Other site using -my- domain name!!!

[OptimalDesigns]

Hi all,

There is at least one site (site/878314) that is using my domain name. Months ago i and others notified SOI of this guy and asked them for a fix. Alexa.com still shows that he is messing up my marketing. Are others having this problem too? If so, what sites are doing this?

These sites should be removed from SOI if they miss use other domain name.

SOI should remove the /site/xxx (or /store/xxx for Pro) option from a personal domain name and thus removing this problem completely; eg.
digitalCalculus.com/page/123... not the present digitalCalculus.com/site/xxx.../page/123... as it should have been to start.

Thanks,
Phil

[Shoshana]

We've have this problem before and Sean Guy shut him down. I will let him know immediately that he is back up again.

Here is the email I just sent to Sean:


Hello Sean,

This cigarette guy is back up and running again and stealing people's websites. How can he keep on doing this with Stores Online sites? You shut him down once!

Here is one of his latest scams.
http://www.digitalcalculus.com/site/878314

The site belongs to Phil and the home page is

http://www.digitalcalculus.com/

but this jerk has added his extension and it defaults to the extension.

It seems to me that this is a glitch that SOL needs to fix. Otherwise what is to keep anyone from stealing any of our sites?

[Shoshana]

Reply from Sean


Shoshana,

Back in June when I turned his sites off, he called us and we got to the bottom of it. As it turns out, it's not a problem on his end, in fact, in his storebuilder, there is nothing that is showing what happens. We determined that the problem is on MSN, and not the merchant or the Stores Online systems side. I would recommend that you contact MSN if it's happening to your site so that we can continue to show them examples of the problem.
Thanks,

Sean Guy
Director of Customer Service
Stores Online, Inc.
(801) 227-0004
(801) 812-8275 fax
Technology Solutions for Emerging Companies

[OptimalDesigns]

Reply from Sean


Shoshana,

Back in June when I turned his sites off, he called us and we got to the bottom of it. As it turns out, it's not a problem on his end, in fact, in his storebuilder, there is nothing that is showing what happens. We determined that the problem is on MSN, and not the merchant or the Stores Online systems side. I would recommend that you contact MSN if it's happening to your site so that we can continue to show them examples of the problem.

Why doesn't SOL system check each site/123... to be sure it is the owner of the stated domain name?

Most systems define a domain name as www.domainname.com to equal what SOL has as www.storesOnline.com/site/123... thus there is no chance for such a problem. But SOL defines every domain name as www.domainname.com = www.storesOnline.com period and this programming technique allows this problem. Its up to SOL to fix this problem not MSN nor anyone else.

Phil

[luckystars62]

I don't understand how it could be MSN's fault anyway. If so, then wouldn't all of our stores be mixed and jumbled up together. Why is it always just this cigarette store that is attached to other domains? :?

[Shoshana]

If I have the permission from the two of you, I want to copy and paste the two above posts into another email to Sean.

In fact, if anyone else wants to weigh in on this issue, please do so and just say at the end, "Permission given" so I'll know I can add it to the email.

[luckystars62]

I hesitantly give my permission. This hasn't happened to my store, and I hate to invoke the wrath of any SOL gods and cause myself more problems than I'm already having.... :P

[luckystars62]

Sho.....
You might also want to mention this.......
I did a search for "cheap cigarettes 878314" on yahoo and on google and found the same thing in the #2 and #3 positions. The digital calculus url but the cigarette site. So.....it's not just MSN.

[Shoshana]

SOL routinely reads this forum. If you like, I'll put your message in but leave your name out.

[luckystars62]

Okay....thanks!

[ExcaliburBrothers]

How could this POSSIBLY be MSN's fault? I didn't do a search. I clicked on the above link and it went directly to the page in question.

These pages must be stored on SOI's server somehow. How is it even possible for pages from another store to show up on our site?

Lawrence

[ExcaliburBrothers]

Well I just talked to SOI phone support and they will be checking into it. I told them it is a definate security issue. It's not MSN.

Check out what happens when you do something like this

excaliburbrothers.com/site/1523506/page/593518

My domain name but Phils site # and page number and it comes up with Phils page.

Something is wrong somewhere along the line based on the above example.

