Octet-Stream - pls does anyone know what this is?

travel_freak

Hi,

I am receiving lots of pop-ups on my screen which say I have attempted to open a file called "st" which is an "application/octet-stream" from "http://ad.yieldmanager.com".

The message is from Firefox and asks me if I want Firefox to open or save the file.

I have no idea what this message is about and when it pops up I am not actively trying to open a file - please has anyone else experienced these messages and know what they are about and how I can stop them?

many thanks in advance.

fwor

I think it means that FF considers it to be a file that isn't formatted in any way that could be displayed, and is almost certainly active content on (or pointed to by) the page you are viewing.

Whatever it is, I would guess you don't want it. If you install the Noscript addon to Firefox you'll never need to see the popup again, and it will make your surfing safer in general.

travel_freak

Hi Fwor

Many thanks for your helpful reply. It's weird that you mention the "no script" as I also keep getting messages about "script running and do I want to stop script or continue it" - I have no idea what script is or what these messages mean....

Should I just google firefox and will it be obvious how to add the add on you suggest? Are there any disadvantages to adding this add on, will it affect anything I actually need to view? Sorry to be a dunce...just don't know what script is?!

Mahy thx for your help.

fwor

uktyler is right - yieldmanager.com is a company that makes money from displaying adverts on web pages, so running either the Adblocker or AdBlock Plus add-on would almost certainly stop it.

However, NoScript is also very useful from a security point of view, because it stops any active content (such as the various types of script like Javascript, and also controls such as ActiveX) on all web pages. These days active content is probably the most common way in which PCs get infected with malware, so it's worth doing. The downside is that you have to manually mark sites that you trust - such as moneysavingexpert.com - or they may not display properly. But you only need to do this once per site, and then Noscript remembers.

You can use the method that uktyler describes to install both an ad blocker and Noscript, and they both automatically keep themselves updated from then on.

travel_freak

Thank you very much uktyler and fwor - I will follow your advice and add these. I much appreciate your help.