Progress

I've been very lax with this blog lately, too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I've made lots of progress which I will tell you about.

I rebuilt my membership sites Eprofits Centre and Articles Abroad on my new server. It was very time consuming, but the good news is that an upgrade of the Memberspeed software had just come out with added features, so the result is that the sites are now better than before and with more features still to be added.

I've been adding articles to both sites and there are now quite a lot of free digital downloads on Eprofits Centre. I made some products available for visitors to access which is good for rebrandable ebooks of my own and site members. So far there are just 2 levels of membership and one is free. Soon I will add another level of membership where those members can resell memberships at 100% profit should they choose.

I've noticed 2 things with the more developed site Eprofits Centre. First of all the articles are getting more hits than on the main directory. I think that is because the site is optimised for business and computer related articles and the software also lets me optimise the individual categories as well as each article. Another thing is that when I posted a mini review or comment to one of the articles hits shot up. I don't know why but in the software sales bumff you are told that it has been especially designed to add stickiness to sites built with it.

The review manager is an excellent add on. Members can review and give feedback or add information to articles, products, audio and video. Reviewers can set up a profile with up to 5 of their website links included, though I might increase that.

I'm still finding my way around the Memberspeed software but I'm glad that I splashed out for it and can see that it will help me to fulfill many of my business aims.

Worm.win32.netsky Or A Fake Anti-spyware Program

I was expecting some nice gifts and not being threatened with worm.win32.netsky on Christmas day morning. When I turned my computer on windows security alert boxes kept popping up to say that my computer had been hacked into and had a virus and another warned that it had been infected by worm.win32.netsky. My Internet Explorer was constantly opening and trying to take me to spyware removal download sites.

There were 3 new icons on my desktop 'privacy protector', ‘Error Cleaner’ and 'spyware & malware protection'. I had definitely not downloaded them so I reasoned that they could only be part of the problem that I was having. They started scanning by themselves, one told me that I had 161 spyware problems and another 243. Worm.win32.netsky was at the top of both lists and lower down were references to credit card hacking. My desktop turned dark red and a warning bar appeared telling me to click on it to protect my computer.

At first I was worried then logic took over. My virus and spyware software, which comes with my broadband service, updated the day before and when I ran a check it came up with nothing. I had vaguely heard of worm.win32.netsky and did not think that it was so new that a virus scan would not pick up on it. I figured that the whole attack was to panic me into buying one of the products. I am stubborn and if I buy spyware protection it would not be through those methods.

I did a google search for worm.win32.netsky and found a long list of sites. Most of the sites described it as part of the netsky family of email worms that comes to your computer as an email attachment. When you click on the attachment the worm activates then installs itself on your computer and propagates. It harvests email addresses stored on your computer and spreads further by sending itself to them. One or more spyware removal downloads were recommended, but I still did not believe that the computer was infected by anything more than bullying sales methods.

I finally found a forum where a member had described exactly the same thing happening to him. Apparently Worm.Win32.Netsky is a scam, fake malicious software called Smitfraud, an anti-spyware program trojan, engineered by Internet hackers. A fraudulent way to get you to buy spyware removal software. He was pointed in the direction of SmitFraudFix v2.274 and the fix worked for him. I downloaded it and used it and thought that it had worked.

The next day the warnings and desktop icons reappeared. I quickly ran Smitfraudfix again and then I restored my computer to 14 days before the problem appeared. So far so good, the fix and restore seem to have worked. SmitFraudFix v2.274 which apparently only works with Windows XP or 2000 was a free download so the whole thing cost me nothing but time and anxiety. Just to make sure I got a free download of Spyware Doctor from Google and ran it to make sure that my computer was clear and deleted cookies with it.

One of the sites that my IE insisted on going to was selling XP Antivirus. If you do a search for XP Antivirus you will find claims that it is a corrupt anti spyware application that will try to trick you into buying it by falsifying error reports. Do not even think about buying it. XP Antivirus will not remove spyware it will not do anything useful, just scam you out of money.

Where did the problem come from? I am not sure. I had not opened any email attachments for months and would only open attachments if I were expecting them. I downloaded some ebooks and software the day before but had not opened them at that point. I always check downloaded files with a virus scan before I unzip them anyway.

Another possibility is that I visited a dodgy site and the rogue anti spyware program leached onto my computer. In fact when I thought about my surfing the night before it is the most probable explanation. No I do not make a habit of visiting dodgy sites! I was checking my article directory stats and towards the top of a long list of incoming links was a domain that I did not recognise. Out of curiosity I clicked on the link and was taken to a porn site. I did not stick around long enough to see if or why there was a link to my directory, but I will have to do a search to see if any of the articles have links to that site and delete them if they have.

I recall that several years ago when I ran a magazine I checked a link from an advertisement that a subscriber had wanted me to publish. That was a porn site and a virus attacked my computer immediately afterwards. I got rid of the virus and needless to say I did not accept the ad. As I check the links with the articles submitted to my directory I cannot be as careful as I would like to be.

They say that curiosity killed the cat; well it only inconvenienced and annoyed this one. The whole thing is fraudulent and a scam. I am really glad that I did not get caught out but no doubt many others will. Fortunately I always do a search if I am unsure of anything or want to find out about something. The best and most honest answers or information usually comes from forums, not the sites with reviews and links to the products.

