I have been trying to download a program which contains an exe file. I have tried several of the hundred offerings. I receive the zip files but my [Norton ] anti virus says that the file contains a virus and deletes it automatically. All these files couldn't have virus's could they. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any and all help.

Bob S

They could indeed all have viruses.

Try a file from www.magnetmix.com (those are virus free), and if Norton deletes one of those, the problem might be with the Norton setup.

Thanks for the reply. I am downloading now and will check with orton

Bob S

It appears as if all of the programs files have either a trojan or a worm virus attached to them. I've downloaded any number of programs over the past year and they all have one. I'm using AVG, but, have used McAfee and have gotten the same results. Basically the programs available to you are more or less worthless

Size counts!!! Don't be fooled by those file results that show KB. Don't get confused as files less than 1 MB (1,000 KB) are either spam or virus. Look at the largest files & check those out.

Did that, same results. I'm not new to this, not by a long shot.

Try varying your search then. Try searching different extensions, etc. eg: my file - .zip, etc. Also try not only the file name by also the maker or both or individually.

Yep, done that, too. What I wish would happen would be for those people who have those programs to scan them for any trace of a virus. You have to consider that "if" they all have some type of virus embedded then their own computer is at risk.

That sounds logical.

You could also try searching at different times of day & week. Also the dynamics of files shared changes over time, so some weeks or months later, there's actually healthy ones that can be found. Don't forget, some of the programs & users that use Gnutella are multi-network users. So files filter thru from those sources. It tends to take time though.

This is interesting. I went to Phex and downloaded a program which I had previously downloaded from within Limewire (each download had a virus). The program (Phex site) was virus free and installed perfectly.