How to Protect Yourself From Spyware

Ok,I’m going to step into geek mode for a little bit and while this isn’t directly bass or music related, it does relate to the box around this or attached to it via a cord (the computer for all the guitarists and singers reading). So if you do a lot of band stuff online it very well may be directly related. But here we go…

This week my step mom got a new computer, while she’s pretty computer savvy, lol when you have a geek like me around you take advantage of it, and she was worried about my brother getting it infected with virus and screwing it up, like she had heard me complain about many times that he did to my machines and didn’t want it to happen to hers. First I explained that what the problem wasn’t virus actually but spyware, which it some ways is worse but in some ways better than virus. The stereotypical VIRUS that kills your system dead in its tracks and most users are scared of, don’t really exist outside of childish chatroom or forum “wars”.

Why? For one all the major email providers that almost all of the internet users have, use state of the art virus scanners that simply won’t allow you download them, even if you want to. I myself forward all my domain based emails to hotmail and gmail accounts for that reason (yahoo and aol are all up to par as well). Secondly, spyware just makes
More sense for the programmer to develop[p as you will read in a bit. What would you rather spend time writing a program to do? 1. a program that may kill a few computers of the very stupid or 2. write a program that will turn every computer it touches into a cash generating machine, and can’t be stopped by any virus scanner until after its infected, and is completely legal because you the user has “agreed” to download and install the program. Easy choice huh? If you have ever downloaded something from the internet that you should have paid for, go to band sites that have pop ups, or have ever visited a porn site chances are you are infected with spyware.

While no spyware is good, there are 2 distinct classes, that I’ll call greyware and blackware (SEO terms), the greyware are from semi reputable companies, that are up front with their install process and what they are doing. They of course pretty it up a bit, spinning their aim to help deliver you what you are looking for when you are looking for it, such as a pop up ad for travel as you are on a travel site, that bypasses your pop up blocker, making you think that the site had a pop up ad. Often they will track your online surfing habits to sell to 3rd parties. These programs are usually piggybacked into peer to peer file sharing type programs, where you must install them to use say kazaa. Greyware also gives you easy uninstall wizards so you can rid your system of it thru its own un-install wizard or windows own. Of course the main software no longer works, so the only answer is get rhapsody or stop file sharing lol. Blackware is the nasty stuff, and can infect any computer at any time thru active x controls without you even knowing it or stopping it. Once infected uninstall isn’t easy, often editing the registry itself is required, which is a hairy process for even those that know how. The program also opens a door on your computer for all his buddies to come in and join the fun. Scary huh, and its all legal, due to the default settings in IE, that automatically installs any active X component, it appears that you gave permission for the program to be installed, and agreed to its terms and conditions. Another trick is to take the button that says “no” and thru code actually make it a “yes” button, the only thing that controls what the buttons say is some text you enter inside “ “, or the whole window its self could be a “yes” button if its an image linked right, the only safe way to close these windows is with alt-f4, or the IE x button, if you are sure it’s the actual one. Porn sites, game sites, free hosted sites etc etc, all have these, with the higher value being giving away the sneakier the tactics used.

How can you tell if you got blackware? Probably the easiest is that your hompage gets highjacked , and no matter what you do to change it it always defaults back to some link filled page usually topped by Mesothelioma, or some bogus search engine that looks kind of like google but just not right. Every time you click on a link on that page the programmer gets money, sometimes that same search engine will be your default search engine no matter how hard you try and change it. While scary these programs have a fatal flaw that probably is the easiest way to tell, your computer slows down to a crawl and then locks up as soon as you get online. The programmers getting greedy caused them to write in backdoor access to get in more programs by opening up a port on your computer. Not bad so I now have your default search engine and home page hijacked, and a couple of programs to kick up pop-ups while you browse, minor annoyances but still probably unknown to most users. Then someone got smart, why go thru all the hassles of actually infecting the computer, I’ll just use a port scanner to find computers that are already infected and add my programs there thru the same port opened by the first program. Im sure you can see where this is going, and ends with the crashed computer…

If you are infected here’s how to fix it:
1. unplug your internet connection from your computer.
2. run your spyware scan program and delete all instances the scan returns
3. reboot
4. run the scan again removing any instances found, and reboot
5.keep doing this until the scan shows no new programs after a reboot.

