• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

My web site problem........help needed please (1 Viewer)

David Smith

David Smith

Warrington Lancs
I have had my website (clearsky photography) for many years. It was set up and managed/run by a guy in Manchester who did it as a side-line. Any problems I just emailed him and it was quickly sorted.
As I got older and had health problems I let it slide so a)didn't renew with Namesco and b) told the guy I wasn't actively running it so he stopped charging me.
PROBLEM(s).
At the end/back of the site there is a section for comments........these comments come to me via my normal (Hotmail) email account.
I have started to get dozens/hundreds of crazy/malicious/stupid comments........they are filling my spam mail weekly.
I keep "blocking" them but the weird sender names are different all the time.
I cannot get in touch with the guy who set it up.........not replying to my emails (he has probably closed it down).
I have no idea how to sort this problem out.
To compound things.........some months ago my computer got a virus and I lost (among other things) a folder with details of how to access the web sit and alter things.
Woe is me :(
Any help appreciated.
 
petemorris said:
Change your email account. Quick and simple solution...
Click to expand...
TBH I had thought of that BUT.............
its the only one I've ever had.
As a complete technophobe I wouldn't know how to setup another account AND let all my contacts know about the change i.e. power companies, forums, companies I buy from such as ebay/amazon.
Seems like a mine field.
 
The site is registered until 13-Apr-2018 after that it will fall off the internet!

It is hosted by Dreamhost https://www.dreamhost.com/ if you can't remember your details then you could try contacting them.

Your sites guestbook has been found by spammers and you are getting notifications of their posts. Presumably the notifications are coming from your site and the therefore the same email address. You could set up a filter that sends all email from that address straight to junk.

The long term solution would be to get access to the site and remove the guestbook.
 
David, I know what you mean about changing things.... always a bit scary. However, it really isn't that difficult to set up a new email address, for instance GMail is free and has the spam filters which seem to work pretty well for me.

When you've got the account, simply write to all your friends with the new address (a chance to weed out the 'no longer friends';)) - this is easy to do with an email manager such as Thunderbird, as you can share your address book over all the email accounts you have. Having done that. You just need to notify the business ones, usually straightforward, depending how the company is set up.

Maybe Hotmail allows you to have extra accounts? There's also Outlook, a friend on here set one up with them in a few minutes
 
Mono said:
The site is registered until 13-Apr-2018 after that it will fall off the internet!

It is hosted by Dreamhost https://www.dreamhost.com/ if you can't remember your details then you could try contacting them.

Your sites guestbook has been found by spammers and you are getting notifications of their posts. Presumably the notifications are coming from your site and the therefore the same email address. You could set up a filter that sends all email from that address straight to junk.

The long term solution would be to get access to the site and remove the guestbook.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for that.........I have to say I am impressed with what you have found.
Can I ask you a few questions.
1. The name Dreamhost doesn't ring any bells..........should it ?
1A. How did you find that out.........I have no idea.
2. Why on earth would "spammers" take the bother to do whatever they are
doing ?......do they benefit in any way ? Why do they do that ?
3. Although I have not set up a filter (have no idea how to) all of it does
go to "junk"......but every day I have to clear the junk mail. If I leave it, it
can become hundreds.
4. I will try and contact this "Dreamworld" and remove the guestbook.
I appreciate all you have done..........many thanks.
 
delia todd said:
David, I know what you mean about changing things.... always a bit scary. However, it really isn't that difficult to set up a new email address, for instance GMail is free and has the spam filters which seem to work pretty well for me.

When you've got the account, simply write to all your friends with the new address (a chance to weed out the 'no longer friends';)) - this is easy to do with an email manager such as Thunderbird, as you can share your address book over all the email accounts you have. Having done that. You just need to notify the business ones, usually straightforward, depending how the company is set up.

Maybe Hotmail allows you to have extra accounts? There's also Outlook, a friend on here set one up with them in a few minutes
Click to expand...
Thanks again. I really appreciate the help offered on BF.
If it comes to that I will take your advice (although I've never heard of Thunderbird.
Things may get resolved by following "Mono's" suggestions.......that would be good.
 
David Smith said:
Thanks again. I really appreciate the help offered on BF.
If it comes to that I will take your advice (although I've never heard of Thunderbird.
Things may get resolved by following "Mono's" suggestions.......that would be good.
Click to expand...

Thunderbird is related to Firefox and Pale Moon.

It's a way of bringing together any number of email accounts you may have and you can read them in tabs too, like you would in a web browser.

AND you can train it to filter the spam, so you don't even see it anymore... goes straight to the Spam folder where it will automatically delete after whatever number of hours/days you select.

I've been using it for years now and would be quite lost without it.

It also has a pop up calender reminder Add-on available, which can remind me to take my pills at the relevant times of day.
 
Mono said:
The site is registered until 13-Apr-2018 after that it will fall off the internet!

It is hosted by Dreamhost https://www.dreamhost.com/ if you can't remember your details then you could try contacting them.

Your sites guestbook has been found by spammers and you are getting notifications of their posts. Presumably the notifications are coming from your site and the therefore the same email address. You could set up a filter that sends all email from that address straight to junk.

The long term solution would be to get access to the site and remove the guestbook.
Click to expand...
I have been in touch with Deamhost. Seem nice people but cannot act on my request as I am not the account holder. They are going to try and contact the account holder on my behalf and see if this can be resolved.
Thanks again for you help.
 
Dave if the name of your site is the site in your public profile signature, then go to a WHOIS service like nominet https://www.nominet.uk/whois/ and type your domain name into the search field missing out the http://www. bit and starting clear-----.co.uk. This will return all the information Mono found about your site. Write to the Host and they will supply your registered address with access details. Its been a good idea for quite sometime not to have form fields, guestbooks etc on your web site as you can often find a way to trick the site into giving you some level of access or in your case use it to send spam around the globe. Hope you can get it fixed, need any help just message me.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

delia todd
Instagram problem
Replies
9
Views
874
Scozmos
Scozmos
delia todd
Thunderbird help please
Replies
2
Views
718
delia todd
delia todd
B
Problem neighbor
Replies
4
Views
254
Lisa W
Lisa W
M
South Africa Help Needed
Replies
3
Views
413
THE_FERN
T
A
Help needed with RX10-iv workflow
Replies
11
Views
1K
andrewsheerin
A

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top