Problem with navigation in the Straight Dope

Having a little problem with navigation in the Straight Dope. (Windows XP, and IE 8) This just started yesterday.

The back button on the browser toolbar periodically stops working. Cllicking on it once, or multiple time does nothing. Often the only way to get rid of the page is to exit the SD (this still seems to work).

This does not happen all of the time, but I estimate that it does for at least 50% of the time I click it. Very annoying.

Anybody have an idea?

BTW, the S.D. is the only web site that exibits this problem. All others I visit work OK.

Not sure if it works for IE, but in Firefox if you click on the back button, don’t release the mouse button and drag downwards, it opens a list of previous pages. Do you see many copies of the same page? You could also try looking at history.

This is a pretty common issue, and the only solution coming from the administration is “buy a membership”. It’s an issue with the embedded ads, which will ocassionally hijack your browsing history and plug in a bazillion instances of some doubleclick.ad site.

Where do you get that?

(Though it is true subscribers don’t see ads on the message board.)

The problem with the back button being filled with “view atdmt.com” is apparently a Microsoft issue. “atdmt.com” is a Microsoft tracking cookie.

It goes to “Atlas Solutions” which is a subsidiary of Microsoft.

It’s not anything malicious the Straight Dope is doing, it’s built into IE, into Outlook, into Live Messenger, embedded god only knows where else.

As for a fix, you might try using a HOSTS file. Like this one. (Read further for installation directions for your flavor of system.)

http://msmvps.com/blogs/hostsnews/default.aspx

Hope that helps.

As TD states, it’s a Microsoft issue. If you were to use Chrome or Firefox, you shouldn’t experience the problem. If you were to use Chrome or Firefox with ad-blocker add-ons, all the better.

Thanks to all for your advice. I do have Firefox on my computer, so I’ll start using that and see if it helps.

OK, been using Firefox since this morning, with no problems in navigation. Seems to work, and thanks.

You still need to run an anti-virus, anti-malware scan. It appears IE has been hijacked by something and while it may not infect Firefox, it could still leave you vulnerable to something worse.