Malware on dotTech, Part 2: Possible solution – need feedback please!
January 25, 2010 52
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As mentioned earlier today, I have gotten numerous complaints by dotTechies about “malware being on dotTech”, specifically related to advertisements and/or page redirections. Since I have not been able to reproduce these problems myself, I have diagnosed these problems to the best of my ability and have applied a possible solution. So what I need now is the help of all dotTechies. As I mentioned, I have not experience any malware problems myself so I don’t know if my solution has worked or not. So, please, please tell me if from now on your anti-virus or anti-spyware or anti-malware or whatever security software comes up with a warning when you visit dotTech. Please tell me if you are redirected to any other page (scumware page or otherwise) when you visit dotTech. Please tell me of any other unusual behavior when you visit dotTech.
Furthermore, if you are one of the people that experienced malware/redirection problems when visiting dotTech, please make sure your computer is clean because it may be that your computer is infested and dotTech is just an innocent bystander. So, do a full computer scan with your computer software; if you don’t have security software, get some. Also, clean your browser cache and cookies with CCleaner. Both these steps should mitigate the chance of the problem being on your end.
On a similar note, me and a few other dotTechies have noticed dotTech hanging/loading slowly/lagging recently. If the hanging and malware problems are related, dotTech should no longer be lagging. If you still experience slow loading, please let me know.
If all the problems stop happening, then we know that all the problems are from the source I suspect. If the problems still occur, then I am wrong and will continue to try to get this fixed.
Thanks for everyone’s help and understanding.
Take care,
Ashraf
About the author: Ashraf View all posts by Ashraf
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I’ve had no problems either with load times or with redirects. I run Firefox with Ad Block Plus but it’s disabled for dottech. I’ve just scanned with Avira and with SuperAntiSpyware and found no problems.
@ #20, Ozzie: oh dear.
Seems I really have been been infected with the assume_wronglyTrj, evidence of which is manifested by the number of instances a victim proceeds from false premise to erroneous conclusion within a short period of time.
In my case, it’s getting serious. . .
:oops:
it could have been a false positive, just like kaspersky flagging google ads as trojans.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kaspersky-Says-Google-Spreads-Malware-but-Trojan-JS-Redirector-ar-Is-a-False-Positive-133118.shtml
@MikeR: LOL! You are a ray of sunshine, Mike! Always such a joy to read your posts!
@newprouser: I took the “better-to-be-safe-than-sorry” approach and quarantined them. But thanks for the info.
Same as 1. Rocky.
The opening of the site was indeed unusually long (I attributed this to the revival of the look), but it now seems in order.
Hey Ashraf!!
If this problem is caused by some nasty ADS you added on your site, then I suggest you download this nice Firefox addon:
http://www.sitetruth.com/downloads/adrater.html
Have you already tried it?
As for the on-demand antispyware scanner my suggestion is to use A-SQUARED 4.5 (free or paid version) along with the portable version of SUPERANTISPWARE which seems to me far superior to detect malware than other similar app such as Malwarebyte’s antimalware:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/9283/superantispyware-portable-is-the-must-have-spyware-removal-tool-you-need/
With this terrific tool you don’t even need any internet connection to scan your infected PC sonce the scanner already contains the latest definitions.
For better results please use both tools in SAFE MODE after disabling the SYSTEM RESTORE POINT.
Enjoy!!
Giovanni
P.S. Breaking News!! Hey Ahraf, have you seen the last AV comparatives report, that, as everybody knows, is one of the most respected antivirus comparison tests in the world??
Well believe it or not but according to them AVIRA ANTIVIR is no longer the best FREE AV out there because of its high FALSE POSITIVE detection rate which is too high when compared with other FREE Antivirus applications such as AVAST HOME EDITION for instance that is at present the BEST FREE AV out there, according to AV COMPARATIVES of course.
Please note that the last FREE version of AVAST (vers 5) includes a set of great feautures that any other freeware AV out there (including AVIRA) is able to provide free of charge, such as the “File System Shield” option, the “Web Shield” feature for scanning all visited web pages checking all files, pages and java scripts downloaded from the web, the “P2P Shield” and “IM Shield” to check files downloaded using P2P programs or those downloaded while using instant messaging or “chat” programs and above all the “Mail Shield” option to scan all incoming/outgoing e-mails for malware including SSL communication (gmail.com).
Even the award-winning shareware AVIRA PREMIUM doesn’t provide such great features altogether, does it?? LOL!
And it’s not an accident that GOOGLE has recently chosen this product for inclusion in Google Pack (did you know it, Ahraf??).
You can find a very detailed review of Avast 5.0 here:
http://www.virusbtn.com/files/Avast-Jan2010.pdf
On SOFTPEDIA (see link below) the previous version (4.7) got an overall “excellent” rating from SOFTPEDIA EDITOR but vers 5 fixed all the bugs detected in the previous one, meaning that the new version is more than excellent and probably close to perfection.
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Avast-Home-Edition-Review-33200.shtml
So, as matters stand, I think you’d better review your nice article about the best FREWARE Security applications you wrote here a few monts ago, taking into account the last “developments” in this field.
At present I’m trying a new revolutionary and very promising indeed (FREE) AV that seems even better than AVIRA, AVAST and/or MSE itself as far as the MALWARE DETECTION RATE and resource consumption are concerned.
But, given its great features mentioned above, I’ll probaly migrate to “Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0.377 Final version” soon.
