You have a firewall, or some other "security" software, that is too aggressive and blocking sites. It's there. If there's a sale, for example, and it's an exclusive, it only comes through on the LinkShare links -- not direct. Direct is full price. Again, needless blocking. The site is safe. It's at least a decade old. Some software is stupid that way. Same for overly aggressive hosts file edits -- dumb. It only hurts the person, and is honestly just as bad as malware itself at that point. It comes down to indy developers that have this warped idea that links are evil.

Re-consider what you're using. It probably happens on many sites, given the widespread use of LinkShare and others.

Thanks. I haven't encountered this problem elsewhere, including links on your site, but I don't think any of yours I used were redirections.

The firewall here is free zonealarm with no especially restrictive settings, plus free AVG, plus the standard mvps hosts file. Looking at hosts I see that click.linksynergy.com is blocked in the file. Your links now work when I take that out, with no other changes to za or avg. I should have checked that before, but didn't know it was being accessed until I tried the links with opera and safari where they became visible and then still didn't think of the hosts file. I hadn't noticed linksynergy.com used anywhere before this at all but it seems intended to be hidden.

I know your site is safe, and have nothing against links, only aggressive ads and the omnipresent tracking in addition to the usual potential rogue websites. (I get a lot of spam at my domain, including what is caught in the spam traps, and use an elaborate home grown system on the server to routinely report it to spamcop, so there are also attempts at reprisals from the spammers.)

What kind of sales are you referring to? I use your site for the objectivity and expertise in technical information, trying to better understand audio and video processing.

MVPS hosts is to blame. It's overly aggressive. I quit using it years ago, because it blocked too many legit sites. That's what's doing it. If you have to block ads, even AdBlock is better -- but I don't condone it outright. It robs sites of income. Only blocks nuisance sites (AdBlock or hosts) like Intellitext/Vibrant/Kontera, and those obtrusive double-underline links. Unlike TV commercials, online ads can be quite useful.

See my new post here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/comp...ile-block.html -- try that one. :)

Sales come and go. Most last a day or two at most -- especially Adobe.

For spammed emails accounts, Thunderbird works well. If you use cPanel, I can give some de-spamming tips. (It's what we do here. Mail is double-routed to remove spam, and we get maybe 1 spam per 1,000 emails. I hate spam. And no, the rules are not over-aggressive. We have to careful of that, to not block customers and potential customers.)

Probably best to started a new thread for this topic. ;)