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Yesterday - 9-25-18

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 9:35 PM

jeffhergert
I haven't seen it pop up the last couple of days. Not on my laptop or desktop. Jeff

  Same here.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 8:46 PM

blue streak 1

 

 
SALfan

 

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.
 

I'm getting the same ANNOYING tag, and wish Kalmbach would fix it.

 

 

 
Although not terribly worried my IT person says it might inbed in the registry and pop up any time in my computer  Not necessarily in all computers
 

I haven't seen it pop up the last couple of days.  Not on my laptop or desktop.

Jeff

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 6:43 PM

SALfan

 

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.
 

I'm getting the same ANNOYING tag, and wish Kalmbach would fix it.

 
Although not terribly worried my IT person says it might inbed in the registry and pop up any time in my computer  Not necessarily in all computers
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Posted by SALfan on Thursday, September 27, 2018 10:29 PM

jeffhergert

 

 
mudchicken

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.

 

 

 

I'm getting a box asking, "what do I want to do with the tag?" from this site.  (options being, Open - Save - Cancel)  I looked it up on-line and it is somekind of advertising malware.  I'm only getting this box on the Kalmbach site and it just started today.

Jeff 

 

I'm getting the same ANNOYING tag, and wish Kalmbach would fix it.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, September 27, 2018 7:56 PM

Semper Vaporo

I love that HOSTS file!

Known of it for ages - just haven't implemented it on my PC...

Edit:  Put the hosts file suggested in the link on the PC.  Most interesting will be what SuperAntiSpyWare finds on its next scan...

I believe I'm seeing less junk now, though.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, September 27, 2018 5:57 PM

I love that HOSTS file!

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by MikeF90 on Thursday, September 27, 2018 5:33 PM

mudchicken
What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.

Just remembered and confirmed that I have a 'hosts' file redirection for this domain and that apparently protected me. The relevant entry is:

0.0.0.0  s.thebrighttag.com

Modifying the hosts file is a bit OT, but just involves appending the 'bad' hosts to the above file using a text editor. I obtained my list from MVPS; their HOSTS file is a free download available from http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm   I do this manually every six months or so.

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, September 27, 2018 5:31 PM

Just to chime in with my experiences, but on the 25th I was able to read the forums just fine, but as with a couple other users here, if I tried to log on,  the process stalled for quite a while, and eventually gave me an error message, spitting me out completely.

On th other matter, chronic slow loading......I frequently have that problem here, when I try to access the forums directly. However...when I am having this slow loading problem, if I copy the cs.trains.com/blahblahblah url, and then open a new browser tab to Kproxy.com, and paste the copied url into the "surf" entry box, then hitting the "surf" button,  this site loads immediately. Some of you other folks experiencing  slow loading here might want to give the Kproxy middleman a shot and see if it makes your problem go away. 

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Thursday, September 27, 2018 3:56 PM

mudchicken

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.

 

Kalmbach::  pppppppppppppppplease get rid of this tag!  Anti virus hates it and it is now infecting other sites we go to !

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Posted by PJS1 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 10:39 PM

SD70Dude

Yesterday was the first time in months that I have had trouble with this site.  Normally it works fine for me.

Everything worked fine until I tried to log in.  Then the website refused to load and eventually displayed a error message.

Clearing browser history and cookies brought me back to square one, and I repeated that process several times to no avail.

Felt just like being banned again Devil

I had the same experience.  

Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII

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Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 10:03 PM

Yesterday was the first time in months that I have had trouble with this site.  Normally it works fine for me.

Everything worked fine until I tried to log in.  Then the website refused to load and eventually displayed a error message.

Clearing browser history and cookies brought me back to square one, and I repeated that process several times to no avail.

Felt just like being banned again Devil.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 8:45 PM

Firelock76
I usually try another website, and if it pops up quickly then I just assume there's a problem up in "America's Dairyland" and just walk away.

I do the same thing, except that I usually try a different web site in Milwaukee, which loads normally.

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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 8:34 PM

I could not get in TrainsMag yesterday.  Then I was Googling some model RR stuff and one of the links would not come up, but I noticed it was also a Trains.com site.  I rarely have problems with the site.  While the ads on the site sometimes seem bothersome, it is nothing compaired to some other major publication sites.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 6:22 PM

MikeF90
I have come to expect periodic outages like yesterday. When Kalmbach relies on a low cost shared host environment and doesn't monitor it, that's what you get!

Another forum I participate in - run by and for racing enthusiasts - was faced with their forum provider converting their forums (more than just ours) from free to pay.  The forum provider had its own issues in supporting their forums - with the form being unexpectedly down a day or two at a time.  The pay change was to take place June 1 - just after the biggest racing period of the year - Memorial Day Weekend.

The week prior to Memorial Day the leaders of the forum moved it to another free provider - in a rush - with notice being posted on the old site.  The first several weeks were spent 'tuning up' the options available in to providers software package to the collective approval of the forum members - since then smooth sailing.  The price for this forum is accepting the 'edge ads' that have become a fact of life of anything that operates on the web.  The forum has not experienced any downtime.

I don't know what Kalmbach is doing that that makes the software on their forums so klunky.  Of course they are nowhere near as bad as Garmin was when they installed a vBulletin software forum that was trash beyond ANYTHING we have experienced - after 6 months of dealing with it the company was brow beaten in to making it work - after a fashion. 

