Questions: Spiders? Random emails?

[greytful4]

My web site is downtownhoundz.net and i have had it for ten years via zencart. I STILL don't understand everything that this program is capable of doing but I do know how to see who's on line and products viewed. My question is , what are spiders and it seems to be all that shows up as active viewers.
Also my site send out random emails to people which I never set up and they come back as returned, unknown. I have sent out emails before but these have not been authorized!

1) What are spiders and do they help with internet presence ?

2) how are random emails going out without me sending them ?

Thanks community !

[davewest]

My web site is downtownhoundz.net and i have had it for ten years via zencart. I STILL don't understand everything that this program is capable of doing but I do know how to see who's on line and products viewed. My question is , what are spiders and it seems to be all that shows up as active viewers.
Also my site send out random emails to people which I never set up and they come back as returned, unknown. I have sent out emails before but these have not been authorized!

1) What are spiders and do they help with internet presence ?

2) how are random emails going out without me sending them ?

Thanks community !

1) by googling... "What is a bot, anyway? A bot (also known as a spider or crawler) is simply a piece of software that Google (or another company) uses to scour the web and gather information or perform automated tasks"

2) Other non-friendly bots are looking for email addresses and forms that they can use to send spam..

By not keeping up with code versions that you use like ZenCart, PHP, MySQL, mail server and web server software. You basically give free access to want-to-be hackers.

By having an upgrade plan in place, updating all your code whenever a new tested version comes out, you stay safe, attract good users/buyers and discourage want-to-be hackers!