http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Giveaway of the Day Forums Tag: security en Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:35:54 +0000 http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25401 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:46:37 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 25401@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Personally I've had no problems with any of the games from Merscom. Perhaps the Easter vacation may have been one of the reasons for a delay in replying, though I see Copmom has pointed out the no support clause for anything from the giveaway site. It could also be that the Email you used was one of those not served by a human (lol). You know what I mean. </p> <p>I'm sorry you've had the problems your having. It's sad that there are a breed of people out there that think it funny hacking sites such as Merscom. We just have to live with it. </p> <p>I wont be stopping visiting Merscom though as I do have adequate security measures in place. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25398 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:26:12 +0000 copmom 25398@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>This following is posted on Mercom's site:</p> <p>"We are committed to providing you with technical support for your game in a timely manner. Here you will find a Troubleshooting Guide for common technical issues as well as the Merscom Forums, which allow you to communicate with our staff and other players.</p> <p><strong>PLEASE NOTE: Due to our agreement with Game Giveaway of the Day, we regret that we are unable to provide tech support for Merscom games downloaded from their Web site.</strong></p> <p>Merscom Support FAQ Thread</p> <p>Windows Vista Information: Currently only a few of our games are officially Vista compatible. Please check the system requirements on your game box or at our store to confirm. We unfortunately cannot provide answers to support questions regarding Vista compatibility for games that do not include Vista on their system requirements."</p> <p>And when I said, "don't judge in haste", I had contacted them because my grandson liked one of their games so well on my machine, I wanted to buy it for his machine. They got back to me within the hour.</p> <p>And.. if needed, here's their information:<br /> Merscom LLC<br /> Boyd Hall, Suite 330 55 VilCom Circle<br /> Chapel Hill, NC 27514, United States<br /> Phone number: 919-869-8737 Fax: 919-918-7834 </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25393 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:10:00 +0000 Robert 25393@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Lee,<br /> aRenegade</p> <p>And it is a nice one.Wish I could read it though.<br /> My Japanese isn't what it used to be.<br /> :) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25378 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:48:22 +0000 Lee 25378@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>If you click the link posted in the first post of this thread you get a powerpoint file. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25355 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:55:22 +0000 aRenegade 25355@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Judge in haste??? Could you be a little more specific as to how long it took (in terms of days, weeks, hours, minutes, etc) to resolve those issues that put you in the position of contacting them? "VERY quick" doesn't tell me much.</p> <p>Its been a week already and I haven't heard squat! I am of the opinion that it would be in Merscoms (or any company’s), best interest to acknowledge this incident and alleviate any concerns customers may have regarding security issues. How long would it take to email a note saying, "We are aware of the situation and are taking appropriate steps.” A little bit of “sugar” can go a long way. Playing deaf, dumb, and blind sends me the message that they just don't give an excrement, and customer satisfaction is a secondary priority to them. Should they initiate damage control with me I’ll post their reply, but until then, as far as I’m concerned the matter is closed. As they say, “We all got to do, what we all got to do”. Good luck ;) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25241 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:24:38 +0000 copmom 25241@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I've found the merscom products to be very reliable, I've sure downloaded pulenty of them, and they have been VERY quick in replying to me when I've emailed them.. so don't judge in haste! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25235 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:21:08 +0000 graylox 25235@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thank you for your efforts <strong>aRenegade</strong>. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-25230 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:45:56 +0000 aRenegade 25230@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>It's a good thing I wasn't holding my breath waiting for ANY feedback from Merscom regarding their forum site being defaced. If anyone does know someone holding their breath in anticipation of some response, they're probably getting a bit "ripe" by now.</p> <p>Hey, if the Merscom people don't think this incident isn't worthy enough to allocate a couple of minutes to send out an email response, that's ok. Because at this point I don't think using ANY of their products are worthy enough for me to use. If there is anyone who needs or knows someone needing technical support, tell them not to hold their breath! