What you should know about WMA Files
 

Be verry carefull when downloading WMA files.
LINK

Thanks for the heads up, that's an informational article.

WMA and/or WMV files
 

Dear All

My very first lesson about WMV and WMA files happened while using LW, I learned that you should always run your anti-virus and anti-spyware software over them before launching and never, ever, play them while connected to the internet. Remember, these files cannot download anything or bombard you with pop-ups unless they have an internet connection.

Two more things, if while trying to launch a WMV or WMA file it insists on an internet connection then delete it; the connection it is trying to make is not designed to help you. And finally, after playing one of these files successfully, run your anti-spyware software again, just as an added precaution.





UK Bob

thanks for the warning i usually only download avi or mpg files but i'll remember this for the future

thanks for the heads up....
did anyone notice the related artical Protect Yourself From Audio Adware
it seems this kind of junk is not that hard to beat though i havn't incountered this problem myself. i do dl and use windows media... now i'm prepared (i hope).

i have downloaded some wmv's that seem to use the license acquisition window in a legitimate manner so i'm not sure disconnecting is the answer for everyone especially if it costs us our ultrapeer status (i'll get there someday!!) everytime we want to hear/view a file.

still...i'd hate to see our network get choked up with yet more trash

wmv and adware!!!!!!!!!!
 

well i learned my lesson NO MORE WMV FILES after i downloaded a couple and tried to play them my virus software went berserk all trojans and a hijacker... all the viruses were found in the system volume information and then lo and behold later i noticed a new user on my user account's on window's XP which i qiuckly deleted...

wma files & limewire player
 

i'm totally clueless when it comes to viruses & stuff

so i tried to play some wma files i downloaded w/ limewire's player, but it wasnt working, so i copied them to musicmatch jukebox & they worked just fine, but i dont know if i have any anti-spyware/virus protection thingies....(let alone how to use them)....is it possible that i've wrecked my computer?

btw, what's adware?

wmv(a)
 

right...so....what does that mean i'm sposed to do?


hey lol did u get ur signature from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series? (i forgot which book, i think like 4th or 5th)

ANYbody who does ANYthing on the net needs to learn a few things about security, or a least have some sort of system administrator to worry about it for you (an admin will insist on you following a few rules anyway).
this is even more true when you are sharing files. when u share on a Peer2peer network u have no assurance that ANY file is what it claims to be, and u have no idea where the file came from. please dont get me wrong i love gnutella/limewire and i couldn't live w/o it (well almost) but....personally i don't use the LW player and i never open/use any shared (d/l) file until i have scanned it w/my AV.
if u bought ur system w/prepackaged software u probably have an AV already and maybe even a software firewall, learn how to use em and MAKE SURE U UPDATEUPDATEUPDATE.
if ur not protected do a google search for ZoneAlarm (the basic version is free) and AVGfree by GRISOFT (it is too) and join the AVG forum, the sticky threads will give u excellent advice about what else to get (MORE FREE STUFF). u will end up with as tight a system as any reasonable dollar figure can get u... but no software can save u if u dont LEARN it and USE it
someday...someday soon...'''dreaming of links in his sig'''...

Talking about adware...
 

Talking about adware... shortly after installing LimeWire and downloading for awhile I ran my adware/spykiller program and found some LimeWire adware. I deleted it and guess what? I lost Limewire Pro. It meant having to reinstall it.
Alan.

It's been noted many times on the forum that too many spykiller programs don't work properly & many even themselves have spyware! This was reported on a Spyware forum by experts that only a couple of spykillers actually work properly & on top of that many have spyware themselves. See Organisations trying to connect via Port 6346 & follow all links & links within them to forum. Also these are recommended: The ones that work

See link above & also the recommended utilities to have AND they're all FREE!

limewire is NOT adware
 

i to have noticed that the "anti-spy" function of the Yahoo! toolbar complains and claims that limewire is adware but this is the same (possesive) active-X app that removes my google toolbar w/o my permission and i DON'T trust it (plan to remove it)
the utilities i DO trust have no problem w/ limewire whatsoever
i to use and recommend Adware and spybot S&D although peerguardian is new to me and i think much needed (thank u LOTR !!!) it may answer concerns i have noted in another thread
i also highly recommend AVGfree antivirus
have recommended ZoneAlarm in the past but am rapidly becoming discouraged w/ it (even my pro version) alternatives r very welcome

Adware/Spyware
 

I've decided to go back to SpyKiller. Altho' it's rather slow it seems to be reliable and does give an indication of the severity of any malware it finds.

sygate personal firewall 5.6 free. I've found this to be most reliable.

Hi Lassie. Is Sygate complicated to set up, and where can I download it from.
Alan.

can download it from here http://www.download.com/3000-2092_4-10049526.html

It's not complicated to set up. Just install and it goes through a learning process of what it should allow to connect (i.e. outbound) to the internet. Initially it will block everything and ask you if such and such is allowed to connect (like I.E./Firefox/outlookexpress/ LW etc) you answe yes or no and it then remembers this for next time. Don't forget to turn off windows own firewall (if you use it) after installing sygate.

Thank you Lassie. I'll give it a try.
Alan.

Re: limewire is NOT adware
 

thanks for the warning guys.keep it up.

Spyware
 

Is there some reason that only Adaware and Spybot are getting talked about? arnt there some good free antispyware programs out there that are better than them? i have eboth, but they need to be updated manually, constantly,(i dont mind this much) and while i use McAfee firewall and antivirus(I pay my IP for it on a monthly basis) i would think there were some better programs out there.

Spyware
 

Dear Trekkie

The reason why most users, including myself, recommend only Ad-Aware, Spybot and now MS Antispyware is simply because they are the only products that actually find spyware on your PC and will not (in 99.9% of the time) give you false positives or infect your PC with its own embedded spyware.

Most of the other so-called anti-spyware products are clones (knock-offs) of either Ad-Aware or Spybot and contain their own spyware. And most of us have either had bitter experience ourselves of using these knock-offs or have friends who have used them.

Just a quick word of advice, before you try anything either bought or downloaded from the internet please do some research.




UK Bob

:mad: can someone explian why limewire users are putting different name tags on movies

don,t think i,ll be bothering downloading any wmv/wma files,i,ll stick with what i know for now,at least till i know what im doing. :)

good point any wma, wmv file w/ only 104. kb or so is trouble crap waiting to happen
especially when sites get you to try to open these filez and a window pops up and your prompted to activate it of dl a security with i think is asking for crappolla

some times even mov files are in this catagory

i see too that the names a re labled in weird ways like

t_h_i_s_i_s_c_r_a_p

spaced out is a sign of crappatoa.

Hi all,

I downloaded what I thouhgt was what I wanted. but when I tried unziped it i couldn't so I shelled out to dos and used an old but good archive program ace to peek inside. I found that I downloaded a wma file. I am wondering if is the file that I want... it is close to 50 mb so the size match the original . I scanned it using AVG it found nothing. If is the program that I want how can I unpack the files?

Suzy

Still learning the all the new tricks;)

I to use Spyware Blasterand and i keep it updated.

A FAST,SIMPLE,AFFORDABLE AND SENSABLE SOLUTION
 

1. UN-PLUG ALL WIRES FROM YOU TOWER.

2. SIT IN CAR.

3. DRIVE TO APPLE AUTHORIZED DEALER.

4. BY MAC MINI

5. SIT IN CAR.

6. DRIVE HOME.

7. BASH APART JAP CRAP TOWER.

8. WIRE MAC MINI.

9. MASTER OS IN 24 HOURS.

10. SAY GOOD BYE TO PROBLEMS.

11. HAVE BIG SMILE ON FACE.

12. WIPE GRIN OFF FACE.

13. HAVE ANGRY ANGRY LOOK ON FACE.

14. SCRATCH HEAD

15. ASK, " WHY COULDN'T MS DEVELOPE LIKE THIS?"

16. ADMIT GUILT OVER " CRIME AGAINST HUMAN CREATIVITY" THROUGH FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF A HIDDIOUSE AND UN-CREATIVE CORPORATION.

17. SHOUT LINUX SUCKS! UNIX ROCKS!

18. PAT SELF ON BACK....

Changing Formats
 

I have seen that you can change wmv format to MPEG or AVI.
I Googled it and the Main one it came up with is www.tomdownload.com/multimedia_design/ video/avi_wmv_mpeg_converter.htm -
Would this ruin any viruses if you did it,Also would a License still be required

The larger question is how to filter your searchs so that .WMV files don't appear.

If you're using LW then go to the LW menu bar, Tools>Options>Filters>Keywords & type in the word .wmv & press add. Then press the Apply button. For an image sample see Adding keywords to your filters (click on link.)

Unfortunately, the latest spam code prevents .wmv files from being filtered, even if the above instructions are followed exactly.

Are you sure about that? Did you press the Apply button after making the changes?
Keyword filters will work on searches but NOT upon browse or direct connect!!! ;)

Limewire's Keyword filters, for me anyway, only work in the "name" Column. If a file there has the extension shown it will be filtered, otherwise not.

ie: hidden extension you mean Only A Hobo. Well any file that has a hidden extension is only hidden because they don't want you to know about it. ie: wma/wmv files are potentially dangerous!
Stick to the normal video downld rules/routine: Movie download issues
Size is the important factor backed up with a Bitzi search if it exists on their database: How to use Bitzi Web Lookup ... Perhaps I'm over-simplifying it a bit ... but I'm sure you know what I mean. ;)

What works best for me is Lavasoft's AdAware SE Personal 1.06. It has a VX2 cleaner that takes off those adware/spyware files that were previously unremovable and the smartscan is FAST. You'll have to download the VX2 cleaner separately from the add-ons section and there's an updated version available. I used it today after I downloaded a file loaded with adware/spyware that I couldn't get rid of even with Norton's DoD wipe. It worked! Best of all....IT'S FREE!!!!! Just download the freeware version directly from their site.

Anti Virus Protection
 

I've found Norton (when set to 'On access protection' detects virii before the file even completes loading - and deletes it.

There are a few files out there that link to a site that invites you to "Purchase" the required Codec.... obviously forget it, don't and delete the file from the network.

As a note there seems to be a lot of T3 connections offering files of 851kb or thereabouts (often .zip files), all under different names, all infected with trojans. - Your AV software should stop the download .... just be careful ..... as always on the internet!

WMV and WMA - Size Does Matter
 

you can tell in a second if its BS or wonderland -- sort your result by size if you see a file and you know music and video have SIZE they are not every gonna be 183kb it its not showing MB Megabytes ... (4 or more numbers then kb) its a trick and the same goes for mpg or avi

use the big head.. if its too small its not going to ring the bell and fill you with delight... it means some butthead changed the name either just to be mean or because they must be the type of people that when there computer gets attacked and you don't even know what happened and or where you are or houw you got there.. what is the first thing I do... whip out my credit and and jump in.... yeah and monkeys my crawl out my butt...


its ok when your girlfriend tells you its not the size that counts... But we all know.. yeah it counts

Works Like a Trojan - Turns Like a Worm
 

851.7 kb

Is the size of the particular "little" interloper floating around the network.

It seems to be of schizophrenic nature as it masquerdaes around under different names such as "Phartoshop" (with serial), "Lines of Charlie at the Chocolate Factory" (presumably uncut version), "Belinda's Butt" (cracked version) "and a variety of plugins..... "and a hundred other names......

It's always 851.7kb, usually a .zip file, .... and it seems amazing how many people have it sitting on their system ..... (Maybe it started off being called "Around the world in 80 seconds" . in a self inflating balloon .zip file )

Using usual caution and common sense (you'd have to be a real dunce to consider any kind of mp3 / wma / wav / file of that size) .... you should have no problem.

But if looking for for software or plugins or the like that could possibly be around that size all zipped up ...... leave anything of 851.7kb alone....... and (as the previous guy said) keep zipped and using your big head when considering what to download.

For more info try using bitzi look up on files prior to downloading....

Just leave that 851.7kb thing well alone ..................

Smaller files - I lost the thread
 

With regard to preventing adware / spyware - I would still recommend Norton Antivirus coupled with Internet security... (paid for but well worth the price) as this protects your whole system and spots spyware quicker than you can blink. Once purchased it updates regularly, and by checking your whole system, an added bonus is that it obviously also checks your incoming email and deletes any infected files before they have a chance to act. Norton Internet security also warns you if any program attempts to connect to the internet or DNS server and gives you the option to permanently block it from doing so.

Instrincally there's nothing really "wrong" with wma files (or wmv or mov or rm)... although I vastly prefer mp3 or m4a for music (where you can also check the bit rate... 128 I would consider a minimum quality, - anything above that is a bonus, 160 provides reasonable audio quality but bigger file)....

Any file (wma wmv mov asf rm) with a size around 170kb is obviously just a link out to another site, although there are also now several files around 1500kb to 1800kb that link out to sites that invite you to buy codecs....

Norton won't allow these to install anything on your system, but I would suggest blocking the host that provided them (from within your LM options) so that they no longer appear in your searches.

As the previous post said, - sort your search results by size (by clicking on the size column to sort results by either ascending or descending file size... and use common sense). You'd be missing out a bit by ignoring all wma wmv mov or rm files, - (or I guess you could just wait for someone else to convert these into mp3 or mpg and wait for them to appear on the network).

