.)

I have much more diagnostic info now. For one thing, ABE is occasionally giving error messages. They are always variants on the following (different ad size and ID, of course)

Code: Select all

[ABE] <LOCAL> Deny on {GET http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=300x250&site=140464&section_code=13174591&cb=1245446626009300&zip=&ycg=f&yyob=1957&pub_redirect_unencoded=1&pub_redirect=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=(snip)/D=mail/S=398301040:LREC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1245453826/L=(snip)J=1245446626009300/K=XQYT2YbakbOyNqU2NoOVaA/A=5404711/R=0/* <<< http://us.mc563.mail.yahoo.com/mc/md.php?en=CP1252}
SYSTEM rule:
Site LOCAL
Accept from LOCAL
Deny

Sometimes these messages appear and stay. Sometimes, they flash on the screen for a moment, then disappear, resulting in the "page dip" reported earlier. Sometimes, they don't appear at all, but the "page dip" ALWAYS happens at Yahoo Classic Mail with ABE enabled, default rules. So the page dip is caused by an ABE message that starts to load, but doesn't always finish.

Here is what works:

Safe mode. (No NS, so no problem)
Clean profile (ditto)

What doesn't work:
Current profile with *every other add-on disabled*.

Strange new info: Without Adblock O, I was again seeing placeholder messages where ads would be, "Fx cannot establish a connection to ad.yieldmanager.com" -- because of its inclusion in the Hosts file, of course. So, I backed up Hosts, and deleted all lines referring to yieldmanager (52 in all). IT WORKED -- no page dip. Restored backup (original, unchanged Hosts) = symptom returns.

SWAG: Perhaps the time taken to attempt to connect to ad.etc., getting looped back to localhost, combined with the time ABE takes to parse these, is exceeding the time limits and triggering messages?

Anyway, strange that I can toggle the problem, not only by toggling ABE, but also by toggling Hosts with/without yieldmanager.com in it.

Does this give any more clues? TIA.

[therube]

Yes, if I add ad.yieldmanager.com to my HOSTS file (which otherwise is set to default), & also disable Adblock Plus, I do get ABE alerts.

I get an onscreen alert, Request {Get http://ad.yieldmanager.com ...

And in Error Console:

Code: Select all

[ABE] <LOCAL> Deny on {GET http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&site=140464&section_code=13174643&cb=1245510006596754&zip=&ycg=m&yyob=1962&pub_redirect_unencoded=1&pub_redirect=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=15mtaj5r5/M=715481.13174643.13345347.10748017/D=mail/S=398300139:N/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1245517206/L=OjyVcUWTZmMwACYESTw5fwdbRDdlTUo8.XYAB16O/B=jWSIAtgnMuY-/J=1245510006596754/K=5PTQWKv1Uhpxy4CH7YAacQ/A=5404709/R=0/* <<< http://us.mc624.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder;_ylc=X3oDMTBucDVuZDliBF9TAzM5ODMwMTAzNARhYwNjaGtNYWls?.rand=1533950759}
SYSTEM rule:
Site LOCAL
Accept from LOCAL
Deny

Code: Select all

[ABE] <LOCAL> Deny on {GET http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=180x150&site=140464&section_code=13174697&cb=1245510006596754&zip=&ycg=m&yyob=1962&pub_redirect_unencoded=1&pub_redirect=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=15o1irpns/M=715481.13174697.13345396.12227498/D=mail/S=398300139:REC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1245517206/L=OjyVcUWTZmMwACYESTw5fwdbRDdlTUo8.XYAB16O/B=gGSIAtgnMuY-/J=1245510006596754/K=5PTQWKv1Uhpxy4CH7YAacQ/A=5406807/R=0/* <<< http://us.mc624.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder;_ylc=X3oDMTBucDVuZDliBF9TAzM5ODMwMTAzNARhYwNjaGtNYWls?.rand=1533950759}
SYSTEM rule:
Site LOCAL
Accept from LOCAL
Deny

Code: Select all

[ABE] <LOCAL> Deny on {GET http://ad.yieldmanager.com/pixel?id=372007&t=2 <<< http://ads.bluelithium.com/pixel?id=372007&t=2, http://ads.bluelithium.com/pixel?id=372007&t=2}
SYSTEM rule:
Site LOCAL
Accept from LOCAL
Deny

[Giorgio Maone]

It's quite logical if you understand what the System local rule does.
Please check Local Rodeo for the concept (ABE does it better, though).
Work-around: rather than sending tha rubbish to localhost (which is kinda foolish, e.g. if you got a web server for development purposes sitting on port 80, like IIS by default), use an external IP which you're sure does not have any web server on top, e.g. your ISP's DNS or mail server.

[Tom T.]

It's quite logical if you understand what the System local rule does.
Please check Local Rodeo for the concept (ABE does it better, though).
Work-around: rather than sending tha rubbish to localhost (which is kinda foolish, e.g. if you got a web server for development purposes sitting on port 80, like IIS by default), use an external IP which you're sure does not have any web server on top, e.g. your ISP's DNS or mail server.

e.g. your ISP's DNS or mail server.

I'm sure my ISP would love that!

Thanks for the answer, and yes, now i do understand. I seem to be the only Hosts user ever to be here, else I'd suggest adding it to the FAQ.
I don't run a server, so there's no danger there. I was told that keeping it local saved some milliseconds and bandwidth: "...then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers..., Not true?

I think I'll direct it all to Microsoft. .... what about sending to a reserved Internet space, like 5.x.x.x? (not my own router or Hamachi, of course).
Thanks for confirming the issue and providing workarounds.

Edit: Have edited Hosts destination from localhost to a 5.x.x.x address. The original issue appears to be resolved, and no problems seem to have arisen from the 5.x Hosts yet.