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-24045 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:06:17 +0000 aRenegade 24045@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>As an FYI - I have yet to hear anything from Merscom regarding this incident, and frankly that surprises me. So much for "customer satisfaction" eh? Now that's what I call building trust in a customer base. I guess the people at Merscom have made the decision that it's best to do nothing and let "time heal any wounds, just kick back and the whole thing will soon be forgotten".</p> <p>How does everyone else feel about this silence from Merscom? Speaking for myself, when it comes to "stuff" like this my wounds heal very slowly! It doesn't exactly rid any guilty feelings I had about uninstalling everything on my PC that was associated with them. I'll keep the forum up to date. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23783 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:43:28 +0000 haalam 23783@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>aRenegade: I am looking forward to reading what Merscom replies to your email. I hope they do. They should know about the forum problem if they offer support there, right? </p> <p>Buckleysmom &#38; others in fear: I have a lot of games from the Game GAOTD site that were from Merscom, but I highly doubt the hacker/defacer could get to games that are downloaded to our systems. Just to have a feeling of security, don't allow Internet access from the Merscom game if/when your firewall asks for your permission. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23712 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:43:17 +0000 aRenegade 23712@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Many thanks to everyone for commenting on my post. Nothing showed up in any of the security scans I ran i.e., OneCare, Avast, AVG, Ad-Aware, &#38; Defender (hey, so call me paranoid). Based on those results, and the comments made here, I'm somewhat more at ease with labeling this incident as a case of a site being defaced opposed to a hack (in the purest sense). But honestly, I'm still not very comfortable with reinstalling Merscoms products or even visiting their site because of this incident. If this was a planned hack by some disgruntled individual, then from that extent they were successful. Which makes it very important not to let those feelings get in way of doing business with that company, including visiting their web site. If this was done by “newbie’s” just out to test their smarts by getting their jollies at other peoples expense. Then in my opinion that company needs to do whatever, and show their customers that it’s safe to do business with them without security issues getting in the way. I sent them an email so it will be interesting to see how they are going to respond. I’ll post that information. Thanks Again </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23570 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:15:03 +0000 Buckleysmom 23570@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>So does this mean I shouldn't try to play any of my Merscom games? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23563 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:54:34 +0000 goodgotd 23563@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>script-kiddies, sure- but bot-herders? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23536 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:17:07 +0000 copmom 23536@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>goodgotd .. hackers like to brag that they've done something, so it very well could have been a warning. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23521 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:16:35 +0000 goodgotd 23521@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>sad, but if it had been an actual attack there probably wouldn't have been a 'warning'. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23518 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:49:56 +0000 Lee 23518@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Defaced not hacked, though it was not hacked either, more cracked. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2975#post-23516 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:05:33 +0000 aRenegade 23516@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>The other day I tried to access the Merscom forums to see if I could get any information about a problem I was having with one of their games, "MiniGolf Championship". A few days ago I started having problems with the game crashing right after the "welcome" screen - Discus (which I thought that was the name of the company). I was getting "encountered a problem and have to close" messages. After a couple of system restores that problem went away, only now when loading a saved game it puts me in the creek right next to the water wheel. Very strange to say the least! I figured there had to be a corrupt dll file (I'm still on the hunt). I never had problems like this before. As it turned out it was a Merscom game. GAOTD put that game up a couple of months ago and it was also offered last year.</p> <p>When I clicked the link to get to the forum from Merscoms support page (merscomsupport.com) the forum page would appear just long enough to see that it was the forum page. Afterward, a you have been hacked web page opens and denies access to the forum. It even shows up in the IE7 history of sites visited list. I spent the better part of the day running security scans on my pc, uninstalling and deleting anything associated with Merscom as a precaution. Here's the link to Wikisend for a copy of my print screens (100% certified safe)(Wiki file #948534). Has anyone else seen this before or know anything about what's going on?