A hypothetical question
For research purposes only, lets say someone was lured into the seamy world of shared music by a sight that offered very rare, out of print only music from the 60s and 70s. Lets also say that someone relaxed their standards and took advantage of this offer and was promptly rewarded with a foul virus for their indiscretion. If this were to happen and the results led to the infection of every executable file on the computer, could the hypothetical mp3 files also be infected?
Comments
Regardless of how it was deployed, the virus could infect anything depending on what it is. You could start with a free online scan. Then I recommend d/ling Avast! or AVG Free and schedule a boot-time scan as soon as one is installed (only install one).
Let me know how it goes and if you need any more help. Whatever you do, don't format or trash the hard drive because someone tells you files are unrecoverable!
Purely out of curiosity, an AVG scan was run and several trojan horses detected; attempts were then made to remove or quarantine these shifty bastards which resulted in immediate and irreversible infestation. This PC was only used for music download and all mp3s were salvaged; however, an unconditional format and reload seemed the safest way to bring it back to life.
rapidshare was used to download the full releases one at a time; not sure of the mechanics, but the viruses seemed to originate from places outside the source of the music.
If it finds something, your friend can download a free trial and try to remove it; or post at a help site such as bleepingcomputer or tech support guy.
my pc is back up and running; the mp3s from the offending site are on a jump drive and if I'm understanding correctly, there should be no danger transferring them to the pc.
any suggestions for antivirus freeware?
i'm trying PCTools and it seems to be choking the hell out of my cpu (90+% usage) every time I open an application, slowing it to a painful crawl.
Not to get into a platform debate, but I never understand people who want to move from Windows to a more closed/proprietary system like OS X...
But - it's not that difficult to put OSX on an Intel box (anyway, I'll be retired, so it's not like I won't have the time), and once it's on an open machine, it's more or less a flavour of Unix, and you can do what you want with it if you're willing to use the terminal.
I've used Windows, Linux and OSX. For the simple user experience, the latter is way ahead of either of the other two. For stability and resistance to nasty stuff, both Linux and OSX are ahead of W.
I'll go along with the AVG suggestions as a reliable antivirus, I've used Avast and Avira but have found both a bit slower and clunkier than AVG, though they both worked well on my set ups for Windows. I use Comodo's CIS, a combined firewall, antivirus, with it's added Defense+ on my main PC. It takes a few days to get tuned into your setup and use but once that's done it works really well I've found.
Edit - sorry I meant to link the Comodo software in.
when i get time, i do plan to build a system using linux; i use it extensively at work but have been too lazy to break it in at home
The reason I'm back on Windows at home is Adobe Lightroom - couldn't guarantee colors on the VM I ran it on.
Many web sites, not just MP3 sites are infected (most unknowingly).
AVG-paid version will prohibit you from going to an infected site unless you over ride it (and why would you do that)
Its the best money you can spend on your computer. The free version is also good, but you get what you pay for.
I've had good results with it
Best of Luck
If I was going to pay for any Windows antivirus it would be Nod32.
Personally I have run both Windows XP and Windows Vista for months at a time without any antivirus and not had a single infection. And trust me, it's not because I completely avoid less than reputable sites. For starters, if you're still using Internet Explorer just switching browsers to Firefox, Chrome, or Opera will do wonders. Every so often I am forced to use IE and am amazed that anyone would still be interested in the Internet after viewing it through that mess. As someone else pointed out, unhiding extensions goes a long way to make sure you are not accidentally launching executables.
And yes, if you absolutely insist on paying for antivirus I recommend NOD32 (using it on over 100 machines at work with only a couple hiccups). Otherwise my wife and I have been running the free version of Avast! for years without a problem. My last virus was in '96 - from a floppy disk left in during reboot.
This is completely true, regarding the horror that is Norton Security. Actually, the free Norton/Symantec version that comes on all Sony, HP, Dell, Gateway and other PCs is so horrible, you need a special tool from Symantec to get rid of it. The normal Windows add/remove programs won't get rid of it.
I remember when Peter Norton was a hero to PC folks...I know he has nothing to do with this latest mess, but yikes! I'd be sad if my name was on that crap.
And the people that require you to use IE are simply bad web developers - so they aren't going to understand how to truly block another browser.
since my wife does most of the navigating of our important data, she gets all the new equipment and stubbornly refuses to let me try anything new on it.
I use resuscitated family cast offs and as long as i don't expect young ,terrier like dexterity from the tired, old shade hounds, they suit my needs fine.
I had forgotten about firefox and will be loading that on my pc this evening.
I did lose my wav to mp3 utility; any suggestions on a good free version?
I am also having second thoughts about my suggestion that i crossed some ethical line by downloading out of print music from a source that is obviously not approved by the artist.
If that were the case, all the used records and cds i have purchased throughout the years would guarantee my own personal high rise in hell.
As for ethics, I sure hope the guidelines for Hell aren't set by U.S. copyright law. I certainly wouldn't scold you for such d/ls and I doubt the artists would either since they obviously aren't making any money from out of print release anyway. When it comes to music, even the legal acquisitions are not necessarily ethical (and I'm not talking about used purchases here).