Pop-up asking me to disable my ad blocker

[snowy owl]

Hi,

Why, 1 out of 2 or 3 times, do I get this pop-up telling me that my ad blocker is activated, when it isn't, the site is whitelisted? And the VPN is on all the time. I only use FF.

[cork1958]

Been getting the same for a few days also with VPN, Firefox and Edge. Debated on asking this myself but waited to see if anyone else would.

Edited May 8, 2025 by cork1958

[Steffan]

It started this morning for me. So far is only on Edge. I'm not on the VPN but using ad-guard DNS for a few months.

[snowy owl]

The strangest thing is that on my iPhone, on which I use NordVPN, in combination with AdGuard, with Safari, there are no pop-ups, none at all? 🤔

[adrynalyne]

On 08/05/2025 at 08:30, Steffan said:

It started this morning for me. So far is only on Edge. I'm not on the VPN but using ad-guard DNS for a few months.

Happens on Safari too.

[snowy owl]

So funny! Ad blocker enabled, and no pop-ups using Edge. And after checking, still no pop-ups with Safari!

[Steffan]

It's random for me know

[hellowalkman Reporter]

Yeah got this for the first time today, on Chrome.

[FloatingFatMan]

Same here on Brave, though shields are down for Neowin. Looks like someone broke something.  

Note: This ONLY happens on the front page, the forum is fine.

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

Apologies for this, it is a new feature from our advertiser. I will report it.

[Steven P. Administrators]

It could be getting triggered with other extensions like Popup Blocker:

Or AutoPlayStopper

I

I also have uBlock with Neowin whitelisted and I have not seen the popup myself.

[snowy owl]

On 09/05/2025 at 04:14, Steven P. said:

It could be getting triggered with other extensions like Popup Blocker:

Or AutoPlayStopper

I

I also have uBlock with Neowin whitelisted and I have not seen the popup myself.

Hi,

I don't have these extensions, either Firefox or Edge.

And as mentioned earlier, the pop ups are random, once every two or three visits to the site (home page), when using FF.

[cork1958]

On 09/05/2025 at 07:12, snowy owl said:

Hi,

I don't have these extensions, either Firefox or Edge.

And as mentioned earlier, the pop ups are random, once every two or three visits to the site (home page), when using FF.

Exact same thing here. 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I've got Neowin whitelisted with uBlock Origin, but it has recently started popping up.

Although at the same time, I've noticed that Twitter copy-paste are being blocked, asking me if I want to allow them to be shown.

Maybe there is a correlation?

[Steven P. Administrators]

I think I may have fixed it. 

[cork1958]

On 10/05/2025 at 05:26, Steven P. said:

I think I may have fixed it. 

Nope, just got it when coming here using Edge on Linux Mint.

Edit: Just tried coming here using Firefox on Mint and got the pop up on it also.

Edited May 10, 2025 by cork1958

[snowy owl]

On 10/05/2025 at 09:27, cork1958 said:

Nope, just got it when coming here using Edge on Linux Mint.

Edit: Just tried coming here using Firefox on Mint and got the pop up on it also.

Same here 🤷🏽‍♂️!?

[Steffan]

I got the same message a few mins ago on Edge

Also saw this while looking at the forums. This is from Firefox private browsing. Don't think the two are related.

[bikeman25]

Only have Malwarebytes Browser Guard Extension and Roboform,  but been getting Pop on MS Edge and MS Edge on Galaxy phone as well.

 

Not just this site, but local news site as well

 

[FloatingFatMan]

On 10/05/2025 at 10:26, Steven P. said:

I think I may have fixed it. 

Still getting it here as well, and I don't know if this is at all relevant, but it get on DailyMotion as well, except it's far far worse on there as I get it on all browsers, even those with no ad-block, and I can't dismiss their dialog, so DM is now dead to me... :S

Gotta be something with how ad-blockers are being detected that's FUBAR'd.

 

EDIT: I did a bit more testing, and it looks like it's the "Ad & Tracker blocker" part of NordVPN causing it to trigger. Kinda weird as having that enabled doesn't block Neowin ads as the site is whitelisted...  Hope that helps.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 11/05/2025 at 06:21, FloatingFatMan said:

EDIT: I did a bit more testing, and it looks like it's the "Ad & Tracker blocker" part of NordVPN causing it to trigger. Kinda weird as having that enabled doesn't block Neowin ads as the site is whitelisted...  Hope that helps.

Thanks for testing. Yeah I use PIA myself but also with split tunneling, so I have Chrome set to Bypass the VPN globally in the Windows app (if I need VPN I activate the browser extension).

Edge and Firefox do use the VPN

[snowy owl]

On 11/05/2025 at 05:40, Steven P. said:

Thanks for testing. Yeah I use PIA myself but also with split tunneling, so I have Chrome set to Bypass the VPN globally in the Windows app (if I need VPN I activate the browser extension).

Edge and Firefox do use the VPN

As I mentioned earlier (always on the home page of the site), when using my cell phone (using WiFi), NordVPN protection is activated, and so is AdGuard, and there are no pop-ups when using Safari in private mode.

On the computer (both browsers with ExpressVPN enabled), (and on the home page of the site), when I use Edge with uBlock enabled (and not whitelisted), there are no pop-ups at all, just like on the forum. With Firefox, whitelisted in uBlock, random pop-ups, whereas on the forum no pop-ups at all.

It's never been a problem before, and on other sites I frequent which have ad-blocker detectors, I don't get any pop-ups with the current settings.

Edited May 11, 2025 by snowy owl

[cork1958]

On 10/05/2025 at 16:29, Steffan said:

I got the same message a few mins ago on Edge

Also saw this while looking at the forums. This is from Firefox private browsing. Don't think the two are related.

I've been seeing that ever since the Firefox update to 138. That's an easy one to fix just by clicking the "Allow on www.neowin.net" and turning off that option. The one I haven't figured out is when there is a media file included in post from X. Have to right click on it and copy url address and then open new tab and paste that url.

On 11/05/2025 at 00:21, FloatingFatMan said:

Still getting it here as well, and I don't know if this is at all relevant, but it get on DailyMotion as well, except it's far far worse on there as I get it on all browsers, even those with no ad-block, and I can't dismiss their dialog, so DM is now dead to me... :S

Gotta be something with how ad-blockers are being detected that's FUBAR'd.

 

EDIT: I did a bit more testing, and it looks like it's the "Ad & Tracker blocker" part of NordVPN causing it to trigger. Kinda weird as having that enabled doesn't block Neowin ads as the site is whitelisted...  Hope that helps.

I get the pop up but don't have "Ad & Tracker blocker" enabled in my Nordvpn.

[FloatingFatMan]

It's spreading.  I just got the popup in the Domestic Politics forum... :S

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 12/05/2025 at 16:48, FloatingFatMan said:

It's spreading.  I just got the popup in the Domestic Politics forum... :S

I was asked to move it in a different place, that might be why.