</p> <p><a href="http://wikisend.com/download/948534/Game" rel="nofollow">http://wikisend.com/download/948534/Game</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1882#post-11665 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:50:24 +0000 BuBBy 11665@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - my point was this....</p> <p>If "Zebra" isn't a substitute for a full anti-virus product (which I read to mean - "Zebra isn't as good as a full anti-virus product" - you will still need a "real" antivirus product for complete protection) what makes them think that people would have any need for additional assistance? (ie. a tool to assist administrators)</p> <p>It is like - Zebra can only do (say) 50% of what the other products can do - and the 50% Zebra can do - well the good products can do that also, so why would anyone have a need for Zebra at all? </p> <p>If you are trying to compete you have to either offer a service or product that people want or need and that:</p> <p>1. nobody else is offering,<br /> 2. others are offering - but you do it better (easier, faster, more features, cheaper)</p> <p> and yes - I'm tired. (It's 3.00am) Time to lie down and reboot. ;) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1882#post-11654 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:53:26 +0000 Michelle 11654@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Bubby I would hope that one doesn't have to uninstall their current antivirus to install an on-demand scanner. I don't think you woud have to. Bitdefender offers an on-demand scanner. <a href="http://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/Download-Free-Products.html," rel="nofollow">http://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/Download-Free-Products.html,</a> Symantec makers of Norton also have an on-demand scanner. <a href="http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&#38;gl=us" rel="nofollow">http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&#38;gl=us</a> and that can be downloaded from google.</p> <p>" It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when cleaning infected systems. "</p> <p>On-demand means that it has no shield protecting you from viruses that are ran. You have to run scan your hard drives to clean your infected pc. You must have been tired Bubby when you typed that, don't worry happens to all of us.</p> <p>Michelle</p> <p>Edit: I just noticed that Zebra VirusCleaner is not free, I wouldn't use it. As it has no shield protecting you from viruses (so you have to use another antivirus anyway) and you have no idea how it performs and it is not free. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1882#post-11629 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:01:33 +0000 BuBBy 11629@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>So why would someone with "full anti-virus protection" need assistance cleaning infected systems?</p> <p>I would hope that the likes of NOD32, Kaspersky, Avast, even Nortons (eeek) would be able to recognize "hundreds (hundreds of thousands?) of common viruses, worms, etc" and repair systems.</p> <p>What is their hook? What will make administrators turn away from their trusted tools and employ Zebra on their PC's?</p> <p>I'd recommend waiting till they have some runs on the board, industry reviews - even wait until they put their product up against the competition in an independent test @ <a href="http://www.av-comparatives.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.av-comparatives.org/</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1882#post-11628 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:17:05 +0000 enjoyrain023 11628@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Zebra VirusCleaner(www.softreg.com) is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove major viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when cleaning infected systems. Multi Virus Cleaner is regularly updated and can detect hundreds of common viruses, worms, Trojans, and dialers. The program offers a scanner that requires minimal processing power for repairing a compromised system. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10775 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:32:35 +0000 Michelle 10775@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I thought of downloading it, but I used their free programs for browsers and liked it at first, but then I had problems later on and after I took the program off the computer I found out that it left a bunch of virtual files on my computer even though I told it to delete them. I don't like all the virtual files it leaves on the computer. I eventually took the computer back to factory settings after that, because there were a bunch on my hard drive. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10770 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:57:18 +0000 Lee 10770@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p><a href="http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php</a></p> <p>Was what I got @ 08:03 g.m.t.</p> <p>I don't like the software myself and hope some people find it useful.</p> <p>The serial displays on the webpage.</p> <p>So copy and paste it and I guess it will always be sent to a valid email address for backup purposes. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10766 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:44:17 +0000 BuBBy 10766@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>ok. Someone must've updated the download. Still, glad to hear you got it working. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10765 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:39:51 +0000 ukposter 10765@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>That was the link that I got, I've no idea why it was different, this is what the activation window showed: "Activate your free copy at</p> <p><a href="http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php</a></p> <p>For more info, please look through 'readme' file"</p> <p>Anyway, I've now managed to activate the program, after +2 hrs of trying. I hope it's worth it! