Messages

126

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: May 20, 2014, 11:13 AM »

I use 7-Zip to expand the SetupImgBurn_2.5.8.0.exe [or whatever version number], then move the file, ImgBurn.exe, to the ImgBurn folder -- update completed. Universal Extractor, original & mod versions, works too.

-mikiem (May 20, 2014, 09:59 AM)

Fair enough but you shouldn't have to!

127

Living Room / Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« on: May 20, 2014, 10:35 AM »

I have been building websites for a few years now using Joomla but recently my server seems to be under regular attack.

The attacks seem to be of the form that a php script is injected into a folder and used to pour out spam.

The trouble is with a lot of websites it isn't practical to wade visually through dozens of folders regularly to look for scripts.

The data centre has scanned the server for malicious scripts but I have already spotted and deleted a few that were missed.

Life currently feels like a war of attrition - I am spending so much time dealing with issues I now either need to pack it all in and give up or find a way to monitor user accounts to ensure I catch scripts and deal with them efficiently.

I am not sure how these scripts are even getting there - it isn't the clients I have. Even websites that are running the latest build of Joomla and a few well known and trusted extensions seem to be plagued.

Has anyone any suggestion where I can start.

One simple solution is to find a way to get the server to report when files are added to user accounts (preferably by email so that I can constantly monitor what is happening - with a couple of a notable exceptions most of the websites only change occasionally) - does anyone know a way to do this?

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.

The server is running Apache and WHM/CPanel.

I am not particularly technically minded when it comes to Linux - I just want to set up and maintain a few small local business and individual websites and not be driven batty by constant annoyances.

128

General Software Discussion / Re: HashTab - Great little tool ...

« on: May 14, 2014, 09:51 AM »

Will check it out - thanks

129

General Software Discussion / Re: HashTab - Great little tool ...

« on: May 12, 2014, 06:34 PM »

Seems to work on my copy of Windows 8 OK

130

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: May 01, 2014, 06:07 AM »

not if it is 16 bit app, and anyway compatibility mode has a pretty hit and miss success rate

131

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: May 01, 2014, 05:19 AM »

Not sure if 16 bit runs OK in 32 bit Win 7 but since most computers over the last couple of years have have 64 bit pre installed (I have a DVD of Win8 32-bit but I have yet to see a single computer with it installed) you are stuck with the VM route.

132

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Races To Fix Massive Internet Explorer Hack

« on: April 29, 2014, 03:06 PM »

Wouldn't be surprised is MS knew about this before April 8 and waited to release the info to add even more marketting pressure to dump XP.

Beginning to want to wipe Windows 8 off this laptop and put XP back just to say screw MS

133

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 29, 2014, 06:37 AM »

I will say it once again for clarity -

When had the initial install problem I went through custom install - I knew OpenCandy was going to be in there somewhere but I was also under the impression you could opt out.

I opted out of everything it was possible to opt of and there WAS ABSOLUTELY NO REFERENCE TO CONDUIT ANYWHERE but Conduit got installed. The installer came direct from ImgBurn's server not a mirror site.

Either OpenCandy has been hacked (and is now servicing stuff even it doesn't know about and what a great vector that would be for hackers), OpenCandy are lying and doing stuff that they explicitly say they don't do or ImgBurn is lying and doing something it says it isn't.

WHATEVER the reason in this instance the fault lie absolutely 100% at the door of IMGBURN

What developer with any brain would allow a third party bunch of scumbags to install anything along with their product without knowing in advance what is being offered?

I feel somewhat relieved that at least I am not alone in all this!! Having read the ImgBurn forum links above it is obvious that he doesn't care any more because he doesn't take what users say seriously.

134

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: April 28, 2014, 06:49 AM »

Oh, and BTW, I cannot tell you how many times WinXP crashed and wrecked its MBR, forcing me to run a complete backup restore from a backup HD to get it back.
OTOH, 99% of the time when Win7 crashes it retains its MBR and reboots in less time than it took me to type this.

-bit (April 28, 2014, 12:09 AM)

This.  So much this.  My last WinXP machine in regular use has this problem.  I just haven't taken the time to restore it, especially since its gone soon.  I just use my WinXP disk to boot...

-wraith808 (April 28, 2014, 05:28 AM)

Sounds much more like a hardware fault than down to Win XP - only disk corruptions I have ever come across in XP have been down to hardware issues.

