Azaran on 4/10/2011 at 00:56
Quote Posted by Vernon
My point is that it has failed me before and someone who doesn't spend much time in a virus-polluted environment isn't as likely to pick up a virus. Perhaps you have been lucky, or maybe it is bad luck/poor perception on my behalf. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough the first time
It might be that. I'm usually very careful about the sites I go to, I don't use torrent sites (which are
extremely dangerous for viruses); if I absolutely need to download stuff I normally go on rapidshare or mediafire (which, unlike torrents, don't allow infected files to be uploaded to their sites), and avoid sites that are marked as dangerous by my site advisors (Mcafee and AVG). Last thing I need is a virus ravaging my system :sweat:
june gloom on 4/10/2011 at 01:59
A friend of mine swore off torrents entirely when he got a virus off Demonoid; he only goes back for comics.
I used to be a big torrenter back in the day; these days, I'm far less of one, but that's because I can actually afford to buy games, and I don't watch a lot of movies like I used to. And I get my music from other sources anyway- that's if I bother to get new music in the first place, which doesn't happen often because I keep looping fucking Russian Circles.
lost_soul on 4/10/2011 at 03:13
Linux. Just choose a distro where your sound will actually work. :) There's a P4 running XP at my mom's with 1 GB of RAM and Norton slows it down like no other. Just clicking the start menu and looking through programs causes the HDD to thrash like crazy.
I've been tempted to switch it to Linux so it runs faster and I won't get calls about it asking to remove threats (oh noes, COOKIES!!1one).
june gloom on 4/10/2011 at 03:51
That sounds like a completely pointless and unnecessary "fix" to something that could easily be remedied by switching it out with an AV that isn't shit. Burning the village to save it, etc. etc.
Sometimes I wonder if you really are this retarded or if you're just faking it because you're like some deep-cover troll in it for laughs.
negativeliberty on 4/10/2011 at 04:57
Quote Posted by dethtoll
A friend of mine swore off torrents entirely when he got a virus off Demonoid; he only goes back for comics.
I used to be a big torrenter back in the day; these days, I'm far less of one, but that's because I can actually afford to
buy games, and I don't watch a lot of movies like I used to. And I get my music from other sources anyway- that's if I bother to get new music in the first place, which doesn't happen often because I keep looping fucking Russian Circles.
Heh and PDF or CBR/RAR files are automatically clean by virtue of being comics, lol. Your friend should probably consider a better source, as well as a decent AV. Sorry but anyone who swears off torrents completely because they got a virus most probably shouldn't be using them in the first place, it means you're doing it wrong. It's like swearing off e-mail because you opened an infected attachment without having AV installed.
I buy games, films and music like I've always done, if I'm interested and they're worth it (and no I don't download games which aren't because it's a waste of time; you almost never need to try a game to know it's shit; ie Activision, Ubisoft, most of EA etc. just use common sense and ignore hype, although it's great that you can try it if in doubt) but then I'm not a torrenter to download stuff which can be purchased at Amazon; no person with any sense would claim that online stores can offer anything nearly as big the vast archives that people (ahem, pirates) retain; it's like a DVR with infinite disk space hooked into virtually every channel worldwide, with the added ability of asking members to hunt down/rediscover old material, as of yet even a single site like MVGroup has more documentaries than Amazon could ever hope to offer, if only for the fact that most docus never get a dvd release and due to licensing issues or lack of popular appeal don't make it to broadcasters' iPlayer-like streaming services either, or youtube/etc. The way I see it the availability of interesting stuff (reasonably) only available on the net (short of physically breaking into ie; the BBC's archives) is only increasing non-linearly so I see no reason to be torrenting less other than laziness to find the good stuff, "legal alternatives" still have roughly two decades worth of catching up to do. With games I use Steam and GoG but only if I can't get it on physical media although again, some older games are only reasonably obtainable through piracy.
