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Terry

Terry

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Apr 3, 2005
Messages
738
Location
LaCrosse
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Display name:
Terry
Hi everyone,

I have a web site that I wrote for my wife using Front Page. The site has been up some 10 years and I basically leave it alone.

Yesterday, I noticed that at the bottom of my index page are the words, Love, Marriage, and Family. They were put there by me and are part of the web page.

Yesterday, I noticed the word "Marriage" was in red and when I hovered the mouse over it, a pretty 24 year old girl was wanting to chat with me. Being married some 41+ years, I was not amused. :nono:

How is this action done? Can I prevent it? My hosting is through Go Daddy and I don't think anything has been compromised.

Help please. I am seriously thinking of taking the web site down but she has a major book showing coming up in October in Germany and the extra publicity might be beneficial.

Is this the same as the erotic ads I see on a conservative web site at the bottom right?

The web site is: http://www.arlenejwarner.com if you need to take a look.

Thanks,
Terry :dunno:
 
Get a good malware scan of your computer.

Lots of adware installs itself these days and inserts links into any webpage you visit with stuff like this.
 
In addition to Jeff's comments, you might also check the source of your webpage to make sure you didn't get hacked. Are the passwords for your site secure?
 
Yep, it's your computer, the website has no such link for me.
 
Okay,

I ran a virus scan using AVG, my paid anti-virus program.

It found no Malware.

I downloaded PC-Pro and it found a bunch of junk files and registry errors but wanted $29.95 to remove.

Also, yesterday I went into the control panel and removed several tool bars so I could see my links with out having 5 or 6 tool bars.

When I restarted Firefox this morning, I am back to 5 tool bars.

This is a new desktop, Windows 7, and I just recently had a computer shop transfer all my files over from the old Dell.

1. Do I pay the $29.95 and have PC-Pro do its thing?
2. How do I keep theses tool bars off of my Firefox?
3. I am 66 years old and was thinking of taking a computer class/classes so I could handle these kind of situations. I enjoy working on the computer but am totally ignorant about registers, cache, partitioning, and etc. What class or what major should I look at from the Community College level?
4. I am close to Fort Hays State University and would that be a better place to go for computer classes? (Your opinion please and be honest if you think age is a problem.)

I have written some programs in Visual Basic and enjoy computers but am lost on internal files and registers and Mal-ware.

Thanks,
Terry
 
Download and run Spybot Search and Destroy.

Also, Malwarebytes.

Several iterations.

Report back.
 
Terry said:
Okay, thanks. Will be back later.
Click to expand...
Antivirus programs often don't find this type stuff.
I would also advise Adaware. These are all good anti malware programs but none will catch everything but if you run several you have a better chance of finding the culprit. And stop visiting those type sites. :nono::
 
Firefox has been hacked long ago. I quit using it because it was too susceptible to malware.

Try a different browser and see if it goes away. I'll bet it does.
 
Malwarebytes for starters, follow by Spybot. While you're at it, run TDSSKiller (Kaspersky free download). I also use GMER - it's powerful & can screw up your system if you do something wrong with it.
 
JOhnH said:
Antivirus programs often don't find this type stuff.
I would also advise Adaware. These are all good anti malware programs but none will catch everything but if you run several you have a better chance of finding the culprit. And stop visiting those type sites. :nono::
Click to expand...

What kind of sites, exactly. I am 66 years old, this is the wife's computer and she is 75 years old.

She only visits Face Book and Twitter. Could this junk be riding in on her email. Her email is Outlook.

Honestly, we don't go to those kind of sites. No kids in the home. I am real close to becoming "dis connected" from ALL internet.

Thanks,
Terry
 
Terry said:
What kind of sites, exactly. I am 66 years old, this is the wife's computer and she is 75 years old.

She only visits Face Book and Twitter. Could this junk be riding in on her email. Her email is Outlook.

Honestly, we don't go to those kind of sites. No kids in the home. I am real close to becoming "dis connected" from ALL internet.

Thanks,
Terry
Click to expand...