Of course worm.win32.netsky might really have been a worm from the netsky family then I really would have had a bigger problem to deal with. I thought that my broadband virus and spyware software would look after my computer but I will now look for something better. I really cannot understand the mentality of the malicious people who manufacture worms and viruses, or the scamsters who try to trick you out of your money.
Author Patricia Jones
Websites: Article Directory - Travel Article Directory - Affordable Web Hosting

Article Source: eprofitscentre.com

Boxing Day - Problems Almost Over

Christmas day was another one of those days. I logged on to my computer and got lots of warnings saying that my computer had the worm.win32.netsky and by coincidence I don't think; 2 new icons had appeared on my desk top for spyware scans. My IE kept on opening and trying to take me to spyware removal sites - another big coincidence!

Logic told me that the computer didn't have the worm and that in fact it was a scam. I've almost finished an article about the fraud and will post it here during the next few days.

I've almost sorted out my server dilemma. I've signed up elsewhere and should be able to start moving my membership sites tomorrow. It will be a relief to get them back up and running again, I've lost a lot of time during the last few weeks due to the server problems. Thank goodness I did back ups of the sites else I would have had a lot more work to do than just moving them. I'm just leary of the actual moving, my technical abilities are not all that. I suppose that I could pay somebody to sort them out for me but there wouldn't be any challenge in not doing it myself.

Was surprised to see some articles submitted to BB Articles on Christmas day and quite a lot today. Not surprised to have to decline several, a shame because most of them were good articles if only the site guidelines hadn't been ignored. It's the time of year for holiday destination articles. I really enjoy reading them and hopefully I will have plenty of fresh articles to add to Articles Abroad once it's back online again.

I tentatively joined the new website advertising wonder Pay Per Play a couple of weeks ago. I think that it could make money and plenty of it if you have a high amount of traffic. My only reservation is that the noise from the 5 second adverts might drive visitors away. I browse with the sound turned down so it won't bother me.

The Negative & The Positive

The Negative
Calamity seems to be following me this month. My server for the new membership sites Eprofits Centre and Articles Abroad took over a week to get back up and running. The sites were extremely slow to load and when I tried to send out newsletters to apologise for the sites being down I found that all of the cron jobs were missing and I had to set them all up again. There was also regular patches of downtime.

If you have read my earlier posts you'll know that cron jobs and I don't get on so it was no surprise that I set them up wrong. Each site has over a dozen so lots of mistakes to be made. I got the Articles Abroad cron jobs sorted but 3 of the Eprofits cron jobs weren't right and emails were being sent to my inbox every 10 or 15 minutes. I was limited for time and just deleted the emails twice a day until I had time to figure out what I'd done wrong.

The time came yesterday. I tried to log on to Eprofits and found that the site had been suspended with no warning and no explanation. I could only think that either a scammer had latched on to another of my sites, or the cron job emails going into my site inbox were considered as spamming, though I wasn't letting them build up.

Another possibility was that several days before my monthly fees were due to come out of my account I got an email saying that my payment was overdue and my account would be terminated if I didn't pay. It was the second month running that I'd had that warning email and when I complained I was told that it was just a reminder. Reminders don't tell you that you are late paying, nor do they make threats.

A few hours later Articles Abroad was suspended, as there were no problems with the cron jobs that couldn't have been the reason. My 2 new ventures down twice in one month and just as they were starting to gain momentum. The server support could only say "The server just is not acting right. There are still some bugs we are fixing."

The other problem that I have with them is that it is an hosting reseller account and I haven't been able to log into my hosting cpanel since they got back up and crawling again. Fortunately it is a new account with no customers, but what I have at the moment is one site up and running out of 3 but that site is totally useless because I can't set up accounts for new customers.

So I am paying for a service that I'm not getting. 3 of my sites are not doing anything and as I extensively advertised them the suspended pages won't be doing my credibility much good. Of course I am now in the process of looking for a new server. I got back ups of the sites, but I've never moved a site from one server to another so I'm a bit apprehensive about moving even though I know that I must.

The Positive
During the down time I was able to spend more time working on my older sites. I haven't done much with them since setting up the article directory so it was long overdue.

I've also been messing around with various scripts and software and found a neat little script that builds Youtube sites with content that automatically updates. I built 3 mini sites, the last one taking all of 5 minutes. You can see that site at www.bb-articles.com/spicegirls I think it's rather neat and have a few ideas on how I can use the mini sites to aid my business.

More positive is that BB Articles Alexa ranking is now 285,386 and still rising। A massive improvement in a relatively short time. Some really good writers are now becoming regular submitters so I can only see a good future for BB Articles.

Merry Christmas

I'll be glad when December is over!

December started out really positively. I converted my newsletter into a downloadable pdf file - almost a magazine. My new sites were gaining momentum and getting new members, BB Articles and my other sites going great then crash!

My server for the membership sites went down on the 6th and over a week later is still not up and running despite promises. Then I found out that one of my other sites on another server had been suspended because some git had latched on to it and scammed others. Over 20,000 hits in a couple of days must have made it worthwhile for the scammer. I absolutely hate the thought that people have been scammed using my webspace and hope that the scammers get caught.

Lots of other little things have been going wrong so I just hope that Santa brings a nice surprise to make up for it all then 2008 watch out!