Back on-topic, at least use AV-Comparatives.org or some measure of testing to inform your decision. Unfortunately no single AV always beats everything else, not to mention it's personal, however this;
Quote Posted by Azaran
I've been using AVG for the last 7 years, and never had a problem
Quote Posted by Azaran
It might be that. I'm usually very careful about the sites I go to, I don't use torrent sites (which are
extremely dangerous for viruses); if I absolutely need to download stuff I normally go on rapidshare or mediafire (which, unlike torrents, don't allow infected files to be uploaded to their sites), and avoid sites that are marked as dangerous by my site advisors (Mcafee and AVG). Last thing I need is a virus ravaging my system :sweat:
Is entirely the wrong way to go about it. Sorry but I've been using torrents safely for almost a decade without one single infection using nothing more than common sense security practices. Don't knock torrents because you don't know how to use it properly (in a nutshell; only download software from
trusted sources, grab only non-zip/rarred video/music files from public trackers and nothing else, run keygens and patches virtualised). What little protection Site Advisor offers doesn't make up for the false positives and abuse, not to mention it lulls users like you into a false sense of security on sites which can be dangerous (this includes for example "entirely legitimate" sites which happen to serve infected third-party ads which happens more often than you think).
The point here is don't rely on
blanket judgements to inform your security practices, just use robust methods which have been proven to work against 99,9% of bad stuff 99,9% of the time.
(
http://www.av-comparatives.org/en/comparativesreviews)
Vernon on 4/10/2011 at 06:36
^
Quote Posted by lost_soul
JUST CHOICE LUNIX WITH GOOD SOUND AND OFF YOU GO. ALSO I HAVE BRAVELY YET INCORRECTLY ASSUMED MY MOTHER IS PART OF THE COGNISANT POPULATION
Inline Image:
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2250/getexploitable.pngWow imagine that - another dumb linux evangelist on the internet, talking out of his ass.
Thrashing isn't caused by the processor. It is a memory bottleneck. A gig of RAM plus Norton. Wow. Is that the fault of Windows? No. It's your mother's fault.
Lunix doesn't have DEP, and no-execute was only widely implemented in 2004. Ubuntu only had its first canaries implemented in 2006. You know GCC only got proper stack protection in 2007? It doesn't take much to overflow the stack and fill your drive with whatever menagerie of viruses you desire.
Linux isn't as robust as you think.
You may have gotten away with it since you seem so perpetually shit-scared of installing anything that isn't utterly innocuous.
You seem to think that Linux is invincible, whereas it is more likely that you're just a retard but don't know it yet
Briareos H on 4/10/2011 at 06:47
Quote Posted by negativeliberty
grab only non-zip/rarred video/music files from public trackers and nothing else
As opposed to what? Downloading packed releases from private trackers? I know which is safest.
WOOPS MY HAND MUST HAVE SLIPEPD
negativeliberty on 4/10/2011 at 07:39
Quote Posted by Briareos H
As opposed to what? Downloading packed releases from private trackers? I know which is safest.
Okay, I accidentally phrased that so it can be read the
wrong way (although really only if you didn't read the rest..); what I mean is don't download archived (compressed) stuff from public trackers. The point was anyone can upload to public trackers and that should be kept in mind.
There's stuff on public trackers that is too old/obscure for most private trackers so they're on the whole indispensable, but I would only fetch video or audio there, never software (unless you can check the hashes match with the software author's).
Of course packed releases from trusted private trackers are safest, the point was rather that packed stuff on public trackers isn't. ;)
Vernon on 4/10/2011 at 08:04
That's a good definition of the distinction between public and private trackers. Having said that, often the executables on private trackers can be problematic - even after discounting false positives. It is a two-way street though, since some AV software even flags scene intro executables based on filename lol
Matthew on 4/10/2011 at 08:47
Shit, I have used torrents for some ancient out-of-print stuff in the past (mostly old TV series and suchlike), but honestly I don't know too much about them and you generally only get about three options for such items. Scaring me :erm:
As for Norton, it has become TOO streamlined in recent years - the bloody thing decided to delete files from my Armed & Dangerous install without telling me and as far as I can see it has no undelete operation after a certain period of time. Finding crazy shit like that in the monthly report has made me resolve to change providers.
So far NOD32, Microsoft Home Essentials or AntiVir appear to be in the running.
lost_soul - not really an option. This is my games machine and I need it to be a Windows install for that and other reasons. Besides, if I want a Unix-based experience I can switch to my MacBook Pro :cool:
