A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com

What can I do about that?

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..

On 2023-10-07, meagain <rick0.merrill@gmail.com> wrote:

> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?

https://www.privacyaffairs.com/block-google-analytics/

That was the first hit that came up when I typed
"suppress google analytics" into DuckDuckGo.
There are many others.

Yours for a Google-free world...

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | They offer a huge range of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | world-class vulnerabilities
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | that only Microsoft can provide.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- druck <news@druck.org.uk>

On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?
>
Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?

On 10/08/2023 05:48 AM, Sjouke Burry wrote:
> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>
>> What can I do about that?
>>
> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?

What/where is "hosts file"?

Sjouke Burry wrote:
> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>
>> What can I do about that?
>>
> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?

as in: 0.0.0.0 analytics.google.com

Unfortunately that was non-trivial under Windows the last time I looked,
see
https://www.howtogeek.com/784196/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-on-windows-10-or-11/
My Virus scanner (Avira) used to consider using that file to be an
attempt to insert a hidden backdoor, back when I used Windows (7 or
maybe 10) and Avira.

On 08.10.23 12:55, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 10/08/2023 05:48 AM, Sjouke Burry wrote:
>> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>>
>>> What can I do about that?
>>>
>> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?
>
> What/where is "hosts file"?
>
>
%windir%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Sjouke Burry wrote:

> Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> What/where is "hosts file"?
>
> %windir%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Then wonder why it refuses to over-write the file ...

But in Richard's case, more likely

sudo vi /etc/hosts

On 10/08/2023 06:27 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
> Sjouke Burry wrote:
>
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>
>>> What/where is "hosts file"?
>>
>> %windir%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
>
> Then wonder why it refuses to over-write the file ...
>
> But in Richard's case, more likely
>
> sudo vi /etc/hosts

https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=linux%20%22hosts%20file%22%20purpose

points to answer to question(s) I was trying to ask.
I've a weeks worth of reading to do ;}
Thanks to you and Charlie.

On 08/10/2023 00:45, meagain wrote:
> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?
>

NoScript

--
London
UK

meagain wrote:
> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?
>

Can you give an example of a site that does it every time?

meagain wrote:
> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?
>
Did you mean https://analytics.google.com/ ?
One can use SM to logon to GA wih a GMail address.
Then create a required GA account and property.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

-------- Original Message --------
> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>
>> What can I do about that?
>>
> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?

Did that - still hangs.

--
..

-------- Original Message --------
> meagain wrote:
>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>
>> What can I do about that?
>>
> Did you mean https://analytics.google.com/ ?
> One can use SM to logon to GA wih a GMail address.
>  Then create a required GA account and property.
>
>

You're right (I typed it backwards)!

nextdoor.com seems to always hand via SM.

--
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meagain wrote:
> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>
> What can I do about that?

Block access to google analytics. That one does nothing for you -- it
just allows site operators to track your activities (via google).

There are a number of ways of doing it:

- Personally, I do it via NoScript, where I've permanently blacklisted
google-analytics.com, although the scope is limited to my primary
profile in Seamonkey (where I have NoScript installed). That doesn't
help with other places I don't have NoScript, including secondary
profiles, other browsers, etc.

- Null-route in your hosts file. Add the following entry:

0.0.0.0 google-analytics.com

(note host name).

This widens the scope to your entire computer. In Windows, the hosts
file is in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. It's a system file,
so you have to have administrative access to get to that. Either open
your text editor with administrative access (right click on the editor's
program icon, and select "Run As Administrator", or open a Command
prompt, where you right click on the icon and select "Run as
Administrator". Make sure you're using a text editor (such as notepad),
and don't use a word processor. In MacOS and Linux, the file is
/etc/hosts -- it's also a system file, and you generally have to use
sudo with your editor to have sufficient permissions to make changes.

- Block at your router, where you set google-analytics to route to 0.0.0.0

- You can also block with the firewall on your computer, although I
don't have recent experience with tuning the Windows firewall.

Blocking google-analytics may or may not resolve the specific problem,
but it's something that's worth doing anyway.

