Huh, didn't seem to happen to me.

huh, it did it to me, which triggered a doublepostage error, blah.

I get a Page Can Not Be Found.

How odd. The only time stuff like that happened to me was when my computer was deeply infected with malware and spyware. The fact that both danf and lfr see it makes me think that's not the reason, though. However, the result was similar: it always took me to a page of spurious "search results" heavily salted with pr0n and gambling sites.

It's working normally for me.

Is everyone who is getting this using AVG? If so:

What version and what linkscanner version? (you can find this info by opening AVG -double click on the icon in the tool tray, or on the desk icon if you have one- and clicking "Help"

Free or paid? With toolbar, or without?

It looks like a function of AVG - though I'm using AVG and don't have the problem.

I have an idea about what may be causing this, and might try something...

I have AVG 8.0.173, free / no toolbar, Linkscanner version 43, FF3, and the Recent Comments link works fine for me.

identical here in every respect, BP, except my FF is 3.0.3.

Apparently there have been quite a few problems with the new AVG, and I'm thinking that either the linkscanner or the surf shield might be at fault. I think that paid AVG has more functionality than free, and might be actually causing more problems, or there are different behaviors with the toolbar as opposed to without. I'm just not sure whether it would be older versions responsible, or newer updates on either paid or w/toolbar.

Vexing. I have the idea that if I put a backslash after the "recent" part in the url, it may fix the problem as far as the site is concerned (and if so, how stupid, or possibly exploitative, on AVG's part) - but I don't want to try that 'til we get some info from people getting redirected, because I'm just curious.

Anyway, I'm very disappointed with the new AVG. It's actually been labled "Badware" by a lot of people. I myself have been using it with linkscanner turned off because it just slows everything down so much and makes me crazy - though I turned it back on to test the recent comments link. In any case, redirecting to a paid-ads page? NOT DONE, AVG! Are you turning into the problem instead of the solution? Bad AVG.

I was having this problem, like a couple months ago. It seems like I did something to fix it, but damn it I can't seem to remember what it was. I don't know, maybe it just stopped doing it on its own. I'll post if I think of it. I use FF2, AVG Free.

The new AVG Free is causing me problems too. It's always putting up a message about not being able to connect to the server for updates. I also just installed it on a Vista machine yesterday, and it just went through all these weird gyrations of saying things were good, then bad, then good, then bad, as it went through its first update. I'm starting to wonder if I should be using something else. I don't like my anti-virus acting wonky. Have they changed management or something? They used to seem like good guys.

Did you have this problem on mecha, DarkForest? Or just generally?

They were always great, and now they sort of/very much suck. I hope they get their groove back. Also... I used to do daily scans on my computer via AVG, and since the new version on my laptop A) I can't do anything else while scanning because it slows it down do much that it makes it impossible to use the thing, and B) it now takes upwards of 7 hours to do a scan. WTF? I went to sleep one night, set it to scan, and it was still scanning over seven hours later when I got up. So I don't do regular scans any more. How is that better, AVG? Huh? Huh?

By turning on the AVG toolbar, and turning search-shield on, I can get it to happen again (FF2, XP, AVG-Free). Funny that it only happens on the Recent Comments link, but not on metachat.org.

Oh, great!!! Okay, don't go away... I'm going to make a tweak to that url, and let's see if it still happens... *goes off to quickly tweak*

Okay, DarkForest - try it now?

I also use OpenDNS, if that makes any difference...

Nope, that doesn't make any difference for me, taz. I still get hijacked to that page.

huh. *scratches head* ...

I think what I did when this happened before was just to remove the AVG toolbar and then all was good.

It really doesn't make sense that it likes metachat.org but not metachat.org/recent (with our without the final slash). I wonder if they have some kind of black list that the recent comments page got on somehow. Maybe send a note about it to the AVG people?

In that case it should give some sort of warning message, but not a 404 error, though, right?

Yeah, it seems to be a toolbar-related thing. On that nasty redirect page it has a note that says "To disable the URL Error Redirection, go to the option page of AVG toolbar"

and it's linked, so it should presumably take people directly to that option, I guess.

I guess I'm lucky I hate toolbars. :)

If we think of anything else, DarkForest, we might take advantage of your magic testing service again!

I turned off the computer last night before all these responses.

I have free AVG plus whatever the newest version of FF3 is. I got tricked into installing the AVG toolbar and would like for it not to be there.

I'll check later when I get home, whether this is still happening.

Danf, I think you may be able to turn off the toolbar under add-ons in Tools.

As for me, after trying to track down info about this problem, I've read so much about AVG 8 (almost all DO NOT WANT comments, etc.), I now suspect that it's been AVG that has been causing our laptop to crawl-and-crash. We've been deleting files, defragging, all sorts of things to try to get it fit again, but it might just be the AVG.

I've uninstalled it and now installed Avira instead... we'll see if it gets snappier.

actually, it seemed to start up much faster w/out AVG, but it may be confirmation bias... I'll see how the machine acts when it would typically start dragging... anything Flash, leaving gmail open (?), running photoshop, etc. And if I never see another "it appears a script has stop working on this page" error message again, I'll kiss you, danf, for making me rethink the AVG.

Would you report back once you've been running it for a bit, taz? I haven't had as many problems with AVG as it sounds like you have, but it HAS stopped updating automatically, and it's a PITA having to manually update it every day. Also, it sounds like it could cause other problems and I may have just been lucky so far.

So how about a quick review once you've been running Avira for a little while?

will do!

From what I could see, it seemed more or less a toss-up between Avira and Avast, but I went with Avira because it seemed simpler in that Avast asks you to do this:

avast! antivirus Home Edition is FREE to use but it is necessary to register before the end of the initial 60 day trial period. To register, click here. Following registration you will receive by E-mail a license key valid for a period of 1 year. After you have downloaded and installed the program, the license key must be inserted into it within 60 days. The registration process is very easy, and it will take you only a couple of minutes.

At least in FF2, you can turn off the AVG toolbar under view->toolbars, and uncheck AVG security toolbar. You may need to restart the browser for the change to take effect. I'll be looking forward to the Avira review, too. Thanks.

This thread was very helpful- since AVG rolled over, my computer has been ghastly slow. Avira it is!

I have an idea what may cause this error. I'll check it out when I get home.

I thought I noticed that AVG had installed an add-on into FF without me knowing last night - I'll check when I get home (we use Symantec on work machines and this problem doesn't exist using FF 3.0.3). I've become increasingly annoyed with the shrillness with which AVG has been trying to get me to buy the non-free version lately, so an alternative might be good, too.

Yeah - an add-on called AVG Safe Search that I don't recall agreeing to. The recent comments page works fine, though. FF 3.0.3/WinXP Pro if it matters.