Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: colecampbell666 on March 12, 2008, 06:11:44 am
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Can you get a virus from simply extracting a .RAR or by playing a torrented movie? I've heard of some (most?) of the tricks for hiding viruses, like trying to get you to download fake codecs and extractors, extra file extensions etc.
Anything else I should be aware of?
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By extracting a non self-extracting .rar file I doubt you could get anything.
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I figured that as the operation is basically self-contained.
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Yes. Here's what I do to counter that I get a portable torrent client, put it on a usb drive, take it to school, and download and use it first there. It'll take a lot longer, but you sure won't get any viruses that you'll have to worry for longer than an hour.
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That's what I do with movies, only slightly different. Our school prohibits "bad" (any) applications (even Internet Exploder in some cases - I kid you not), so I just run the file itself at school and/or using Linux.
I sorta had some revelation or whatever, cause all of a sudden I realized that:
The portable HDD (250 GB) I've had empty since Christmas + 60 GB of movies/shows + ?????? = Profit.
I've got 60 GB of data downloading, at 190 kb/s. Fun.
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190 kb/s
That's awesome for torrenting stuff. Heck, 80 kb/s is awesome.
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It's actually closer to 100 normally, I get 190 on the latest shows (SGA) and I was getting around 240 last night with 700 peaks - something I didn't believe possible. And while I agree that 190 is pretty good, I will repeat: 60 GB, and say that Turey theoretically gets 4 MB/second on his 30 megabit connection.
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If it's too big, don't download it. Otherwise stop complaining. :p
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I'm not complaining.
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I kid you not, when i torrented Deus Ex after my game disc broke, i got a download rate of 680-720 kb/s. lol had the game which is well over a gig, in like 15 mintutes. Ah the joys of having a LOT of seeds :D
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I torrented the 300 at 500 kbps... the WHOLE TIME ;)
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http://www.hulu.com/
why download?
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Torrents are usually pretty safe, at least from the major trackers. Unless you see a serious filesize disparity, in which case use caution..
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Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
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http://www.hulu.com/
why download?
Just heard about that on the radio coming home.
Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
Oops.
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Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
Ignore idiots oblivious people who confuse being secure with the feeling of security they get from a familiar environment. One can only earn real security the hard way - teaching themselves about the dangers, and through self-discipline ingraining the appropriate habits.
Both of those trackers are fine. They are open though, so you have to filter whatever you download yourself. Naturally any torrent of a film shouldn't have a huge executable inside, neither should a film be packed in an archive as an mkv or avi (or mp4) file compresses really poorly.
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Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
Ignore idiots oblivious people who confuse being secure with the feeling of security they get from a familiar environment. One can only earn real security the hard way - teaching themselves about the dangers, and through self-discipline ingraining the appropriate habits.
Both of those trackers are fine. They are open though, so you have to filter whatever you download yourself. Naturally any torrent of a film shouldn't have a huge executable inside, neither should a film be packed in an archive as an mkv or avi (or mp4) file compresses really poorly.
I figured that. I've generally already had to learn the hard way. I've never had a virus from a torrent, as I usually inspect what I download carefully. I haven't found that one site or the other is better, although I like ISOHunt because it scans for trackers from a whole bunch of other sites, improving share ratios. And as a bonus, it's Canadian.
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Little update: It seems that an update from M$ breaks torrenting as it disallows it in Windoze Firewall. I've had a few friends say this as well.
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Delete the rule?
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Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
Ignore idiots oblivious people who confuse being secure with the feeling of security they get from a familiar environment. One can only earn real security the hard way - teaching themselves about the dangers, and through self-discipline ingraining the appropriate habits.
Both of those trackers are fine. They are open though, so you have to filter whatever you download yourself. Naturally any torrent of a film shouldn't have a huge executable inside, neither should a film be packed in an archive as an mkv or avi (or mp4) file compresses really poorly.
I figured that. I've generally already had to learn the hard way. I've never had a virus from a torrent, as I usually inspect what I download carefully. I haven't found that one site or the other is better, although I like ISOHunt because it scans for trackers from a whole bunch of other sites, improving share ratios. And as a bonus, it's Canadian.
Well you see, i did this because i didn't WANT you to have to learn the hard way like i did :rolleyes:
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The best alternative to ISOHunt that I've found so far is ScrapeTorrent (http://scrapetorrent.com/).
It indexed BTJunkie, Mininova, Pirate Bay and a bunch of others, which is usually more than enough to find what you need.