Smith

Don Vito Martinelli wrote:
> Sjouke Burry wrote:
>> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>>
>>> What can I do about that?
>>>
>> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?
>
> as in: 0.0.0.0  analytics.google.com

Actually, the one you want is google-analytics.com, although it might
not hurt to do analytics.google.com, either. analytics.google.com is the
UI for sites that use Google Analytics.

Although I explicitly block google-analytics via use of Noscript, I
found that with uBlock Origin active, I have enabled Peter Lowe's Ad and
tracking server list, and access to google-analytics.com is also blocked
there.

>
> Unfortunately that was non-trivial under Windows the last time I looked,
> see
> https://www.howtogeek.com/784196/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-on-windows-10-or-11/

Mostly that because the hosts file is a system file, you have to have
admin rights to edit it. That means either running your editor with
admin rights, or opening a command prompt with admin rights.

>
> My Virus scanner (Avira) used to consider using that file to be an
> attempt to insert a hidden backdoor, back when I used Windows (7 or
> maybe 10) and Avira.

Historically, tampering with the hosts file is a tactic used by malware.
I've seen it happen where a computer gets infected, and then where the
malware puts a bunch of hosts entries to null-route access for AV
scanners. This is why Microsoft does not allow for editing that file
without admin rights.

Some AV scanners may consider a hosts file that's anything other than a
pristine copy distributed by Microsoft to be evidence of malware
tampering, although I don't know that I've seen that since the era of
XP. That approach is overly simplistic on the part of the AV developers
(probably more common in in free consumer-grade AV), because it doesn't
recognize that there are legitimate reasons to alter the contents of the
hosts file. With Microsoft write protection of that file, I think it's
really not an issue. I think I just saw a computer that has Avira on
it, where I had put a static IP address of a particular host in my
network, and no issues. I know it's not an issue with the Microsoft AV.

In the days when I used to use Skype, I found the addresses of their ad
servers, and when I listed those in my hosts file, the ads went away.

On that point, if you have an AV that complains about a non-pristine
hosts file, it's time to replace the AV with something else. Even the
Microsoft AV is better than that.

Smith

meagain wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
>> On 08.10.23 1:45, meagain wrote:
>>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>>
>>> What can I do about that?
>>>
>> Put google.analytics.com in your hosts file?
>
> Did that - still hangs.
>
>

Mr Smith suggests adding google-analytics.com to the line, something I
have now done. I'll test the effects tomorrow.

-------- Original Message --------
> meagain wrote:
>> A number of sites hang SM when "connecting to" google.analytics.com
>>
>> What can I do about that?
>
> Block access to google analytics. That one does nothing for you -- it
> just allows site operators to track your activities (via google).
>
> There are a number of ways of doing it:
>
> - Personally, I do it via NoScript, where I've permanently blacklisted
> google-analytics.com, although the scope is limited to my primary
> profile in Seamonkey (where I have NoScript installed).  That doesn't
> help with other places I don't have NoScript, including secondary
> profiles, other browsers, etc.
>
> - Null-route in your hosts file.  Add the following entry:
>
>     0.0.0.0        google-analytics.com
>
> (note host name).
>
> This widens the scope to your entire computer.  In Windows, the hosts
> file is in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.  It's a system file,
> so you have to have administrative access to get to that.  Either open
> your text editor with administrative access (right click on the editor's
> program icon, and select "Run As Administrator", or open a Command
> prompt, where you right click on the icon and select "Run as
> Administrator".  Make sure you're using a text editor (such as notepad),
> and don't use a word processor.  In MacOS and Linux, the file is
> /etc/hosts -- it's also a system file, and you generally have to use
> sudo with your editor to have sufficient permissions to make changes.
>
> - Block at your router, where you set google-analytics to route to 0.0.0.0
>
> - You can also block with the firewall on your computer, although I
> don't have recent experience with tuning the Windows firewall.
>
>
> Blocking google-analytics may or may not resolve the specific problem,
> but it's something that's worth doing anyway.
>
> Smith

Did it. Question, why no IP6 version?

--
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-------- Original Message --------
>>
> %windir%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Thanks for the link!

On 11.10.23 22:32, meagain wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
>>>
>> %windir%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
>
> Thanks for the link!
>
You are welcome.