Of course chances are you don’t have a spyware scanner, and all the above did was remove what you had, it won’t stop new infestations from happening. You could clear all the programs off, then go to one site and have them all back again.

If you are infected here’s how to fix it (take 2):
First try and see if you can stay online long enough to download, one of the following free scanners, if you can’t your gonna have to find a friend to send you a copy or use a different computer, break out that old windows 95 with the 33k modem if needed, it may take an hour to download but its better than nothing.

If you have xp use the msn one below its by far the best
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

none xp users get lavasoft its probably the best one after msn
http://www.lavasoft.com/

once you get a clean computer, xp users can do this little trick to stop almost all the blackware from ever infesting your system.

1. (note you need to have an admin account to do this)go to start >> control panel >> user accounts >> create new account . now create a new admin account.
2. log out of your current account and log into the new admin account you created. (log out don’t just switch users). Now switch all the other accounts you want to go online to limited user accounts.
What you have done is made it impossible for the programs to self install or get installed by a missed click or unknowing user, since that user on the computer isn’t authorized to install programs, no permission is given so the install errors out. Pretty sneaky huh?
However this only works on XP, and 2000, other users need to disable active x completely thru IE if their version supports it, use windows help for more info. And you won’t be able to install any programs at all even if you want to under that account, you have to be logged in as the admin account to install. I used this technique first while doing some interning for a booking agency, I was at home checking out bands websites and whatnot to see who got booked and who didn’t , and I kept screwing up my computer, so I just made a limited account to browse band sites on. Another reason to pay for hosting if you are serious about your band, a good way to not get booked is infecting the booking agents computer. I can’t remember which hosts were the worse, but if you go to a band site and theres a pop-up and its not a yahoo site get out of it fast and never go back. While that’s a pretty broad stroke, and not every free host with popups is bad, but better safe than sorry. So if you like to go to sites like that, or those drunkperson picture sites, or game cheat sites or porn, you need to be careful and protect yourself.

A recent forum post i read at UBP revealed that there really wasn't a simple, easy to use, adfree way to allow people to send you an email message from your website available to the average web designer. So I decided to put an end to that with the Ambglb Mailer, written with simplicity in mind, you can have this up and running by just copying and pasting then adding your email address and band name. More advanced designers can easily customize the page to fit in even closer to the site design, by adding graphics and nav menu, but do remember that it is just a simple contact form and all its job is to send messages so simplicity and ease of use trumps the use of "pretties". Ok so enough yapping and on to the code.

Install Instructions
all you have to is copy and past the entire code to a new file, name it what ever you want, just make sure it has a .php extension.....i added a few setting that can be edited to help customize it somewhat to your sites...
when changing the settings make sure you leave the text enclosed within the " " or it won't work, also make sure you leave the // that mark comments in as well...

the only 2 settings you have to change are
$email = "email@domain.com" ;
just switch out to the email addy you want the form sent, so for me i would change it to
$email = "staff@basscrawler.org" ;

and the
$bandname = "Bandname" ;
which for me would be say
$bandname = "Basscrawler" ;

right now the script is set to return a link to your home page, (what people see when they type in www.yourdomain.com)
if you want to change it, simple swap the / out to the url of the page you wish, making sure you add the http:// if you don't understand directory shorthand
$weburl ="/";

the $text and $confirm are pretty self explain its simply the text that you see

the last 3 are the color settings of the page background, text color, and table outline
make sure you use the hex color codes to change.....

you can view the default version fo the form by clicking here

you can get the source code by clicking here

if your browser doesn't allow viewing of text files, just right click and save target as....you can either save it as a text file adn copy and paste or save it as a php file and upload that directly to your server.

