# Unsafe Website? SOTW???



## Grumps

My McAfee is telling me to beat feet out of here. After responding to a 10M mouthpiece poll, I got a warning for a "generic downloading trojan", which was then removed by McAfee. My browser lit up in red and it called SOTW "unsafe".


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## Barijim

I got the same message and warned not to return to this site !


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## JohnM

Yesterday I had two reports of spyware from here. The university gives us Sophos and it was going haywire for a sec. But it was fine when I logged in - only until I reached the new posts page. It stopped for the time being.


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## Carl H.

Same here, except Avast.


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## DonPedro

Same here.


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## SAXISMYAXE

I got the same warning. Not sure what is going on.


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## clarnibass

I know some people who just recently had a similar problem with McAfee doing something like this, and they didn't even go to SOTW ever. If you don't have it already, I recommend you get AVG and do a full computer scan.


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## cpete

Mcafee is a virus you pay to get. AVG


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## J-Moen

Avira


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## Jazz House

cpete said:


> Mcafee is a virus you pay to get.


:twisted: hahahaha!!!!!!


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## hakukani

hahaha. Mac.


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## gary

Not here - Symantec.

Are you guys still getting it?


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## warp x

hakukani said:


> hahaha. Mac.


hahaha. Mac too.


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## cpete

Symantec/Mcafee. Both 'Viri" They will significantly slow the computer down.


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## Enviroguy

No problem here.

I've got Symantec at work and AVG at home. No warnings yet. 

On the discussion about anti-virus software, I used to have Symantec at home too. At the time, it would detect threats that AVG seemed to miss. But it definitely showed down the PC's. About a year ago, I changed to AVG on all our PC's at home and everything has worked well so far. Also, I use the "B-Safe" family filter on all our computers except for the one in my home office. This thing works as a proxy and seems to catch about 99% of all threats before they reach our PC's. So in reality, I could leave the anti-virus turned off except for that rare case where something gets through. Of course, the B-Safe filter slows the internet down quite a bit. It's all a trade off.


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## Dr_sax

Nothing here. Mac


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## bigj231

No problems here, I'm using firefox on linux. For some reason the page doesn't stop loading like it used to though. Especially this page.


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## phannah

It might have something to do w/ this:

http://us.mcafee.com/en-us/landingpages/npdatupdate.asp?WT.srch=1

http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100969


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## notes_norton

This site is DEFINITELY unsafe.

I come here and want to drain my life savings for a King Silversonic Tenor with full pearls!!!!

Notes ♫


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## differencetone

I use the Google Chrome browser for this site. Google Chrome makes use of a technique called Sandboxing where the browser is prevented from being able to modify or read information from your computer. With Firefox, I use an Add-on called NoScript which prevents sites from running evil programs on your browser. All this is free. I Microsoft Security Essentials, also free but I don't really need it. In the past, I haven't used anti-virus except on occasion to check for viruses and I never have one. The easiest way to get a virus is to use a bad browser, not updated or to use illegal software.


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## bigj231

differencetone said:


> The easiest way to get a virus is to use a bad browser, not updated or to use illegal software.


 Like IE maybe


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## differencetone

bigj231 said:


> Like IE maybe


I rarely use IE. It's probably safer than it used to be but I feel better with the options I mentioned. NoScript is a pain for many people because it initially assumes all sites and all flash videos are unsafe so you have to click on the video to play it but I'm used to that.


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## spartacus

Doesn't anybody wear protection anymore?


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## kcp

differencetone said:


> I use the Google Chrome browser for this site. Google Chrome makes use of a technique called Sandboxing where the browser is prevented from being able to modify or read information from your computer. With Firefox, I use an Add-on called NoScript which prevents sites from running evil programs on your browser. All this is free. I Microsoft Security Essentials, also free but I don't really need it. In the past, I haven't used anti-virus except on occasion to check for viruses and I never have one. The easiest way to get a virus is to use a bad browser, not updated or to use illegal software.


There was a similar problem a little while back with this site and Google Chrome but the problem is gone now - It vanished as mysteriously as it appeared :|


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## Yofis

Yesterday I got the same trojan warning.