You don't need to go to one of "those" websites to get infected. All you need to do is hit an infected site that does a "drive-by download" of malware. The site can be very legit.

Example: The WTOP news site in DC got hacked a few weeks ago & infected folks that merely visited it with Internet Explorer (users with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc were NOT infected) - the hacker injected some code into the website header that downloaded malware. WTOP is the top-rated all news radio station in DC, owned by Bonneville. Several other legit sites were hit at the same time. (once discovered the WTOP site shut down, then limited access to everything BUT IE. They've cleaned it up & put up new defenses).

You can also get infected by opening a link in a bad email - the link might open automatically depending on your email software configuration.

Heck, there was a story recently about the login pages for hotel internet being hacked to download malware.

Best defense is a full-scope internet security package like Eset, Symantec, or McAfee. Set it up to scan web pages as well as downloads and emails. The "free" Microsoft antivirus software has recently been said to be ineffective - I'd avoid the MS package based on what I've seen. That won't guarantee that you'll avoid infection, but it IS part of an overall protection plan.
 
Oh, and one more thing: make sure your versions of Java and Flash (and Acrobat/Adobe Reader) are completely up to date. There are vulnerabilities in the older versions of each - the old versions should be uninstalled as part of your update process. If you have Java turned on, it can *automatically* download and install malware from an infected site, even a legit site that has been hacked.
 
I quit running McAfee because he got into trouble with the law and I figured it was about to go "South" and went to AVG.

In your opinion, would you drop AVG and switch to McAfee or does it hurt to run both?

I liked McAfee but just bought a new computer and I had AVG on my other computers.

AVG?
McAfee?
Both?

I uninstalled Firefox and switched over to IE. Seems better but still have "Ask" toolbar. When I try to uninstall ASK tool bar, I get a message that says Google Chrome needs to be closed out but I don't show Google Chrome open in my task manager.

While I am at it, thanks for all the help.

Terry
 
It has to be her email.

She gets on the computer, friends sends her junk, and she opens and forwards everything. (Argggggggh! :mad2: )

Who wants to tell her she needs to stop or find new friends? :yikes:

Terry
 
Terry said:
Who wants to tell her she needs to stop or find new friends? :yikes:
Click to expand...
It's not just friends. I have a list of people whose email gets summarily deleted before I even see it. These people have never -- not even once -- sent an actual personal email, but will forward every chain email and piece of cutesy crap out there. Every stupid Maxine comic (which I find repulsive) and every single "Oh, look how old and decrepit we are now" joke (ditto).

Problem is, those people are almost all family members. :(
 
Terry said:
I quit running McAfee because he got into trouble with the law and I figured it was about to go "South" and went to AVG.

In your opinion, would you drop AVG and switch to McAfee or does it hurt to run both?

I liked McAfee but just bought a new computer and I had AVG on my other computers.

AVG?
McAfee?
Both?
Click to expand...

Do not run both. They will conflict with each other.

AVG should be fine, but I'd run the full internet protection package, not just the anti-virus. Personally, I don't think the "free" version does enough. (I use Eset Smart Security, which I've been generally pleased with, and my employer uses Symantec Endpoint Protection).

If I'm not mistaken, McAfee is no longer involved with the ownership or operation of the company - in other words, his actions have no bearing on the company (other than the "taint" of name association).

I uninstalled Firefox and switched over to IE. Seems better but still have "Ask" toolbar. When I try to uninstall ASK tool bar, I get a message that says Google Chrome needs to be closed out but I don't show Google Chrome open in my task manager.

While I am at it, thanks for all the help.

Terry
Click to expand...

Sounds like there's some kind of malware remaining. Or something with Chrome (a background process of some kind). I don't have Chrome (or the Ask toolbar), so I'm not sure I can be a lot of help. I did have to uninstall Chrome (and Ask) from a friend's computer after they installed a CODEC package that auto-installed both & messed up the computer in the process.
 
One thing to consider in terms of virus scanning, try and get a Virus Scan CD.

