Trouble making entries in free agency

[Schaefling]

I am having trouble making entries for bidding on free agency. When I start to put numbers or years in for a bid the screen locks up or refreshes suddenly. I had the same problem in the find players search screens.

I'm not having problems using Internet Explorer on other Web sites. Does this indicate there is a glitch in Baseball Mogul or is it my machine instead? I would like to know because if it's my machine I would be worried about a possible virus.

[James Grove]

For what it's worth, I can use the free agent screen okay.

Anyone else having this problem?

-James

[Cipster]

I am not sure that it is the same problem but I have seen a similar sounding bug.
I have seen this problem on one of the computers that runs at my work. It has Win95 and an older version of Explorer. For some reasom it attempts to reload a page immediately after it has loaded it. With most sites that is no big deal you just have to wait for the page to reload. For BBMO or other sites that have posted data it causes an error and does not display the page properly. One workaround I have found is hitting the Stop button on the browser as soon as the page loads initially so it does not try to reload it. I have never seen it on another machine so it might be a problem that just pops up on certain computers.
It might also be something to do with Explorer. I personally prefer Netcape or even better try Neoplanet a nice browser you can get on cnet. So far I have never heard of anyone writing a virus that attempts to exploit a security flaw in Neoplanet :)

[James Grove]

What version of Internet Explorer are you using, Schaefling? And what OS are you using?

-James

[Schaefling]

My Internet Explorer is version 5.50.4134.0600. I am using Windows 98 the basic edition not second edition.

My mouse seems to be working better today but I did have notification of a registry error that was corrected by Windows 98.

More importantly My access to the site has been blocked by Norton Internet Security and I have to manually turn off this program to access Sports Mogul. Norton claims I have had numerous attempts to access my computer using some sort of worm virus while on Sports Mogul and won't let me backon this site when it's runing. I think they call ith the Trojan Horse virus.

Is there any truth to this? Could other players on line be trying to illegally access my computer? Norton does say that you can sometimes get a false reading of a Trojan Horse virus on certain websites but I have spent a lot of time at Sports Mogul the last few months and now I'm getting error messages.

Any help or advice or info you have on this subject would be great appreciated.

[Schaefling]

I am now getting even more problems with Sports Mogul. The screens look very funny and the bars on the side are often missing. I suspect I may have a virus. This happened only moments after my last post.

Do you guys screen in any way for viruses while hundreds of different players are online and interacting with each other? Just thought I'd ask as I could use as much help as possible and any info you have at this point.

[James Grove]

Schaefling --

I will forward your question to Ian, since he is our expert on Internet security. Obviously this is something we want to look into ASAP.

Is there any way you can get more information about what Norton Internet Security thinks is the problem?

A Trojan Horse is a generic term for a virus-like program that infiltrates your computer by masquerading as somthing else.

For example, you might download a program that purports to be "Nude pictures of Britney Spears" but when you run it you are actually running a program that erases your hard drive.

This is different from the typical definition of a virus, which is a program that can spreads itself by attaching itself to other documents and files. In this case, the files are real, but they have a hidden malicious parasite attached.

So could you please see if Norton Internet Security can give you more information about the virus it is seeing? Perhaps there is a "More Information" or "Properties" button on the virus warning? If you can find out more, please post it here or email it to ian@sportsmogul.com.

Thank you very much,
James Grove

[James Grove]

For what its' worth, Schaefling, I am unaware of any way you could get a virus from another person playing Baseball Mogul Online.

You would have to download an infected file from them or otherwise interact with the user directly. Our web pages would not transmit a virus between users.

If the user posted a file to our discussion boards, it would be possible for you to download the virus by downloading the attachment. But not just by reading the boards.

If there is any virus here, I would think it would have to be on our servers, not coming from another user.

That said, Ian runs a very tight ship, and I'd be a bit surprised if there was a virust there. But we can never assume that there is not one, so we'll get right on it.

-James

[Dee Dreslough]

There *are* viruses that can transmit themselves via websites with carefully crafted URLs and embedded nastiness. I thought, though, that those viruses only affected machines running Windows-based Web Servers. But, who knows. Those clever virus-making folks I'm sure are trying to knock the legs out of Linux websites too. Ah... The ingenuity.

I'm going to install that Norton Internet Guard and see what it gives me when I look at Mogul. Usually, if a virus is coming from a source (a patch, a web page, etc) you'll get dozens of people reporting it all at once, because they're all getting warnings from their systems.

In the mean time, Schaeffling -- I recommend that you run your virus checker on it's most thorough setting (I bet you already did that) and see what it comes up with. If the security guard can ID the virus, like James mentioned, that helps us zero in on what might be causing the problem.

-Dee 'sniffles' Dreslough
(always catching and dispatching viruses on her system. :) )

[drew]

There were a lot of bugs with Windows 98 basic edition. Try using the Windows Update to find patches and critical updates. There are no new ones now, but this is just in case you're a few years behind and didn't check for a while. I would think that you downloaded this virus from somewhere else though.

