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WeatherBug Software

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by hamiltonm

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Is the weatherbug software a threat to your network's security? We have a few individuals who have downloaded this software on their pc's and I would like to know if it is a breach in our network's security.

13 replies

by joematus

No, not really. It's not spyware but it definitely is adware. You get the software for free, use it and then they send you ads. Constantly. It may drive people crazy but it's not a security threat.

by ronnonf

I disagree and state this application should be removed because it runs through the firewall, many times it is installed with other application like Bearshare.

by joseph moore

Boy, this one is purely an opinion.
I HATE Weatherbug, not because it really opens your network up for any risk. I have not checked Weatherbug specifically, but I don't think it accepts unsolited inbound connections; it just goes out, gets the weather and popup ads. That's all.
I just hate it because it's just annoying, not because it opens the network up for hackers!
Commonly accepted things like IM programs are a greater risk than Weatherbug, IMHO.

by nd_it

I used weather bug as well before, but like others, didn't like getting the pop ups all the time, so I removed it. Now I just go to my hometown newspaper's website and check the weather there right on the front page. It's more reliable and doesn't open your PC to adware.

by jay

I agree with the poster who said "why not ask the company?" Great idea, so please allow me to do so. First and foremost we are NOT spyware in any way, as one user implied. In fact, at our FAQ page, www.weatherbug.com/notspyware we give away downloads to some of the top spyware detection programs like Ad-aware and pest patrol. Spybot, spykiller and dozens of others also DO NOT list us because we are not spyware. 32 million downloads, 7000 schools including some of the largest universities in the country (Penn, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, BYU, Florida State and the list goes on) all use our software, have our weather stations installed and rely on us for live, local info.

We access information through port 80 every few minutes with very low bandwidth, checking to make sure there are no National Weather Service alerts or other warnings for your area. Up to 4 times a day the program will autoamtically update your local forecast and constantly updates the radar.

I'm attaching bandwidth info for those of you who run networks:
The bandwidth consumption is:
Foreground first 1 minute: 1.93kb/sec
Foreground after 1 minute or Background: 0.01kb/sec.
All the background and branding images are cached. If the user clicks on a Tab, it will load tiny Web pages and ads may rotate, this may increase the bandwidth in the short term, but after that it will use the same bandwidth as described above.
Since most of the users bring WeatherBug to the foreground for only a short time, it should not cause any bandwidth issues with the network.

fyi- Foreground means when you have the program maximized with the main screen showing, backgroudn is when the program is minimized, just showing the temperature in the user's system tray.

please feel free to contact me or our company with any questions.
Sincerely,
Jay Hoffman
customer support team manager
WeatherBug
jay@weatherbug.com

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