I made the URL above incomplete so the SE's wouldn't come across it by accident. What makes matters worse is that the nav bar uses relative URLs so any link clicked in the nav bar stays as the same domain name but is displaying the pages based on the site #

Lawrence

[luckystars62]

Yes, it's definitely not the SE's causing the problem. You can use any SOI merchants domain and put a different license number in, and the license number will take hierarchy and come up.
It has to be the same store version though. If I put in excaliburbrothers.com with my license number for A Backyard Paradise (4.0), it comes up as my store. If I put in excaliburbrothers.com with my license number for The Fragrance Boutique (5.0), it comes up as a Page Not Found error.
The same occurs if I go to a site that is in 5.0. I used Ruth's bellydancebling.com and put my license for TFB and it came up as my store. If I put her .com and my license for ABP (which is in 4.0) then it comes up with an error saying this license does not exist.

[ExcaliburBrothers]

Wonderful.

Well they definately need to change something. Any page that is not part of my domain name should display an error page or 404 page.

Lawrence

[Shoshana]

Well, I'm glad to see you're getting involved Lawrence. Since I started this yesterday with Sean Guy, I'm following up with him on it right now.

Perhaps if we both get involved it will be taken care of faster. This is not right.

[ExcaliburBrothers]

The thing is I wish I had researched it a bit more before I called as I hadn't discovered the last little bit where the store license # is taking priority over the domain name.

That's what seems to be the issue here now. If the domain is attached to a storesonline store and a valid license and page number is used then it returns the page from the license # not the URL.

That's why I didn't make the above example clickable because I didn't want the wrong info ending up in the search engines if they ever follow a link from here.

I talked with Mike who said he had just talked with Sean but I hadn't made the above point clear then. I thought it was isolated to our domains and the cigarette guy. This may explain why I had stats showing up in my old bed store even after I shut it down and removed all the pages. How wierd.

Lawrence

[Shoshana]

Lawrence, this is not the first thread on this subject. This has been going on for about a year. A few months ago Sean Guy shut him down after an email from me outlining the problem.

He knows that the site number takes precedent over the domain name and he is still saying that it's MSN's fault.

I sent him this thread a while ago. I hope he had a chance to read it before he talked with Mike.

[ExcaliburBrothers]

The thing is if the license # doesn't match the domain name then it should be returning a 404 error or page not found error. One shouldn't take precident over another.

This is no longer just about the cigarette guy. This type of crossover is unacceptable period.

Lawrence

[Shoshana]

Here's the thread in June when Sean Guy first shut him down.

http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3758&highlight=sean+guy

[ncope]

I mentioned this before. The problem can be caused by somebody using a link somewhere with somebody elses domain and their own license# so they can get listed many times in a directory or link exchange service for the same page.

But there is also another problem. I have a program that simulates googlebot. I type in my domain name only and it crawls my site to create a site map. This googlebot simulator found all the legitimate pages, but it also found about a dozen pages with another license# attached. I don't see how this can be an MSN problem. This must be caused by something at SOL.

[Shoshana]

What program is that Nancy?

[Matt]

well I had a problem like this with MSN for a while - links not belonging to me, but with my keywords pointing to different stores.

However I was able to fix it - when I blended in my links page - and copied part of my home page (view source) - I accidentally pasted the Meta Tags from my Homepage into my links- page.
A couple of weeks later - after I deleted the meta tags from my links page - the problem was solved - interesting though - that it was only visible at MSN.

[Richard]

I didn't realise that this was a problem.
I have always had it happen to me when I've done the same thing to any of my sites - I just thought that it was "oh, forgot to change site #" and gone straight in to fix it.
I didn't know that anyone could do it, that's quite scary

[Bethers]

The first time I found another page with my url - by the site number thingie - and read the problems on here - is when I made my final decision to leave SOL to rebuild elsewhere - as they have NEVER addressed the problem - which is on their end - and is something they haven't fixed - they simply "banned" the cigarette guy - when it's only one of many holes in their system.

Just read a great article on how a bad webhost can hurt your business - or how a good one can help (depending on how you want to read it) - sorry, but I dumped it already - however, this type of issue is one that was addressed in it - that a good webhost will have these "holes" covered. I believe it was an Entire Web newsletter - and the newest issue would be #261.