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## jrvinson45

notes_norton said:


> This site is DEFINITELY unsafe.
> 
> I come here and want to drain my life savings for a King Silversonic Tenor with full pearls!!!!
> 
> Notes ♫


:sign5:


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## jazzbluescat

Another board I visit was giving the same symptoms to some; not me, because I practice safe surfing.


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## Jazz Is All

Avira, nothing came my way. I sure wouldn't use McAfee.


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## magical pig

hahahahaha. Windows (and I know how to use a computer) :twisted:


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## Jazz House

Dr_sax said:


> Nothing here. Mac


me too


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## Sigmund451

Mcafee is garbage. I got it free from Comcast. With it, on my previous computer, I got the worst virus I ever had in my many years of computing. You may as well run naked. Get decent protection. Its pretty sad when they cant give it away!


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## BrianMitchellBrody

mac here. whats a virus again, remind me.


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## Mal 2

modman said:


> mac here. whats a virus again, remind me.


Your hypothetical Mac virus might look like this. Or like this. Or like this. Good thing they're only hypothetical, huh?


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## Jazz Is All

Everyone knows that the Anti-Virus business is really just the a high-tech electronic version of the old Mafia protection racket for store owners: you don't pay your "protection" money, you get a brick thrown through your window (for starters); don't pay your anti-virus subscription, you get a bug downloaded into your Windows. Either way it's extortion.


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## CooolJazzz

Wow...People still use McAfee and Symantec? 
My doctor and I were talking about that while he was taking the leeches off of my forehead the other day. Had him so wound up that he cut one sideburn an inch and a half shorter than the other.


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## SAXISMYAXE

Jazz Is All said:


> Everyone knows that the Anti-Virus business is really just the a high-tech electronic version of the old Mafia protection racket for store owners: you don't pay your "protection" money, you get a brick thrown through your window (for starters); don't pay your anti-virus subscription, you get a bug downloaded into your Windows. Either way it's extortion.


It may sound like a conspiracy theory to some, but I fully believe it to be true.


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## Harri Rautiainen

There is this particular member, My-Low-SX90R who posted mouthpiece images in his For sale ad. From his visitor message:


> hello;
> i keep getting a warning message from my security software when i open your mouthpiece ad in the marketplace. Symantec indicates that the Bloodhound virus is attached to your photos. i did pickup a Malware virus on SOTW thursday & i'm not positive it was your posting but it happened while i was searching for a Bari mouthpiece.
> best
> jerry


Opening a link from SOTW Forum to an external site is beyond my control. You are on your own as you are elsewhere in the internet.

My advise to posters is to upload images as attachments to posts. If you have problems or your attachment quota is full, let me or other admins to know.

Sorry of the delay in responding to this. I want to assure that SOTW is safe. Malwares are coming from external sites.


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## BrianMitchellBrody

Mal 2 said:


> Your hypothetical Mac virus might look like this. Or like this. Or like this. Good thing they're only hypothetical, huh?


 yes malware for imacs do exist. i have protection though. B


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## Jazz Is All

CooolJazzz said:


> Wow...People still use McAfee and Symantec?
> My doctor and I were talking about that while he was taking the leeches off of my forehead the other day. Had him so wound up that he cut one sideburn an inch and a half shorter than the other.


Yeah, I'm still trying to find out if the McAfee program works on DOS, or if it's only for the Commodore 64.



SAXISMYAXE said:


> It may sound like a conspiracy theory to some, but I fully believe it to be true.


It's a whole lot easier to provide the antivirus for a bug you created yourself than to have to start from scratch. Why else would all the up and coming hackers be honing their skills, if it weren't to get high paying jobs in the AV industry? BTW, my niece's husband is a computer graphics wiz for advertising, TV and film, and he said it's true. He uses only Macs of course.


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## Mal 2

Jazz Is All said:


> Everyone knows that the Anti-Virus business is really just the a high-tech electronic version of the old Mafia protection racket for store owners: you don't pay your "protection" money, you get a brick thrown through your window (for starters); don't pay your anti-virus subscription, you get a bug downloaded into your Windows. Either way it's extortion.


Avast. Avira. AVG.

AVG is a resource hog (not as bad as MacAfee or Norton though), Avast requires re-registering annually (though it is free to do so), and Avira may have a similar system.


