To Webmaster-> Avast Antivirus clashing against OR

[Fabiano]

Hello Scare, I´ve been having problems accessing the Oz Report in any computer running Avast antivirus.

The only way I can access the site is by turning off Avast.

I have also been trying to post a Classified Ad but it always comes out empty (only the title goes through, the text body remains empty), and I wonder if that could be related to the Antivirus as well, even though while I post an Ad I have already disabled Avast (otherwise like I said, I couldn´t even get into the site to begin with.)

Depending on the Avast version running in each computer I may get a blank page (just like if I was offline) or a Warning message with sounds and shit alerting me that this website is potentially dangerous and that I could already have been infected by a suspicious object, blah blah blah...

Seems like a phony warning, but still...

Thanks for any help,
Fabiano

[Scare!]

Yeah, Avast comes up with a lot of false positives, that's common with free software where it's in their best interest to get you paranoid enough to pay for their "pro" version.

It might be reacting to the Google ads at the bottom of most pages, those use JavaScript which creates iframes with content from their advertisers, vetted by Google. I'd need more details. Can you copy & paste the message it gives you, or screengrab it?

If Avast is blocking Javascript that could account for your problams posting classified ads too.

Oh, and let me know what URL you're trying to look at when you get that message. For example, does it happen on this page?

[Fabiano]

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the delay.

Here are the 2 images, the first one pops automatically as soon as I try to access, and the second one shows up from within the browser (chrome);

The first one says that this site is insecure and has 1 tracking system.

The second one says tha Avast has blocked a threat, malware type.

[Scare!]

The first one, "this site is insecure", is just because we're on an HTTP server, not an HTTPS one. There's an extra annual charge for obtaining, installing, and using the security certificate that would be involved, and that's not really worth it for sites that you don't give financial information to, or where interception and modification by some third party like an unscrupulous govern[THE NSA IS NOT INJECTING ANY CONTENT INTO THIS SITE]ment isn't likely.

The "tracking system" could be the forum login cookie, or it could be Google's "Urchin Tracker" that it uses for, I think, deciding what ads to show (they earn us a couple cents when clicked on) or Google Search. I'll disable it and see if it makes a difference.

There's no actual malware on the site, just Google's ads.

Any difference now?

[Fabiano]

Nope...

It still gives the same warnings, like I said I can circumvent disabling avast and also unchecking the "antiphishing" monitor option on Avast interface.

I can live with that, it´s just annoying because everytime I click the OR I get the loud dings and the alert, then I have to go thru the disable procedure.

And I´m reporting also because I thought it could be a real threat that you were unaware!

One observation, on my previous message the way the pics got displayed after posting, means that I should mean the second pic when I meant the first one and vice versa.

[Scare!]

Hmmm. Any difference now, on this page? I've turned off the counter, HTML validator, and other unnecessary stuff.

I appreciate you letting me know what Avast is doing, I know that there's no real threat (apart from the same ads that millions of sites have) but I still want to avoid annoyances for the users!

[Fabiano]

I´m sorry but Avast still keeps blocking the site, Scare.

I´m allright disabling Avast, but if you need any other info just say it.

Also, another issue has come up and from another computer (not running Avast and accessing the site without any problem), I was logged into the Forum.
I tried to go to the classified ad page and didn´t load.

It loaded the usual OR frame, with this message in red "Invalid action: nourchin"

I have the same result from any computer.

(11UTC February 9th)

[Scare!]

I´m sorry but Avast still keeps blocking the site, Scare.

The way you say "site", and the previous screengrabs, implies that you're going to http://ozreport.com/, getting blocked, disabling Avast, then continuing on to the forum. I haven't stripped the possible problems out of the main site yet, just the forum, so I'm not surprised that you're still getting alerts.

Try this: now that you're here, on this page of the forum, no doubt with Avast turned off, try turning Avast back on and reloading this page (on most browsers you'd hit F5 or the button that looks like "go around again" âÿ³ , or click on the URL line where it should say something like "http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51396" right now, and hit Enter or Return or ⏎ ).

I tried to go to the classified ad page and didn´t load.
It loaded the usual OR frame, with this message in red "Invalid action: nourchin"

Sorry, my fault. I turned off the Urchin thing the wrong way and the classifieds page objected. Fixed now.

[Fabiano]

Yes I was loading the main site, but I just tried your suggestion turning Avast back on and reloading the Forum page and I had the same previous result with Avast blocking and the alert message.

Sorry for the pain Scare, and maybe we should move this to the off-topic ´cos it´s not a fun subject for people who haven´t any issues with antiv viruses...

Thanks for fixing the ads, I´ll try to post my ad again tonightm let´s see if it works, as this time I´ll do it from the computer without Avast.

[Fabiano]

What kind of a crazy spam mechanism could that thing be?!?