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10764 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:22:23 +0000 BuBBy 10764@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>where did "oftheday" come from?</p> <p>My download just had</p> <p><a href="http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveaway.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveaway.php</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1734#post-10763 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:52:25 +0000 ukposter 10763@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Many people seem to be having problems activating this software, I keep getting a 404 error when I try to use the <a href="http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.trustware.com/_cyber/store/giveawayoftheday.php</a> link given out as the way to do this. Please can somebody fix it for us so that we can activate the prog?<br /> It seems that there were similar problems when this s/ware was given away on GAOTD previously too. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1474#post-9009 Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:44:52 +0000 Keilaron 9009@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <blockquote><p>It is just when such a "noted and respected industry authority" on internet security as zdnet&lt;/sarcasm&gt; makes a comment saying users should already be using some early beta security software written by some guys who used to work at Microsoft - I think "don't believe the hype".</p></blockquote> <p>When I read <em>anything</em> on ZDNet I think "don't believe the hype". ;&gt;</p> <blockquote><p>But predominantly I run XP purely because of all the other software (and games) that I like to run. I'm not religious about OS's - they serve a purpose. That's all.</p></blockquote> <p>Ditto. XP's on my main system, my laptop runs Zenwalk, and my server runs Gentoo :o<br /> (And of course my DOS box runs DOS. Gee. ;&gt; )</p> <blockquote><p>Finally I found these comments (from the developers?) to be interesting in what they are trying to achieve.</p></blockquote> <p>Hmm, interesting. I think I'll just watch from the sidelines and see what happens to it. The fact that they're <em>concentrating</em> on heuristic behaviour is a good thing; They're right in thinking that signatures really don't cut it these days. Of course, like someone mentioned in another thread, as long as you use common sense and practice safe computing, you should be fine most of the time anyway. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1474#post-8996 Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:13:17 +0000 BuBBy 8996@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Don't read my comment as a simple "Microsoft Bash" (AFAIK This isn't even a Microsoft product - though zdnet seemed to feel it would help the products credibility to state it is from a company staffed by a handful of ex-"softies")</p> <p>It is just when such a "noted and respected industry authority" on internet security as zdnet&lt;/sarcasm&gt; makes a comment saying users should <strong>already be using</strong> some early beta security software written by some guys who used to work at Microsoft - I think "don't believe the hype".</p> <blockquote><p>...my money is on Microsoft! The rest will just stab you in the back and just steal your money. </p></blockquote> <p>Some would say, "Nobody does it better". I'd say BillW50, your money is probably safe with that bet. ;)</p> <blockquote><p>Say, BuBBy, are you running Linux by any chance? </p></blockquote> <p>At this moment, No. But should I require it for some project work (Because a Win version -of a tool or server- is not available, or for accurate compatibility) then I don't mind setting it up to complete a task. But predominantly I run XP purely because of all the other software (and games) that I like to run. I'm not religious about OS's - they serve a purpose. That's all.</p> <blockquote><p>I'm a little skeptical about this program. I can't put my finger on why though... either way, I might try it if it becomes available to other programs - integration into a browser is okay, but this sort of product ought to be a proxy as well as a local service. </p></blockquote> <p>The proxy idea makes more sense to me than a plugin for a single browser (or two browsers once they get around to a firefox version). There also seems to be a lot of confusion in how this product is supposed to be better than the existing (and long standing) alternatives.</p> <p>Finally I found these comments (from the developers?) to be interesting in what they are trying to achieve.<br /> <a href="http://www.mikeonads.com/2007/07/11/hautesecure-good-idea-bad-implementation/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mikeonads.com/2007/07/11/hautesecure-good-idea-bad-implementation/</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1474#post-8991 Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:38:01 +0000 Keilaron 8991@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Honestly, IMO, as badly as Microsoft is doing they're still one of the biggest software companies out there and have few competitors. Say, BuBBy, are you running Linux by any chance?</p> <p>Back to the topic, however, I'm a little skeptical about this program. I can't put my finger on why though... either way, I might try it if it becomes available to other programs - integration into a browser is okay, but this sort of product ought to be a proxy as well as a local service. </p>