Hey guys…
It seems that the cyber gods deemed it time for our OpenX install to be hacked so we are looking for an alternative. Preferably something self hosted that we don’t have to place on our servers.
It would be great if it had options like OpenX (geo-targeting etc) and robust reporting capabilities. We don’t want to pay an arm and a leg but we want a quality replacement and are not interested in anything free.
Any input would be great. Thanks folks!
Hunter
Re: Looking for Suggestions - What AdServer Do You Use?
We also use OpenX, and early 2011 we had a malware insertion.
Turned out the problem was in our site, not at OpenX and so we continue to use them (having plugged the hole).
We’ve looked but not found a less expensive, robust option.
Since then, we’ve had no further problems with their services.
Re: Looking for Suggestions - What AdServer Do You Use?
[QUOTE=Maryflixxx;124632]We also use OpenX, and early 2011 we had a malware insertion.
Turned out the problem was in our site, not at OpenX and so we continue to use them (having plugged the hole).
We’ve looked but not found a less expensive, robust option.
Since then, we’ve had no further problems with their services.[/QUOTE]
Same happen to me at GayDemon, had Malware insertion through OpenX. But I’ve stopped using that old bug ridden piece of crap. But as Mary says, there is very little choice. All the other solutions are very expensive and the cost vs income doesn’t add up for our type of sites (I also looked around).
I ended up rewriting a old script I use for other things to handle my ads instead. It’s secure, efficient and more robust but with less features. There was another few threads about advert scripts, try the OpenX Tag to find it.
Re: Looking for Suggestions - What AdServer Do You Use?
This one is quite reliable and has affordable plans: http://www.adzerk.com/
I believe it’s also free for the first 10k or 100k impressions, afterwards you pay for your needs. Might be worth looking into it.
Re: Looking for Suggestions - What AdServer Do You Use?
I asked a similar question a while back and didn’t get a good answer, so I just spent a few weeks writing my own banner ad system.
Re: Looking for Suggestions - What AdServer Do You Use?
[QUOTE=andreiDL;124689]This one is quite reliable and has affordable plans: http://www.adzerk.com/
I believe it’s also free for the first 10k or 100k impressions, afterwards you pay for your needs. Might be worth looking into it.[/QUOTE]
LOL!
We’d blow through the freebie in about 2 minutes! 
But anything is definitely worth the look.
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Thanks for all the feedback folks. We had a meeting today and we want to invest in a high-end solution to save us this sort of headache. We also don’t have the resources to commit to creating something from scratch. Our programmers have enough on their plate.
If I find anything worth sharing in my research, I will keep you all posted.
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Really there’s nothing wrong with OpenX. It just needs “hardening”. Unfortunately the developers haven’t had great success in acquiring “angel investors” as of late so it lacks up dates. I think they just went about it the wrong way.
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OpenX source (the version you host yourself) is currently fine but you need to keep up with security updates and you should also use .htaccess to lock down the admin areas to your IP address(s). The latter often helps with certain exploits. Sadly ever since they started with their hosted OpenX they have been neglecting the source version to try to get people to pay them. IMO the project is somewhat neglected.
For some software (WP. elgg, etc) I use other plugins which are more simplistic rotators. They lack many of the features openx has but they work well enough. I understand the owner of The Hun was working on something a month or two back and was considering releasing it. I’m not sure what happened with that.
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Just to help out anyone using Openx and not very tech literate you should be able to put this in “openx/www/admin/.htaccess” if you are using Apache and it should help secure things from some types of attacks in the future:
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from 999.999.999.999
Replace 999.999.999.999 with your IP of course. This will lock down the admin area to your IP providing a degree of layered protection. Historically doing this has helped against some past exploits although it hasn’t helped in all cases.
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I’m using http://www.smart-scripts.com/?action=smartspots
It’s not the best I use but it works fine for me.
I purchased a long time ago an expansive ad script ($4000 as I remember) and each time I moved on another server it was extremely difficult to setup, so I decided to change for Smart Spots
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Smart Script is good but it lacks of one of the most important feature (at least for me): it doesn’t recognize the banners already showed for the same campaign the same page. It means that you can get double banners on your pages.
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The best way to avoid this is to create another advert place with different banners