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A
Anonymous
April 25, 2017
Answered

Flash player won't work on some websites (Newgrounds)

  • April 25, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 10188 views

Operating system:  windows 7, SP1 + current updates

Anti-virus: Microsoft Security Essentials. (Turning off real-time protection temporarily did not help)

Web browser - all, but at the moment, focusing on Chrome Version 58.0.3029.81 (64-bit)

Flash player version: 25,0,0,148

None of the games on Newgrounds seem to work.  For instance,

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/691196

does not work.  I get only a blank white rectangle when I try to play this game on Newgrounds.  What appears to be the same game ("Cube Escape") does work on another website.

Play Cube Escape: The Cave, a free online game on Kongregate

Have others had similar issues - is Newgrounds just broken - or is it something on my system?  I've tried various things, including opening up what flash permissions I could find (probably to a dangerous extent from a security point of view) and creating a new user in Win 7 (to get a clean App_data tree), but nothing I've tried seems to make the Newgrounds games load.  I don't know how to go about diagnosing why it doesn't work when what appears to be the same game seems to work on another website.  This should provide a good clue, but I don't understand the technical aspects enough to troubleshoot or know what to try or analyze next that might provide more insight.

A semi-random thought.  Is there any way to find out what files the computer tries to load when I click on the Newgrounds game link, so I can make sure that there isn't something blocking access?  It's rather acting like the system can't see the files from Newgrounds for some reason, but I have no idea why that would be.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer

    Update:  I did some poking around, and even not knowing exactly what I was looking at, I was able to find out that Norton Connect safe, running on my router, was blocking some important files.  Apparently Norton considers Newgrounds (or rather part of it's underlying network)  to host "malicious software".

    As an aside, I wouldn't really think there were huge security issues with Newgrounds, not enough to block it, though I can believe that they've had occasional issues.  I suppose I'm willing to risk it, at least, though if anyone is aware of more facts, I wouldn't mind a heads up.

    Switching the computer to a different DNS with DNS jump rather than running it through the router (which was setup to use Norton connectsafe) allows the Newgrounds games to load just fine.  It's a pain, I actually want the security sometimes, so I'll have to remember to switch the DNS back in those cases.  I could switch the router off Norton ( if I could remember the admin password),  but - it's probably better to leave it as is, I can switch my DNS as needed with the current setup.   I'm unclear as to the technical merits of having the DNS done on my computer vs having it done on the router.

    I'd still like to understand a little bit better what happened.  Usually Norton gives me a visible warning message when it blocks something.  I'm guessing that something about the way the files were set up made it so that the web browser - or possibly Flash itself - tried to fetch the files.  THen the web browser (or flash) got the security warning message, rather than me - and it didn't know what to do with it - so the files were not loaded and no warning was given.

    I'd also like to understand a bit better what file is actually loaded.  I'm guessing it is a .swf file?  I don't see any file associations with .swf in the OS, I'm hazy on what program does what to eventually wind up with the game actually running.  But the main problem is solved - woot!.

    1 reply

    A
    Anonymous
    Correct answer
    April 26, 2017

    Update:  I did some poking around, and even not knowing exactly what I was looking at, I was able to find out that Norton Connect safe, running on my router, was blocking some important files.  Apparently Norton considers Newgrounds (or rather part of it's underlying network)  to host "malicious software".

    As an aside, I wouldn't really think there were huge security issues with Newgrounds, not enough to block it, though I can believe that they've had occasional issues.  I suppose I'm willing to risk it, at least, though if anyone is aware of more facts, I wouldn't mind a heads up.

    Switching the computer to a different DNS with DNS jump rather than running it through the router (which was setup to use Norton connectsafe) allows the Newgrounds games to load just fine.  It's a pain, I actually want the security sometimes, so I'll have to remember to switch the DNS back in those cases.  I could switch the router off Norton ( if I could remember the admin password),  but - it's probably better to leave it as is, I can switch my DNS as needed with the current setup.   I'm unclear as to the technical merits of having the DNS done on my computer vs having it done on the router.

    I'd still like to understand a little bit better what happened.  Usually Norton gives me a visible warning message when it blocks something.  I'm guessing that something about the way the files were set up made it so that the web browser - or possibly Flash itself - tried to fetch the files.  THen the web browser (or flash) got the security warning message, rather than me - and it didn't know what to do with it - so the files were not loaded and no warning was given.

    I'd also like to understand a bit better what file is actually loaded.  I'm guessing it is a .swf file?  I don't see any file associations with .swf in the OS, I'm hazy on what program does what to eventually wind up with the game actually running.  But the main problem is solved - woot!.

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