Website attacked?
Hi Adam and Neil, Has the Pianola Forum website been attacked? The home page loads with adverts. Frank Richards

can't see it at this end. There was some server problems at the end of the weekend. The site is hosted by the company shown at the foot of the page here and the programming is not something over we have any control so if it did get hijacked it would affect all their sites. Theoretically just below the logo and the forum links at the of of the page is a slot for google ads to appear. This seems to have been omitted now for some months and the placeholder seems to have vanished also - at a guess the adverts you saw might have been something to do with that. regards Adam

hi Frank, for the last couple of days i have noticed adds at the top of the forum page, so its just not you! the one showing at the moment is an IQ quiz which when you open it asks is for a subscription to play each week. regards Diane

Hi all, I have spent some considerable time checking things out. It looks very much like THE PIANOLA FORUM website has been hi-jacked by a High Risk Bad Site threat from www.ad.yieldmanager.com I have run my Spyware Doctor program several times using a varitey of websites visited --- NOT INCLUDING THE PIANOLA FORUM website --- and things are CLEAR. When I run the Spyware Doctor program ---JUST & ONLY VISITING THIS website --- then the Spyware Doctor program immediate picks up the High Risk threat. I would advise members NOT to click on any of these adverts. Like Diane says, these flashing adverts only appeared a few days ago. They seem to change at each visit to all pages, and do not appear to be genuine Google or Yahoo! type of adverts. Frank Richards.

yes, it's irritating isn't it. I've just seen it too. The free-hosting company have sold-out their souls and put on these ads in the place of the Google ads in return for better profitability in order to maintain a free forum hosting service. Yes we can pay to have the ads removed BUT there's already whinges on the admin forum from forums where they DID pay to have the ads removed but they're popping up. It affects other similar forums such as IMOD so it's not just us. On the admin forum there's numerous complaints about this so, whilst we individually, cannot make action here, enough whinges from people will eventually tip the scales so I would say just ignore the ads for the moment. The biggest whinge is the ads that make distractibg sounds - people don't really have an issue with the necessity for text or general graphic ads otherwise. My simple advice to everyone : unless you have a particularly feeble mind and want to...don't bother clicking on the ads.... regards Adam

Hi Adam, Right --- let's go through it again. Never mind the non-Google and non-Yahoo! adverts, which are a nuisance --- I am talking about the Pianola Forum "website" itself. That is what has been attacked and infiltrated by a High Risk Bad Site Spyware program. Anyone who merely visits the website of PIANOLA FORM will be infected. For your information a very similar website called JAZZ ROOTS has --NOT-- been infected. Also there are no adverts floating on their pages. http://jass.com/phpBB/ I strongly urge all members to update and run any anti-Spyware programs that they may have EVERY time they visit THE PIANOLA FORUM website. Even if you successfully remove or quarantine the offending High Risk Spyware file --- it will return the next time you visit THE PIANOLA FORUM website. I cannot make things any clearer that this. Frank.

Frank, The Jazz Roots forum is a phpBB forum, the same as this one BUT this one is NOT hosted in the same place as the Jazz Roots one. This forum is hosted by the company shown at the foot of the page. The problems you are referring to affect phpBB forums hosted by the company shown at the foot of this page. I hear what you are saying but the Pianola Forum administrators and moderators can do little here but report the matter up the chain as we are not involved in the day to day running of the servers and their programming and protection. To read through the support forum (which anyone can do) and see the similar problems being experienced elsewhere see here : http://fhq.forumer.com/phpbb-general-support/74826-ads-slowing-down-forum.html regards Adam

Hi Frank and Adam The horrible adverts are a pain - but I soon got used to them, and I suppose it is a free service. It may deter others from registering however, which is a concern. I haven't noticed any slowing down, or any virus problems as you mentioned Frank. It says on the support forum link Adam posted that Forumer may take requests to revert to the Google ad - lets hope they do this ASAP. Cheers Neil

These adds are really awful, really off putting! Just as I block one another pops up! They really spoil the whole ambience of the forum. Google & Yahoo adds ok flashing garbage not ok.:x I hope they go away otherwise I may think twice before logging on. Andy

OK that's it, I'm coming back until they go! So any alternative hosting for this forum? What about Yahoo if this awful advertising continues? PM me with any thoughts or email me at - andyhood92@yahoo.ie Andy (not a happy bunny) :cry:

I know - it drives me nuts as well and I am looking into alternate hosting options already. It may be however that things settle down. On the main tech forum the powers-that-be have already indicated that they are dealing with the ads comapany. I've got my PC set with a firewall and various other bits of stuff and the ads don't show at all unless I switch it all off. Might be worth checking you PC security generally in the meanwhile... I moved ALL the technical forum issues to this new part of the forum so people can see the updated situation easily and also all the past technical queries without having to wade through pages of pianola-related material in the general discussions section - hope this helps! regards Adam :D

Just to keep you updated here : We have requested the forum hosting company to restore the Google-based ads in place of the others which are not really acceptable. This shouldn't take too long so please bear with us! It has been brought to our attention that certain spyware detection software is presently registering the forums as higher-than usual risk. Despite a high risk being indicated this does not necessarily confirm that there is a problem in reality - just a higher than average risk. After the closest examination there appears to be nothing in the THIS forum itself that presents such a risk. However, it may be that these readings are being given as a result of either a) the nature of the non-Google ads themself (i.e. if you click on them they present some possible threat) or b) a good number of other forums hosted by the same company being genuinely affected (though not necessarily this one). Please be re-assured that we take the issue of forum security extremely seriously and always have done right from day 1. We cross check every potential new account to this forum to avoid "spam bots" automatically opening accounts and posting adware/spyware and "spam" messages into the forum. The reason you don't get any forum spam is simply because we are diligent and vigilant and continuie to be so. Do please also consider there are 200,000 forums (an astronomical number!) hosted by the company over 40+ seperate servers of which this forum is but one single example hosted on their #21 server. There are a terrific amount of totally-rubbish totally riddled-with-junk and filth other forums out there in the world and also (sadly) hosted by the same company but there are also a terrific amount of perfectly honest decent no-problem ones like this. It may be that some software simply identifies ALL forums hosted by the company shown at the foot of the page as high-risk across-the-board irrespective of what their actual content may be. Until the ads vanish (mercifully soon we hope!) please apply normal common-sense and, unless you have an over-riding urge to the contrary for whatever reason, excercise simple discretion and simply don't click on them. Until such time as the root cause of the problem becomes clear please continue to take all usual precautions (as we are sure you would do anyway using the internet generally in any event) and use and do regularly update your system firewalls and spyware/adware protection software. If anyone needs any technical assistance or a pointer in the right direction just message right back. with kindest regards sincerely PIANOLA Administrator :D