{"id":1042,"date":"2009-02-28T04:14:50","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T09:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alsplace.aldenbaker.com\/alsplace\/security\/1042\/site-owners-stung-by-siteadvisor-rating-errors\/"},"modified":"2009-02-28T04:14:50","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T09:14:50","slug":"site-owners-stung-by-siteadvisor-rating-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/?p=1042","title":{"rendered":"Site owners stung by SiteAdvisor rating errors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- ALL ADSENSE ADS DISABLED -->\n<p><font color=\"#000000\"> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"> <\/p>\n<p> <\/font> <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"100%\" summary=\"Known Issues summary\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\">\n<tr>\n<td width=\"110\" align=\"left\" valign=\"top\"><strong><font><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/images\/wsn\/Dennis-OReilly-1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Dennis O&#39;Reilly\" title=\"Dennis O&#39;Reilly\" width=\"110\" height=\"100\" align=\"left\" \/><\/font><\/strong><\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\"><font color=\"#000000\">By Dennis O&#39;Reilly<\/p>\n<p> <strong>McAfee&#39;s SiteAdvisor security service leaves some Web developers scratching their heads over inconsistencies in its green-yellow-red ratings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> The company&#39;s promises of more-frequent reviews of its site classifications are welcomed by site owners struggling to win SiteAdvisor&#39;s approval.<br \/> <\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"> <font color=\"#000000\">The Feb. 19 <a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/8d84e2h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F19%2F01-McAfee-reveals-SiteAdvisors-retesting-policy\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/8d84e2h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F19%2F01-McAfee-reveals-SiteAdvisors-retesting-policy\"><font color=\"#000099\">Top Story<\/font><\/a> by editorial director Brian Livingston described McAfee&#39;s attempts to ensure that the security ratings generated by the company&#39;s SiteAdvisor service are up-to-date. That column followed the previous week&#39;s <a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/a016e1h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F12%2F01-SiteAdvisor-ratings-may-be-1-year-out-of-date\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/a016e1h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F12%2F01-SiteAdvisor-ratings-may-be-1-year-out-of-date\"><font color=\"#000099\">Top Story<\/font><\/a> by Mark Joseph Edwards, which reported that SiteAdvisor&#39;s ratings could be as much as one year old.<\/p>\n<p> Eric Legge wrote in to tell us of his efforts to have his site retested after it was assigned a yellow rating by SiteAdvisor:<br \/> <\/font><\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; padding-top: 0px\">\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">&quot;SiteAdvisor is talking rubbish about dealing with complaints promptly. I complained by e-mail and by letter to the [McAfee] CEO about every page on my site having a yellow rating in October 2008. I also requested that my site be revisited after I had removed the [offending] link, which I removed only because I have probably been losing visitors for years because of this lousy service.<\/p>\n<p> &quot;My entire <a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/93c196h\/?url=www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk%2F\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/93c196h\/?url=www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk%2F\"><font color=\"#000099\">site<\/font><\/a> [PC Buyer Beware] still has a yellow rating for a link to this <a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/f3be32h\/?url=siri.urz.free.fr%2FFix%2FSmitfraudFix.php\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/f3be32h\/?url=siri.urz.free.fr%2FFix%2FSmitfraudFix.php\"><font color=\"#000099\">page<\/font><\/a>, which SiteAdviser has given a green rating! [The page contains] a valid fix for the Smitfraud virus.<\/p>\n<p> &quot;You only have to search the Web to find a number of site owners who have had their sites&#39; existence threatened by SiteAdvisor errors. Thanks for taking this &#39;service&#39; to task.&quot;<br \/> <\/font><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">So many people <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coastalrock.com\/\">street value of cialis<\/a>  asked us about SiteAdvisor alternatives that we&#39;re planning a technical review of the accuracy of SiteAdvisor, Web of Trust, and other site-rating services. This complex task will take a while to finish, but we hope to offer our recommendations sometime within the next few weeks. At this point, it&#39;s not clear how bad the situation is and which services are really the most correct.<br \/> <a name=\"known1\" title=\"known1\"><\/a><br \/> <strong>SiteAdvisor plug-in may not be easy to remove <\/strong><\/p>\n<p> Our report on SiteAdvisor caused many readers to uninstall the plug-in for their browsers. Unfortunately, getting the program off your system may require some extra effort, as reader Chris Coddington discovered:<br \/> <\/font><\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; padding-top: 0px\">\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">&quot;In the recent article on SiteAdvisor&#39;s retesting policy, I and most others certainly read between the lines and know what to expect if [we] continue to use the &#39;service.&#39; I suspect that many users &mdash; including myself &mdash; are uninstalling SiteAdvisor. If we can&#39;t trust the [service&#39;s] red warnings, we can&#39;t trust the green warnings, either.<\/p>\n<p> &quot;Now the only problem is how to uninstall the beast! It certainly can&#39;t be found [by clicking] Start, All Programs, and I don&#39;t have any other McAfee software on my system. It sounds like they are hiding it someplace. It&#39;s getting to sound almost like another virus to worry about!