Who here on this board uses the Excite.com site browser startpage portal?
??? :o
→ http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/results/excite.com
→ http://zulu.zscaler.com/submission/show/ab5e620cd5e6c30c8b0cec80d15e512d-1427957992
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve been using the Excite.com startpage personal portal since 1995 without incident. There is nothing that compares to the flexible options to build (design) a startpage available to users anywhere on the web. I’ve got literally many hundreds of links formatted by category along with many other conveniences that I find indispensable using the web. For what it’s worth, in the past year or so I happen to be blocking the “risky” scripts (use the NoScript FF add-on). But that is relatively recent and had not prior to around a year ago. I had used Excite.com startpage for around 19 years without NoScript and still have never at any time had any issues and none of my security software has detected or had to block anything produced by the Excite.com portal. I’ve seen a lot of these kinds of security “warnings” for well over a decade but again I can say without reservation that I’ve had absolutely no problems using this startpage portal and have everything I could think of at my fingertips thanks to the startpage portal.
The reason I was asking is that it appears their server is down and while waiting on a support ticket I was wondering if anyone else has the same issue.
@lakrsrool,
You seem to forget that yesterdays safe site can be today’s infected site.
Maybe it’s a good thing that the site is down at the moment.
I’d be more interested to know why it’s down looking at the links
posted by Asyn.
I would add that I’ve always been amazed that so many people are not aware of the excite.com portal and use it. I can only surmise it is because some security sites issue warnings presumably of which there is probably not much really to it.
The SCAMadviser.com has Excite.com as 100% safe.
Excite.com is currently SAFE on ALL of these sites: AVG Threatlabs, Trend Micro Site safety center, Norton Safe Web, ranked 8 on URL void which is a relatively very good rating that combines 30 safety scans, wot has a “good” rating for Excite.com and I could go on and on with many more sites that rate this site SAFE. I know many people who have used it for more that 10 years and like and swear by it. I do not allow any third-part cookies on any site and take precautions no matter what I use, but I see no real issue as far as any real security threat using the Excite portal (like all things on the web, just take precautions).
Your computer your choice. We all make our own choices and have our own favorites.
I happen to like this one even though it’s not my home page:
https://www.hubbley.com/app/
As I’ve said I find the portal indispensable as far as using the web. It saves many hours in the day every day I use it as far as navigating where I want to go on the web on a daily basis. The options available to the user to build the startpage are incomparable to any other startpage currently available, you can format it anyway you like and add virtually any amount of personal links you like. I would totally recommend it to anyone who is interested in making their life easier when navigating the web. Once the portal is built it offers the user a myriad of information and choices like non-other.
As far as being down, the last time was back in 2000 after a merger.
As to now regarding the current issue I’ve received a reply back from support:
Due to a server issue, the Excite website is unavailable for a small number of our members. We are working with our technical team to get this resolved as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
So just as I figured, it’s a “server issue”. I was just wondering if anyone else might be able to offer input as to the situation with the Excite.com portal.
This only other time the site was down back in 2000 in didn’t impact me, this is the first problem I’ve had with the Excite.com portal in the 20 years I’ve been using it going back to around 1995.
Thanks for the concern however. 
Thanks for that info Bob, Hubbley does looks pretty good, I appreciate the “heads up”. I like the email feature, but not sure if it would work for me as I have over 25 email accounts I use for various reasons so I use POP Peeper to keep track of all of them in one spot. There’s no question that the Excite.com portal has been around for forever and this does look like a decent alternative if I decided to change, but for now I’m still happy with my startpage as it is.
So why don’t you happen to use Hubbley for your startpage?
What do you use?
Howdy, laksrool,
It is not a server issue, there is external links to a sneaky browser hijacker
(a pop-up ads virus downloader), see the Zulu Zscaler scan report:
-ak.imgfarm.com pop-up ads
Read also: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/6_GYsCwgeUg
This malicious link is there: htxp://ak.imgfarm.com/images/anx/anemone-1.2.7.js
with the follwing malware downloader: Worm:Win32/Vobfus.AJ
http://www.threatexpert.com/report.aspx?md5=27acb6d6188860e595103d288ddf319e
Your startpage portal has some cleansing to do. 
polonus (volunteer website security analyst and website error-hunter)
Thanks for the input. The removal tool download says it’s for Chrome, I don’t normally use Chrome. So would this impact all browsers including FF?
Also I block “ak.imgfarm.com” but then that’s with FF however using the NoScript FF add-on. On occasion I do have to use Chrome when financial sites do not work with FF or IE and so I guess the question is would this issue impact ALL of my browsers if because I used Chrome this has become an issue (because I do not have NoScript on Chrome of course)?