This is a step by step tutorial on how to upload a picture to UBP Forum using Basscrawler's Gear Gallery. You can use any of the free hosters available online but for obvious reasons, we will stick to the gear gallery. These instructions will also work for virtually all forums as well, the only difference usually being the wording for image. Before we start check the file size of your picture, it cant be more than 1.24 mb in size or it won't work. The most common problem people have with digital cameras is in this setting, by default the camera take print ready pictures or 300 resolution(the high resolution and resulting large file size are needed for high quality prints), however web browsers can only display a 72 resolution. The easiest way around this is , if you are not going to print the pictures, change the settings on your camera to a lower quality setting, the lowest or next to lowest is best for web use. If you are going to print out copies as well as use online, you are going to have to open the large file in an image editing program and save a resized version. I use photoshop for all my image work, but less advanced users may be more comfy using the software that was bundled with their camera or the free editor here.You can also use our online pic resizing tool available here Allright we have our resized image so lets get started.

1. go to Basscrawler Gear Gallery by clicking here

2.we are going to act like you are posting a gear pic, if you want to use the service for non gear pictures, you must sign up for a free account, that will give you a personal album, hidden from public view. To simply add a gear pic registering isn't required. Click on the upload file link in the menu.

3. fill out the form that comes next, take care in selecting the correct album, pics of basses go in the bass album and so forth, make sure you fill out each field and be as descriptive as possible so everyone will know what they are looking at. When all filled out hit the upload file button.

4. on the next window that comes up you will see your pic, and all the info you entered in. Look for the row that says
Link:http://www.basscrawler.org/geargallery/albums/userpics/yourpicname.filename
simply highlight and copy the web address: http://www.basscrawler.org/geargallery/albums/userpics/yourpicname.filename

5. now go to the forum you want to post the pic in, and start to post as normal. Above the text box where you type in, will be a line of buttons, look for one that says image
and click it. a window will pop up asking for the image's url, now past the address you copied earlier into the line provided taking care to not have an extra http:// in the line, and hit ok.

6.finish posting as normal

like I said before this is a step by step guide for posting pics to UBP using the Basscrawler Gear Gallery, but the instructions hold pretty much the same no matter which forum
or image hosting service is used.

Ok probably the most important part of a website is the hosting, without it you have no site. This is also a very confusing part for alot of people and i won't lie to you, choosing the right host isn't easy nor for the faint of heart. So to make it easier i have compiled a list of some required features your host should have as well as a brief explanation of what they are and why you need it. I have also included a list of links to some good hosts at the end of this article to make choosing a little easier.

1. php/mysql/cgi support - these are must haves, if the host doesn't support their use, find another host. For those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about, these items allow you to run all the cool stuff you see on websites like blogs, forums, photo galleries etc. etc.

2.cpanel and fantastico deluxe - also must haves, by having access to these programs you can install all those cool web apps like forums, galleries etc, with just a few clicks of the mouse. This is very handy for the programmingly challenged.

3.FTP Access - this is another required feature, ftp or file transfer protocol is the means in which you transfer files from your computer to the actual server, without having ftp support you can't take advantage of the increased speed and ease of use that 3rd party ftp clients like cute ftp offer. Ftp is also how most web design programs automatically connect to the server to publish, so if the server doesn't support ftp your program is now worthless.

4.Frontpage Support - Windows Frontpage, a very popular design program used by many beginning webbies uses special commands or extensions to connect and communicate with the server, without server support for frontpage installed, all the features that make frontpage such an easy program will be rendered useless.

5.Server Housed in Datacenter - make sure the server is located at a datacenter (basically a secure fortress for servers that guards against power outages, fire, flood etc)and not sitting next to a keg-a-rator and some college students party house.

6.Tech Support - make sure there is some sort of support system, check the site for a forum where users help each other or support ticket submission service, usually you won't have to look very hard for the support info, it should just about jump off the screen and bite you, if you have to look hard, move on.

7.No Pop-ups - pretty simple, you are paying for hosting you should never have popups forced upon you, on a paying account if you do, drop them in a hurry. Also a hosting company should never require you to have a link to their site if you pay for hosting.

8.Storage/Bandwith Limits -
Storage: the amount of space for files stored on the server
Bandwith: is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet

When using mp3s in your website, make sure you get ample bandwith to support them, a mp3 is roughly 1mb per min, so a 5 min song is 5mb. Each time that file is accessed 5mb of bandwith is used, that mp3 can then get played 200 times before using 1gb of bandwith. (approx 1000mb=1gb)

9.Mp3/Multimedia Support if you plan on having multimedia files in your website make sure the hosts allow them. In an effort to curtail bootlegging many hosts don't allow those kind of files to be streamed.

