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JeffD
Nov-13-2009, 10:30am
I having some keyboard problems, but before you advise me to get a new keyboard, explain this to me.

I find I am skipping letters - as if certain keys, not always the same ones, are being momentarily ignored.

What is odd is that it is almost entirely on Mandolin Cafe that I have the problem. Regular email, word processors, work related forums and web sites -hardly any problem.

I can't think of anything that would make this happen, but it is undeniable.

I am on here a lot, but I spend most of my time on my work related forums and have not seen the problem at all. I can't swear it is not happening, (I type and correct so fast) but it is so infequent as to be unnoticed.

Yes I am getting a new keyboard, but I wanted to run it past the gurus here.

Jeff

JeffD
Nov-13-2009, 3:59pm
New keyboard -same problem. What the heck is going on?

I have taken to drafting my posts on the word processor and pasting them into the message window.

Is there some kind of just below perception delay in the software that makes my normal typing too fast?

JeffD
Nov-13-2009, 4:20pm
OK, we are narrowing in on something. I traded computers, same keyboard different computer. Logged on to the Cafe, and no problem, I can type fine without losing any letters, on this and all other websites.

Are we talking virus, or adware keyboard reading, or something like that? And again, it is only (or most notably) the mandolin cafe site.

Scott Tichenor
Nov-13-2009, 5:45pm
I don't claim to know everything, but I've never heard of a web site that can control your keyboard through its source code. When you are looking at a page on the forum, it is nothing more than a static HTML document once rendered. No background voodoo, no nothing.

journeybear
Nov-13-2009, 6:48pm
I have noticed this myself, and it seems to happen here and hotmail, and nowhere else. It's as if I am typing faster than my computer can echo the characters to the screen. This is impossible, at my typical typing rate. So sometimes I do as JeffD mentioned - type out my post in WordPad - then paste it into hotmail for spell checking, then post to the cafe. I don't see it as a software problem, but it is odd that it doesn't seem to happen to me anywhere but these two places.

mrmando
Nov-13-2009, 7:47pm
Well, this is a site for stringed instruments. We try to discourage keyboard use.

MikeEdgerton
Nov-13-2009, 7:56pm
Things like this will happen at times when there's something going on in the background on your computer and the page hasn't loaded or the site has some severe lagtime going on. I'm not seeing it but your conditions are not the same as mine. You may have some malware on that computer as well.

kalenh
Nov-14-2009, 7:33pm
Which web browser are you using?

Internet Explorer
FireFox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/)
or some other? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers)

Try switching browsers for a bit and see if the issue is still present.

I'd also recommend updating and running your AV software, as well as a separate Spyware scanner.

If you have no AV software...(and if it's out of date :( ..you might as well have none).. there are plenty of decently worthwhile free ones. I use avast! and I have used AVG in the past.

JeffD
Nov-14-2009, 8:14pm
I invited a computer friend over for coffee and showed him. Its as if something is making the CPU real busy at the moments I am typing on this website. Some malware or something.

I don't figure its something that comes from you guys, in that I don't notice it when I log on from the borrowed computer, or from public computers.

JeffD
Nov-15-2009, 12:31pm
I run Internet Explorer, Ad Aware, and Norton's anti Virus. They are all up to date, or one version behind.

I would never be confused with a computer expert except by those who use the disc drive as a cup holder, but I am very technical. Just in a different field.

Lemme ask a naive question. When you say "When you are looking at a page on the forum, it is nothing more than a static HTML document once rendered" - you mean that what I am typing into is all on my computer, and it is not until I hit the "post reply" button that any other computers get involved. Would that be a correct description?

My computer friend suggested I take my lap top in to get it "fumigated", get all the gunk removed. I will let you know how that improves things.

What irks me, and I find it in my profession often, is when a problem has been solved and nobody is made wiser because we don't know what was fixed it. I can't understand some piece of malware only screwing up my participation on a particular web site.

(If this all turns out to be an artificact of my imagination, that lots of things are being messed with but I don't notice it as much when my work is being affected - well I will apologize profusely, and figure out a way to procure and deliver to you some of your favorite adult beverage.)

kalenh
Nov-15-2009, 12:58pm
How many web sites do you happen to utilize as frequently as MC, that you open a editor and type into?

Have you tried using webmail? Does the problem exist there?


If the malware is using some variety of keylogging and this is the only website you frequently post on...then it makes perfect sense as to why it "seems to only happen here".

JeffD
Nov-15-2009, 1:07pm
How many web sites do you happen to utilize as frequently as MC, that you open a editor and type into?

Have you tried using webmail? Does the problem exist there?


If the malware is using some variety of keylogging and this is the only website you frequently post on...then it makes perfect sense as to why it "seems to only happen here".

I have been thinking of that. I have a couple of web based email accounts, set up for specific purpose, one of them work related. I am on the work related on almost as much as this site, not so much the other one.

I am not saying you are wrong, but it sure seems to be only on this site. I will pay better attention.

Scott Tichenor
Nov-16-2009, 5:59pm
Lemme ask a naive question. When you say "When you are looking at a page on the forum, it is nothing more than a static HTML document once rendered" - you mean that what I am typing into is all on my computer, and it is not until I hit the "post reply" button that any other computers get involved. Would that be a correct description?

That's correct. When you're looking at a page on the internet, at the moment it has finished loading, it is residing on your personal computer. That said, that doesn't mean mischief can't occur in case someone has embedded some dangerous code into the page (bad link you click on), and it's possible for various technologies to be communicating in real time with the page, and I'd prefer not to get into that discussion. That's not an issue here.