I have no other problems with any of my browsers (FF, IE, Chrome) as I can navigate fine other than the startpage fails to load. Excite.com support states that there is a “server issue” that is impacting a small number of users.
What I read regarding the Chrome removal tool is that besides the fact it is a “beta” application quote: “Google provides few details of what the Chrome Software Removal Tool actually does”.
Have you used this tool?
Oh btw, I ran a FULL Avast scan a few hours ago and found nothing.
Addendum: Also this is impacting (startpage failure) all of our four household computers and 2 of those does not even have Chrome on them. The fact that ALL FOUR of our computers has the same issue and 3 of those we use very little would suggest that it is a “server issue” it would seem to me.
What do you think?
Why would you remove chrome when a website you use has a security risk ???
Blocking these issues in Google Chrome can best be achieved through toggling the marvellous HTTP Switchboard extension, one of the best extensions that recently came to the Google Chrome browser next to ScriptSafe, that blocks this.
Actually Google should have blocked this Adsense abuse from cyber criminals by following their Adsense policy, read: http://stayaway2.blogspot.nl/2014/04/malicious-google-ads-wwwmapsgalaxycom.html
But Google’s preaching and Google’s everyday’s lenient practices are two different sides of the coin, often marketeers and the old god mammon win and flip the coin(s) up their side… ;D
polonus
OK, I ran the removal tool and the results are that I’m “clean”. If I had any “suspicious program” according to the “removal tool” they would have been listed and I would have been given the option to “remove them”. So nothing at all was found.
Still looks like a “server issue” to me.
You would agree that if we have 4 computers with the same problem (3 of which do not even have Chrome) it would be more likely a “server issue”. That said, I’m still waiting on Excite Support to get back to me on any resolution.
So I sure do appreciate any help just in case the issue is due to something else than what it would appear to be.
So then the “HTTP Switchboard” and “ScriptSafe” are Chrome extensions? I could use something like the FF “NoScript” for Chrome (when I end up having to use Chrome that is, since it seems like a lot of websites cater to Chrome at the expense of FF or IE).
How do they work?
ADDENDUM: Oh, btw - shouldn’t Avast have found the issue (if there was one) using a FULL scan that I had run last night after this problem was present?
OK polonus, I’ve found “safescript” and “http switchboard” in the Chrome web store. I also found “umatrix” and “script blocker” in these categories as well.
I’ll continue to look into them.
Any you recommend over the others?
Checking out the details and reviews.
Hi bob3160,
Here actually Google via Google’s Adsense could/should have stopped this by blocking this criminal fraudulous BHO abuse. And we can only speculate why they didn’t do so already after they cleansed 192 ad-injecting extensions recently.
But to go and uninstall a browser because you insist on visiting a website with infectious external links is weird behavior and over the top, “I want this now and instantly and when I cannot get what I want I use another browser!”. Even will consider it as a server issue because I won’t assume my favorite start page has a malicious browser hijacker link that was not seen for what it was. Why users have MBAM and SAS and adblockers, because often these craploaders are being tolerated because the money they generate is money and the browser user is the product. I repeat this is no browser issue and that website is malicious as Zulu Zscaler scan insists - the infection is not browser dependant. The website is fine minus these two external links. Believe me I have seen thousands of such links in the last years I do cold reconnaissance website analyzing.
Avast does not alert these issues as this is Adware just like some bundled download crap is not being alerted outside PUP mode.
But Google should alert because it is a breach of their Adsense policy terms, but they condone these practices when it is put out before the end-user first in whatever obscure way. I do not like my browser settings being altered >:( without permission.
Excite com should not want to be associated with BHO links either!
polonus
Just noticed this with the HTTP Switchboard quote: “From now on, it is suggested to install µMatrix instead: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/µmatrix/ogfcmafjalglgifnmanfmnieipoejdcf”
So what’s up with that?
I don’t get it, recommending in the HTTP Switchboard to use another extension instead? ???
Hi laksrool,
Same issue as with Disconnect. Sometimes new extensions function better or have a wider action range.
Whenever the extension developer suggests this, it is best to use the latest version of that new extension.
Just like uBlock is better than Adblock Plus as it does not show ads that Google paid them to circumvent,
or Bing or Yahoo for that matter. Wladimir Palant’s extension has an independant bureau in Germany,
that makes an awful lot of money by not blocking certain ads from Big Commerce like Google, Bing and Yahoo
to mention just the top three.
polonus
For Chrome browser I believe it is called NotScript add-on and works in the same way as NoScript.
OK, I see the “HTTP Switchboard” extension is the predecessor to the “uMatrix” extension that are offered by the same developer. So far uMatrix looks good.