Peter Bargh

Sights & Sounds

Archive for the ‘Helping Hand’ Category

December 28th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Malware and 7speed.info

You have found this post because you’re trying to find out about an attack from 7speed.info a malware site that has somehow infected your web site causing virus alert warnings from programs such as Avast. I struggled to find out information searching Google for an answer when it happened to me yesterday. I fumbled around and eventually found the way to resolve it thanks to Scott of MTMinds.

The site has managed to get to your directory (web folders) and added some javascript to certain pages so that the malware (combination of malicious and software) is activated.  You need to do two things.

First make your site secure using new stronger passwords on your server access point and when using ftp. Change these passwords immediately. Use passwords with 8 to 12 character length that are not meaningful words just a string of letters (upper & lower), punctuation and numbers. I now use this site to generate ones automatically  for me: PC Tools Secure Password Generator.

Second find any files that have been “infected” and remove the offending javascript.

The javascript from 7speed.info was placed in the first line of the body on most of my sites, and finding it on ones I’d created using html and basic structures was easy…once I knew what I was looking for! But on sites built using templates such as WordPress and Drupal it was a more challenging discovery. So I’ve written this blog to help speed up your investigation and repair.

The javascript looks like this at the beginning <script language=JavaScript> then the functiion follows with function hilbnb25(z) the hilbnb bit might be a different set of charachters on your page but it always seems to follow with (z) Next is  {var c=z.length,m=1024 and then a huge string of letters and numbers ending with </script><!– your domain host –>
If you take all this out the problem is resolved.  Back up just in case you make a mistake.

To find the javascript
I have several sites and found the easiest way to see if my site was infected was to use the information menu on FireFox Web Developer extension. And then searched for 7speed.info. It highlighted any code on the site. I could then locate the page via ftp and delete the code.

Pages affected
In my experience it was Index.html and index.php pages infected on basic sites
Header.php and Footer.php on basic sites with include files.

On Drupal templates you need to go into the directory of the theme you are using and locate the page.tpl.php file

On PHP Fusion edit the subheader.php and footer.php files

On WordPress go into the theme directory and edit the header.php and footer.php files.

Hope that helps.

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November 24th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

New Google Adwords spammer

Just a word of warning for Google Adword users. There’s a new email going around trying to catch you out.

The mail will look something like this

Dear Advertiser,
———————–
We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.
—————————
Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.
—————————–
No matter what size business you run
Advertise your business with Google Adwords

Before going to any site from an email link hover over the link to see where it’s directing you, because even though the landing page will look “real” the actual site may be a hoax (like this one is), and looking to get your username and password.

Before–

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November 21st, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Google take searches to the next level

The Google search has become so widely used that the phrase used “Just Google it” has become the common way to suggesting an internet web page search, so Google joins the like of Hoover and Sellotape. Yesterday Google took the search to the next level. They have added a feature that allows logged in Google users to move useful searched items to the top of the search results. So, for example, If I am always looking at black & white photography. When I search I may get two pages of spammy sites who’ve mastered their SEO. I then find the interesting stuff half way down page three. Now I can click an arrow to the right and it promotes that site to the top of page one, and remembers my preference. It’s like having a Digg system (see there I go) social bookmarking system for Searches.
The more you use it the better the results will be for you. And unlike other SEO techniques the affect of people upgrading sites to top wont affect others. You only see what you’ve done, and only when you’re logged in.  You can view how the community has collectively edited the search results but this does not affect your usual Google search.
As well as promoting sites you can also remove sites from the search too so you can get rid of spammy ones you can also make notes. This is a great move forward and it will be interesting to see if at any point Google starts to take not of quality filtered results and applies that data to their system so everyone benefits.

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Posted in Helping Hand | 1 Comment »

October 13th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Images not right aligning in WordPress

If you’re like me and have a wordpress blog that you’ve updated to 2.6 you may have found that you cannot right align photos in your blog posts.
This is because many of the site templates are not totally up to date.