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Never use mininova or isohunt... unless you have a really good anti virus... TPB is usually ok. and demonoid will be if it ever comes back :\
I've never actually gotten any viruses or spyware from torrenting. Although I dodged a few bullet's because of some careful research. And I'd guess that 90% of the time if the torrent has a virus or some spyware, someone said so in the comments section. And it's just as likely on those sites as any other site, so it's really more of a matter of being careful.
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Yeah, always read the comments.
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This (http://www.winxpu.info/main.asp) looks pretty cool. I'm gonna try it on an old machine.
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Yes. Here's what I do to counter that I get a portable torrent client, put it on a usb drive, take it to school, and download and use it first there.
:wtf:
Maybe we should just bulldoze the schools and be done with it. :doubt:
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Yes. Here's what I do to counter that I get a portable torrent client, put it on a usb drive, take it to school, and download and use it first there.
:wtf:
Maybe we should just bulldoze the schools and be done with it. :doubt:
Hey, the school practically tells us to pirate stuff with their computers. If they didn't want us too, they wouldn't have any USB drives, and their proxy would be a lot harder to delete. Heck,they'd remove the internet capabilities if they didn't want this stuff happening. If they expect any kid who has an entire hour to do nothing but sit in front of a computer to not do this, then they're insane.
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[...] If they expect any kid who has an entire hour to do nothing but sit in front of a computer to not do this, then they're insane.
Er, I know that it's been a while since I've been to one, but schools still have classes, don't they? :confused:
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It's programming that I do this in. My teacher gives out assignments like once every two weeks, and I usually finish them in about a half an hour. When I'm not either working on my modular weapons table generator or helping the
idiots people who just don't seem to be able to program, I'm usually on so-called "banned" sites such as youtube or here at HLP.
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Your school gives you flash drives?
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Your school gives you flash drives?
Naw. I have my own 1gb stick; the school doesn't really want us to have them, but every single time I've been asked by security, I tell them it's for my programming homework. They always say that it's okay, so it works out fine. I've actually only used it for homework once, and that was when I need to print out a worksheet that I had gotten about 4 seconds before the class ended.
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Security? And you're in grade 9 or 10? I guess with all the school shootings and whatnot you guys have... But we've got the same things too, and our high school only has a police liaison, nothing more.
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Security? And you're in grade 9 or 10? I guess with all the school shootings and whatnot you guys have... But we've got the same things too, and our high school only has a police liaison, nothing more.
By security I mean people who walk around and yell at you, not "put your ID card here". Trust me, a police liaison is a lot bigger than what our security is.
EDIT: oh, yeah, grade 10.
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People who walk around yelling at you? That's what some teachers do anyway.
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People who walk around yelling at you? That's what some teachers do anyway.
That's pretty much what they are. Teachers who have no classes, so they can devote their full time to badgering you.
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Little update: It seems that an update from M$ breaks torrenting as it disallows it in Windoze Firewall. I've had a few friends say this as well.
We admins have a saying:
Disable the Windows Seeve...
...and install a Firewall.
I recommend the Free (basic) version of Zone Alarm. Simple, and adequate for most users.
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Little update: It seems that an update from M$ breaks torrenting as it disallows it in Windoze Firewall. I've had a few friends say this as well.
We admins have a saying:
Disable the Windows Seeve...
...and install a Firewall.
I recommend the Free (basic) version of Zone Alarm. Simple, and adequate for most users.
I use the Pro (still free) version of Comodo.
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I use the Pro (still free) version of Comodo.
Ah, it's just a name. There isn't really anything 'pro' with it, since no version without the 'pro' is available. But still, good software. I use it too.
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I use the Pro (still free) version of Comodo.
Ah, it's just a name. There isn't really anything 'pro' with it, since no version without the 'pro' is available. But still, good software. I use it too.
I know that, but I like to pimp it.
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Little update: It seems that an update from M$ breaks torrenting as it disallows it in Windoze Firewall. I've had a few friends say this as well.
We admins have a saying:
Disable the Windows Seeve...
...and install a Firewall.
I recommend the Free (basic) version of Zone Alarm. Simple, and adequate for most users.
I use the Pro (still free) version of Comodo.
Whatever floats your boat and is easy to use. I heard about that firewall too, as in it is just adequate as Zone Alarm.
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Whatever floats your boat and is easy to use. I heard about that firewall too, as in it is just adequate as Zone Alarm.
Actually, firewall comparison tests have demonstrated that Comodo is highly reliable and actually more trustworthy than ZoneAlarm. Granted, in 2.yaddayadda versions there is a security flaw that makes it possible to shut the damn thing down with some appropriate code. But I'd assume version 3 has overcome this issue.