I can't see anything on the news.net homepage. Can you link to a specific page with the banner, or describe what you mean by "banner dropping down"?

Hi there, attached is image of what happens...Basically it's a long black banner on the top of each web page, it drops down after a couple of seconds of being on a page. As you can see, this dropped down when I accessed your reply...the damn thing is definitely slowing things down. It advertises news headlines. It started to appear around 22 June. Thanks.

Try the Firefox SafeMode to see how it works there.
A troubleshooting mode, which disables most Add-ons.
Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Firefox SafeMode

When in Safe Mode...

• The status of plug-ins is not affected.
• Custom preferences are not affected.
• All extensions are disabled.
• The default theme is used, without a persona.
• userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored.
• The default toolbar layout is used.
• The JIT Javascript compiler is disabled.
• Hardware acceleration is disabled.

• You can open the Firefox 15.0+ SafeMode by holding the Shft key when you use the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• Or use the Help menu item, click on Restart with Add-ons Disabled... while Firefox is running.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before using the Firefox shortcut (without the Shft key) to open it again.

If it is good in the Firefox SafeMode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
Or it might be caused by Hardware Acceleration.

When you figure out what is causing that, please let us know. It might help other user's who have that problem.

Ah, if it's happening on every page, it's definitely something that installed on your browser (or malware). It's not Firefox itself, nor (as I assumed) the websites.

Open your addons (crtl-shft-A) and look for anything that might be responsible. Disable it, reload Firefox and see if you've got it. (Remember to check both extensions and plugins. A few years ago I had an extension stealthily install a plugin.)

Alternatively, you might have been hit with adware on your system. Have a look at Windows control-panel/uninstall-a-program and see if there's anything there that might be adware. (For example "SelectionLinks" or "Objectify Media".) Then try to remove their sneakily installed addon from Firefox.

However, some malware can be a pig to get rid of, and you may end up having to restore your whole system from a backup that dates from before the banner started appearing.

Another option is to install a reputable Adware cleaner, like AdwCleaner, and hope it can undo the damage.

Many thanks Paul451 - it's gone. I feel a bit like a dill not knowing how to work that one out...but I've learned something.

What was the name/location addon/adware causing the problem?

(Always post your actual solution. That way when people come across this page when googling the same problem, they can see the answer. Nothing more frustrating than finding a thread that discusses your exact problem, but doesn't include the solution.)

I also had the news.net problem. I downloaded a Java update from a place that appeared in a search result, but which was not the original Java page. I then carelessly clicked yes to just about everything that popped up to get the Java update installed. During that clicking, news.net (AUSTRALIA.NEW.COM.AU Application) and microsoft silverlight were installed on my machine. News.net is one of those programs which installs everywhere if you let it, which I did.

Solution: uninstall both the news.net application and the Microsoft Silverlight application (which remembers the web address for newsnet, and keeps opening up the page even after news.net was uninstalled).

I also ran AdwCleaner which may have helped, but had to get rid of Silverlight to purge my Windows7 machine of this program (I imagine there is a way to do this within silverlight itself, but I don't need silverlight).