Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Talk about anything and everything not related to this site or the Dreamcast, such as news stories, political discussion, or anything else. If there's not a forum for it, it belongs in here. Also, be warned that personal insults, threats, and spamming will not be tolerated.
Post Reply
User avatar
butters
Classic Games Lover
Classic Games Lover
Posts: 5088
https://www.artistsworkshop.eu/meble-kuchenne-na-wymiar-warszawa-gdzie-zamowic/
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2002 6:50 pm
Location: Lubbock, Texas, United States, Sol 3, Milky Way Galaxy
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by butters »

Earlier today (like in the wee AM hours) this site was a spammy ad site. What happened?
|darc|
DCEmu Webmaster
DCEmu Webmaster
Posts: 16373
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2001 6:00 pm
Location: New Orleans, LA
Has thanked: 103 times
Been thanked: 90 times
Contact:

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by |darc| »

The DNS was changed, sounds like you have some malicious software installed that changes your DNS resolution errors into spammy ad pages.

Either that or the domain registrar changes to spammy ad pages when domains registered through them cannot resolve properly (I've seen this type of stuff before, i.e. register a domain for a year and the registrar will actually register it for two years and park it as a spammy ad page for the second year if you don't renew). But since I was getting nothing while loading the page early this morning, it sounds like the first thing I said.
It's thinking...
User avatar
bloodite
Insane DCEmu
Insane DCEmu
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 7:36 pm
Location: Canada
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by bloodite »

I don't think it was malicious software as I got that page as well, resembled a page listing links related to the former context of the domain, with the domain itself title at the top, usual cyber squatter stuff.
User avatar
Roofus
President & CEO Roofuscorp, LLC
President & CEO Roofuscorp, LLC
Posts: 9898
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2002 11:42 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by Roofus »

I got an OpenDNS search page saying DCEmu wasn't responding. Maybe your DNS server redirects you to spammy ad pages?
User avatar
melancholy
DCEmu's Ace Attorney
DCEmu's Ace Attorney
Posts: 10969
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2001 12:34 am
Location: Indiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by melancholy »

I tried to log on with my PS3 last night and I just got a custom 404 page with a banner at the bottom that recommended I use Firefox. About an hour later when I tried again, that page was gone and I just got the typical PS3 network error message. So for at least a short amount of time, there was some kind of custom page, but I don't know if there was anything more than a mere Firefox banner.
mobiusclimber
DCEmu Newbie
DCEmu Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:42 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by mobiusclimber »

i think if you tried to go to dcemulation.org it gave you the spammy page and most any other link/url went to the 404 page, b/c i got both last night depending on what url i tried to use.
User avatar
butters
Classic Games Lover
Classic Games Lover
Posts: 5088
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2002 6:50 pm
Location: Lubbock, Texas, United States, Sol 3, Milky Way Galaxy
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by butters »

I do not have any malicious software on my computer. In fact, this is a pretty fresh Windows install and I have not installed any strange applications. I just ran an Ad Aware scan, and all it came up with was some tracking cookies.

I will say that at around 6:15 AM central time dcemulation.org was a standard domain spoofing scam site, and somewhere around 8:00 it wouldn't even ping. When I came home at lunch everything was back to normal. Is someone trying to make some money on the side?

edit: Looks like this explains the problem.
User avatar
mankrip
DCEmu Ex-Mod
DCEmu Ex-Mod
Posts: 3712
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2001 5:12 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by mankrip »

butters wrote:Looks like this explains the problem.
That's definitely it. By the way, I got this in a pm:
I am trying to get nxmakaqu, and I was able to get the files yesterday, but today the http://quakedev.dcemulation.org site is down. I was afraid that the content was permanently removed because I saw you post somewhere that you were taking your content offline. If this is the case are there any mirrors of the file or would you possibly email it to me?
The Quakedev site is still down for me.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==
Dev blog / Twitter / YouTube
Image
Sir Savant
Somewhat Dumb Knight
Posts: 3653
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:26 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by Sir Savant »

It was a server move (I think the site is hosted at Cheetahs? and he is getting FiOS installed). Plus, certain ISPs resolve broken domains to some random website of their own for click-throughs. There is a wiki page about it (cant't remember the page) but basically it goes against DNS spec but some really shitty ISPs do it.
|darc|
DCEmu Webmaster
DCEmu Webmaster
Posts: 16373
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2001 6:00 pm
Location: New Orleans, LA
Has thanked: 103 times
Been thanked: 90 times
Contact:

Re: Why was the main page a spammy ad site?

Post by |darc| »

Sir Savant wrote:It was a server move (I think the site is hosted at Cheetahs? and he is getting FiOS installed). Plus, certain ISPs resolve broken domains to some random website of their own for click-throughs. There is a wiki page about it (cant't remember the page) but basically it goes against DNS spec but some really shitty ISPs do it.
The site going down doesn't have anything to do with the IRC server move. IRC was down for Cheatah changing ISPs as he hosts IRC on his home connection, but the site is hosted by an actual host. Cheatah was just changing some stuff up and reorganizing the domains and they had to repropagate.

All of the subdomains are down, he somehow broke it. I will try to take a look into it tomorrow.
It's thinking...
Post Reply