VIRUS PROBLEMS! PLEASE READ!
We've had some complaints that people have gotten a virus from coming here to HHoW or that ads on HHoW have automatically redirected them. I've done some checking and it turns out that Forumer changed everyone over from Ads by Google to ads sold by another company. Once they did that, people started having issues. I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus at home and have had no problems. However, my office uses IE7 and I've gotten a virus there twice. I am not the most popular person with the IT department, that's for sure. At least one other member has reported getting the virus. We've requested that our forum be returned to Ads by Google. In order to do this, Forumer must review HHoW to make sure that we don't break any Terms of Service or have objectionable material. They're hoping to do this in the next few days. In the meantime, here's some info about how the virus works and how to get rid of it courtesy of another forum owner: 1) The virus imbeds itself into an ad on the forum, usually in contraversial post such as "Universal Healthcare" or "Abortion." It probably targets such threads because they get high traffic volumes. It is not coming from any of the actual posts (meaning one of our members didn't hide it there in a post); it is coming specifically from the ads. 2) It takes you to a hacker site that masquerades as an anti-virus site automatically when loading a forumer page. It takes over your computer as soon as you access the site and disables any anti-virus program you have, then tells you that you are infected, and tries to get you to agree to their “virus scan”, which actually loads a key logger and other spy viruses onto your system. Their scan insistence program totally takes over your system, and will not let you do anything else until you agree to the scan. It disables ctl-alt-del, run msconfig, and other modifying capabilities. It hides itself in your user folders at C:/Users/Your Name/AppData/Local/ It usually has a weird name like "omgly09" and the sort. You can only delete it when your computer is in SAFE MODE. Basically, restart your computer and hit F8 as soon as it boots up. It brings you to a screen with bootup options. Choose "Safe Mode." In Safe Mode this virus program does not run; therefore, you can delete it. Also go to RUN and type in "msconfig" and uncheck the virus from starting up when your computer starts up. I sincerely hope you haven't had any problems with this and if you did, you have my apologies. We're trying to get the situation remedied ASAP. Be careful out there!

From Forumer's Support Forum All the forums on the list have now been switched to "Ads by Google" And we're clean.