Has the site been hacked or is it my computer?

Woodburner · Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:39 am

What the title says :/

The forum is all messed up and I can't get the main site at all :/

Wombat · Post: # 65922Post **Wombat** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:45 am

Dunno mate!

I can get onto the main site with no worries.......

Nev

Shirley · Post: # 65924Post **Shirley** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:56 am

Which browser are you using Woodburner? Seems ok to my firefox and just checked on internet explorer and it's fine there.

Woodburner · Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:18 pm

I'm using firefox, too. You gave me the idea to try IE and it's fine there

I'll try deleting cookies and history, and so forth.

Woodburner · Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:46 pm

still messed up :/ the wierdest thing is that in place of the ish logo and Barbera's pic I get what might be a scene from the x-files :S[/img]

Muddypause · Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:56 pm

Can you post a screenshot of what you're seeing, Woody? Press the Print Screen button (top row, next to F12; or Alt+Print Screen for just the selected window) and paste the result into your favourite image editor. Not that I'm suggesting that any of us will be any the wiser.

Woodburner · Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:25 pm

Unfortunately my attempts to sort it out have stopped me from using firefox at all.

Previously images from other webpages I had visited were replacing things on the ish website.

Now whwn I try and start firefox (having uninstalled and reinstalled it, and more besides) I get the message:
"Firefox is already running but not responding. To open a new window you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."
Needless to say restarting does nothing. Also the only reference to firefox.exe in Task Manager is only present as long as I leave the message box open.

:?:?

wulf · Post: # 66167Post **wulf** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:55 pm

That sounds very odd. Are you running on some version of MS Windows?

Wulf

Martin · Post: # 66168Post **Martin** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:17 pm

a very flakey copy of Win98, or possibly a Trojan?

-probably worth downloading AVG antivirus (the free one), and running a complete scan - I've found it excellent for rootling out nasties missed by other programmes - at least it wouldn't cost anything!

Woodburner · Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:12 pm

Pretty sure it's XP, def. not 98.
I ran "avast" but I had missed a big non automatic update because I didn't know that was the virusscanner. (I thought that, that comp had avg like mine.) So I'm thinking that some kind of self deleting virus got in, did the damage, and disappeared.

I don't understand why it says a firefox process is running or why only ish site seemed messed up.

Martin · Post: # 66176Post **Martin** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:16 pm

you could try clearing all your caches, particularly cookies, and then rebooting, I have found that Internet Explorer can often cause cookie problems, even in other browsers!

Millie · Post: # 66180Post **Millie** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:35 pm

Im using firefox with no problems. Last time it kept saying FF was running when it wasnt I got rid of it in task manager and then also rebooted. No probs since :)

Muddypause · Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:43 am

Woodburner wrote:Now whwn I try and start firefox (having uninstalled and reinstalled it, and more besides) I get the message:
"Firefox is already running but not responding. To open a new window you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

I occasionally find that FF takes a loong time to open (especially if it has updated itself), and I am decieved into thinking that I didn't click on the FF icon properly. Clicking on it a second time brings up a message like the one you report.

If this isn't what is happening with you, it seems to imply that FF is already running from bootup. Did a shortcut somehow get dropped into the StartUp folder? Does it appear in the Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility (if such a thing exists in XP)? Does the Ctrl+Alt+Delete thing work on XP? Close down every incidence of FF from there, if it does, and then try afresh.

FF has its own Safe Mode that you could try - open the Run command line and type:

firefox.exe -safe-mode

and see if this gets a result.

Or maybe the profile has somehow got messed up. Try opening the profile manager by typing:

firefox.exe -p

Maybe create a new profile and see if that wil start (you can copy the old profile folders into the new one if this solves the problem).

If none of this gives you any clues, the FF forums are pretty useful.

Woodburner · Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:10 am

Martin wrote:you could try clearing all your caches, particularly cookies, and then rebooting, I have found that Internet Explorer can often cause cookie problems, even in other browsers!

First thing I tried

Millie wrote:Im using firefox with no problems. Last time it kept saying FF was running when it wasnt I got rid of it in task manager and then also rebooted. No probs since :)

It's only there (in task manager) when I try and start FF and goes again when I close the message.

Rebooting doesn't help.

muddypause wrote:I occasionally find that FF takes a loong time to open (especially if it has updated itself), and I am decieved into thinking that I didn't click on the FF icon properly. Clicking on it a second time brings up a message like the one you report.

It's not that.

muddypause wrote:If this isn't what is happening with you, it seems to imply that FF is already running from bootup. Did a shortcut somehow get dropped into the StartUp folder? Does it appear in the Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility (if such a thing exists in XP)? Does the Ctrl+Alt+Delete thing work on XP? Close down every incidence of FF from there, if it does, and then try afresh.

That's what I figured, but there are no instances of firefox in the Task Manager (you have to use Ctrl Alt Del to bring it up). I did check the start up folder anyway though. No luck

I will try the commandline thingies next time I'm There (Mum's) I think it will give me the same message though.
Odd thing about the message is that it says firefox process. Makes me wonder if there's another program associated with FF that's running that I don't recognise

Thank you all very much for your help, I will give it another go and try the forums next week-end most likely. :)

Muddypause · Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:18 pm

Woodburner, entirely coincidentally, I seem to have given myself the same problem as you. I got the error message saying that FF was already running when there was no incidence of it running at all. This happened because I changed the name of a folder, and that affected the path that FF looks for to find my profile. Perhaps this is your problem too.

I don't know why the error says that FF is already running - it clearly isn't, but because I made a name change, it lacks all the information it needs to start.

So, check that no folders have been renamed. If they have, see if you can change them back again. This seems to be the best way of getting back your complete profile.

Otherwise, you will need to locate your profile folder (I don't know where the default location is - I moved mine). Having found it, you can create a new profile (with a new profile name) that points to this folder using the profile manager (run 'firefox -p' in the command line).

Alternatively, do a search for the file 'profiles.ini' and open it in a text editor. Here, you can amend the paths to the profiles (frustratingly, this didn't re-establish all my profile details - some things still seem to require the original path names).