I got word from RCGroups that Bruce Tharpe, who designed the Sig Four-Star and also his famous Venture 60, has been hijacked by Matt Bruner's mbreptiles.com site. This was verified on my last visit. If you look up BTEModels on Google, you can find parts of his site still in the cache. Trying to find specific models will fetch a 404 error, however. If you type in the link in a new window, you automatically get redirected to mbreptiles.com. There are a couple possibilities, one is that he might be out of the business. The other is that he might have forgot to renew his domain. In either case, this unfortunately yields negative results for the consumer. Feel free to share if you have any other info.

NorfolkSouthern

Strange. I'm not sure what to think on this.

Holy carp! Just saw this post, and you're right. Well, you're right about the site being hijacked. I want everybody to know that I'm still very much in business. In fact, I did some updates to my site just yesterday. Can anybody shed some light on this hijacking business and how to correct it? Of course, I'll contact my hosting service and see what they can do about it...

Looks like a simple case of a website hijack. Bruce still owns his domain name and the site is located on the servers it's always been on. Hopefully Bruce can recover his site from his backups and then close the hole that let them get through. It's unfortunate but this happens all the time on the internet when people don't pay attention to the security on their web servers.

Hopefully Bruce will have it back quickly.

Ken

Can anybody link me to the post(s) at rcgroups? Would like to respond there as well...

This is where I initially got the info:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=986005

NorfolkSouthern

looks like the new trojans and virus's at work, there are about 17 sites of all types now that I know of that have the same problem. I have been reliably told that some of these new ones are hiding in messenger services like yahoo and MSN, and there are no AV's out yet for them

Bruce,
Basically a hijack is somebody found a way to get into your website and they have changed the content that it is displaying. There are many different was this could have happened ranging from the simply guessing your password to exploiting a security weakness of the entire server in order to can control of the box.

However, as I type this message out I see it may actually be something a bit more innocent. I researched the website that is showing up when we enter your URL, and that site is mbreptiles.com. I appears that this site is also hosted by the same company that is hosting your site. More than likely they are hosted on the same webserver. This issue could simply be a configuration error in the host files for that box. Basically, a simply typo could be causing this error. Contact your hosting company immediately and they should be able to correct the mistake pretty quickly.

This type of error can and does happen from time to time. I run webservers and I've had the same thing happen once or twice.

Ken

Never mind, found it...

At first glance, it looks like a hijacking. But looking at it closer, at the bottom of the reptile page you will see "website by DNA". DNA is my web host, and I remember getting an email from them this week saying that they would be doing some maintenance or server upgrades or something to that effect. So right now I'm inclined to think that it's more of an honest mistake than a malicious attack.

Hey Ken, you're way ahead of me. Thanks!

Okay, just talked to DNA and they are all over it. Been planning this "server migration" for three months, thought they had the right outfit lined up to do it seamlessly, but they are obviously coming up short. My friends at DNA were very apologetic, but I'm confident they will sort things out and get my site (and lots of others they host) back online soon.

Looking at that site, quite a few of them critters are more expensive than some of your kits, Bruce. Maybe you should open up a shop and start sellin' some snakes !

NorfolkSouthern

Same thing happened to us a few weeks back.....

Our host was moving servers and someone typed in the wrong IP address.....
Nothing malicious...but man did I have an Ulcer trying to figure it out!!!

Luckily the wrong IP address simply pointed to an old server and a several year old version of our page...but still a headache none the less.......

Now that you mention it, my daughter said she wanted a pet snake. Maybe I should give that site another look

Actually, at this moment, the snakes are gone and a we're-working-on-it message is in its place. Progress!

While I'm at it, I want to sincerely thank NS for the original post and all the rest of you for your concern. Gives me the "warm and fuzzies"

Bruce,
I just looked again. It looks like they have you back up now.

Ken

woohoo! Thanks again guys, made for an interesting morning!

I don't know diddly about computers but I recently got nailed by some adware and some sort of trojan and this wierd bug that would pop up whenever I tried to visit another website and take me somewhere else (hijacked?). McAfee couldn't fix it but something I bought just to kill "pop-ups"did and does, it's Stopzilla by IS3 software. It's not just a pop-up blocker it finds and kills any infection I have gotten. Your problem may be a-lot different though. Like I said, I don't know a great deal about computers.

Bill

Bill, Bruce's problem had to with the computer (server) that his website is located on. Yours is a common problem, and you might consider downloading and running Spybot Search and Destroy and/or Adaware. Both are Spyware removers, which is what you are infected with.

Hey snakes on a plane!!!!

it happened because bruces site has a huge problem,,,the venture 60 is discontinued,fix that all will be good lol sorry bruce i just had to say that

I knew there had to be a simple explanation Karma!

Well there is only one way to fix that isn't there Bruce????

Better re-release that kit before anything else goes wrong!!!

If you're interested, I'd be interested in one or two kits if you ever bring them back.

Ken

Bruce,

Any chance you would sell plans to the Venture?

I built one of them and I loved it. Unfortunately, it did not survive a fun-fly (it was not so fun!).

The plans would allow people to continue building the Venture, but you wouldn't have to kit them anymore.

You'd still have quite a following and make a bit of money too!

What do you think?

Actually, plans and canopies are still available for the V60. The plans are complete enough for experienced scratch builders, and an instruction book is included for reference. Plans are $19.95, canopies $7.95. Shipping depends on method and distance. Feel free to call or email for more info or to order.

Bruce 1-800-557-4470