Site down again ?

[Steve Pyro]

Chris C, has there been server related problems again today?
I've only just been able to get back to the forum after trying for the last 8 hours.

[Ruptured Duck Motorsport]

not just me then!!!

[Kpy]

No problem here all day!

[Steve Pyro]

It must be our wonderfull UK ISP's playing around then  

[IanB]

Problems up here on Merseyside as well getting access

[smokie]

I've been having intermittent problems with lots of sites, this one included,  for some weeks now. I reckon that Blaster worm is still playing havoc out there.

[jpchenet]

I had problems with the site today too. All other sites were accessible without any problems though. (apart from those ones that asked me for my credit card details )

[Robbo SPS]

I've been having intermittent problems with lots of sites, this one included,  for some weeks now. I reckon that Blaster worm is still playing havoc out there.

My mate Le Mans SPS has recently installed Broadband and within 10 minutes had blaster worm . His PC is now doomed . I have been told by a friend who sells / repairs commercial computers that everyone should download the "patch" from microsoft and either install it or , save it with "boot up" facility on a disk should it ever be needed .

Why - Because rich's ( Le Mans SPS ) PC had Norton Anti Virus protect with the instant download bit , which didnt do a right lot .

I unfortunalty havent a clue with computers so havent done this yet .  

[hgb]

I couldn't access the site, too.  

[wishy]

Have any of you guys set up a firewall to prevent other users gaining access while you are online.

I use "Preventon",which stops anybody unauthorised to browse my files.

 Mind you the Blaster worm comes mainly in on e-mail and shared files

Wishy

[pretzel]

Like other replies above I could not access the site all day yesterday until early evening (around 19:00pm UK time). At first I thought it was something to do with networked access at work, but on trying other sites there was no problem.

Access obviously OK this morning

[Steve Pyro]

I agree with others above.  I could access other sites (including my home banking which requires fancy passwords etc), the only ones I had problems with are this forum and Amazon (signing on to my account).  Ebay and other account sites worked okay though.

I have McAfee Antivirus on autoupdate and McAfee Firewall set up to prevent incoming hits unless granted.

I also have my Windows XP updates set to auto and, as an additional safeguard, 'manually' access
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp (for XP) every few days.

Having a wife that works as a principal systems engineer for Bill Gates also helps!  She tipped me off about the impending Sven type virus and told me about the MS Security Update "Recommended Update for Windows XP SP1 (KB822603)" of 19th Sept as soon as it came out.

I believe having good antivirus software is only half the solution.  You must check your software web site for critical and security updates regularly.  These updates fix the holes and bugs that virus writers utilise to seed their viruses into the operating system.

None of this really is rocket science - I'm just a "user" (as my wife calls me)  

[Chef]

My mate Le Mans SPS has recently installed Broadband and within 10 minutes had blaster worm . His PC is now doomed . I have been told by a friend who sells / repairs commercial computers that everyone should download the "patch" from microsoft and either install it or , save it with "boot up" facility on a disk should it ever be needed .

Why - Because rich's ( Le Mans SPS ) PC had Norton Anti Virus protect with the instant download bit , which didnt do a right lot .

thats it. fixed. thought i would try the lovely world of broadband. 10 mins later no f.ing computer left.. bt had a virus sent down their broadband line that day and also picked up the blaster worm virus whilst trying to download the patch to stop the bt virus. luckly i have a little knowledge and have wiped it all off and started again. those people who write these viruses need a good beating. hang them all off the dunlop bridge one saturday night.

[Russ]

I have Broadband at home, didn't bother with any protection (oh how irresponsible!!) for a couple of months because my PC only cost me £20 from a mate. It caught something nasty and within a day had ground to a halt. Fortunately I know a bit about them, so after cleaning over 1000 infected files, I rebuilt the whole thing and then installed McAfee Anti-Virus & Firewall. No problems since then. Took me best part of 20 hours over a couple of days to get it sorted though!

Still.. all worth while just to stop those damn pop-ups!!!

[smokie]

The Blaster virus and it's relation (Welchia I think) don't come from emails. They do not affect Windows 98/98SE machines, they are fairly harmless on NT but on Windows 2000 and XP they are deadly. There is a patch on the Microsoft website for NT/2000/XP - go here, then scroll down to find the fownload for your operating system: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823980

Note that if you are smugly thinking "I'm all right, I put patch 26 on a while back", Microsoft issued patch 39 in early Sept which supersedes 26.

btw also note that Microsoft NEVER send patches out via email - this week there has been a hoax patch purportedly from MS which in fact was yet another virus...

All Windows users should visit www.windowsupdate.com once in a while (monthly at least) to ensure there are no critical updates - these are often the ones which viruses exploit.

For any "permanently on" connection you MUST have a firewall to prevent receiving this kind of virus. And the rate at which these worms are still active I would recommend everyone to have a firewall, even if only connecting for a few minutes at a time.

My firewall is currently being hit at a rate of 6 or more times a minute by traffic which I am pretty sure is Welchia. I reckon it's the volume of this traffic on the internet which is causing problems accessing sites sometimes.

A reasonable free firewall is Zonealarm. It does the trick quite adequately.
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

And there is a free virus checker called AVG which is also well thought of. www.grisoft.com. But remember to keep it up to date!

www.symantec.com has a lot of info about worms and the current threats etc, as well as some free removal tools