please help a newbie!!

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:29 am

Someone please help me. I want to know how to avoid viruses downloading video games and exe files from here. I don't have any virus protection, but I do have Spybot search and destroy. Any suggestions?? Does anyone know of any free virus protection that works?? Thanks for your help.

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:43 am

use google there are lots of free AV.here's a couple

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

only get one of whatever you decide,more than one will conflict.

read this to learn how to spot fakes.

https://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=246497

some games the cracks,etc will be flagged but it tends to be false positives and people not knowing the difference,when their AV flags it or what is being flagged.read all the comments not just the ones from those without a clue.as for separate exe files (not included with a release from a respected uploader) i would be leery of.using the infohash to check sites they are at will usually sort that out.

you should learn to use the infohash and always check a file before you ever click download.you'll be able to see release pages,uploader comments,user comments,languages,etc.etc. that way that won't always find here since this is an indexing site.

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:57 pm

hey iamnephilim,

about the false positives you've just mentioned, i can't seem to find much info about them. i recently downloaded a game with a couple expansions, and during the setup.exe for the first game, avg detected a level 4 malware (without taking any chances i immediately quarantined and removed it) but to my surprise the install was still able to continue, and the game works great (not sure how it survived without the setup.exe performing the setup).

anyhow, the same thing happened for both the expansions prior to install, except that the setup.exe was so infected the install couldn't continue at all (which is what should have happened originally, no..? Confused

infohash yielded absolutely no help. and the original comments on isohunt were few and varied (one claiming it to be infected, one claiming it to be false positives)... my head is spinning from this!!! i know that setup.exe is a common place for false-detection to happen, but... my brain hurts!!! lol

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:21 pm

i personally consider AVG to be junk.one of the reasons is just what you described.lots of people use it with no problems it's a personal thing.if there are comments here there will normally but not always be comments elsewhere to be found using the infohash since the files are coming from elsewhere,this is an indexing site.

the setup exe is just the install file.again if most say there is nothing wrong with a file then likely it's a false positive.you can do a quick check at sites like virustotal as well as your AV and/or malewarebytes.frequently the things being flagged are nothing or being flagged for possibly being bad with no proof of it.when you google the results it's frequently suspected behavior crap which is what a crack is.

very simply,a false positive is basically the AV telling you something is bad when it isn't.the makers of the AV get money from manufacturers to flag cracks,hacks,keygens,etc so frequently there is nothing wrong with the files.

here's an example of someone that had something going on on his pc didn't want to take no for answer and flagged a file that had nothing wrong with it.avast clearly shows it's clean.

https://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2000449&highlight=#2000449

https://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2001957&highlight=#2001957

https://isohunt.com/torrent_details/33364765/doom+3?tab=comments

obviously there is some bad stuff out there it just means you have to use common sense and take some time searching to be sure what is being flagged actually should be.

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:05 pm

hmmm... i used to have avast (alongside spybot and malwarebytes) and it worked flawlessly. eventually i randomly switched over to AVG - it's also never failed to impress... but I've realised you guys praise avast quite heavily here... maybe i oughtta take your word for it and re-install it. I'll have to get rid of AVG i suppose eh, to avoid conflicts n crap? I'll let you know what avast says about those same setup.exe files that AVG detected as malware. But then again, it could be the real deal virus... lol. who knows right? the file had barely any comments on it even after google'ing infohash.

are sites like virustotal reliable enough to properly identify threats? i'd prefer to stick to the three badasses for that kinda stuff (malwarebytes,spybot, and avast or avg and whatnot) lol. the weird thing is, with this specific file, is that I scanned it with all three after the torrent finished. and it came clean. it was only when i opened up the .rar files, as well as initiate the setup.exe that the AV started to freak out. on a final note.... Embarassed

if i am truly mistaken then please go ahead and delete my false votes and whatnot for

isohunt.com/torrent_details/314438965/PC+AOEIII?tab=comments

i hope i didn't make yet another of my dumb noob mistakes. thxs again iamnephilim. (p.s. id really hate to take a beating like that poor chap did from pacino - in that first link you posted. LOL. poor sob) Laughing

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:43 pm

like i said some here like AVG.i just don't and if it works for you that is what matters.you didn't flag anything,you just made some comments alerting any one else but not saying you know for certain it has anything bad.you have to use the flag torrent as option when making a comment or click on the just say thanks after you post a comment.

when checking the hash is shows to have been deleted from both TPB and kickass,usually a bad sign.the couple comments and yours say it's nothing major and at another site it has 6 good ratings and 3 bad ratings.so i would say it's just the things you found along with a nice sized amount of seeds (if it were bad they'd have left it) so possibly a false positive.but when looking for something to download i would have kept looking for one from a known uploader of games like reloaded,skidrow,etc. (there aren't any listed here) and only tried that one as a last resort.i would have to google what it's finding to know if it's really bad,and very well may be.

sites like virustotal are using the same AV as users install but checking it against more than would be wise to install.you should have only one as they will conflict and basically not work if you have more than one running.

it has great speed which should be a good sign.it's maxing out my bandwidth at around 1.9MB/s.