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## warp x

Mal 2 said:


> AVG is a resource hog


Agreed. I had it on a PC I have here and it slowed the machine down quite a bit. I just gave up on using the PC on the net, and don't understand how people can put up with all that anti virus garbage. Get a Mac or use Linux.


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## Enviroguy

warp x said:


> Agreed. I had it on a PC I have here and it slowed the machine down quite a bit. I just gave up on using the PC on the net, and don't understand how people can put up with all that anti virus garbage. Get a Mac or use Linux.


The latest versions of AVG seem not to be resource hogs. At home I've got one home-built and one heavily home-modified PC. Both have 3-year-old AMD 64 II Duel Core CPU's and both use AVG. One has XP-SP3 with 4 gigs of RAM (my DAW) and the other Has Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 2 gigs RAM. There is basically no slowdown on these PC's. Additionally, Windows 7 appears to offer somewhat of a performance boost over 32-bit XP too. The tough part is often finding Windows 7 drivers for older PC's with integrated components.

PS: Yesterday I bought another completely legit Windows 7 license off of eBay for under $16 USD. That's my third under-$20 license so far and that makes Windows 7 the cheapest Windows OS to install, ever.


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## Mal 2

Enviroguy said:


> The latest versions of AVG seem not to be resource hogs. At home I've got one home-built and one heavily home-modified PC. Both have 3-year-old AMD 64 II Duel Core CPU's and both use AVG.


It's still a resource hog. It just is a lot less obvious (or conversely, a lot more tolerable) on multi-core machines. AVG was fine on my dual-core Athlon 64, but I ditched it due to some shady business practices on AVG's part. They have since corrected their path, but I found I like Avast better anyhow. AVG was NOT tolerable on my Atom-powered netbook, and Avast is considerably gentler on system resources when scanning. I'd rather run the same thing on all my systems, so the big machine gets the same thing the little machine gets, even if it doesn't really have to.

The only annoyance with Avast is that it likes to pop up status update boxes with no Close button. I just have to wait for them to go away, as I have not found a way to disable them.


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## warp x

Enviroguy said:


> PS: Yesterday I bought another completely legit Windows 7 license off of eBay for under $16 USD. That's my third under-$20 license so far and that makes Windows 7 the cheapest Windows OS to install, ever.


Linux is free. (GPL)


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## Enviroguy

Mal 2 said:


> It's still a resource hog. It just is a lot less obvious (or conversely, a lot more tolerable) on multi-core machines. AVG was fine on my dual-core Athlon 64, but I ditched it due to some shady business practices on AVG's part. They have since corrected their path, but I found I like Avast better anyhow. AVG was NOT tolerable on my Atom-powered netbook, and Avast is considerably gentler on system resources when scanning. I'd rather run the same thing on all my systems, so the big machine gets the same thing the little machine gets, even if it doesn't really have to.
> 
> The only annoyance with Avast is that it likes to pop up status update boxes with no Close button. I just have to wait for them to go away, as I have not found a way to disable them.


Try this search. There does seem to be ways to reduce the bother:

http://www.google.com/search?source...vast+popups&aq=f&aqi=g4g-m3&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=


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## Pete Thomas

warp x said:


> Get a Mac or use Linux.


No, no, no!

The more people use Macs the more chance of Mac viruses.

We like our exclusive little club. :evil:


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## warp x

Pete Thomas said:


> No, no, no!
> 
> The more people use Macs the more chance of Mac viruses.
> 
> We like our exclusive little club. :evil:


You're right.

Please, more Windows! Use Internet Explorer!


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## Grumps

There was a show a few years back... think it was 24, though I could be mistaken... where all the good guys used Macs and the bad guys had PC's.


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## Enviroguy

Grumps said:


> There was a show a few years back... think it was 24, though I could be mistaken... where all the good guys used Macs and the bad guys had PC's.


