Thanks for your support in this thread....HOWEVER, I am VERY concerned by DONXOOPS comments:

Quote:

Could you be more specific with "theme problems" ????

It all looks ok to me and it works perfectly and far quicker than some XOOPS sites I have seen so I am unsure what or where I have gone wrong on my site ??

http://www.pookieschatz.com (have edited this link as the URL BB code put a % sign in between the words for some reason !!?

Could you let me know ?

Thanks for your answers....

When I first looked at it I had random characters on a white screen. Now just white screen unless I specify a module. The seemingly random characters was a red flag to me.

Linux/Firefox

Would love to visit and check - but...

NO website and the hyperlink you made to it is wrong anyway.


Just to add my 2 cents.

Adaware: The worst out there! They don't update as fast as others and it doesn't detect everything. Other apps detect things Adaware leaves behind.

ZoneAlarm: Horrible is this MASSIVELY bloated firewall app. It responds very poorly to alot of PHP scripting as well as cookie crumbs. Many other Forums for well known PHP based CMS systems have people recommending that you do not use ZoneAlarm.



"Being a certified PC repair technicion does not make you savvy in coding, nor does it make you any more aware of the possibility of embedded malicious code."


Use this combo for Great coverage:

* Pest Patrol 4 or 5 [PAID software] Kevin Mitnick - Former Elite Hacker, Now Security Specialist Recommends Pest Patrol over all others.

* Spybot S&D - the Best Freeware app for this stuff. Soo good in fact that many software companies are now being sued by the creator of Spybot S&D for copyright infringement.
They basically stole his Killer code to make their own crappy versions of his application and got caught.

-- The Creator of Spybot S&D recommends you download the next application listed.

* spywareblaster - THis will detect and immunize things spy-bot cannot


Many work. some don't work enough. this combo though has been the most effective for me and for my colleagues.



As far as the issue is concerned. I have experienced my own website being hacked and somehow they got my embedded mailer to email out to everyone on my list - a note from me containing virii. Funny thing is they used an email address that we don't actually do so it flagged everyone.


Good luck solving your issue

Thanks guys.... I have edited the link in the previous post.

Here it is again

http://www.pookieschatz.com

By the way.... I dont use any adware software at all. Just plain good old Norton. Works a treat for me !!

Could those guys that tested the link, please try again and I just want to ensure that "other" people are seeing a working theme/website as I view the page from work and nothing untowards appears at all.

For those accessing the root of the website, there is a small HTML file which causes Merlin the Wizard from Microsoft Office to appear (just in case your browsing are blocking active X)

Thanks again for your help.... and hope the viewing of the website is satisfactory..... fingers crossed you dont have any errors at all !!!

Quote:

True, but considering I administer a college campus network where I deal with spyware/malware/virus threats daily... I think I have a clue. That's not even mentioning that I've been dabling in php programing for quite some time now. Sure, it wouldn't be that difficult for a skilled coder to get something past me. But I'm not ignorant either.

RE: Ad-Aware, ZoneAlarm....

If you're foolish enough to depend on ONLY one app (Norton for example), you might as well make a known good backup now! No "all-in-one" suite will provide adequate protection. For that matter, it's always best to have redundant systems in place. I used Ad-Aware and ZoneAlarm as examples. I don't know what version of ZoneAlarm you've tried, but the closest thing I've found in effectiveness to ZoneAlarm is a SPI firewall built into a router or on most Linux distros. Norton is CRAP! Before I learned what a good firewall is, I ran Norton. Needless to say, hackers had a feild day on my hard drive!

You mentioned three spyware apps. Where's the AV and firewall?

My recomendation for good coverage:

Ad-Aware backed by Spybot S&D for spyware & malware
NOD32 backed by AVG for Anti-Virus w/ periodic scan at Panda Anti-Virus's site
A decent router with a properly configured firewall backed by ZoneAlarm Free (which isn't very bloated! You just have to be smart enough to train it! RTFM).

Just my 2 cents.

re: the site 'issues'
Went to the site, nice work

even the best of us can let something slip by now and then as far as 'coding' goes...when I viewed the source fo your page the very first thing I noticed was an extra bracket in your first object tag.
Quote:

Depending on the browser, this can cause problems....IE is better at 'correcting' itself, but it's slower than molasses in the dead of winter.
extra tags, unclosed tags and the like will make Firefox freak out a bit, as well as netscape. Depending on the Adware/spyware/antivirus software, the browsers inability to make sense of your code can make then scream 'foul'.

Try using an online html validator, of which there are many, to quickly determine what can be improved to make the browsing experience better for the viewers, and possibly find redundant font tags (A dreamweaver favorite), and non-html 4.0 comliant code (a frontpage favorite) etc.

Hope this was helpful....don't let one user that probably knows nothing of the backend of a website freak you out!

yep i couldn't see any errors as such and especially no spyware.. (and merlin is damn annoying) lol

a sidenote re: firewalls.. from experience i stopped using zone alarm ages ago.. i tend to use Sygate Pro these days which i consider to be 1 of the best software firewalls outthere for the home pc (windows based)

i also use Adaware CE and spybot s&d in conjunction with each other and they do work very well together. but you really need the paid version of adaware for it to be effective enough as the free version doesn't allow you to use the adwatch protection.. (i disagree with the comment of it being a bad adware protector) but i do agree that norton firewall and utilities are pretty poor and more hassle than they're worth..

the only good norton product is the standalone NAV (antivirus) but like said you shouldn't just rely on 1 system for checking..

I agree m0nty... ever since I registered AdAware and run the Proactive full version with AdWatch always running ready to stop known spyware before it even enters, I have not had a spyware problem in almost 2 years.

The Free AdAware is a Reactive version, only scans and cleans AFTER the parasite is alreading affecting your system.

just from pure experience, I highly reccommend the $40 versiom of AdAware Pro. has stopped every parasite/malware/scumware/spyware since I installed it.

If you dont choose a tried and proven solution, all i can say is good luck to ya.

AdAware was the original and still the best anti crapware solution around.


Best Regards,

Are they getting the errors on your "start" page with the java wizard and all that stuff, or the actual XOOPS site? Because that little java wizard will set off a lot of anti-virus stuff. That's more likely what's causing the problem. Your XOOPS site doesn't seem to contain any problems, and I've tried almost every module for this cms and I've never had an issue with spyware.

Agreed with all comments....well almost all the comments.

Dont worry.... I have several "things" working for me in relation to protection.

I KNOW that Merlin the Wizard causes problems but its still cute to have something like this on my home page to entice people to actually click and visit the XOOPS content pages.

I may delete this at a later date due to browsers blocking active x and the such like and for the newbie browser, this WILL be alarming to them and wont encourage them to discover further.

I really like XOOPS and will continue with this. I have previously tried phpBB2 which was very nice and slick but nowhere near as much content and admin rights as XOOPS has..... However, I gave it up when my site got hacked and of course put me off completely. Hence changing over to xoops.

Fingers crossed.... XOOPS will provide for me exactly my requirements without any hitches for the future.

Many thanks again guys for your constructive criticism....which could so easily have been criticism of the worst kind.