135

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: April 28, 2014, 06:47 AM »

Anything written a long time ago for 16 bit won't run on 64 bit (I have run into a few deal breakers for customers) - even Microsoft Office (earlier editions than 2003) is not fully compatible with Windows 7.

136

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 27, 2014, 05:13 PM »

Sorry I didn't have Conduit on my system until I downloaded ImgBurn and installed it - as soon as the installer started MBAM went mad. My system is scanned regularly and was/is clean.

If you actually read what I said :

To be honest I am not sure if Conduit came from OpenCandy ...

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter to me how it arrived ... The only people to blame for that arrival was ImgBurn since one way or another it came from their installer.

Not sure how that equates to blaming OpenCandy - though I do think they are a scummy system specifically designed to confuse people.

137

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: April 27, 2014, 05:32 AM »

I actually think Win 8 will be the last (ok maybe second to last) "for sale" as opposed to "for lease" OS Microsoft will do.

-40hz (April 09, 2014, 09:01 PM)

Not so sure - they probably want to do that but are system builders going to accept that as a model. "Yes sir our computer comes with Windows 9 preinstalled, but it you want to use it after the 60 day trial you will have to pay £/$69.99 each year"

Can you imagine the chaos in shops and online returns when people realise that they have bought a computer that they can only effectively rent from Microsoft? The number of returns and complaints would be totally massive.

Either that or it will give OEMs the jolt they need to start offering alternatives.

Hate to say it but Apple and Linux are starting to look interesting to me!

138

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 27, 2014, 04:03 AM »

Carol, that's simply impossible/unreasonable/impractical. You're effectively asking that before the code runs, code runs to let you opt out. You have to run the code in order to be able to opt out.

-Renegade (April 26, 2014, 08:56 AM)

I think you misunderstood - if I have to have OpenCandy try and foist crap on on me why can't Open Candy say to me - here is the crap we are offering ... do you want it?

To be honest I am not sure if Conduit came from OpenCandy (there was definitely no opt out option during installation in custom install mode - it wasn't mentioned anywhere except by Malwarebytes popping up hundreds of warnings) or directly within the package I downloaded.

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter to me how it arrived - the fact is it arrived and was bloody annoying. The only people to blame for that arrival was ImgBurn since one way or another it came from their installer. If they put it in the installation package then then are actually now distributing malware - if it came from OpenCandy without warning then ImgBurn is still to blame for making a pact with the devil!!

What really gets my blood boiling is that I have both donated to ImgBurn in the past and have recommended it widely to other people (and asked them to donate too). Now the finger is likely to point at me if those people's computers get infected when ImgBurn offers an update.

139

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 25, 2014, 08:21 PM »

As I understand OpenCandy (which isn't very well to be honest) any offer from OpenCandy should give you the option to opt out BEFORE the installer is run - if not what is the point of allowing an opt out.

Having said that ImgBurn are obviously bundling other crap in with their own installer on top of OpenCandy because I have found the Ask Toolbar included directly in ImgBurn installer direct from their own server. As far as I am concerned Ask toolbar is also crap ware. It hijacks your browser and as far as I am concerned that makes it an infection.

I have no idea and no way of knowing if Conduit came in ImgBurn's installer or was dumped on my system by OpenCandy - either way ImgBurn is ultimately to blame. Nowhere on their webpage does it say "we will lump into the installer some random crap to get us money and annoy the hell out of you".

If they need money to be viable charge for the product - currently it is described as freeware - but software that can screw up your system isn't free.

I don't know how much they get from OpenCandy and the other crap vendors but if they charged $2 a copy they would probably get more income and we would have a good product. Personally I would have happily payed $10 for this useful app.

140

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 25, 2014, 06:42 AM »

Not sure about OpenCandy but 7-zip will unpack the installer - and on three downloads in two days of the same version I have found three different things bundled inside the installer package plus OpenCandy. The one I downloaded today included the ASK Toolbar which is at best a pest and at worst malware.

I suppose it isn't impossible that OpenCandy itself is providing random crap on the system during install - but I thought it was supposed to always allow you to deselect things you don't want - so where did Conduit come from?

141

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 25, 2014, 03:24 AM »

That would be very odd because the page and hashes must be generated according to where they are sending the download from. I definitely clicked the direct ImgBurn server link.

Just downloaded another copy this morning.

The download link was: http://download.imgb...pImgBurn_2.5.8.0.exe

The file hashes matched those publish but it was a different file to the two files I downloaded yesterday. They must have a script that updates the page periodically and provides a range of different downloads. Yesterday morning I was unlucky and go SearchProtect bundled which is pretty scummy!