That's pretty humorous since we all know that the exact opposite is true in real life. :bluewink:


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## Mal 2

Enviroguy said:


> Try this search. There does seem to be ways to reduce the bother:
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?source...vast+popups&aq=f&aqi=g4g-m3&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=


Awesome! Since I had to (temporarily) accept an unverified certificate to visit the Avast forum, I'll save everyone else the trouble:



> Re: How do I turn off Avast's pop-ups?
> « Reply #1 on: November 29, 2009, 11:56:33 AM »
> 
> Right click avast! tray icon --> program settings --> 'update (basic)' tab --> details --> Uncheck 'show sliding box after automatic update'
> 
> I am not sure if this disables the voice section of it though.
> 
> What you can do, if the sound is still there:
> 
> program settings --> 'sounds' tab --> click settings --> scroll to avast! antivirus --> change the sound for 'automatic VPS update to none in the drop down box.


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## magical pig

Pete Thomas said:


> No, no, no!
> 
> The more people use Macs the more chance of Mac viruses.
> 
> We like our exclusive little club. :evil:


Yeah and that's the only reason Mac users are still "relatively" safe. It's a well known fact in the hacker community that Mac OS is a open highway for malwares. Those guys organize hacking competitions and Mac OS is always the first to reveal serious security holes.

I wonder how Mac users (most of whom have no idea how to use a computer) will do when they finally start to be faced with virus problems.


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## Yofis

I have worn a 3/4" neoprene body suit everytime I have logged onto SOTW since 2005. I guess I can admit that now....


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## Jazz Is All

Yofis said:


> I have worn a 3/4" neoprene body suit everytime I have logged onto SOTW since 2005. I guess I can admit that now....


Wait....a couple of weeks ago you said you were Kenny G., but now it sounds like you're really that female astronaut who went bonkers, drove cross-country non-stop wearing a wetsuit to relieve herself in, and tried to kidnap and kill her lover's wife. Come clean -- who are you really?


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## milandro

magical pig said:


> I wonder how Mac users (most of whom have no idea how to use a computer) will do when they finally start to be faced with virus problems.


I have been Using Macintosh computers since 1986 and at that time we had Viruses and we dealt with them pretty much the same way you deal with them ..............

for some historic background.......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

by the way, I know how to USE a computer but I do not know much about constantly needing to perform maintenance, tweaks, repairs, etc. etc. and I have always bought computers which kept the need to use a metaphorical spanner to operate them to the very minimum. To me a computer has to serve me and I do not need to work for it..........as many, very literate PC users do. I have no wish to fix my car either, my ideal car is one where I get in turn the key and drive with occasional stops for petrol and other necessary fluids. Although I know how a car works, my ideal car doesn't require me to repair it and maintain it.


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## magical pig

milandro, I'm just having fun with you'all! :twisted:


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## milandro

Actually we are having fun about you! .............watch it, Viruses bite! (pun intended!)


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## DXCamp

Harri,

My antivirus software identifies that the "security alert" does come from a site not, afaik, SOTW sponsored. To be sure I log off the internet and run a full system scan including hidden files and folders, in safe mode. It seems that the "trogan horse.....malwar' is a phantom shell of what once was as every system scan to date on this computer does not detect any infection anywhere. It's a complete mystery to me


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## magical pig

DXCamp said:


> Harri,
> 
> My antivirus software identifies that the "security alert" does come from a site not, afaik, SOTW sponsored. To be sure I log off the internet and run a full system scan including hidden files and folders, in safe mode. It seems that the "trogan horse.....malwar' is a phantom shell of what once was as every system scan to date on this computer does not detect any infection anywhere. It's a complete mystery to me


Well, anti-virus softwares are well known to warn about non-existent threats once in a while.


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## DXCamp

Yes, it reads out "cannot be repaired." "Cannot be repaired" also means "does not exist and therefore cannot be repaired " That nag screen notification could be a bizarre form of advertisement from them for attracting visitors to their site.


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## hakukani

My wife has 64 bit windows 7 on her new computer. It runs wonderfully on the quad core i7 with 8 gB of RAM. She gets the 'free' enterprise edition of McAfee from her university. It doesn't seem to slow it down--at least not that I can detect.


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## differencetone

Microsoft Security Essentials has a small footprint. I like it. I never know it's there.


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## warp x

> other necessary fluids


Coffee?


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## milandro

warp x said:


> Coffee?


yes please!


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## Harri Rautiainen

This thread was a wrong alarm in the first place and ran out of its usefulness.


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