Where did http: go?

John Kielly

John Kielly

Shari's fan club
Between Christmas & New Year, I lost access to BR Central & to this Luddite, the messages displayed were as meaningful as a 2 am philosophy discussion at a bucks' party. Finally, after emailing one member, I found that the site was in good health. What wasn't was my bookmarks (in both Firefox & IE) which had the site nominated as http:etcetera. Once I deleted the offending lead, I was back on board.

Can somebody explain in low tech language what's going on with (or without) http:?

Thanks, John
 
Well....I can't explain what happened (probably "hijacked") but will recommend that you download and run "Superantispyware" and "Malwarebytes" immediately. Actually, I recommend this to everybody on a periodic basis. Download the free versions and try to avoid any resident "monitoring" doodads that are offered. Update when asked before you run the scans. Run both in "Full Scan". I run them at the same time and leave for a while. Allow both to fix what they find. You can remove them entirely when you're done and do it all over again when needed.

http://www.superantispyware.com
http://www.malwarebytes.org

Again, install, update, run full scan and let them fix what they find.

Additionally, download and run this free "Rootkit" remover. If it finds and removes a rootkit....you really should start looking at what you need to save and make a plan to re-format and start over from scratch.

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.aspx
 
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Wilbur,

Superantispyware picked up a couple of hundred tracking cookies, but malwarebytes ran clean.

The address http://benchrest.com/forums/index.php returned this error string on Firefox, the same as before:

Not Found

The requested URL /forums/index.php was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at benchrest.com Port 80

I haven't run Sophos yet. Sophos run now - no nasties found. Still can't access BR Central via the link above. Ah, well.......

What do you think so far?

John

PS: I didn't appreciate that involuntary installation of Chrome by Superantispyware.
 
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First, I'm so very sorry for the Chrome deal. Can't tell you how many times I've installed Google toolbar when I didn't catch it in the fine print.

I'm confused, as usual. Have you been accessing the forums with that link?

I'll fix it so the link will take you to the forum index.....but trying to understand how you obtained the link as a bookmark.
 
Wilbur,

Don't chase it, I'm fine now.

That bookmark is old, old, old. I had it as far back as I can recall. I copied it across from IE when I started using Firefox a year or two back & it was resident on my keyboard since my old one busted & I started using a Microsoft one with the 5 favourites keys. That was maybe 2008 when I got it as a hand me up from my son.

I'm figuring that I'm something of a typhoid Annie. A month or so back, another site I frequent changed their software or server or something the same day that Firefox auto upgraded and of course, none of the facilities would work for me there until I reset Firefox back to default, Buggered if I know how it ever got otherwise - I learned not to mess with browsers when I joined BR Central & couldn't stay logged on way back.

Relax though, it's only computers. I'm very reliable with guns & handloading.......

John
 
Try that link again......I cooked up a redirect while you were posting. If you had it as a bookmark there are probably others.
 
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Malware/AVG protection

Wilbur, Is AVG not sufficient to kill a virus....or do I need more protection? I'm running WIN 7.0 and Spybot and AVG was installed with WIN 7.0

TIA "Snuffy"

Chrome must be in jeopardy...like you I have to make sure I don't download Chrome with other junk.
 
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A lot of folks use AVG and Spybot is pretty good stuff. There's really no good reason to pay for virus protection (opinions vary). Avast is another good choice. Load up too many and it becomes intrusive to your enjoyment.

Friends and family bring me "trashed up" computers and most of them are fixed by running Superantispyware, Malewarebytes and Sophos. Every now and then it takes "Combofix" to bring it back. Haven't had one yet that couldn't be revived by following one of the procedures listed in this very complete article:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Should you find yourself reading the above, read close and do what it says - or at least what you're willing to do. Depends on what needs to be saved to make it worthwhile. Often, the best for all involved is to wipe it out and start over.

Incidentally, once you determine that a rootkit is at play, regardless of any removal that occurred save your critical files somewhere while you can and start over with a fresh operating system install.
 
I have 2 bookmarks in my address book for Benchrest Central. One take me to Benchrest Central.com and the other, directly to the forums.

For the forums

http://benchrest.com/forum.php

For Benchrest Central.com

http://benchrest.com

On your old bookmark you had "index.php" on it. At one time that "index.php" was probably the filelname of the opening page which now has a different name and nothing to redirect you to the new page. Therefore, it could not find the page and you get the error.
 
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