[OptimalDesigns]

If I have the permission from the two of you, I want to copy and paste the two above posts into another email to Sean.

In fact, if anyone else wants to weigh in on this issue, please do so and just say at the end, "Permission given" so I'll know I can add it to the email.

You have my permission ... hope it helps.

Phil

[Matt]

The very interesting article Beth was referring to, can be found here:

Issue #834 Aug. 30th

http://www.sitepronews.com/


If possible, please make it a sticky.
Thank you :-)

[KarenMac]

Well I can tell you why it happens. Its because we are all SUBDOMAINS of storesonline. All of our files are stored right along with everyone elses on both the backend and FRONT END servers. There is NO PARTITION between the sites. We are not even afforded ADDON DOMAINS. That is why the store number takes precedence over your domain name. Its storesonline is the propietary domain. I've been on this bandwagon for months. Its why you cant access the ROOT of your store as well. In order for SOL to really fix it, they would have to redo their system. Personally, Im not gonna hold my breath while they GET TO IT.

Karen

[OptimalDesigns]

Well I can tell you why it happens. Its because we are all SUBDOMAINS of storesonline. All of our files are stored right along with everyone elses on both the backend and FRONT END servers. There is NO PARTITION between the sites. We are not even afforded ADDON DOMAINS. That is why the store number takes precedence over your domain name. Its storesonline is the propietary domain. I've been on this bandwagon for months. Its why you cant access the ROOT of your store as well. In order for SOL to really fix it, they would have to redo their system. Personally, Im not gonna hold my breath while they GET TO IT.

Karen

Well SOI had better fix it or get shutdown!

Phil

[Bethers]

Thanks, Matt - I meant to save the article, instead I deleted it LOL

And, yep, Karen, as long as we aren't really hosting our own sites, all kinds of the fun stuff will continue to happen to those who stay with SOL.

[Shoshana]

I sent an email to Sean Guy about all the concerns in this thread. I also sent him a link to the SitePro article and asked him to comment on it as regards security with Stores Online websites. Here are his two replies that came today.


Shoshana,

I have brought up the concerns with our CTO, and he and his team are making this a high priority to see what we can do to get it fixed. I'll forward them this email and link as well.

Thanks,

Sean Guy
Director of Customer Service


Shoshana,

These are two very separate issues. Security Metrics has constant cross-site script checking and we employ all of their methods in order to ensure that our sites do not fall victim to this particular issue mentioned in the link.

The other issue related to the cigarette site is one that we are looking into further, and while we still believe that there is a problem with how the search engines are displaying results. We believe that we will have a solution in place that will prevent this from happening on our sites (specifically Stores Online.)

Thanks for keeping me in the loop on this issue.
Thanks,

Sean Guy
Director of Customer Service

[luckystars62]

I sure hope that they are actually working on it and making it a priority. I don't see how they can still say that they think it's a search engine issue. It's easy to see that the license number takes hierarchy over any domain on both the 4.0 server and the 5.0 server.

I hope they are making the 5.0 product pages issue a priority too! That mess has really hurt my progression and caused a huge setback. :(

[OptimalDesigns]

I sure hope that they are actually working on it and making it a priority. I don't see how they can still say that they think it's a search engine issue. It's easy to see that the license number takes hierarchy over any domain on both the 4.0 server and the 5.0 server.
I rec'd an email from Sean and he said they were working with Google & MSN (?) to fix this problem. They still don't understand it. :(


I hope they are making the 5.0 product pages issue a priority too! That mess has really hurt my progression and caused a huge setback. :(
My reason for going with SOI was for marketing help not building websites and this is backfiring on me. SOI support seem to have no idea on why we owners do things to at least try to improve our rankings for search engines.

Phil

[Shoshana]

Phil, the problem is now fixed in 4.0 and they are working to fix it in 5.0.

Your marketing help will more than likely come from this forum.

[OptimalDesigns]

I just tested entering "digitalCalculus.com/site/878314" and sure enough i got back "http://www.cheapnetcigarettes.com/site/878314". Thats good enough for me as long as the search engines never see what the starting url was.

Now I can get back to marketting my site!

Thanks Sho.
Phil