[Ham-Computers] RE: Keeps downloading flash player...

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Unfortunately, as you have realized, Flash content is becomming more and more standard on websites.  Much of the reason is due to how much better a website looks with "animated" pages.  Also, it's harder to "steal" web content based on Flash as opposed to plain old HTML.  However, Flash pages are huge and definitely are not something you want to visit if you're using dial-up (or even slower broadband connections).

The pop-ups you are seeing are being served by the website itself - it's not a setting in IE, Firefox, or any other browser.  When you visit a "Flash enabled" site, it checks to see if Flash Player is installed and, if not, the website prompts you to install it.  Each time you click on a link to a page that is Flash enabled, you'll get a prompt...that's just the way it is.

There are various add-ins for Firefox (and possibly other browsers) that block Flash content - do a Google search and you might find something.  However, be aware that much of a website's content may be Flash based - if it's a smaller website, there probably isn't an alternative "non-Flash" page.  Many websites for "larger" companies will have Flash and non-Flash pages available and you can usually choose which page you want (or "skip" the Flash content).

The Flash player is pretty benign, though there are some default privacy settings that should be changed.  If you have Flash player installed and visit a Flash enabled webpage, right-click on the Flash content and select "settings" - I generally set everything to "deny", "never ask again", and to set the amount of local drive space usable by websites to zero.  If you haven't done this already, you might be surprised how much Flash content is cached on your PC (upto 100K per website is the default).  Also uncheck the update notification.  You can also go here to manage the Flash player settings:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html

These settings are per browser as each browser uses a different Flash player plug-in.  Therefore, if you use more than one browser, you'll need to change the settings in each one.


73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O