VintageVibe1976

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If I install Kazaa or Limewire on my comp. will I likely get viruses or whatever and is there another file sharing application thats better then those 2?

elfoozo

Of course you will get viruses. What kinda question is that?? You're always prone to catching nasty bugs when you share files with unknown individuals on the Internet.

wolf68k

It's possible to get a virus....but then that's what anti-virus programs are for.
If you want to use Kazaa, get Kazaa Lite, no spyware gets installed...doesn't mean you still won't get any from the crap you download with it.

yawn

http://www.packetnews.com http://www.ircspy.com



---> http://www.mirc.com <---

viper2510

i use winmx for music and i enjoy it

koЯnut

Jimi got me turned on to WinMX. It's great. I f'n hate kazaa!

VintageVibe1976

Is it a sure thing that I will get viruses from P2P file sharing and if I did get viruses would they ruin my computer or slow down or whatever?

Indigenous

Not a sure thing, but it's a definate possibility. In general, you will be safer if you don't download warez, cracks, key gens, etc. Of the few viruses I've caught from P2P, they've all been from one of those. If you stick to just DL'ing music, pics, text and movies, you might be safer. At least that's how it's worked for me.



Again, it might, it might not. There are viruses that can wipe out your hard drive completely and others that just cause pop-up ads to appear. Here's some things you can do to protect yourself:

- Get a good firewall.
Preferably by a reputable company. Norton and McAffee are a few good ones but you have to purchase them. Windows XP comes with a built-in firewall, but I rarely trust any security measures by Microsoft. They tend to be about as effective as a squirt gun in a forest fire. There are free firewall programs available for download out there, but I don't know how good those are. If anyone has any experience with them, feel free to recommend a few.

- Get a good anti-virus program.
Again, I recommend Norton or McAfree. When you download anything and BEFORE you open the file, scan it with the anti-virus. The few seconds it takes to scan it could save you hours of hunting down a wily virus hidden in your system files. Also, keep the virus definitions updated and do a full system scan about once a week.

- Use a spyware-free P2P program
A big one is Kazaa. Thier program comes loaded with spyware. If you can find a copy, try Kazaa Lite. It's a hacked version of Kazaa. Same program, just with the spyware removed. I'm not too familiar with other P2P platforms, so feel free to make some suggestions, people.

- Stop using Internet Explorer!
This is more of a general internet surfing precaution than a P2P one. If the internet were a battlefield, then using IE would be like going off to war while riding in a soapbox racer. My recommendation: Mozilla Firefox. It's free, dependable, customizable and most importantly, safe.

Indigenous

Almost forgot, in order to keep yourself spyware and adware free, get AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Both are free and very effective in most cases. Click on the links below to download them:



*AdAware*

*Spybot S&D*

Download them, update them and scan your system at least once a week. Also, here's the link for the Mozilla Firefox browser I mentioned in my last post:

*Firefox*

VintageVibe1976

How come firefox is better than explorer? If I download firefox and son't like is it easy to switch back to explorer?

koЯnut

You should still have IE on your computer. Unless you deleted it.

I just downloaded FireFox a few days back and I relly like it alot better than IE.

Indigenous

There's way too many security loopholes in Internet Explorer. MS releases a new security patch or vulnerability warning for it every week. Firefox actually pays $50 if you find a critiical security flaw in it. Even Microsoft has admitted that Firefox is a superior browser.



Actually, I think it's more or less impossible to delete from Windows. Internet explorer and Windows Explorere are the same program.

VintageVibe1976

Thanks alot I'll have to try Firefox out.

cair0

checkout soulseek, last time i checked it wasnt adware...

another good option if you live on a college campus is DC++, usually someone there will have a hub running, and you can get really good speeds