In case you're wondering, our sysadmin protects servers for a company that does billions of dollars in sales daily. That's his day job, and he is *very* good. So when he cranks down the security, it's safe to say it's cranked hard. If we had a virus, it would be impacting many people, not just you.

These pages on the forum are large. This sounds a lot like a memory issue to me.

MikeEdgerton
Nov-16-2009, 9:02pm
I access on an XP machine at work with a small amount of RAM and don't have any issues. I suspect malware and honestly, cleaning doesn't always make it. I always suggest a periodic restore of the OS even for Mac users.

mrmando
Nov-16-2009, 9:03pm
When all else fails, get a RAM upgrade.

JeffD
Nov-19-2009, 11:00am
When all else fails, get a RAM upgrade.

I have 3.24 gigs of RAM.


The Spy ware, Ad ware, Mal ware clean up seems to have helped a lot. Can any of that junk be selective to a particular website?

AlanN
Nov-19-2009, 11:19am
Here's a good tool, the freeware has saved me more than once.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/index.php

Tom C
Nov-19-2009, 11:24am
I had a laptop that did that. -Even on the login screen for computer, it would not type some specific letters. I ended up with a new laptop, but it may have to do with a function key being enabled like numlock (but that that one). I will have to check with support here at work to bring back my memory.

JeffD
Dec-12-2009, 9:00pm
I am going to try that malwarebytes, perhaps it is more thorough than Ad-Aware and Norton.

It is really bad today, and only on here. I tried my web based email and had no problems.

Very frustrating.

James P
Dec-13-2009, 3:14pm
I had a similar something going on. It was as if certain keys would cause the cursor to lose "focus" from the reply frame. Clicking within the box would restore the cursor and I could finish typing (fwiw.) :)

I run Opera10 as a browser and this was happening on multiple sites. AVG didn't find anything, but I did find an extra (or new to me, at least) process in the Task Manager. It was some Intel Matrix monitor thing that supposedly only applies to RAID configs, which I'm not running. So I disabled it in Services and rebooted. So far at least, the disappearing text focus problem hasn't resurfaced. We'll see.

Jim Nollman
Dec-13-2009, 8:51pm
My website got hit hard by malware this past week. Google quarantined it, and it was essentially inaccessible to everybody, including me, for 3 days. The best help i found was at badwarebusters.org. The guys who hang out there scanned the entire URL for me, for free, and sent me a very detailed description of the malware on my site which has about 100 files on it.

In my case, the malware was embedded in two javascript menus. That was the easy part. The hard part was that there were "calls" to this malware script in two other pages, and they were coded in a way that they looked like nothing to me, but the usual html odd punctuation marks.

I solved the problem, finally, by deleting the javascript menu files. I have my site back, but if you go there you'll notice that the fancy menus are all gone. I'll fix that this next week. Mostly, the experience made me feel like i needed a bath. And it made me seriously consider changing my server who had little to offer to help, and whose lack of malware security probably caused the problem.

I mostly want to tell you all, that the pros i dealt with told me that the usual computer anti-virus tools are not very useful for detecting web-based malware. If you get the malware on your computer, then it helps. But it doesn't help to scan a website to search out the malware using AV software. Hope this helps.

MikeEdgerton
Dec-13-2009, 9:31pm
A better answer is to always have an offline copy of your site so you can replace any files that become corrupted. Honestly, every time I've seen a site that was compromised the bad files pretty much stood out the minute you looked at the code, assuming you understand what you're looking at in the first place.

Jim Nollman
Dec-14-2009, 1:53pm
http://www.macworld.com/article/143837/2009/11/flash_websites.html

Scott Tichenor
Dec-14-2009, 3:36pm
http://www.macworld.com/article/143837/2009/11/flash_websites.html

This site does not allow upload of Flash, nor has a single Flash document ever been used on this site, ever. Period.

Jim Nollman
Dec-14-2009, 7:45pm
I mention that article, not because MC does/doesn't use flash, but because it suggests that avatar usage has been employed as a repository for spreading malware on some blog sites.

Scott Tichenor
Dec-14-2009, 10:31pm
That's fine, but the reason I am pointing this out is because many people do not understand the technology and don't know the difference between a blog, a forum and a web site. The Mandolin Cafe has never hosted a single Flash file in its history because it's not allowed. Only .gif and .jpg image formats are allowed as avatars. The article has nothing to do with this site and in particular, nothing to do with this forum.

Jim Nollman
Dec-15-2009, 11:58am
AND...avatars are used on this website. AND...they are uploaded. The issue of web vulnerability via uploads is hardly limited to Flash. That's my point. I didn't word it as an accusation, so please don't take it that way.

The recent breach in my website was caused by 2 lines of uploaded javascript that overwrote two commonly named style sheet files used in many websites. And then out to pollute the world. We located the code in the style sheets quite quickly. But until we found the original 2 bad lines hidden deep within the folder hierarchy, the style sheets kept getting rewritten with bad code when anybody visited our site.

Scott Tichenor
Dec-15-2009, 12:12pm
An avatar is nothing more than an image, only .gif and .jpg allowed on this site, the same as what people are posting by the dozens each day in threads all over the forum. We have around 50K of them stored. If you don't believe it, try uploading a Flash document and see what happens. "Avatar" is just a NAME given the image's function. I stand by my statement. Your concerns have nothing to do with this site, but possibly a lot about yours, which appears to be run by some GUI web-based publishing system for publishing static pages.