Say goodbye to AVIRA false positives and UPDATES problems once and for all!!
ADIOS AVIRA….LOL!!
@ Giovanni:
D’you know, the fact that you’ve gone so spectacularly off-topic doesn’t bother me at all. :P
No-one has produced more enthusiastic posts than you have on dot.tech and I for one am thankful!
Now then. Avast AV. . .
Like presumably (though I keep making a right mess of things with my presumptions nowadays), like presumably countless thousands of other Avira AV users out there, I too have finally chucked in the towel over the updates situation.
You can only go so long, screaming at the frozen updater and weeping for the return of the Avira nag screen. Or, well, maybe.
I’ve replaced Avira with Avast. And the verdict is. . . Good Gawd, what have I been doing all this time, using any AV other than Avast?
You’re right, Giovanni. It’s a fantastic product (and yes, the background scanning “Live Shields” — much to my surprise — do indeed work.)
Freebies really don’t get much better than this. Well done, Avast!
Hi Mike!!
Thanks for your comment and sorry for my (poor) English in comparison with yours and that of the other Dottechies readers of course…arghhh…LOL!!!!!
As for my (maybe too long) above comment frankly I don’t think that it was so OT…LOL!
Ashraf has released an article here showing a possible solution to deal with malware problems surrounding his website right now.
He said, I quote, “So, do a full computer scan with your computer software; if you don’t have security software, get some”.
But in his previous review, where he talked about FREE SECURITY PROGRAMS, he didn’t suggest to download neither AVAST nor SUPERANTISPYWARE PORTABLE VERSION as tools to prevent and remove spyware from an infected PC, maybe because he didn’t know them in depth at that time and still didn’t try them as instead I did a couple of days ago.
Now AVAST 5 has definitely overtaken AVIRA (see AV COMPARATIVES report for more information) as best FREEWARE AV available on the market now and SUPERANTISPYWARE PORTABLE VERSION is at present probably the best malware removal tool out there.
I think that if dottechies readers had installed on their PC the new version of AVAST, with the WEB SHIELD GUARD option enabled, the chances to get a virus or spyware here from nasty ADS would actually be close to zero!!!
What do you make of it??
So a review of “Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0.377 Final version” could actually be th best solution to solve the current issue mentioned by Ashraf in this article…
In other words a new REVIEW of the last version of AVAST, as well as SUPERANTISPYWARE portable version as spyware removal tool, is needed….get the drift Ashraf?? LOL!!
@ Giovanni:
Il suo inglese è perfetto!
And yes, I agree, if Ashraf can find some time from making $millions from this website of his, a review of Avast would be much appreciated.
Ciao, Giovanni!
:lol:
I haven’t seen any of the mentioned problem while visiting dottech.
Cheers Ashraf.
I also have lag (loads around 4 sec) but I’ll run a couple antiviruses and see if any of them have relation to website.I’m very good with registry and stuff like that:). So if i find anything related to this side, I’ll tell you.
Ashraf,
I am not now receiving problems from your website, nor have I ever in the past. Best wishes solving the mystery.
Hi Ashraf,
I visit the site every day without a problem, I use Avast, Malwarebytes and Ccleaner regularly but bare in mind I am ancient and lagging to some people could be the blink of an eye to me. Keep up the great work.
Very strange……….
Up until today I’ve not experienced any problems with your site. No malware/spyware/scumware etc. no redirection, no lagging with your site.
Even early this morning there wasn’t any problems.
Then……… the second time I visited your site, there was a lag in trying to get to your site.
This is my fourth attempt, and I timed the lag this time by reloading the page. It took approx. 2 min to load.
Strange………………..
Just a quick note re Avast.
I’m a faithful user of Avast and have been for a long time! I’ve tried others including Avira, but I always go back to Avast.
I mentioned on 1/25 that I haven’t had any problems here. This may be unrelated but now it took over two minutes to connect to the site and each page takes awhile to load. DSL connection.
Ah. Hmmm.
Despite my earlier post at #16, things don’t seem to be back to normal as hoped.
I saw the informaive posts from Mags and Rocky in my email messages, so instead of linking from there, instead cleared my browser cache and everything else on this computer using CCleaner and jv16powertools.
So I’ve just landed here with a ‘clean’ PC.
Access time to home page, fully loaded:
2 minutes 14 seconds.
Access time to this page fully loaded, using link from home page:
1 minute 25 seconds.
I don’t have the world’s fastest broadband connection but even by the standards of what I’m used to, that’s almost too sl-ooooo-w to be manageable.
Is it a webhost problem? Or WordPress related?
‘Tis certainly strange that I’m not experiencing any remotely similar slow down in the case of other websites I’m currently accessing.
@Everyone: Ya I have experience these slow loading problems (again) today. I am in the process of troubleshooting what is up. Worse comes worse, if it is a webhost problem I will have to switch to another webhost.
I was fine for a couple of days, but today dottech seems slow again.
DotTech pages are loading slowly for me.
@karen: Yep, same here. It’s taking minutes for pages to load. Good luck resolving the issue, Ashraf.
You guys are brave waiting 2-5 minutes for this page to load to let me know. I myself am getting dismayed by the load times LOL!
After couple of hours of trying to get some troubleshooting down, it finally dawned on me to ask for a reboot. Hopefully things should be back to normal now.
Working fine again now.
No problems now. Everything is fine again.
However, yesterday I did run my AV etc. to see if it was on my side but nothing came up.
Thx Ashraf for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated.