Keeping safe on LimeWire... from viruses, etc
 

I'm new to LimeWire, although not p2p, I'm currently also using Overnet and BitTorrent.

I am a little concerned about catching viruses and trojans from using LimeWire. I got some strange bugs from using Kazaa years ago and didnt even download any .exe's. It messed up my whole PC and I had to do a clean install, which I don't want to do again.

How is the best way to avoid getting viruses and trojans on LW? I've taken the obvious precaution and have Norton 2004 (fully upto date) as well as a Sygate Firewall installed. I have also filtered all .exe files in LW.

I'm only going to be downloading MP3 files. With my precautions and the nature of the file type I am downloading, am I at risk at all and is there anything else I can do to make my PC more secure? (Can you actually get a virus or trojan from an MP3 - I don't think you can)

Finally, I have my own mini network. My main PC which I don't load p2p software onto, this is also protected by my Routers firewall. I also have a laptop which is networked to the PC and is used soly for p2p programs (which I'm running LW on). On the laptop, I copy what I have downloaded into a special shared folder, which is the ONLY folder accessable by my main PC. Unless I am stupid enough to manually copy across an infected file, is there anyway a virus can infect my main PC via the laptop?

Many thanks in advance!

I'm not going to try to answer all your questions but just make a few points (somebody else would be better at answering the others.) If you're only going to dwnld mp3's, then you could also add .jpg & .wmv to your keywd filters. For a start this will reduce those unwanted results that wastes your search bandwidth.

Have Norton set to auto detect (I think it's called auto-protect.) Yes I've never 'heard' of mp3's with virus.

For instance, Sasser: you could get infected just by connecting to the net.

To be more correct, you can´t be affected when you are connected to the internet while you don´t download anything - this means you are connected to the server of your provider and don´t connect to any website/server or anything else... yes I know this would be very stupid. :)

Surfing without a virus scanner isn´t recommended. I noticed that some websides are working with viruses - you download them while you connect to their side and the virus is saved in your temporaly internet folder... I noticed this because I am running a good reliable and free virus scanner:

http://free.grisoft.com/*******.php/doc/2/

A good firewall also protects you against trojans, viruses etc.

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...eeDownload.jsp

Zonealarm is good, reliable and also free but has not all the features of the PRO version.

I should also mention that there is no 100% security, this is a dream... use your had twice before you do something!

Morgwen