One of our computers was infected with a lovely gem of a product called “WinWeb Security” – not affiliated with winweb.com, this is a program the installs itself and pretends to be an antivirus program, telling you your computer is infected with a wide variety of issues. When you attempt to use the program, you are only able to if you pay $49.99. Unfortunately, this program does NOT clean up your computer, it actually installs vicious trogans, spyware and viruses and royally screws the computer and user up.

After spending 6 hours last night and 4 hours this morning fixing this problem (my personal/work computer is pretty darn secure so I don’t have a lot of experience with these things!), I am compelled to write a post to assist anyone else having this problem.

Symptoms of the problem: Unable to visit any spyware removal websites, unable to install or run any removal or anti virus programs, popups saying you are infected, pop ups that appear to be advertising pop ups (even using Firefox), Google search results not going to the actual website but to go.google.com/example, and the WinWeb “Security” program icon/window on your computer. There may be others but those are the main ones I experienced.

How this happened: Lax security on your computer most likely. The computer involved (not my own) had the Firewall disabled and someone who was not the normal user went to a variety of ….. bad ….. websites, without that without firewall in place, the program was able to easily infect many areas of the hard drive.

How to fix it: Basically, 3 main things: Firewall your computer, get a (free) antivirus program, and a (free) malware removal program. This isn’t going to cost you anything if you are a Windows user. 2 websites (listed below in references) were instrumental in assisting me get rid of this problem, and if you are infected, you won’t be able to view the websites, so I will link them but give the run down on how I fixed it, which will also streamline the process. Expect to spend hours on this, but it’ll be boring so have a book or knitting handing.

Step 1. Make sure your Firewall is ACTIVE.  In XP with the classic menu, Start>Settings>Control Panel>WIndows Firewall. Make sure it is on, then go to the exceptions tab and uncheck anything you don’t recognize. If you are unable to get to a website or play a game (make sure it’s a honest site!), you can go back and recheck as needed. Then in the Control Panel, go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall WinWeb Security if it is there (it wasn’t in mine)

Step 2. Go to downloads.com and download Avira AntiVir Personal Install, but don’t run yet (disable it if it tries to run, as well as any other virus checkers). Now download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Install this program, and allow an icon to be placed on your desktop. Right click on the Malwarebytes icon and select Properties, then click on the Find Target button. A window will open with the icon highlighted. Right click on this icon and rename it to *anything* (I named mine lalalala), then launch it by double clicking it. WinWeb is VERY sneaky and makes these programs not work. By renaming it, it will run.

Step 3. With Malwarebytes open, select Quick Scan first, before anything else. It’ll take a while, get the book or knitting out. Let it quarantine the files it finds, delete them, then restart your computer. When it’s back up, run Malwarebytes again, but go to the Update tab and update the program. Do another Quick Scan, restart again. Repeat one more time.

Step 4. With the computer restarted, you’re still going to have WinWeb trying to get into your computer’s pants. Deleting virus ridden registry entries is next. Go to Start>Run and in the space provided, type “regedit” – without the “” quotes of course – and a window will come up with all your computer’s registry files. There are 3 to remove (I only had 2 of them, but make sure anyway):

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D5DF7C9D-6069-4552-8B0C-D02A912FC889}
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{D5DF7C9D-6069-4552-8B0C-D02A912FC889}
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “WinwebSecurity”

For example, to remove number 1, find and open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder, then find and open the CLSID folder, the find the {D5DF7C9D-6069-4552-8B0C-D02A912FC889} folder (easiest way is to look for the D5D and make sure the ending is the 889). Don’t open this folder, just right click and delete the whole thing. Do the same with number 2 and 3. Restart your computer.

Step 5. Run Malwarebytes but do a Full Scan time, then run the Avira program. Update the program if it asks you to, then let it run. You need to stick close because each time it finds an infection it’ll ask you what to do with it (select quarantine). Once this program is done, go to the administation tab>quarantine and delete all the quarnatined files, then restart your computer. You should now be WinWeb free. If you aren’t, shoot me an email and I’ll see if I can help, but only if you’ve ALREADY done everything listed here, or are willing to bring me your computer and pay me to fix it!

References:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-winweb-security

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6132_102-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=300720&start=0&tag=forum-w;forums06

http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Getting your website seen in the manner you want it to takes a little more work then just putting it on the web. The very first, biggest, rule is to write good, and relevant content. The more information you can put on each page, the better. But it has to be good content. Wording that tells what you do, how you do, why you do it. But it’s a delicate balance to being wordy without annoying visitors with a lot of text to go through.

Starting with the Site Settings in the admin panel is where your part of the SEO for your website comes from. I’ve already done my part – starting with making a search engine friendly design with valid coding – now it’s yours – making your page’s content climb your website up the search engine’s ladders.

Here you’ll enter your default Title, Description, and Keywords. What is the title? This is often your business name or other 2-4 word descriptive text that shows up on the first line in search engine results. The description meta tag is for the descriptive text underneath your name/title in some search engines. Also keep this short and to the point. Enter 10-15 meaningful keywords (gasoline would have no use on a bakery website).

For each website page, you need to repeat the process. The more important the page, the more important it is to use quality meaningful descriptions in your meta tags. Each page should have much text content as is reasonable to use. (2.62 and above does not have a character limit)

And the same for each category and product, except the product description is enough (again 2.62 and above doesn’t have character limits)

In the very least, fill out the meta fields in Site Settings. The descriptions listed there will apply to any page that does not have it’s own filled out.

• All in One SEO Pack by http://semperfiwebdesign.com/
• Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator by http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/
• Lightbox 2 by http://www.m3nt0r.de/blog/lightbox-wordpress-plugin/
• My Link Order by http://geekyweekly.com/mylinkorder
• Ultimate Google Analytics: http://www.oratransplant.nl/uga/
• Feedburner Feedsmith by Google
• Post Sticky by http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/
• Post Rating by http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/
• Random Quotes: http://www.zombierobot.com/wp-quotes/
• Widgetize Random Quotes: http://ifacethoughts.net/2006/08/24/random-quote-widget-for-wordpress/

A record of past and current Orders and Sales can be found on those links, under E-Store. You can edit your packing slip information here to include your information with each shipment.

Under the “E-Store” heading, the second link is for the Products section. Here you can add, edit and remove products (including downloadables and other intangibles like services) from your store. Items can be edited individually or in groups.

This is a basic product entry page. The item’s name, description, images, price and other details are entered here and it can be placed in one of the categories you’ve already created. If you forgot to create a category, you can still finish adding and saving this product, then go make the category and return to add the product to it.

After clicking on continue (2.62 has a slightly different process), you have the option to add product options (such as size or color, as well as text fields that the customer can enter personalization information, such as a name or birthday…the possibilities are nearly endless)… this process is made even easier with a attribute wizard.

If you have no options to add, just click on continue. The next page gives you the option to add inventory if you only have a few of any item, and select other items this product might be related to. Clients have the option of showing the “related items” on the product pages to help boost visibility and sales. If neither of these options are needed, just click on continue.

v2.62 also has a one page “quick inventory update” which can come in handy for clients who also sell their products in person and need to modify the available inventory quickly.

Under the “E-Store” heading, the first link is for the Categories section. Here you can add, edit and remove your main product categories. Each category has it’s own main page where you can add images and descriptive text before the product listing. Subcategories will also show on the main page.

You may also view a list of items in each category and edit them from that page.

Under “Web Site” in admin area, you can view and edit your Images, and Pages. Here you can add and remove pages (and edit any existing ones) and they will automatically show up on your website. Pages can be moved up and down and put into groups to show up in specific areas of the website depending on your website’s design/template.

Version 2.5 offers a WYSIWYG html editor for Internet Explorer, while 2.62 offers one for both IE and Firefox, for editing your pages, including adding images, links, and more.

The admin area is the same for content management and ecommerce websites, except the ecommerce set up has not been done with content management only websites. A logged in administrator/website owner can add, edit and remove website pages, product categories, and products. All changes made in the administration will show immediately on the website.

Below you can see a sample of what your admin panel might look like. Other features like a FAQ system, Guest Book, Web Links, Wholesale pricing, an Event Calendar, and more, are available if needed. You can view your orders, print packing slips, set up coupons and more.

If you have a newsletter (such as DadaMail), a blog (such as WordPress), forums, or other software, you will have a separate login web address and username/password.