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)

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.

Pensacola Network

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Here are some alternate (and safe) desktop weather programs.

***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.

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
 

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

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