Q: onclickads.net and other ad pop ups in safari due to flash player?
Hello all,
This past week all of the browsers on my computer (google chrome/safari) has been experiencing random popup ads upon click on many websites.
These occur when I click somewhere on the website page and happens on almost all websites I go to.
The popup usually goes to "onclickads.net" then redirects, usually to mackeeper, but will sometimes redirect to other ads.
This morning I thought I identified the issue as a fake flash player that I had installed, so I followed Adobe's "how to uninstall flash player" guide and completely uninstalled flash player.
The problem instantly went away and I thought I would never have to deal with the annoying popups ever again.
This afternoon, I decided to reinstall Flash Player from Adobe's actual site because I need to use flash player for sites like youtube.
After I installed it, the problem with popups came back. Even though I knew that this time, it was definitely the legitimate copy of Flash Player.
Frustrated, I uninstalled the flash player again and like magic, the popups and ads went away with it.
Now I can still watch youtube videos from chrome because I think it comes with flash player preinstalled, but I would still like to have flash player on my main browser, safari.
Does anyone know what could be causing the problem? I don't think adobe would put these annoying ads in flash player.
I mean, if there's really no fix, I guess I'll just go with using google chrome when I need to use flash :\
Thanks a ton!
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)
Posted on Apr 28, 2014 4:32 PM
When you get back home, re-test the problem and see if it's still happening. Assuming that it is, report back here and let us know what the DNS setting is when you're on that network. Also let us know what kind of router you're using.
Try manually setting your computer's DNS settings at home to use those OpenDNS servers. If that fixes the problem, and clearing those settings (and thus using the DNS settings from your router) causes it to happen again, it's definitely a compromised router. See:
How to manage a hacked wireless router
(Fair disclosure: The Safe Mac is my site, and contains a Donate button, so I may receive compensation for providing links to The Safe Mac. Donations are not required.)
Posted on Apr 29, 2014 10:56 AM