Off Topic Rob Allison's Forum Has A Virus

[Clay Diggins]

Rob rents his forum software just like the other forums. Rob can't fix the software if something is wrong with his forum, only the company he's renting from can do that. I doubt his software has any problem. If it did all the other renter's sites would have the same warning. The forum url subdomain is redirected on the provider's servers correctly. Rob has no control over that, it's strictly a function of the providers software service.

Usually these PUP warnings are more about the quality of the antivirus software than they are about potentially(?) unwanted programs. Security software makers benefit directly from false warnings and the fear they create, very few are straight up about that aspect of their industry. I won't have any McAfee products on my computers but that's an informed personal choice based on experience and not a subject for a detecting forum.

The web is a big, scary and sometimes dangerous place. You should always be aware of what links you are clicking on and what content you are downloading. Most of all remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. That is 99.9% of web security in a nutshell. Almost all security problems from the web are created directly by user actions, no security software can save you from that.

[MikeT]

I opened another tab and tried to load Rob's Forum and got the following warning the sight is "Infected with URL:Botnet".

I am using AVG Internet Security. I clicked "more information" and got the following:

URL    https//forums.robsdetectors.com

Process   C:\Program files(x86) MozillaFirefox\firefox.exe

Detected by   Web Shield

Status      Connection aborted  

 

Clay, I meant no harm to Rob and/or his business, my sole intention was to warn others of the possible danger to their system. As you can see my system still is catching what it believes to be a danger to my system. As far as I'm concerned you all have free will/free choice you can open the forum or not as you wish.

 

Mike

 

[Rob Allison]

Hey Guys,

  Thanks for the update.  I can insure you all there is no virus or harm on our forums.  We went through this a few years ago when another customer stated it had a virus and I contacted the Host, Invision Boards and they did all the checks and everything and said it's fine.  The Boards are hosted from Invision, it's on their server and I actually pay monthly for my server to be hosted, unlike a lot of the free ones that are loaded with ads and pop ups.  

Hope this helps a bit.  I'm always updating my forum with all the new updates, so if someone is not ok with viewing, I completely understand.  As much as our forums are slow, I still personally maintain and keep them updated and remove all the unwanted spam visitors.  

Rob

[phrunt]

It's worth contacting them to get it removed from the blacklist just so people don't get the big warning and blocking if they're running antivirus software using the Mcafee engine but you're right, there is no virus, malicious code, dodgy Iframes on your forums, I've done multiple checks now and they're completely clean, so a false positive from McAfee for some reason.

[Steve Herschbach]

Personally I find most virus software more hassle than it's worth. But I stick with my short list of trusted websites and never wander around to other sites as a rule. No downloading weird stuff, or opening weird attachments, etc. You simply have to have some sense about where and what you are doing. I do use Defender since it is built into Windows, but other than that, no. And I have had exactly one virus infection in over twenty years on the net.

[Rob Allison]

Hey Steve,

   A few good point, Microsoft Defender is pretty good if you're internet savvy and don't open unknown attachments, strange emails and such.  There are plenty of people that see an email that comes through and says "discount" and then click on the attachment to see what they get, beyond the virus the just opened up ..... 

I have a couple of Anti-virus programs, but Defender has caught all the strange stuff just as well as some of the high dollar Anti-virus programs.  

Rob

[IronDigger]

Now see no harm no foul, and we all learned something.