[Schaefling]

I really appreciate all the information. It is looking more and more like a virus has attacked my computer but also less and less like it happened at the Baseball Mogul Online website.

I got Norton Internet Security because I was attacked by multiple viruses about six months ago. Back then I ultimately lost my hard drive due to sudden crashes of the system.

The disturbing thing for me about the Sports Mogul website was I would occassionally get notices while on BBMO of Trojan Horse attacks. Norton was telling me when I asked for greater detail that someone was trying to access my system. This explanation also stated that these so called Trojan Horse attacks were sometimes "false reads" by the security program interpreting certain types of activity on websites incorrectly as attempted penetrations of the firewall. I just assumed this was the case until recently when all my problems started.

What I'm wondering is not whether there is a virus at your website (I'm pretty sure there isn't) but whether someone else on BBMO at the same time I am could try to access my computer and plant a Trojan Horse virus. This seemed to be what Norton Security was warning me about.

Is this possible? Can someone else on BBMO use it as a conduit to my computer and attack my computer indirectly? Norton Internet Security seemed to be indicating this could happen at just about any website.

My current situation is compounded by the fact my Norton Security program has been corrupted. I just deleted the entire program and plan to re-intall it.

Have you heard of any viruses attacking Norton Internet Security directly? I'm worried about this because it never once detected a virus through frequent scans and now has been seriously corrupted.

Also do you know of a better anti-virus program than Norton Internet Security? Right now my confidence in this program is quite low.

Any and all help would be appreciated very much.

[drew]

I think this could help you:
1. Make sure your virus definitions are up-to date

2. Make sure your Windows is up-to-date by going to Windows Update

3.Cranky old computers often don't run well, being out of date. It seems like these types of problems happen with people who have had virus troubles in the past.

[Dee Dreslough]

Now, since Mogul does show when you're online, it's conceivable that someone could use that to figure out when your computer's online to launch a virus or try to hack into your system. But, they'd have to know your IP address already, and we don't show any of that information to users.

Most windows systems aren't running processes that could easily be hacked into. AIM has some 'Denial of Service' bugs that could let someone shut down your computer by sending a carefully crafted message to your AIM ID...And there are lots of nasty tricks via email people pull...the one I keep getting is someone sending me an .scr or .pif attachment that's actually a virus script. Others have you click a link, that causes teh virus to start in your computer (like the 'Secret Admirer/You've been Kissed' email, or the 'You have an E-Card' email. If you get any email that doesn't clearly identify who sent it, don't open it if you can avoid it.)

There are a few programs online that scan your computer for weaknesses. I think Norton has a free version on their website. I use Norton myself -- not the whole Internet Security package with the firewall, but AntiVirus 2001. I'm happy with it.

But here's what folks who should know are using are using themselves: the Virus software recommended by MIT for students:

http://web.mit.edu/is/help/virus/

They seem to like McAffee NetSheild/VirusScan http://www.mcAfee.com.

I also recommend signing up for Norton's (or McAfee's) email newsletter and email alerts for new viruses. They'll send out a notice for you to update your virus definitions as soon as they know there's a real new virus on the loose. There are other virus notice services you can sign up for too, but usually having a subscription to Norton or one of the other big companies is enough. At least, I've found it to be enough so far.

I hope this helps!

-Dee Dreslough

[winginit]

Schaefling -- A trojan horse "attack" only means that another person has tested your machine to see if there is a trojan horse virus on it. The fact that you're security program told you about it means that it is working -- that is, it detected the intrusion and blocked it. Then it told you about it. You can turn off the notification it you like. If you go to dlsreports.com there is a way to test the security of your machine. By and large, Norton is among the best on the market, and you really shouldn't worry to much.

[Schaefling]

It's a moot point now because my machine crashed and is in the shop to be repaired. I suspect that it was a failure of some sort of hardware rather than a virus but I will post a message letting you know when I get the machine back.

My machine is an Athlon 1.2 Ghz with 512 MB of memeory so it's not old and/or cranky but it is hot so I'm putting an extra fan in the case. I'm also putting Windows XP on the computer which I understand is very reliable.

My main bet is excessive heat caused the premature failure of the dc-rom or the hard drive or maybe even the motherboard but in any case I will soon know.

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice.

[Schaefling]

I got my machine back from the shop late Saturday afternoon but I still have no idea whay happpened to cause it to crash. There was no hardware problem and I had already re-formatted the machine prior to taking it in which may be why no virus was discovered on the hard drive or in the master boot record.


I now have Windows XP on the system and I understand it's supposed to be very reliable so wish me luck. Once again thanks to all those who gave advice and made suggestions.

My only major conclusion from all this is that it appears very unlikely that the Baseball Mogul Online website had anything to do with my crash. A minor result of this crash is a reduced sense of confidence in Norton Security making me wonder if I should switch to McAfee.

If anybody has had any experience with McAfee please post a reply here. It would be very much appreciated.