Lost!

After finding that my domain was supposedly hosting malware and such (for no apparent reason), I decided to start fresh for the first time in over 3 years. Today, a new look, all new files, etc.

From here on out, you may find weird blocks of white space - these are the old ads that use to run. While I may continue to run ads, it really matters on how I feel at the time. It’s been hard to run ads over the last few years and I still don’t like to do it, but it helps pay the bills, albeit, barely. You will also find (not find?) files due to the old shtuff being cleaned out. This change mainly affects images from several years ago.

A change of content, and hopefully pace, will come about as well. I’m starting to devote more time to a home test server I have setup. This means I’ll be ranting or raving about Microsoft type products like SharePoint more and more. Yes, I will be installing Alfresco and all the other ones as well - I want to do a very serious comparison between the two as well as the others. Since this server is a workhorse (Dual Quad Core Xeons), I’ll have plenty of Virtual Machine space for testing - and I already have complaints about Microsoft’s Virtual Machine…

Anyway, hope you like the new look. I should be posting a few things here and there over the next few days. ~J

Well, it was bound to happen. Aparently, on the 15th of June, Google had some type of Malware come across my domain during a crawl. I hadn’t even noticed until a user reported it to me today. Firefox 3 uses this information and pretty much makes using my site a pain in the ass. Every click, on every page, you are shown a warning message. To Google’s credit, they did attempt to notify several generic addresses, but those had been blocked YEARS ago due to spam issues.

The site report for webtekconcepts.com shows 1 “infection” resulting in 2 processes on the host computer. See the report here (until I figure this crap out). Aparently, if you leave off the “www”, I’ve caused 2 infections… (Note: This number has now changed)

So, for the record, it wasn’t I. The only Ads I serve re Google Ads and I maintain a healthy password and access control list on my domain. The only possibility that I can think of is that an Ad came through that had something in it - from Google. I’ve also looked at my logs, my bash history, my files, the dates of what has been edited, etc and see absolutely nothing out of place. So what the heck?

I did a little research before pressing the Magic Button on Google’s site to have them re-crawl my site. Turns out, theres a nice little page that shows everything they look for. If you’re some Joe Blow reading through the list, it sounds all neat and nice. If you’re a web master or someone that deals with a lot of web based content, it might shock you. Know someone that has a blog that you don’t like - too easy to get them listed. Simply link to a malware site in a comment and *poof* - they’re listed. Nice eh?

Oh, and the “Magic Button” to get Google to recrawl the site again states: “I certify that I have removed badware or badware links from my site, according to StopBadware.org’s Security Tips For Websites.” So, without knowing where, who or what it is that I’m linking to - I’m screwed because I allow comments on the website. The security report as just as pointless. It found “something” 1 time in 90 days that got me listed. What the bloody hell Google?

It’s really interesting too, because I recently ran a story about a Bait and Switch website. I figured that this site might be the problem, so I went to it inside Firefox 3 - not a damn thing happened.

At the moment, I’m on TDY (Temporary Duty) in Sicily, so I can’t do much. When I get back (Wed), I’ll be updating WordPress, Re-themeing and breaking a heck of a lot of old stories because I’m doing a serious amount of housecleaning on the domain. …And no - Sicily is not fun, it’s HOT, I’d rather be in Germany, thank you!

Oh - I should be releasing some stories about a new server, SharePoint and Alfresco here pretty soon. If only I could get Windows 2008 and Virtual Machine to play nice ;-)