EDIT okay i have the paid for version of avast.neither it nor my paid for version of malwarebytes found anything wrong with the main thing.once i tried to extract it to a folder then the nsis:downloader-sz was deleted by avast.for the two extras avast didn't like them at all.it found nsis:downloader-sz which is supposed to be bad stuff so i deleted it.the trojan dropper it showed is usually low level and is sometimes the false positive.once i deleted the other it didn't get flagged again.

the file should probably be flagged since nsis:downloader-sz is a backdoor trojan and could possibly allow outside access to your pc but once they are deleted from the three files it is scanning clean.

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:05 pm

lol so i got rid of avg as soon as avast was updated n good to go. ran a full scan - came clean, even did specific scans of any associated folders and files from this torrent and had the same clean results... then set avast up for a boot-time scan. about 5 min into the boot-time scan it comes up to the AOE III folder - one of the three expansion packs for the game - and finds a virus. so in the ghetto bios screen i got the options from 1-8 or whatever lol... for like 1)delete 2)delete all 3) move to chest 4) move all to chest... etc. and for each option i got some kind of error code - "duplicate file this /or that" and some other kinds of errors. Was stuck on the bios screen of the boot-time scan and literally had no choice but to escape out, lol.

when the pc started up again i did a full time scan and nothing is picking these things up in the scanner. its only visible in the boot-time scan i guess (where the virus can't hide as well as im guessin???) anywhooo its a bit of a predicament..... yup. LOL Confused

edit: just realisd this... is it possible that the virus only gets picked up in the boot-time scan because i noticed that scan is set to unpack archived files as well... which is just about when the thing got detected on my avg b4.. hmmm? lol

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:16 pm

guessing i would say yeah.it scanned fine til i tried to extract it to the same name folder,then avast deleted them straight away.

i really don't like single rar files like this.i have a couple but most always are bad news.from the nfo that came with the file he is claiming to have done it better,better cracks,etc. than the original FLT release i think so he's probably added the crap that's getting flagged.

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:27 pm

guess avg was actually right haha. never mis-detected something b4 for me - thats y it surprised me with this torrent. sticking with avast anyway... they have a crazy cheap offer for the pro edition that i saw after it installed - may just buy the full thing after goin through all this lol. plus ya gotta love that ai chick who annonces all that shizz. looll. Off Topic

edit : haha and i just realised that avg took winrar along with that virus b4. haha... it doesn't just kill the cancer - it removes the entire body. loll. more reason to stick with avast i guess

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:22 am

update : avast is not how i remember it... to say the least... lol. boot-time scan isn't able to do anything with the virus, can't move it to the virus chest, delete it, repair it, and so fourth - i get different errors and the like that i mentioned b4. when i manually go to the scan results once the pc has booted up, it shows the 8 specific high severity trojans, and only 3 of them can be removed,moved to virus chest, etc. the other 5 give me this problem:

"result: error compressed file is too big to be processed (42057)"

&

some of the other trojans give me this error:

"error the system cannot find the file specified (2)"

and the name of the file is the same all across the board:

"Threat: NSIS: Downloaded-SZ [Trj]"

i'm no expert on viruses, especially these compressed ones lol, but if those trojans are in this weird limbo state (not virus chest, but smack dab in the pc) then can't they be wreaking havok on my pc as i'm writing this... aghhhhhhhh and ya'll hate on avg!? lololll Evil or Very Mad

oh and i've set the virus chest to have unlimited access to the hdd (0 limit) and the maximum size of file to be sent is also on the max - so the compressed file being too big can't be the issue.

what a nightmare lol. i stayed away from game torrents for a while because of this crap. sticking to media from here on out lol.

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:17 am

the too big thing has nothing to do with avast,it's the file trying to open something to scan and failing.i can't remember what but i was playing with it during install on the pc i check things on and got the same message a number of times.did you delete all the stuff from the game file that you downloaded.and delete all the stuff that avast found,not quarantine but delete.did you uninstall the game.

once i checked it and left the edit last night.i ran a scan deleted all the NSIS stuff found.deleted all the files,uninstalled the game,ran CCleaner,ran scans with both avast and malwarebytes and everything was clean,no threats found.

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:11 pm

yup - the file size issue had nothing to do with the file size, lol. but because the .rar files were corrupted (and being compressed files) avast had issues handling it, but the main thing is it detected the trojans! i traced the problem files back to their original folders and manually deleted them - scans all across the board come clean now.... unless of course the trojans are so deeply infected into the pc that their trickery is... well ya know... tricking the av and other programs into thinking "it's all good." lol.

i'm just gonna go with the whole ignorance is bliss angle and forget about them trojans! lolol

oh and nephilim ... not sure if you actually tried to run AOE III or either of it's expansions, but was just curious if they worked even after removing the infected files? somehow my AOEIII functions great even though the setup.exe was removed prior to install... lol Confused

but had no such luck with the expansions... Sad

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:21 pm

i'm probably not saying it right but no the problem wasn't avast.the problem was the files.i tried opening them when installing and got the error,avast wasn't even turned on when i installed.after i scanned with avast and deleted everything there were no more trojans and the PC is clean.

it kept asking for the first disc with the game and the dynasties installed the wartribe or whatever wouldn't finish installing.