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Weather Bug! "A bug you will regret"
The storm would likely do less damage.
By Pensacola Network
LAST UPDATE
June 10, 2005
(See links below)
The Weather Bug
Debate continues onward.
NOTE: Many
inquiries regarding the removal of Weather Bug and its components have
been directed to me.
You can find them here
Removal Tools and instructions for Weather
Bug and other pests
AOL and Weather
Bug join forces against the unsuspecting Internet public
In fact, I have a
theory about the “alliance between Weather Bug and AOL. AOL has a
popular messaging tool that is popular with kids called AIM. I am sure
it is as well a spreader of Adware that Weather Bug does quite well
itself. WeatherBug started by introducing themselves to schools in the
past few years. By
this introduction, kids will go home and install Weather Bug on their
parents computers thus increasing the spread of the problem.
Why did they
merge?
I can rationally
theorize that Adware supporters, spammers, and Spyware companies need
the naivety of a younger crowd to provoke or entice them to click on a
banner ad. The more scrutinizing and educated adults are already aware,
or healthfully skeptical of banner ads.
WeatherBug began
the publicity by plugging themselves into schools and local television
stations. When savvy technicians and users became aware of the slowness
and problems that it created, the “Weather Bug debate” began. Any of the
numerous websites that display the negative result of installing
Weather Bug get an email from Weather Bug telling them that they are
wrong with a play on words.
Numerous bulletin
boards and advice sites exposed the WeatherBug problems. It would seem
that Weather Bug begun to clean up their act partially. But where is the
revenue to come from? Like drug dealers, they started pumping it out to
schools. They must have decided that they needed to create
a department that would search out the negative Weather Bug information
(such as this) and try to convert them.
I, and many others
have been contacted by a person identifying himself as
Jay Hoffman from
Weather Bug. He alleged that a "WeatherBug fan" contacted WeatherBug
about my article with links to other articles. Weather Bug subsequently
emailed me to retort. (Please note that numerous other webmasters and
tech savvy people have contacted me as well, either thanking me for my article or
asking to link to it. The answer to linking is always a resounding YES!)
His efforts to
convince us that Weather Bug was harmless sounded like a drug dealer
convincing us that “crack” is not so bad. It would seem that by the
“pitch” he is throwing that he is attempting to convince me that the
horrendous effect Weather Bug has on every computer I (and many others)
have seen to be false. It would be easier to convince me to shave my
head, wear a sheet, carry a tambourine, and hand out pamphlets in the
airport, than to advise innocent and unsuspecting computer users that
WeatherBug is harmless.
Without doubt
Weather Bug has contributed to the business of computer repair shops and
technicians through cleaning and removal fees. But many responsible and
honest techs and computer gurus are warning the unsuspecting Internet
public of the problem.
My analogy:
Would you just drive past a serious accident without lending aid before
a rescue team got there?
In a promise to be
fair and report both sides of the story, I agreed to publish his
version originally. Of course you need to consider the source, and that it is all “Pro WeatherBug” propaganda and announces
an alliance between WeatherBug and AOL (Nothing that I would brag about
or associate myself with for AOL’s reputation and history). In light of
recent discoveries, I am compelled to pull the link at any moment.
Remember, WeatherBug
does not publish my, or the other tech savvy peoples articles on their
website. You can see the
WeatherBug responses here. Keep
in mind that "they" have everything to gain. I and other techs do not
have anything to gain (other than your online safety). As a matter of fact, I lose money if you
take my advice.
Before the
ominous threat and damage WeatherBug creates is stopped, congress or
other authorities will need to get involved. WeatherBug brags
about an association with the Department of Homeland Security. But the
damage created by the installation of WeatherBug (BY EVERY SINGLE CASE I HAVE SEEN) is an indirect threat
to Homeland Security in the form of computer attacks and shutdowns. The
complete removal process of WeatherBug and adware connected to it resolved the problems
immediately.
It would seem that
he (WeatherBug) wants to convert my article into a Pro Weather Bug site. This would
go against the format of my website that helps people find answers to
their problems and solutions to fix them. PensacolaNetwork.com is
designed to keep the public informed to computer threats and dangers. We
feel that anybody purchasing a computer should never suffer from lack of
information to protect themselves. We try to teach our kids that
drugs are bad. We say "Don't drink and drive". Logically, we don't pour
water into our computers. Why are we not yet saying "Just say NO to
WeatherBug"? For gods sakes, they are using schools to promote it.
I encourage
everyone considering to allow Weather Bug to be installed on your
computer to research what is out there. Try
Google. If you still want to ignore
the experts who benefit nothing, and want to believe the people who will
benefit by sending you Adware and other junk by installing Weather Bug on your
computer, it's your money and your computer! Good luck! Note the date
you installed it, and count the days to destruction. Let me know.
Bookmark this page
for removal of the problems you will receive.
Removal Tools
Pensacola Network
************************
Here are some alternate (and safe) desktop
weather programs.
-
The Weather Channel
-
Weather Watcher
Get the weather on your desktop without the ads, the nags, or the
Spyware
-
HoverWeather
Stop going online or waiting for the weatherman to make an appearance
on the evening news. We have a free download that'll give you the
local weather report on your desktop.
