A tip for Limewire users:

mrbigbluelight

.....this also holds true, I assume, for Kazaa Lite, Bearshare, et al.

Pay attention to what folder/drive that you select for "Sharing".

If you don't, than you get people like me who are off of work for a couple of days, bored, and start snooping using the "Browse Host" function.

While resumes, job applications, bank statements, etc would be interesting to read, in the wrong hands you can pretty much figure on a real headache or too.

I don't know .... maybe I'm just being a little paranoid, but ....... :cool:

heiney9

Find any nekkid foto's. :eek: That could be quite embarassing if they are of each other's significant other.

Systems

mrbigbluelight wrote:

.....this also holds true, I assume, for Kazaa Lite, Bearshare, et al.

Pay attention to what folder/drive that you select for "Sharing".

If you don't, than you get people like me who are off of work for a couple of days, bored, and start snooping using the "Browse Host" function.

While resumes, job applications, bank statements, etc would be interesting to read, in the wrong hands you can pretty much figure on a real headache or too.

I don't know .... maybe I'm just being a little paranoid, but ....... :cool:

Or how about this tip:

Don't use these in the first place.....

ben62670

Sartori wrote:

Or how about this tip:

Don't use these in the first place.....

+1 on that

Almost ever single computer I repair that has limewire... has viruses on them. If you think your AV is going to catch them your living in a fantasy world. AV programs can't protect you from viruses that are unknown. It is a breeding ground for viruses.

Oh yeah I forgot it is a nice place for hackers to mess with your puter. Some of these places even give out your ip addresses. Windows has a built in share of the C:drive under administrator. They can have lots of fun with your puter.

petrym

Those programs are rife with spyware, open holes, and you will be thrown Trojans looking to hook your system. MIT even uses a bot to crawl the peer-to-peer world checking usage. Bad juju all around.

Jstas

Forget the spyware, forget the trojans, forget the open holes. A friend and I wrote a program that will actually exploit the open port that allows access to the Limewire network. It doesn't get picked up by the firewalls because it hides under the Limewire guise on a port that is already allowed through the firewall anyway. Once that exploit is in, I can install a remote admin tool that allows me to see your entire desktop while you are using it, including what you are typing. Even if you have it encrypted, the keystroke logger will still pick it up. I can change group policies, I can set security levels, I can even edit your registry and lock you out of your computer completely. The only reason I have it was to prove to a client of my friend's that his excessive use of Limewire to share business applications between his business and home was jeopardizing his security drastically. He saw the light and we set him up with a nice, safe, secure FTP server.

Limewire is bad mojo. If you have it or any other filesharing software, get rid of it. It's not worth it. On top of that, Limewire has been earmarked and is being phished by the RIAA. You don't want to deal with that mess and thier underhanded, trickery and abuse of the U.S. legal system.

If you want to do filesharing, get yourself a BitTorrent client and stay away from the likes of Pirate Bay. BitTorrent isn't necessarily safer but it allows more security because the traffic is specific to the the BitTorrent software and you can lock the port it uses down to allow only the BitTorrent traffic. You can still pick up viruses but they are less likely to cause major issues or allow a back-door access.

AndyGwis

How about when you just get on Limewire for 10 minutes here and there to download a song while you have AV on, then exit out of it immediately and close the connection down?

Maybe not 100% safe, but at least on par with wearing a rubber AND pulling out, right?

ben62670

AndyGwis wrote:

How about when you just get on Limewire for 10 minutes here and there to download a song while you have AV on, then exit out of it immediately and close the connection down?

Maybe not 100% safe, but at least on par with wearing a rubber AND pulling out, right?

I have had customers who let their kids install file share programs on their computers, and I get to fix them once or twice a year.
New viruses come out every single day. LOts of hackers use the open ports to get into your computer. jstas wrote well on these issues, and if you install the program on your computer then it opens the ports at bootup.
If you have a $hit box computer just for downloading I guess ok. jstas what is your view on network vulnerabilities with a computer setup for downloading purposes. Mine is not a good idea, but I do it anyway.

AndyGwis

So, just having Limewire installed is a problem? Even if you have it setup to where it doesn't connect unless you open Limewire and then go to Connect?

avguytx

Sartori wrote:

Or how about this tip:

Don't use these in the first place.....

I concur. My PC buddies say that the top 3 things that they are fixing PC's for is the use of "My Space", Limewire and an AOL messenger of some sort. My kids use that My Space and I have had to redo one PC twice that had it and Limewire on it. I told them no more Limewire! My Space is an addiction for them, though. Oh well...kind of like me on my forums (but mine don't cause viruses...hehe)

Strong Bad

Sartori wrote:

Or how about this tip:

Don't use these in the first place.....

I wholeheartedly agree!

After rebuilding my brother's PC 4 times over the last few years, I flat out told him it would be the last time and to keep the kids off of it! It's all effed up again! Same with a neighbor, only I rebuilt hers once and said to keep the daughter off of it. Months down the road she said she had to bring in a geek squad type of person to clean it up. I think it's still effed up though!

Children and careless uninformed users are a PCs worst enemy!

audiobliss

Ok, so what's the best...errr,...easiest BitTorrent software/setup to go with? I've played with it a few times, but not wholeheartedly any time, and I really don't know what I'm doing when I'm setting up the software.

scottvamp

I have had P2P problems in the past. But i paid for Limewire Pro and it has really good virus protection. Don't do a whole lot of downloading. But i just ripped a complete album tonight that is not due out for another week. Burned it with Nero and it can out flawless. Ya, limewire sucks.;)

Lsi9

...or get a mac.

audiobliss

And twiddle your thumbs, wishing you could do something?

:D

dudeinaroom

I've used bittorrent for a while with out an issue. All the bittorrent apps. are really easy to use. I'm using utorrent right now. I mainly just down load tv episodes that I missed. Occasionally I will get a song to see if I wanna but the cd

audiobliss

Yeah, I'm using Utorrent now, as a CP'er PM'd me about it. Seems to be pretty good, I guess. I wouldn't know!