As a reply to one of the much earlier threads, - not every program file (.exe .zip .rar) is infected, - I have several that are perfectly good. (for example winfeed.exe is a good (freeware) fractal generator... which gives hours of fun looking at pretty patterns to soothe the mind and waste a few hours .......

Like I mentioned in another thread, LimeWire really doesn't seem to "support" WMAs. All the song information and bitrate isn't displayed, which can be helpful.

This new threat really doesn't worry me however because I usually just download MP3s and convert them to WMAs later. There aren't that many WMAs on LimeWire anyway. But they can be nice to have for their high sound quality at smaller sizes.

re: wma
 

Yet another reason to steer clear of Windoze ANYTHING!

pc world the site has ads that popup

I believe it depends on the circumstances, of course you can find legit WMA files, which are songs ripped via Windows Media Player, however majority need licenses to play them, the same is with WMV and MOV, these are also to do with majority brand video players Windows Media Player and QuickTime.

With Anti-Virus, Spyware, and Firewalls, I would suggest trying something that you can feel comfortable using, and is somewhat user friendly.

yet another reason...
 

...to stay away from anything developed in Redmond.

On a serious note, I'd be obliged to hear from any Mac users regarding viruses/spyware/adware.

I NEVER use the LW player, but I have opened one .wma while online. Luckily, it didn't/couldn't install anything, and when I saw the file wasn't music, I tossed it and vowed never to touch .wma files again.

Mac users have little to be concerned about re: viruses. Except if you want to play wma files, I'd recommend VLC - (click on link) _ (choose nearest mirror site) so no WMA files can force a popup window or redirect you to a dialler site. Using other players will do this. VLC won't allow it to happen! ;)

You didn't say which mac os you're using but there are no OSX viruses at present. But still, if you're sharing such files, make sure you scan them with a AV program 1st so it doesn't potentially affect other windows users should the file be suspicious.

I personally always try to stay clear of wma files. BTW there is a couple of wma converters out there for mac; ie: convert to aiff or mp3. The previous the better.

There are a lot of MOV (QuickTime) files on Gnutella which do exactly what their WMA/WMV equivalents do i.e., redirecting you to a website. Furthermore, Mac OS contains no magic whatsoever, if there are few viruses or even none, it's only because the small marketshare of Apple isn't worth the effort. That said, I'm pretty sure a lot of people are grinding their blades currently and as soon as the Intel-Mac is widespread, there will be a big gore feast. I mean, they really deserve to be punished for not skipping x86 in favour of the much more secure AMD64 platform at the very least.

Likewise, VLC will not allow any type of file (afaik) to redirect you & that includes MOV files. QuickTime player however will!

since having problems recently with LW loading on its own i downloaded Ad Aware and Ewido antispyware along with my AVG and microsoft antispyware
i love those new programs! I used to run ASquared which was also good, but for some reason it got corrupted. Even though i deleted it and tried to download it again it is still corrupted so i gave up on it.
as for wma files...i never download them, but i make a point to scan everything I DO download before playing it!

hi i have a question ? i have only one antivirus protection and it's with microsoft firewall and this won't let me recieve no connection with limewired . plus i had to pay to get limewired. 48 bucks with change. so should i get ewido antispyware .. and what is AVG how much does it cost. also i wanted to know if on top of this screen when i sign on here it has some free download stuff and it tells you free of charges. i know i know too many question. i just don't like to kill to much time on the same area. which it has been 3 days trying to figured out what going on with my limewired, i also did the test and it tell me that is working . but it's being block like i said before with microsoft firewall. could you help me with one or all my questions. thank you have anice day.

Duetduet

OK, lets go:You should only run one AV program, if you run more than one they could corrupt each other or crash your PC.

MS firewall is not a proper firewall because it cannot protect you from any virus, Trojan, spyware or windows app already on your PC from accessing the internet while a real firewall, like ZoneAlarm or Norton Personal Firewall, will

You got your LW from a scam site, contact your CC company and get your money back. NB. LW Basic is free and LW Pro only cost $18.80.

I use it and it is very good so I would recommend that you get it.

AVG is an anti-virus application and I believe it is free.

No, there are no free stuff you can download from this forum, what you see at the top of the screen are adverts and they are not endorsed by or have anything to do with this forum.

Sorry, I do not personally use MS firewall because it is nonsense but maybe one of the other forum members will help you.



UK Bob