-
Desktop Weather
Get instant weather reports on your desktop.
-
Weather Depot
Download current weather reports, maps, and radar to your desktop.
***UPDATE***
April 12, 2004
Pensacola Network Response
Jay,
I want to thank you
for taking the time to send a rebuttal to my article. I assure you that
your entire response will be posted in that section of my website as
soon as possible. (Click Here)
I am sorry that I
cannot agree with everything you claim, but it is important to me that
my customers and readers can hear both sides of the story.
Clarification: I
said in my article "I
furthermore inform all of my customers that if they have installed
WeatherBug that this currently "VOIDS" all warranty issues concerning
connectivity and speed". I meant this voids any warranty on
computers I work on if they install WeatherBug.
Pensacola Network
***WHAT OTHERS HAVE CONTRIBUTED***
I found this on other websites
concerning WeatherBug...
Spy Software in Weather Bug Program
I recommend downloading ad-aware from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
(it is free). It has a reference file with thousands of spy ware
registry keys, programs, files, and it finds and destroys them. You will
be surprised if you run it for the first time, because I guarantee it
will find tons of spy ware stuff on your computer, mostly cookies from
advertisers wanting to keep tabs on your browsing.
There is a second report below this first report
Spy Software in Weather Bug Software
I had a friend over yesterday who is
somewhat new to computers. I have taught him how to use the system and
how data is organized and used on a PC, so he is at that point to where
he is just becoming "dangerous"; that is, he can mess up his PC faster
than he can produce useful output with it. Last week, he had managed to
delete his Recycle Bin from Windows 2000 Pro, and since Microsoft does
not want you to know how to restore it once you do that, he had to
reinstall his operating system.
This week, it was unwanted advertising.
My friend had gone to a popular place on the Internet, Themes Unlimited
www.themesunlimited.com to get some cool wallpaper for his computer
desktop. When I went there, no less than three pop-ups appeared and an
offer to make it my Favorite start-up and who I knows what else. I
turned my java off just to go through the place.
At any rate, he had downloaded the wallpapers that he wanted. They were
"wrapped" in code, which when executed, started an installation process.
This confused him, so I tried it on mine and - to their credit, they
tell you that they are about to place advertising on your computer as
that is how they manage to keep their web site going (right!) With the
right tools on-hand, I can monitor every Registry Key that gets
installed, where every file goes and where it is placed, and I can
uninstall anything that got put onto my PC. All I had to do was to
extract the Wallpaper for him and then remove the junk.
To my surprise, not all of the junk was removed by their removal icons.
I mean, that's not what surprised me, as anyone who uninstalls programs
knows how often Registry Keys are left behind and files orphaned, etc.
This one had a nasty security-breaking program that took me a while to
fix.
First, it calls itself The Weather Bug. It's stated purpose is to put
up-to-date weather into your system tray for easy viewing. In reality,
if you track down their homepage through the use of the program, one
discovers that the promoter of this free gift is none other than ~ guess
Who: The Office of Homeland Security!
Well, after I had gone through the usual clean-up of junk (it was a
learning lesson for my friend. That's why I did it), I thought that I
had cleaned everything out. But when I booted up this morning, in my
system tray was Homeland Security's Weather Bug and Zone Alarm went off on
an alert asking me if I wanted a file named "minibug.exe" access to the
Internet!
Needless to say, I told it NO! I immediately went through my registry
deleting every Key that had anything to do with 'minibug.exe' or AWS
(the official name). I looked for the minibug.exe program and associated
files ~ and there were none!
In reality, there were. I used Zone Alarm to tell me where on my system
minibug.exe was broadcasting from. To my surprise - and the reason for
this riddle, was that the AWS program had made an invisible folder under
my Windows NT folder that cannot be reached by normal means. By that, I
mean, Microsoft has a certain way of coding folders so that the normal
tools and folder settings, which are supposed to reveal all hidden
folders, do not actually reveal certain important system folders that
users shouldn't have access to anyway. This \WeatherBug\ folder was just
that type of hidden folder.
Luckily, I have kept a holdover from my DOS days a special
Browser/Reader named LIST. There is not one file nor one folder or
directory that Microsoft can create that this program cannot see and get
to. I used it to get into the super-hidden folder, change the attributes
of minibug.exe so it could be deleted and then deleted it and then the
entire folder off of my hard drive.
If you have read this far, I thank you. I only thought that you ought to
be aware of what the OHS, someone in the OHS is up to. Plus, if you ever
get the message on your firewall that minibug.exe is wanting access you
always know how to get rid of it.
More links on Weather Bug...
http://ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff101386.htm 05/22/05
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Weatherbug 05/22/05
Remove Weather Bug!
Weather Bug: More then just
Spyware
Broadbandreports.com
WeatherBug - Adware removal instructions
Adware gator :: WeatherBug :: privacy concerns
Spy Software in Weather Bug Program
betanews.com
Very good! A must read!
opentechsupport.net
Please contribute your WeatherBug story to our cause.
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