BS: nginx?

Subject: BS: nginx?
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 May 12 - 02:39 AM

I was rather alarmed this morning when this strange item kept popping up with a name I had never heard: nginx. I had certainly not downloaded it.

Tonight I googled it and it is apparently legit. However, I don't like the way it behaves. Anyone out there familiar with it?






http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/23/nginx-the-little-russian-web-server-taking-on-the-giants/

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 May 12 - 04:57 AM

It's server software. Are you running a server?

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 12 - 11:37 AM

"popping up"?? where?
"behaves"? doing what?

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 May 12 - 12:15 PM

Don't we all have/use servers? I use Firefox.

Behavior: It acted as though it were my home page, popping up when I clicked on a new page, saying "Welcome to nginx." (Although I had no trouble getting out of it.)

heaves a big sigh :)

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 May 12 - 01:18 PM

Firefox and equivalents are browsers. A server is a computer out somewhere in the Web where a web site or sites is stored and access to the sites(s) is controlled. Roughly. nginx is software for running a server. I can't think of any reason it should be on your computer and running automatically, even if it is innocuous.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 May 12 - 01:26 PM

If you work for a company that has its computers networked together, so that employees can easily share files, etc., there is probably a server somewhere on your premises.

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: bobad
Date: 29 May 12 - 01:44 PM

There is some discussion of your problem here. From what I've read it appears you may have an infection. Try running Malware Bytes.

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 12 - 04:07 PM

So... it 'looks' like when a bad link (misspelled?) is clicked, or possibly someone's server is down who was USING nginx as their software, it defaults to the website of NGINX...possible for advertising purposes.

From all I read, nginx itself is not a threat. It is 'possible' that someone using it could try to BE a threat....but... *shrug*

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 May 12 - 09:06 AM

Months ago, my computer had a problem in which, if I deleted documents, they reapeared in My Documents as "Copy of...." I was up to Copy 9 of some of the unwanted documents.

I paid Microsoft $49 to get the info Bobad just gave. "Try running Malware Bytes." It worked.

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 12 - 10:17 AM

I've bailed out several computers that friends have gummed with with trojans or viruses - by using Malwarebytes. It's currently the best program out there for this kind of task. I second that suggestion.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: bobad
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 06:45 AM

It would be nice of the OP to update us on the situation for which help was requested since some of us took the trouble of looking into the matter.

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 01:53 PM

bobad -

I agree that often people ask a question and then don't let us know if our answers were helpful. Sometimes it may be because we're having so much fun adding (and arguing about) answers that they may not want to interrupt(?).

The OP in this case has been posting regularly since this thread, so apparently she wasn't disabled and unable to come back. I've noted the tendency of a few here to get "confused" with too much advice, or with advice that looks "too techie" for their easy application, and simple shyness might be a reason for not reporting back.

It may be likely that we'll see more questions similar to the nginx one (i.e. stuff most of us will have to look up). There seems to have been a fairly recent "proliferation of new languages" for some unknown(?) reason. One publisher that sends me occasional ads offered (in their last email) books on more than two dozen "new-fad languages" that their current books pretend to explain, with the only one I recognized being F# - which I can't see that I need.

John

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 03:05 PM

Sorry I haven't been back. I went from this thread to running my malware seeker - didn't find any - and inadvertently didn't come back.

nginx has not been in evidence on my computer since that day. Stay tuned.

Thanks for all the input.

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 03:37 PM

It's possible that those using "novel" programming languages may not have finished reading the books, and the problems you've seen are just "server errors." A similar noxious event has been appearing for some time with the demand to download "TODO" to get pdf files from several sites.

We can thank Max for the low appearance of such stuff here. I get alot more of the ilk at the SCOTUS (Supreme Court) website than here.

It has recently been reported that "the newest DIRE THREAT to the Internet," the FLAME exploit, was at least partially written in a special purpose language previously known as being used only by those writing "game programs" and pretty much unknown to main-line experts(?). Maybe Flame escaped detection by the Iranis for 5 years because they don't play enough games? (Probably because the zealots block all the free game sites.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: nginx?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jun 12 - 07:53 PM

From what I read in the surrounding prose, nginx (pronounced Engine X) is involved in some way with Wordpress.com- and I had recently gone there.