Authentication for something I've never heard of

Myrtle77

Can anyone help me with this? Over the last week I've been getting the occasional window come up while using Firefox. It says:

Authentication required

A username and password are being requested by http://sofa.webdev.bigfish.co.uk. The site says: "Bigfish Webdev"

I don't know what this is for, but I have to cancel it in order to continue using the browser. It happens at random times, and doesn't while I'm looking at different websites.

I'm on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.6.8

Ximian

It's just a normal "basic authentication" prompt/popup, meaning that the website has content or a directory that requires a username and password to access that content or directory. The name suggests it's a web development site and is protected with a username and password, it's possible that some content on another site refers back to http://sofa.webdev.bigfish.co.uk

alanrowell

But what in Apple land could be creating a call to a British development website?

Myrtle77

It's not happening when on any particular website though, which has got me confused. Sometimes it happens when on hotmail, other times on facebook, other times just reading BBC news . . .

bigdave196

bigfish.co.uk appear to be an advertising company, so it's possible they're trying to serve up an advert through an advertising network, and have messed it up and hosted the ad on a page that requires authentication, hence the log-in prompt. If you're using Firefox, then I recommend the Adblock Plus extension so you're never bothered by ads again

Myrtle77

That makes sense bigdave, and explains it popping up on numerous sites. I've already got the Adblock Plus extension activated, but it seems to be happening anyway. Ah well.