Idling on the internet...

[Externet]

Regards.

My compfuser idling for about 10+ minutes untouched since the last site visited.  Fan speeds up.   Seen that at certain sites that demand? more processing resources, but how it happens while doing nothing ?  Switching to another site the fan returned to its low speed state.  Is there under-the-table activity pushed by some web sites, in the magnitude of raising processing ?

Can it be related to operative system or to cookies and alike ?

 

[Peterkin]

One thing I noticed recently. An online game I like to play runs ads, sometimes that videos that run for 10-12 minutes, behind the the game, completely invisible, when I have it on full screen. I assume it's a programming oversight, since there doesn't seem to be any point in running an ad that's not even seen - it's just eating my bandwidth.

But, of course, there could be a whole host of stowaways and parasites in your computer, running all kinds of programs. Our bank was recently hacked, so we had to move all our financial information to a dedicated computer and now have to monitor all transactions very closely, to see if our data's being misused. The sharks are out there; better get all the cages and repellents you can!  

[Sensei]

16 minutes ago, Externet said:

My compfuser idling for about 10+ minutes untouched since the last site visited.  Fan speeds up.   Seen that at certain sites that demand? more processing resources, but how it happens while doing nothing ?  Switching to another site the fan returned to its low speed state.  Is there under-the-table activity pushed by some web sites, in the magnitude of raising processing ?

Identify that it is a web-browser at all by shutting down web-browser.

If it is indeed a web-browser, majority of websites these days use AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming)

i.e. when you load website, it starts Javascript program, which can run in the background, and reloads parts or all of the website, typically to reload ads after a while, so user see new content.. Ads in these days are MP4 x264 videos, so they are heavy data, either for Internet connection (precious, if you're on metered limited like 2G/3G/LTE/5G) and for CPU/GPU (if I am making Hotspot from my smartphone (metered LTE), and share it with Windows/PC, and leave it all day long, it can download 0.5-1 GB of trash)

AJAX is used whenever parallel reload of website is required i.e. Google Maps use it to load map when you drag mouse pointer.. FB/Instagram/GMail use it when you use mouse wheel, to load off-screen elements.

 

16 minutes ago, Externet said:

Can it be related to operative system or to cookies and alike ?

Identify that it is a web-browser at all by shutting down web-browser.

Cookies have nothing to do with it. They are information sent by website to user-client web-browser, and user-client web-browser sends them back to website, when user visits the same website again (or they can go with AJAX request)

 

Use Wireshark to identify what information is being sent by applications or OS.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Wireshark

 

16 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

I assume it's a programming oversight, since there doesn't seem to be any point in running an ad that's not even seen - it's just eating my bandwidth.

Whoever ordered the ad does not know it, does not see it. The client of the advertising company receives information about how many people have viewed and/or clicked on the ad. Such an "invisible ad" adds to the un-clicked one, giving the impression that someone viewed it anyway..

 

[Peterkin]

3 hours ago, Sensei said:

Whoever ordered the ad does not know it, does not see it.

Thanks, that's funny. I leave the possibility of error open, though, because when there was a problem before and I brought it to their attention, they fixed it . That doesn't much happen, so I owe them a little goodwill. In normal size, which is not advantageous for the game, the video runs concurrently in a small window. And has a pause button, so I can stop it while I'm playing. I hate unwanted things jumping around and strangers talking at me! I leave still ads alone - except the really distasteful ones.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Peterkin

[Sensei]

9 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

Thanks, that's funny. In normal size, which is not advantageous for the game, it runs concurrently in a small window. And has a pause button, so I can stop it as long I want. I hate unwanted things and people jumping around at me! I leave still ads alone - except the really distasteful ones.

If you know the hostname of the ad server (this can be checked with e.g. Wireshark, or web browser developer tools), you can edit the hosts file (in Windows in %WinDir%\System32\Drivers\Etc ) and add a fake entry that will point to e.g. localhost, which will fool the DNS routines and the web browser.. it will try to load a different page than it should and fail.. (such a handmade ad-blocker that works with any OS).

Edited August 3, 2022 by Sensei

[Peterkin]

Clever! A little way outside my scope, but very clever. I'll remember it next time somebody tries to sell me a beautiful Russian girl. Have you noticed they're not much on the screen lately?

[Externet]

Thanks.

Digging into territory am not familiar with, the system monitor reported over 60% of CPU activity from two "isolated web container"  from this Firefox shiiiit.

How to excomunicate such from my compfuser, forever ?.  I did not ask for its intrusion, whatever that is, and do not understand what it does, do not want to understand, and just want it out of taking over my resources.

Am also after another browser to kick Firefox out, that can work on Ubuntu 20.04   Thanks for any of your proven suggestions.  I do have search engines too.

Found am not alone ! ---> https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/quot-firefoxcp-isolated-web-content-quot-is-slowly-consuming-all/td-p/1872

experts; please shoot this intruder dead !

Edited August 6, 2022 by Externet

[Sensei]

@Externet

What guy described in the thread sounds like memory leakage.. One can make bug (intentionally if it is hacker attack, or most likely unintentionally) in JavaScript code that any web browser will suffer the same..

Closing page and/or web browser will help.

Write bash scrip which checks firefox process memory usage and warns after exceeding some limit..

Edited August 6, 2022 by Sensei

[Externet]

Yes, several different behavior examples shown on that link from the same whatever  'isolated web co'

 I would need a new brain transplant to write code again 50 years late.   Last brain transplant they gave me a refurbished.  Not recommended !

If I could write that, would not be to warn me about memory usage, would be to stop the intrusion. 😡  Yes, closing the browser fixes it for a while until 'piles up' again.

[Sensei]

@Externet

You need to find pid of web browser process:

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+get+pid+of+process

store it in some variable or env variable:

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+store+in+environment+variable

and use as parameter:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/131303/how-can-i-measure-the-actual-memory-usage-of-an-application-or-process

Extract memory usage to yet another env variable and check it if it is greater than your limit:

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+greater+than+or+equal+to

and show warning:

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+print+text

then delay:

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+delay+seconds

Then make loop in bash script.

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+bash+loop

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Sensei