# SDMB Unusable at home **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 8, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804 "2017-09-08T11:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/1 "2017-09-08T11:35:38Z")
When I get on at work, no problems. At home, as soon as I click anything on the front page, a slight delay as a popunder ad loads. Then after a few minutes of reading posts, another delay as another ad loads during which time the browser does not respond. Repeat a couple of times. Eventually it will load an ad and lock up the browser, at which point I have to close the browser window entirely. So what changed to start this irritating behavior? Is there any way to avoid it? It used to be it would load a popunder once and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Crap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.crap/32/3131_2.png) [@Dr.Crap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Crap)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/2 "2017-09-08T14:11:12Z")
Are you using any web browser addons such as [Ghostery](https://www.ghostery.com/products/)? It could help if not. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/3 "2017-09-08T14:33:22Z")
I never heard of Ghostery. It doesn’t appear to be browser related, I tried both Firefox and Edge and both have the issue. I probably should try Chrome. The only addon I have installed for Firefox is the one that lets you open new tabs with your home page. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/4 "2017-09-08T15:14:30Z")
NoScrpipt AdBlock and Ghostery are the three mandatory add-ons for a Browser. If you are not using them you are going to be miserable. (One way or another.) The recent changes to the forum have seriously busted a lot of functionality, but that is a different problem. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/5 "2017-09-08T15:54:11Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > NoScrpipt AdBlock and Ghostery are the three mandatory add-ons for a Browser. If you are not using them you are going to be miserable. (One way or another.) > > The recent changes to the forum have seriously busted a lot of functionality, but that is a different problem. Adblock for sure, that’s the first thing I would tell the OP since he’s specifically having issues with ads and the SD is really really bad about the ads. Ghostery I’ve heard of but don’t know anything about. I’ve tried NoScript (And one other similar one) and hated it. I couldn’t stand all the blank websites and having to run around trying to figure out what to click where to get everything working again. But, yeah, OP, get Adblock going, that’ll knock down the popups/unders and and a good chunk of all the other stuff. I assume, but you didn’t say it, that you’re not having issues with other websites? I’m also assuming this is a laptop/desktop (as opposed to a tablet or phone)? Lastly, I’m assuming these are two different computers, right? Not just one that you’re traveling back and forth with? If it’s one computer/device that would point towards a connection/network issue. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/6 "2017-09-08T17:07:31Z")
Thanks to all. I shall try Adblock first. Other websites haven’t been a huge issue for me. Perhaps I don’t frequent that many that use popunders and popups. If it matters, I use a desktop and don’t travel with computers. I refuse to use a laptop and I don’t use tablets or phones. Will post when I try the adblock. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/7 "2017-09-08T20:08:11Z")
So far so good with Adblock. Thanks for the suggestion! I should have done this long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Debillw3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Debillw3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debillw3)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/8 "2017-09-09T00:33:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve tried NoScript (And one other similar one) and hated it. I couldn’t stand all the blank websites and having to run around trying to figure out what to click where to get everything working again. JavaScript plays a major role in a huge number of websites. Blocking it is either going to have you spending most of your time with the blocks off or unable to get several websites to function. I have a pop-up blocker specifically for pop-ups caused by JavaScript and the number of pages I had to whitelist if I wanted to go past the first screen is longer than my arm and growing daily. I can’t even imagine blocking all JavaScript period. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/9 "2017-09-09T01:19:50Z")
Maybe I’m more paranoid than many, but worrying about computer security is part of my day job. I have used NoScript for years, and you get into the habit that whenever you browse a new site of watching for blocking on the site and enabling scripts from sites that you are happy with. It becomes reflex after a while., and you get to see how some sites are not as well behaved as others, and badly behaved in a bad way. NoScript also catches a lot of other nefarious behaviour, like clickjacking and cross site scripting. You really want protection against these. As an odd example, I had noticed that I don’t see the scroll to top arrow. Why? SDMB is using a script from [scrolltotop.com](http://scrolltotop.com). NoScript had the site blocked for me. Enable scripts from tat site, annoying grey arrow appears floating in the corner. Re-enable the blocking - arrow gone. Needless to say it will remain blocked. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Crap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.crap/32/3131_2.png) [@Dr.Crap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Crap)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/10 "2017-09-09T02:34:53Z")
If missing elements from NoScript are a turn off try Ghostery with all the advertising and analytics trackers blocked. You won’t notice any content differences and your browsing performance may further improve. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/11 "2017-09-10T02:36:14Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > NoScrpipt AdBlock and Ghostery are the three mandatory add-ons for a Browser. If you are not using them you are going to be miserable. (One way or another.) > > The recent changes to the forum have seriously busted a lot of functionality, but that is a different problem. Replace AdBlock with [uBlock Origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#installation) and you have it. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-unusable-at-home/795804/12 "2017-09-11T01:08:35Z")
I don’t have any strong feelings about the reformat one way or another. Once I get past reflexively wondering who blew up the size of my screen display, I won’t even give it a second thought. The administrators of another message board I frequent evidently decided their MB wasn’t sufficiently similar to Facebook, so now all the posts in a thread are displayed in reverse chronological order. So after clicking on the thread title I see a post that seems to have nothing to do with the thread topic. Now THAT’s like nails on chalkboard.