The solution is to edit your CSS style sheet
1 Go to your Site’s admin panel
2 Click on the Design tab and then Theme editor below the tab. It should bring up the style sheet (style.css) If not look at the Theme Files list on the right.
3 Click the Ctl+F to bring up a search window and key in img right or even just img r and click next.
4 Find the line

img align left{ float:left; margin:0 12px 5px 0; }

and change it to

.alignright { float:right; margin:0 0 5px 12px; }

This will then ensure that images are right aligned.

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August 14th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Image resolution and Pixel dimensions explained

Someone asked a question today that got me to think that pixel settings is still not really understood. So I thought I’d explain what the Image Size resize/resample option does.

When you open an Image Size dialgue box you usually have three methods of adjustment. One to scale styles one to constrain proportions and one to resample.

Constrain proportions and scale styles are checked (ticked) by default. If you want to stretch the image so it looks squashed then you’d uncheck constrain proportions and adjust either the Width or Height dimensions depending whether you wanted it stretched across or up. This can be used subtly to make a landscape look more like a panoramic shot, but should be used with care.  If you want to keep the image the same proportions you keep these ticked and the aspect ratio remains the same.

Resample Image is the one that gets most people in a pickle. By default this will be set as default. If you leave it at default you will notice that the resolution setting is unconnected from the width and height in the Document size settings. Resolution is usually set at default at 72ppi (pixels per inch) If you change the resolution to, say 300ppi you will notice that the Top value Pixel Dimensions will increase dramatically. This is because you are about to resample the image. Doing this instructs Photoshop or similar image-editing program to add pixels (interpolate).

If the box is unchecked you will see it connects the Resolution settings with the Width and Height. If you now change the default 72ppi to 300ppi you will see that the Pixel dimensions stay the same, but the width and height decrease.

You are basically taking the 72 pixels in each inch and squashing them into 300 per inch. Computer screens are set at 72ppi so you do not need an image to be set to a resolution of 300ppi, although it doesn’t matter if the file is, because the computer will display at 72ppi anyway.

Now the person who asked the question had been told he needed the image to be 300ppi for a magazine submission. While it’s true that magazines and book publishers need 300ppi files the only important figure is the pixel dimensions, because this determine how big an image can be at 72ppi, 240ppi or 300ppi.

So what do you need to know? Any good magazine editor/picture buyer will know how many pixels he/seh needs for the image and will request the necessary…ie he/shh will request a 2400pixel image. As they are printing at 300ppi it means they have asked to use the image at 8in (2400pixels / 300), yet the same image on your computer may appear to be 33in (2400pixels / 72) if you change from 72ppi to 300ppi with the resample image unchecked the 2400 pixels will stay the same. If you check resample image when changing from 72 to 300ppi your 2400pixel image will increase to 10000pixels and will be a huge unecessary file.

Hope that’s clear…if not ask questions here

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Posted in Helping Hand, Photography | No Comments »

May 19th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Sorry, that key does not appear to be valid – WordPress error

If you get this error when requesting a new password it looks like you won’t be the only one. I wasn’t!
So I upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1 and then deleted my cache which lost my password that I didn’t write down. So usual simple thing request a new one…only this time the system didn’t work. The email arrived with the message:

To reset your password visit the following address, otherwise just ignore this email and nothing will happen.

I clicked the link and got the Sorry, that key does not appear to be valid message.

Thankfully there is a solution that I found on doing a search using Google. It’s in the WordPress forums and asks you to: Download the ZIP file with those two changed files here:
http://trac.wordpress.org/changeset/7837?format=zip&new=7837
Unzip it using WinZIP or something, then upload those two changed files to your site.
There is one change to make to the code

Just above that code it gives in wp-login.php is a line that read like this:
if ( empty($key) ) {

Try changing it to this:
if ( empty($key) || preg_match('/[^a-z0-9]/i',$key) != 0) {

Check out the full thread here

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May 5th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

LocalGame Shop – avoid – scam

Interesting?

So I post a thread uncovering a scam. It gets to number one in Google Search. And then disappears. Now I am not even listed in the search for this post. What happend? Are Google supporting crooks, has it been reported? All my other blog post are unaffected. What’s going on?

Incidentally I’ve also start getting lots of spam – all on that one post. Well just to clarify LocalGame Shop offering four super console deals is not legit and you WILL lose your money. This will get to the top of search engine…how long will it stay this time I wonder?