142

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 24, 2014, 07:37 PM »

No the MD5 sums match the one I downloaded just now on the same computer (the original download was deleted).

Wonder if the installer was infected and they replaced it - I didn't have search protect appearing before I ran the original setup file and as soon as I double clicked it Malwarebytes went mad - it was definitely the installed direct from the ImgBurn server (I never use mirrors if I can avoid them)?

I unpacked it and can only see opencandy?

Just installed it again as an update and Malwarebytes blocked opencandy before installation and then it installed normally?

Strange.

Actually maybe they have random installers with different packages - I just looked at an old copy of 2.5.6.0 and that has the Ask Toolbar in the installer ???

143

Living Room / Re: ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 24, 2014, 10:02 AM »

Its a bugger - really cross about this.

When I was installing I was careful to choose all non-standard settings available but even so Malwarebytes went crazy during and after installation and I then found Conduit Search Protect in my system tray with no way to close it and the uninstaller is nothing like a full uninstall (it failed anyway - probably because of MBAM, but who knows).

I understand ImgBurn want to make some cash so why not charge $10 and make more profit and not piss off long term users!

144

Living Room / ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap

« on: April 24, 2014, 08:18 AM »

Really sad to say I won't be recommending ImgBurn any more - my go to app for disk burning.

Just downloaded the latest version and it is full of crap - and even if you take the long install route and deselect everything except ImgBurn it STILL install multiple crapware apps (including the very annoying Conduit SearchProtect).

Very sad development!

(PS that was the download direct from the ImgBurn server so no one else had added the crap)

145

General Software Discussion / Re: HashTab - Great little tool ...

« on: April 24, 2014, 08:15 AM »

Thanks - forgotten about this - new version seems OK

146

General Software Discussion / Re: Skype and Webcam: HD or not?

« on: April 18, 2014, 12:47 PM »

Just bought one of these - seems very good (picture and sound). I like it. Infinitely better than the laptop built in camera.

http://www.amazon.co...p/product/B009NOX1MS

Personally I think the biggest issue is Skype itself!

Anyone know a genuine duplex service? Hate having to wait until someone has stopped talking to be able to comment (with some people I know they barely draw breath!!!)

147

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft dropping support for Windows 8.1

« on: April 15, 2014, 12:24 PM »

Not clear to me - I presume you can still update to the prerequisite level after that date? If you can it is no different to pulling support for Windows XP SP1 after SP2 had been released a while. Just a mandatory free update to get future support which is business as usual for MS.

If you can't even get updates to take you to the prerequisite level to allow future updates then that is mad - there are plenty of Windows 8.1 machines on the shelves in shops that won't be at that level? And is the free upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 going to include the latest updates?

148

Living Room / Re: Are your websites secure? The heartbleed bug

« on: April 10, 2014, 05:57 AM »

Bit worrying that PayPal.com comes back as a fail: https://www.ssllabs....tml?d=www.paypal.com

Inconsistent server configuration!

And Amazon.co.uk and .com come back as B

Even more worrying HSBC bank comes back as B and one of Barclays servers comes back as F !!!!

https://www.ssllabs....k&hideResults=on

149

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: April 09, 2014, 07:00 PM »

PS: CT4Updater seems to be working getting XP updates .... nice that it creates ISO files with automatic installers!!! Grab them now if you want them for an archive. I might find them hand for client computers or VM machines if they need refreshing in the future.

150

Living Room / Re: WinXP is officially dead!

« on: April 09, 2014, 06:18 PM »

Turn off Automatic updates - there won't be any now since MS turned off the updates except for the malware/scareware nag screen.

-Carol Haynes (April 09, 2014, 05:56 AM)

The nag/notification was a part of Windows Update. It was separate from other updates. I think you should be able to just manually deselect it and hide it so that it never shows up in the list again, meanwhile other updates (such as MSE definition updates, etc.) will continue to download.

-Deozaan (April 09, 2014, 02:08 PM)

I have come to the conclusion that MSE is not ideal even with definition updates - the software will not be updated (you can't even download it for XP) just the definition files - given that the primary reason AV software is updated is to counter possible hijacking I can't see MSE as being fit for purpose on XP for very long - unless MS relent and update the code too.

I am going to recommend customers on XP buy a strong security suite such as Avira or Outpost, supplement with with MBAM and never use IE again.