Hi guys,

A friend of mine likes to download lots of music. In the past this practice has resulted in the computer getting slower and slower as more and more cookies and and spyware clogged it - until it was no longer usable even after scans with spybot and ad-aware.

Is there a way to prevent the crap from being downloaded with the music in the first place? (starting over with a different computer)

TIA

David J

Start up a virtual partition to run the browser or whatever application you use to get the music. Once you have the files, copy them over to your primary system using something like FTP . When the virtual partition gets too slow, trash it for a new one.

http://www.vmware.com/ has the programs you would need.

lol funny you should ask...

read a recent article in the 'off topic' section, and you'll find an answer...

I'm having a problem with my video software. when I put a video from the camera on the computer it plays fine but when I edit clips together they get all laggy. the newer clips play fine by them selves and older clips linked toegther play fine too just the new ones don't work togerther.

help...

Windows:

Kasperspy (The best)
CrapCleaner
Ad-Aware
Spybot

Linux:

chkrootkit
grsecurity kernel patch

And get a FreeBSD firewall for both if you can.

Well first to download a song and prevent the infamous viruses and what not try with a reliable p2p program, limewire and soulseek is good IF you are willing to look for ligitimate songs. What people forget about using limewire is the size on the side of the search screen. I always look at that before clicking it to download. I look for bitrates and SIZE. It all starts when some one downloads a song(lets say When the Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys) Look at the title. Never download the ones that have a tag that says FREE SONGS FOREVER FOR .99!!! or anything like that. Size I look for 3-5 megabytes for a 128 or 256 bitrate 4minute song. Never the ones that have 129kb or anything small.. those are just perfuming of ads..

For example
Name BitRate Type Size
When the Sun Goes down 256 mp3 4,321 kb
When the Sun COME TO THIS.. 216 kb

#1 = ligitamate or it is worth downloading
#2 = badddd

Although this doesnt cover all the parts of p2ping Ive used only these rules and have not gotten a piece of spyware from a song.

Hope this helps I will be updating this as I have more time

If you do install a file sharing program, I'd suggest checking out http://p2p.malwareremoval.com/details.html first... loads of useful info on whether it's a "clean" program, whether it's infected with spyware/adware, whether it's a must install, optional, included in the EULA, etc., and includes links to Symantec's writeups on each of them. I would have suggested one of the pages on SpywareInfo.com, but the page I was using is, by their own admission, "hopelessly out of date", and the new page can't be updated until the tester's computer gets out of the shop. This one looks far more detailed, anyway. L8r.