Below is a repost with replies from another thread I started today. I wasn't sure where to post it in the first place.Fellows,Today I noticed that when I open a topic to read in the forums, I get a small blocked pop up notification at the top of my browser and when I click on it is asks if I want to download the file. This just started this morning since last night I wasn't getting this blocked pop up notification when open topics to read. When I open a subforum like the FSX or Screen shot forum everythign is fine, but as soon as I open a topic to read I get the blocked pop up notification.My firts though was that someone has hacked the forums again and is trying to get people to download a malicious file.Please let me know if anyone else is getting this today so that I know its not my machine. BTW, I am using the regular Internet Explorer version I dont know, probably IE7 and not Chrome or another choice of browers.Thanks

I do not have encountered such things. But I´m using Chrome, so maybe there´s something wrong with your IE. You could try to upgrade to IE 9 beta and check whether this problem still exists.

Well, I think I will wait since I am not sure upgrade to a different browser is necessary since Avsim was working fine on my IE less that 8 hours ago.Frankly I am not sure whats going on since I cant imagine what type of fine it wants to download when I open a topic to read.

Something "similar?" was happening at SOH. Turns out to be some type of Facebook thingy. Solution at SOH? They removed all the Facebook links/code/garbage.

Yes, I am getting this too. It actualy happened again when I clicked on this thread.

I get it too - it seems to be an attempt to download some sort of .css file... It's a pain.DJ

I believe all of these reports should be in the "Help with Avsim forums" forum rather than this one.Probably would get the attention of the proper adminstrator more quickly there.

No notice for either the Pop-up blocker or permission to download a file when I pulled up this topic in Internet Explorer version 8.0.6001.18702IC (Windows XP SP3)I don't know why there would be any notice for a .css file. That extension is usually used for a Cascading Style Sheet that defines formating atributes (fonts, borders, background colors, margins, sidebars etc.) for the page's layout. The style sheet is used to centralize those settings so that the site manager(s) can change the appearance of multiple pages (in some cases thousands of pages) by editing a few characters in a single fileSome members might not be able to us IE version 9. I've seen reports it refuses to install on Widows versions prior to Vista.

Well, I guess some of us are getting the pop up and some are not depending on what browser you are using. Like someone else mnetioned, just opening this thread gave me the pop up, however I have no idea on my end what type of file it wants to download. DJ suggested its a .ccs file.I wasn't sure exactly where to post this but I can't move the thread now. All I can do is start a new topic in another section of Avsim like David suggested.

i have been having poor performance with the AVSIM site after the last forum software update ... about 2/3rd of a year ago or so? is this when the facebook additions appeared? i use IE 8 (see end of email).the forum is so bad that it can take 1-2 minutes for the site to load on my netbook. my main desktop can take 10-20 seconds.last week is decided to give firefox a run because i want less overhead on my netbook, and will be attending a convetion in a few weeks taking me away from my desktops for an extended period of time.firefox loads the AVSIM forums as fast as i did experience over 3/4 year ago.i did some looking and there are many reports of MS now doing extensive browser use tracking that can cause significant slowdown for IE users. i know that sitting with IE open, and not actively browsing, the system resources for IE will slowly increase and i've had IE running at 50% CPU doing 'nothing'. it is well known that FACEBOOK wants as much personal information as they can get and will sell these details to anyone with a dime.now, firefox runs great and i'm not seeing the resource use like i've experienced with IE over the past 3/4 year. for example as i type this my IE memory use has gone from 80,000K to 300,000K. compare this to openoffice that has a 100+ manual loaded for editing with graphics and text needing only 85,000Ki REALLY believe that there was something that happened to IE over the past year. IE was my number one browser since 1997 (used netscape on a mac from about 1994 till 1997). but it is SSSSOOOO SSSLLLOOOWWW it is going into the recycling bin.--

i REALLY believe that there was something that happened to IE over the past year. --

There apparently have been some major changes to IE and perhaps more to come - that is why I am still using Ver 7 - never have allowed an update to it and it works just fine for me.Just my two cents worth.

There apparently have been some major changes to IE and perhaps more to come - that is why I am still using Ver 7 - never have allowed an update to it and it works just fine for me.Just my two cents worth.

Sim-Outhouse had the same problem in every forum and thread. They found it was links to Facebook and the admin removed all links to Facebook from their website and today that popup is no longer there. Probably the same here...Philledit: Just noticed the two Facebook links at the bottom of the page.

You know i'm not sure its that since as far as I was aware those Facebook links have been here for a while.Not only that, but another fellow in one of his comments said that the file that wants to get downloaded is a .css file. I have no idea what that is without googling it.In any case I wish that some one from Avsim would chime in here and let us know what is going on since the pop up is annoying every time you open a thread.You know i'm not sure its that since as far as I was aware those Facebook links have been here for a while.Not only that, but another fellow in one of his comments said that the file that wants to get downloaded is a .css file. I have no idea what that is without googling it.In any case I wish that some one from Avsim would chime in here and let us know what is going on since the pop up is annoying every time you open a thread.

I just started getting these popus today. As mentioned the forum is trying to download a .css file to my computer.

I started getting these annoying popups today as well. Here's a screen-print of it:

Sim-Outhouse had the same problem in every forum and thread. They found it was links to Facebook and the admin removed all links to Facebook from their website and today that popup is no longer there. Probably the same here...Philledit: Just noticed the two Facebook links at the bottom of the page.

UPDATE: As of today, I am no longer getting the attempted file downloads and the Facebook links are still there so my "guess" was wrong. Don't know what happened but yesterday had the problem and today it's gone. BTW, I am using IE7 with XP (and all current updates from MS).Phill

I have started getting it now also - it worked just fne yesterday but every thread I look at starts the DL prompt now.

I'm seeing multiple search results pointing to various forums experiencing similar issues. Apparently "fbcdn.net" stands for Facebook Content Distribution Network and the xd_proxy files are associated with a web site's connection to Facebook. Apparently some site revision on Facebook has caused this trash of problems.