Smart malware authors install themselves such that they can hide themselves from AV software. They install in such a way that they load very early in the computer's boot, and can then hide themselves from scans by intercepting and redirecting the requests.

By booting from a CD, you do a couple of things:
1) You entirely bypass the infected boot-loader software, giving the AV software in the CD a clean look at your computer.
2) Because the CD is (effectively) a Read-Only media, the virus cannot infect it.
 
Terry said:
What kind of sites, exactly. I am 66 years old, this is the wife's computer and she is 75 years old.

She only visits Face Book and Twitter. Could this junk be riding in on her email. Her email is Outlook.

Honestly, we don't go to those kind of sites. No kids in the home. I am real close to becoming "dis connected" from ALL internet.

Thanks,
Terry
Click to expand...
Sorry Terry, it was supposed to be a joke.
But Facebook is rather notorious for spreading malware and viruses ( not Facebook itself but some of the people that post there). I have banned Internet access to my employees without specific permission, and especially access to Facebook. After about a dozen problems one month, and almost all of them saying "I only visited Facebook when I was off the clock", I banned it and have had very few problems since. I did put a full AV suite on two computers and that is where we maintain our business Facebook page.
 
Would a "Paid" email account be helpful? I hear advertised "Reagan dot Com".

Would my ISP, who provides an email service, be better than using Outlook?

Terry
 
I just recently bought an IPAD and love it.

If I got my wife an IPAD, would she still have problems if she went to Face Book, and kept forwarding email to all her friends?

IPAD seems to be immune from the kind of mal-ware that infects PC's. Why?

Thanks,
Terry
 
Hi everyone,

All has been straightened out and Windows 7 is working great. :yes:

I do have one more question though.

Does IPAD have mal-ware issues? It seems I never have to fight this on my IPAD. If not, why?

Thanks,
Terry
 
One thing to watch out for is what rides in when installing things like Adobe reader. Most folks don't notice that they also want to install some browser toolbar and just click to continue.

I've not personally had an issue with my iPad at all.
 
Terry said:
I quit running McAfee because he got into trouble with the law and I figured it was about to go "South" and went to AVG.
Click to expand...

wsuffa said:
If I'm not mistaken, McAfee is no longer involved with the ownership or operation of the company - in other words, his actions have no bearing on the company (other than the "taint" of name association).
Click to expand...

McAfee (the company) is now wholly owned by Intel Corporation. Don't worry about the guy it's named for, he has nothing to do with it anymore.
 
Ghery said:
McAfee (the company) is now wholly owned by Intel Corporation. Don't worry about the guy it's named for, he has nothing to do with it anymore.
Click to expand...

Which is why most of us can't figure out why the software STILL sucks... :)
 
Terry said:
Hi everyone,

All has been straightened out and Windows 7 is working great. :yes:

I do have one more question though.

Does IPAD have mal-ware issues? It seems I never have to fight this on my IPAD. If not, why?

Thanks,
Terry
Click to expand...
Part of it is to Apple's credit that they took time to write pretty good code.
Part of it is that they had MicroSoft failures to learn from.
Part of it is that Apple still doesn't have the market share or the value that MS has. It is more difficult to break and has fewer rewards.

But therein lies a problem: Apple is presenting a "challenge" to hackers and you can bet your bottom dollar that hackers will pick up the challenge. When IOS becomes as ubiquitous as MS, they will provide a juicy target for hackers. I have heard it is already starting.
 
JOhnH said:
Sorry Terry, it was supposed to be a joke.
But Facebook is rather notorious for spreading malware and viruses ( not Facebook itself but some of the people that post there). I have banned Internet access to my employees without specific permission, and especially access to Facebook. After about a dozen problems one month, and almost all of them saying "I only visited Facebook when I was off the clock", I banned it and have had very few problems since. I did put a full AV suite on two computers and that is where we maintain our business Facebook page.
Click to expand...

I used to block Facebook at the gateway at my business accounts. If the company actually had a FB page, then only the person(s) responsible for updating it, etc. were allowed access through the firewall -- preferably using a Linux box, if at all possible.

-Rich
 
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