&quot;<br \/> <\/font><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">SiteAdvisor can be removed via standard Control Panel applets: <strong>Add or Remove Programs<\/strong> in XP and <strong>Programs and Features<\/strong> in Vista. In XP, another way to get to <strong>Add or Remove Programs<\/strong> is to click Start, Run; type <strong>appwiz.cpl;<\/strong> and press Enter. An alternative way to open <strong>Programs and Features<\/strong> in Vista is to press the Windows key, type <strong>appwiz.cpl,<\/strong> and press Enter.<\/p>\n<p> Once you&#39;re in the Control Panel applet in either version of Windows, select the entry for McAfee SiteAdvisor, click <strong>Change\/Remove<\/strong> in XP or <strong>Uninstall<\/strong> in Vista, and step through the wizard.<\/p>\n<p> The Windows uninstaller may not completely remove the program. McAfee provides a free Consumer Products Removal utility (<a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/9a12b5h\/?url=service.mcafee.com%2FFAQDocument.aspx%3Flc%3D1033%26id%3DTS100507\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/9a12b5h\/?url=service.mcafee.com%2FFAQDocument.aspx%3Flc%3D1033%26id%3DTS100507\"><font color=\"#000099\">more info and download page<\/font><\/a>). This tool promises to clear your system of several of the company&#39;s products, not just SiteAdvisor.<\/p>\n<p> If you prefer to disable rather than uninstall the SiteAdvisor plug-in, you can do so in Firefox by clicking Tools, Add-ons; selecting McAfee SiteAdvisor; and choosing Disable. In IE, click Tools, Manage Add-ons, Enable or Disable Add-ons; select both McAfee SiteAdvisor BHO and McAfee SiteAdvisor Toolbar, one at a time; and choose Disable under Settings near the bottom of the dialog box.<br \/> <a name=\"known2\" title=\"known2\"><\/a><br \/> <strong>Another possible SiteAdvisor alternative <\/strong><\/p>\n<p> In the Feb. 19 Known Issues <a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/b958e5h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F19%2F02-CNN-Octoshape-SiteAdvisor-stories-make-waves%23known1\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/b958e5h\/?url=windowssecrets.com%2F2009%2F02%2F19%2F02-CNN-Octoshape-SiteAdvisor-stories-make-waves%23known1\"><font color=\"#000099\">column<\/font><\/a>, reader George Elting recommended two free programs designed to make your Web browsing safer. In summary, CallingID (<a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/d5160bh\/?url=www.callingid.com%2FDefault.aspx\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/d5160bh\/?url=www.callingid.com%2FDefault.aspx\"><font color=\"#000099\">more info<\/font><\/a>) and LinkScanner Lite (<a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/ccc983h\/?url=www.explabs.com%2Fproducts%2Flslite.asp\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/ccc983h\/?url=www.explabs.com%2Fproducts%2Flslite.asp\"><font color=\"#000099\">more info<\/font><\/a>) are more specialized services than SiteAdvisor. The former identifies the location of the site&#39;s server, and the latter verifies the links returned by search engines.<\/p>\n<p> Larry Croy offers another suggestion for secure browsing:<br \/> <\/font><\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; padding-top: 0px\">\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">&quot;Just a heads-up for another free alternative to SiteAdvisor. I have been using the Finjan SecureBrowsing software [<a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/86ae4ch\/?url=securebrowsing.finjan.com%2F\" title=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/links\/casamqr63t9zd\/86ae4ch\/?url=securebrowsing.finjan.com%2F\"><font color=\"#000099\">more info<\/font><\/a>] for several years with no problems. They have both IE and Firefox versions.&quot;<br \/> <\/font><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#000000\">As I mentioned above, we&#39;ll be taking a closer look at Web security programs in a future article. Stay tuned!<br \/> <\/font><\/p>\n<!-- Social Bookmarks BEGIN -->\n<div class=\"social_bookmark\">\n<a title=\"Click me to see the sites.\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_down',{duration:2.5}) }); return false;\"><strong><em>Bookmark to:<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\n<br \/>\n<div class=\"d1042\" style=\"overflow:hidden\">\n<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a style=\"font-size:90%;text-align: right; \" title=\"Click me to hide the sites.\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); return false;\">Hide Sites<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- Social Bookmarks END -->\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dennis O&#39;Reilly McAfee&#39;s SiteAdvisor security service leaves some Web developers scratching their heads over inconsistencies in its green-yellow-red ratings. The company&#39;s promises of more-frequent reviews of its site classifications are welcomed by site owners struggling to win SiteAdvisor&#39;s approval. The Feb. 19 Top Story by editorial director Brian Livingston described McAfee&#39;s attempts to ensure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<!-- Social Bookmarks BEGIN -->\n<div class=\"social_bookmark\">\n<a title=\"Click me to see the sites.\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_down',{duration:2.5}) }); return false;\"><strong><em>Bookmark to:<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\n<br \/>\n<div class=\"d1042\" style=\"overflow:hidden\">\n<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a style=\"font-size:90%;text-align: right; \" title=\"Click me to hide the sites.\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); return false;\">Hide Sites<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- Social Bookmarks END -->\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">$$('div.d1042').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); <\/script>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alsplace.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}