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Firelock76 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 6:07 PM

I've had the "slow-load-no-load" problem myself with the Kalmbach site.  I usually try another website, and if it pops up quickly then I just assume there's a problem up in "America's Dairyland" and just walk away.

Lot's of other stuff out there to keep me occupied.

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Posted by MikeF90 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 3:37 PM

I have come to expect periodic outages like yesterday. When Kalmbach relies on a low cost shared host environment and doesn't monitor it, that's what you get!

Overmod
Oh, yes: they can also cancel their sweetheart deal involving s.thebrighttag.com, which is again pushing misconfigured download requests I most emphatically do not want or need, especially when they arrive as modal dialog boxes.

I'm slightly mystified. Just for grins I turned off uBlock Origin on my FF 62, restarted, and still don't have any wierd things happening (including bad performance). I'm running Linux Mint 19; perhaps this is a Windows specific issue?

BTW I'm using ~3GB memory out of 8 total, not unexpected as I have three different browsers running ....

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 2:59 PM

The site is sometimes slow to load, but aside from yesterday, I don't routinely have a problem with it.  I do run SuperAntiSpyware on my computer, and it scans for malware on a weekly basis.  I haven't had any issues with the site mentioned, but when I searched my computer, it came up in a security scan I ran four years ago...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Euclid on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 2:21 PM

I am getting the popup tag too.  If I cancel it, it comes right back in a few seconds.  I have never seen it before today.  I am also experiencing the usual freezes and slow loading.  I understand that some people may not be experiencing any of these issues, so I assume a persons's own system may be vulnerable to these problems while other people's systems are not.  I have no similar issues at any sites I visit besides this one.  All other sites load in approx. 1/2 second. 

In any case, I wonder how many people not registered on this forum come the site to look at it and give up because of the techincal problems?  How many would-be new members are being driven away?

Were there some big changes in how advertising was delivered on this site back in January-March this year?  I recall people mentioning that.  I wonder if that transormation resulted in a lot of new software being added to the forum by outside marketing firms, and if so, I wonder if that may have created vast complications in the Kalmbach forum program.   

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 1:55 PM

mudchicken

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.

 

I'm getting a box asking, "what do I want to do with the tag?" from this site.  (options being, Open - Save - Cancel)  I looked it up on-line and it is somekind of advertising malware.  I'm only getting this box on the Kalmbach site and it just started today.

Jeff 

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Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12:56 PM

What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12:47 PM

As to just the Trains dot com forum problems

I have noted that (in the last 3 or 4 months) sometimes when I refresh the list of topics, or open a topic to read, the site just never comes back... no timeouts... just nothing but the chasing circle in the browser tab.  Opening a new browser tab or window to the site will still not work.  Sometimes opening a different browser will allow me into the site, other times, even it is locked up somehow. If I close the browser window and clear the cache and cookies (I use "CCleaner" to clear EVERYTHING) I can then open the browser again and open the web site.  I have to log-in and the site will be responsive for a while (a few minutes to several days) and then lockup when I do a refresh or open a thread to read.  I tried that yesterday and it just never came back no matter what I did.

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12:31 PM

Carl, on a Uniguest system that does not permit downloads or streams of more than minimal bandwidth, I can easily open the Rochelle Webcam in about 3 seconds, and it renders the image and sound without dropouts while permitting the scroll wheel to zoom.  So I strongly suspect that if you're getting only a black screen you have a configuration issue on your browser 'client' -- could be time for the Ctrl-F5 reset ritual, or (on a Windows system) a check that you haven't inadvertently blocked content from a particular site or source.

 

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12:22 PM

[quote user="CShaveRR"]

Nothing was working for me yesterday, either--couldn't get this Forum, the Newswire, or the Rochelle Webcam--those are my three portals here.  Still have only a dark screen on the webcam (and I never had any problems while the others were describing them--right now it's just a black 'scream'

                                           ...I mean, screen).

 [/quote]
              Carl: A somewhat Freudian response(?) Whistling
                                         But I am completely empathetic.Bang Head

 

 


 

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12:20 PM

The s.thebrighttag.com Javascript downloads are now up to multiple times per page, over multiple sign-ins on multiple computers, only on the Trains Magazine site.  (The Classic Trains forum and the Rochelle EarthCam, for instance, are so far undisturbed).  So it's something the revenue/greed-maximizing boneheads know about, or ought to.

Again, I don't mind ads displaying content to subsidize the costs of free forums.  I do mind code that attempts to download things to my computer or crashes it.

 

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:55 AM

Semper Vaporo

Rochelle Earth Cam is working for me.

Ditto.  Local dragging a single box out onto the main and the switch was resistant to returning to the main, at least it seemed to put up a bit of a fight.  Another day at the office, I guess.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:38 AM

Rochelle Earth Cam is working for me.

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:28 AM

Nothing was working for me yesterday, either--couldn't get this Forum, the Newswire, or the Rochelle Webcam--those are my three portals here.  Still have only a dark screen on the webcam (and I never had any problems while the others were describing them--right now it's just a black scream...I mean, screen).

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 11:25 AM

When activating my Trains bookmark - it takes a perceptable delay before the Forum site loads - on the order of 30 seconds to a minute - all other sites I access respons with activity within 5 seconds or less.

Once I am on the Trains Forum site then the response times become 'normal' again.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 10:45 AM

Euclid
But I have been having trouble with it since last January.  It is an erratic problem with extremely slow loading and command freezes, which persist several days per week.  But some times it works fine all day.  But about at least 50% of the time, the site takes at least 1-2 minutes to open. 

+1

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