The company are still appearing on price comparison stores as incredibly good value. Just to repeat this is not a good deal. You WILL lose your money. See my previous blog post for full details.

Of course If I’m wrong please post in this thread, I’d love to hear from someone who has got their goods

Posted in Diary, Helping Hand | No Comments »

April 28th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

LocalGame Shop – AVOID!

Well following my recent post about being scammed by a web site that appeared offering superb deals on Nintendo Wiis and XBoxes, it looks like the crooks who operated recently as rapidgamingstore are back again with the same scam. Different web site, but same stock, same convincing deals, same convincing service, trusted money back offers etc, and same town, but a different address.

LocalGame Store offers New Nintendo Wii “Ultimate Gaming Pack” Video Game System comprising

Nintendo Wii Console
Wii Stand
5 Wii Sports Games: Baseball, Bowling, Boxing, Golf, and Tennis
Remote and Nun-Chuck
Sensor Bar
Power and AV Cables
User Manual

Along with 10 games including:

Wii Sports
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Marve: Ultimate Aliance
Need for Speed: Carbon
SD Gundam: Scad Hammers
The Legend of Zeda: Twilight Princess
Tony Hawk?s Downhill Jam
Metal Slug Anthology
Trauma Center: Second Opinion

All for just £106 – the catch is you have to buy 5, well the real catch is they will not turn up, and in a couple of months when they’ve fleeced enough suckers the site will disappear along with any form of contact and any sign of your gear.

Posted in Diary, Helping Hand | 4 Comments »

March 29th, 2008 by Peter Bargh

Rights Usage Terms for photographs

It occured to me that many photographers don’t protect their photos. Ok you can’t prevent people from nicking you pics when they are on the web, but at least by putting a notice up you may deter a useful percentage. Rather than adding an ugly stamp across the front of your photos you can also use the photo’s metadata to add a copyright notice.

There are four important fields found in the IPTC section and one of these that I’m going to help you with the legal wording.

1 is Copyright Status…set this to Copyrighted

2 Copyright I put my name…. Peter Bargh

3 Rights Usage Terms… and here’s what I put:
This image is the property of Peter Bargh and protected under UK and International copyright laws. Copying, duplicating, saving as a digital file, printing, publishing in form of media including web, manipulating, transmitting or reproducing without the prior written permission of Peter Bargh is strictly forbidden and would constitute a breach of copyright.
Feel free to copy this and replace my name with yours.

4 Copyright info url…link this to your own site…ideally to a page about your photo copyright. Make sure you add a bit about photos being available, should a potential buyer by looking.

If you use a catalogue program, such as Adobe Lightroom, you can make this, and keywording a much more automated and quick task.

Hope that helps.

Posted in Helping Hand | 11 Comments »

March 23rd, 2008 by Peter Bargh

error loading .dll – what it means

It appears to be a common problem but finding a solution can be hard. I’ve been getting an “error loading w0572d42.dll
The specified module could not be found” message for about a year every time I restart my computer. At first I tried to find out what it was and couldn’t. So I clicked ok, the message went and the computer ran as normal, or at least I hoped it did.

Today I had some free time so I looked a bit deeper and found an answer by Malke Routh, MS-MVP to a similar problem. His suggestion was to download a “program from Microsoft that will help you stop the error messages”

I tried this option, not really understanding what I was doing but it worked. Here’s what I did.
Step 1
Download the program AutoRuns for Windows v9.13 from here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Step 2
Click on the autoruns.exe file (it’s safe)

Step 3
A list of all the stuff that runs at start up will show. If you PC’s like mine there will be loads of stuff. Click the Everything tab at the top.

Step 4
Click on the binocular icon (search) in the menu. And key in the name of the .dll file that’s causing the problem.

Mine appeared on the list as “jvba05ee” and on the right “File not found: w0572d42.dll”

Step 5
Untick the box to its left

Step 6
Restart the computer

Job’s a good un! I no longer get the message. While I was in the Autoruns system I also found several other File Not found entries so I unticked them too. You can delete entries but I’m not confident enough to do that yet!

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