June 3, 2019

Browser warnings

There has been some talk in my comment section and also around the internet that Google has been busy labeling certain websites as being potentially harmful.

The first sign I noticed a few weeks ago was the little warning box in my address window saying that a site was "NOT SECURE" because it would not accept a https:// (notice the s) connection, which is a secure connection. See the photo below when I visit my own blog.



Now apparently Google is maintaining a database of websites which have had complaints from people who say they have downloaded malicious software from that site. Any web hosting site is going to be on that list (except GoogleDrive, I bet) because the hosting sites have no way to scan for viruses -- even Google will warn you when you download a file that it is too large to scan for viruses. (sorry no screenshot here).

So this is the warning people are getting when attempting to download material from adrive.com, which is my web hosting service:




Notice that your browser is warning you that the website may try to trick you into downloading some apps you don't want. I think anyone who has used Zippyshare or Mediafire has noticed the very aggressive popups and warnings to download the latest version of Flash, etc etc. 

If anyone notices such popups or warnings coming from adrive.com, please let me know.

Finally, I decide to click on the link in the warning box to check on websites. When I entered adrive.com the database said it was potentially unsafe but maybe not the entire site. Then I entered the exact URL address of the download and i got this:





As I was going through some old posts on my dear friend Tawfiq's blog "Oriental Traditional Music on LPs and Cassettes," I noticed a comment on one of his posts from February 2015. It reads:

Anonymous said...

To admin; apparently A-drive has been blocked by "google safe" due to containing harmful malware on the server downloadwww.31.adrive.com. In other-words I cannot download this album. Thank you for for your wonderful blog. I'm able to find many treasures here I would not be able to find.

Sincerely.

19 February 2015 at 08:07


So this has been happening off-and-on for almost five years. 

In the meantime, I am going to keep using adrive.com. You and I will both notice this sort of warning coming up frequently. 

I truly thank every one of my readers and I sincerely hope that you are deriving benefit from the music available here and on other similar sites listed to the right. 

I hope you will study this beautiful music and give it your full attention. 


I also strongly hope that you will do your best to see Indian Classical Music concerts in person and help support the artists in that way. There are Hindustani and often Carnatic concerts everywhere -- not just Asia but every country in Europe, every country in North America (including Mexico, where a friend of mine just toured), and even at least one in Africa (South Africa). These are not always well publicized but they can be found with a little looking around on the internet and also mentioning to others about your love of this music. 

5 comments:

  1. I wondered what was up with this stuff. Thanks for the info. I searched you a few ways and didn't have any issues. My blog reader had no problem either. Sharing anything from it to FB comes up though. I was trying to share news articles. I never share person blog info, like yours, although I share mine. Have a good one.

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  2. Sod google. Send them up a creek and forget to give them a paddle. They can just google one up!

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  3. Dear Richard
    Yes indeed Firefox came up with a big red page warning me that your files were infected with viruses. I ignored the message and allowed the download. On checking the downloaded with several virus program, of course as I knew, the
    there was no problem. This blanket warning is likely to be very counterproductive.
    In any case thanks for the Rais Khan LP. The CD version I have definitely has a muddier sound than your LP, though compared with much which comes out of the Saregama stable, its quite good.

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  4. never had a problem...

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  5. Hi Richard,
    I don't know if this is the place to mention this but I cannot find a direct link to contact you. The blog you feature, "The Music Parlour" is open only by invitation and there's no contact info for the blogger. Just an FYI. It seems pointless to present an online source for music [the invitation only blog, not this one], and not provide some form of contact.

    Thanks,
    Jonno

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