10.Email and Subdomains - this is the ability to have yourname@yourdomain.com email addresses and whatever.yourdomain.com. You should have an unlimited amount of both, for some reason hosts limit or charge more for extras, if they do and its something you can't live without move on. But it's really not all that important.

Domain Name Purchase
Aplus.Net - $5.95 Domain Names
Register your domain at Yahoo! Only $9.95.

Xen Hosting -where basscrawler is hosted
500mb storage/10 gb transfer $3.00 per month - xen hosting
1500mb storage/20 gb transfer $6.00 per month - xen hosting
2500mb storage/40 gb transfer $9.00 per month - xen hosting

More Hosting Options
Hostgator.com -where ugly bass player.com is hosted.
Aplus.net Hosting

Today we are going to talk about what not to do when making a website for your band. There's tons of tutorials on what to do, and yes i will write one myself, but sometimes the most important knowledge you can have is knowing what not to do. i won't claim to be a super expert, and my way may not be the best way, but by following the advice that will be spread across these next few columns, you will be unknowingly using the same basic techniques used by internet marketers to make millions over the internet, so if something doesn't make sense now it will when we get further into things, so lets get started shall we?

1. Don't use Flash Movies as forced intro movies.
if you must have one, use a link that will open in a new browser window, roughly about half of online users are on broadband, the other half is on dial-up, so you automatically are losing half your visitors right off the bat, not even accounting for those who don't have the right flash version installed, and in this day of spy ware and virus no one is going to download something like that from a band website. Also the skip movie link rarely works correctly all the time, even on professional done sites, so basically you have to ask yourself if it wasn't about you would you sit thru one? or would you sit thru the same thing to see the band who played at the bar last nite?

2. Don't autoplay music on a page load.
for one its annoying to have music blaring without starting it, its my computer and i want to control when and what's playing over it, also not everyone coming to your site is there to listen, places like this do go to websites to get the data on bands they review, and copying and pasting is the best way to make sure info is correct, and often multiple trips to a site are required, and if i have a song blaring out everytime i have to check for dates or song titles, i can pretty much guarantee that the band lost the review, same as for booking, while interning for a semi major booking agency i know of a few bands that lost good gigs do to this. from your standpoint as the site owner having this actually costs you, each time that page is called by a user, the file starts to load, often it will preload it fully before playing, so you are being charged for the bandwith of a whole song even if the person hears it just for a second, then clicks the page closed...

3.Don't use mousetrails or custom cursors
its just cheesy and annoying, if i wanted words following my cursor, they would be there already.

4.Don't use javascripts to open browser windows.
for one the pop up blocker installed on almost every browser, won't allow it to open and unless the user is savvy enough to know to shut off the browser, they are going to just assume that your site is broken, also the search engine spiders can't read java script, rendering the links to other pages invisible, this will make more sense later when we get into more advanced topics.

5.Don't expect people to buy your music
have at least one song available for free play and download, the publicity you can get from anyone in the world being able to hear your best song and send it to everyone they know, pales to what you will make from cd sales, and to be blunt and honest, by the time you have to worry about free downloads costing you money, the money you are losing won't matter, so put the ego away, and throw up a song.

6.Don't use free hosts with banner ads and pop-ups.
Spend the few bucks a month and get a decent hosting plan and drop the 8 bucks to buy your own domain, if you aren't serious enough to spend 30 bucks for a year on the band you aren't serious about your band. many of those free hosts also install active x spy ware to users, making it look like you infected them...

7.Don't use flash for navigation menus or content
see the reasons for #1 on loading and usability, once again the search engine spiders can't read flash files so all links and text is invisible to them. this will again make sense later on..

8.Don't have personal news on your site
keep your main site as professional looking as possible, no one cares really what you and your drummer did last weekend after the bar closed, that is what forums are for.

9.Don't forget contact info
i know it sounds silly, but you would be surprised at how many bands leave off an email address or contact number from their sites, if there's no way to contact you, how can people contact you?

10.Don't use transitions
yeah those "cool" things that you can to as pages load and unload, like dissolve, fade, etc, are a no-no very very annoying, and i'll admit to using them back when they were first available but even then it got old quick.