Technical Log-in Question for Gretavo:
I have been meaning to write to you for a few weeks now about an interesting phenomenon that occurs when I try to log in here. Aside from being prevented occasionally from accessing the site at all due to the “hiccup†problem, when I am able to access the site, and I log in to post something, my user name appears at the top left hand corner, but instead of appearing as a blue hyperlink, my name appears in thin black text, and most importantly, I am unable to post anything, even though it appears as if I am logged in. When I quit my browser and then come back to the site, my name then appears at the top as a blue hyperlink of thicker text, and my “post blog, comment, audio, etc.†menu is then available for me to use as a “logged in user.†This happens everytime now, and just now happened again. Do you have any idea what is going on with this? Through this method, are my comments and blogs being siphoned off to “another site†perhaps, so that everything I post here is also being redirected somewhere else? Also, often, even late at night, when there is apparently no one logged in or even visiting, as soon as I try to log in to post, almost immediately one to two “visitors†show up without fail. Are these visitors perhaps my government-employed blog “monitors� Just thought I would ask. I suspect something suspicious. What do you think?
- Lazlo Toth's blog
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Hey Laz, try this on yer end
Attention Windoze ewesers:
The sooner that you take the plunge into Linux, the better. There are many ways to run Linux and keep an existing Windoze installation while you learn. It ain't that hard and you should do this so as to avoid Vista and any new beasts that emerge from the bowels of Redmond. Please stop giving M$ money. It wants to kill you. Really.
Aside from that, here are some things to try on your end.
Though not exactly as Laz describes, I have had similar problems and noticed other oddities at WTCD. I don't know what browser you are using Laz but regardless, try flushing ALL private data, temporary Internet files, browser cache, etc.
The hidden cost of "pwnership" of M$ products includes everything that we have to do to guard against and remove viruses and spyware and othe malware (most of which probably originates from within the NSA).
Here are some general browser tips and even if you don't use Windoze, they can be handy to know. Ewesers of of an opsys other than Windoze should find the following helpful, too:
Before doing browser cleansing, close and restart your browser and make sure that no web page is loaded if possible (new blank tab/window).
UNINSTALL GOOGLE TOOLBAR!!!!!!!!!
If you must allow the NSA/Google to look at yer stuff, re-install Google Toolbar with newest version after cleaning up everything else.
IE7 is fairly good about allowing a one-click ass wiping in the Tools, Internet Options menu if you use that piece of shit.
Firefox - Tools, Clear private data - check everything available.
Opera - Tools, Delete private data and Tools, Preferences, Advanced, History, Empty disk cache. Tools, Preferences, Advanced, Cookies, and enable Delete new cookies when exiting Opera.
If you are a Windoze eweser:
Getting rid of browser sludge isn't enough. 95% of the time, cleaning the dropping in the form of "temporary files" (which are separate from browser cache, cookies, etc.) left behind by Windoze itself and most Windoze proggies will take care of your obvious problems.
There is a nifty little program called Crap cleaner that will take care of most of the browser trash, Windoze temp files, and a lot more with just a couple of clicks. I have used Crap Cleaner for several years and have never encountered a problem from its use:
http://www.ccleaner.com
Install Crap Cleaner - DO NOT LET IT INSTALL YAHOO TOOLBAR!!!!! IT IS TOTAL GARBAGE!!!! Close IE and Firefox and run Crap Cleaner, leave everything checked by default except Recycle Bin. Click Analyze button at bottom. It will find and create a long list of pure, stinky shit. Click Run Cleaner buttom at bottom and allow it to delete all that it finds. Close Crap Cleaner and reboot immediately so that it can delete the horrid index.dat files created by IE and Outlook Express.
Having Crap cleaner fix "Issues" related to the Windoze registry can be a little tricky. If used, ALWAYS create a backup of the deleted registry entries and KNOW where they are stored in the event something goes wrong.
Also, go to Control Panel, Java, Temporary Internet Files - Delete all files. Uninstall any older versions of Java you may have with Add/Remove Programs leaving the newest or uninstall all versions, reboot and install newest.
Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and run Disk Cleanup. Check everything except Recycle Bin and run.
Reboot - Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and run Disk defragmenter.
Reboot.
Always clean Recycle Bin manually after you have scanned for any unintentional deletions.
Viruses:
If you are a Norton/Symantec or McAfee eweser, DELETE ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS NOW!!!!!!! Everything must go. It is total garbage and probably NSA enabled.
Avast Antivirus - free for personal use
http://www.avast.com
SCAN FOR SPYWARE!!!!!!!!!!
Along with very specialized tools when necessary, I use the following FREE programs:
Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://security.kolla.de
SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition
http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html
Rootkit Scanners:
RootkitRevealer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897445.aspx
Sophos Anti-Rootkit - Free rootkit detection and removal
http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html
RootKit Hook Analyzer
http://www.resplendence.com/hookanalyzer
GMER very aggressive application detects and removes rootkits
http://www.gmer.net/index.php
OperaTor - Opera + Tor. Surf anonymously
http://archetwist.com/opera/operator
VERY, VERY USEFUL!!!!!!!
If Mac:
I can find my way around in OS X fairly easily but, since I don't have a Mac for daily use, I really don't know. Follow above for Firefox and Opera. Safari has tools for this somewhere.
Run mac utility for disk integrity checks
If Linux:
Follow the above for browser cleansing. Anything else is distro and filesystem dependent.
--
Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
nothing sinister that I'm aware of...
I've learned from experience that weird things like the Drupal interact in weird ways with weird things like people's computers. I have no idea what's causing the login issues. I also get the random "visitors" sometimes but I figure that when our site has over 2000 unique visitors per month and only a dozen or so are actually registered, we shouldn't be surprised that they pop up now and then. I think also that due to some vagaries of the Drupal it may count you as a visitor until you login and maybe even after you login it is still counting you as such. I really have no clue, but if someone is siphoning site content off somewhere they damn well better be offering us royalties at some point. In fact, that's actually what RSS feeds are all about so no offense but I think you need to chillax, Laz!