How to protect my comp on limewire?

Question

I have recently downloaded limewire but am worried about viruses, spyware...what can i do to protect my computer?

Answer 1

best solution: don't use limewire.

Answer 2

The problem is Limewire is a peer to peer sharing utility and anything you download can have a potential of having viruses. Being a computer professional my first order of business is to be straight forward with my customers and friends....Remove Limewire...

Follow up... After reading other posts. I have to say I would not take their advise. If you do not update your antivirus utilites daily, you can be behind on the virus detection. Have you ever heard of the term ZERO DAY EXPLOIT? what that is, is when spyware and virus authors wait for Microsoft to release its service packs or patches (usually every second tuesday of every month) and look to see what has been patched. Then they immediatly go to work on those holes knowing most people dont patch their computers regularly leaving their computers vunerable to spyware and viruses. How can they introduce these new spyware and viruses you ask? They send them out over LIMEWIRE and other peer to peer services to name a few. Now if your AV isnt up to date or has no idea how to detect said virus or spyware, BLAM! you have been bitten. So do not think just because you have AV in place that it makes your computer bullet proof. This is just a false sense of security.

Answer 3

Download:

1)Peer Guardian (essential if your using p2p programs)

2) Avast Home edition 4.8 (anti-virus)

3)Zone Alarm (firewall)

4)Ad-aware (anti-spyware)

You can download these from www.download.com

Hope this helps.

Stanley.

Answer 4

On my Windows machine I always scan the files I downloaded before I execute them.

On my Linux machine I've never had the need to scan anything.

Answer 5

There are two main things that you need to protect your PC, real-time Anti-Virus software and a two way firewall (inbound and outbound) you can get them both completely free, these two work well together on XP SP2 or SP3:

Comodo Pro (firewall)

http://www.download.com/Comodo-Firewall-...

Avast Anti-Virus 4.8 Home Edition*

http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Editi...

* Install Avast then Comodo as Comodo can sometimes interfere with Avast's installation, I would recommend changing Avast's default skin for the Vista style skin available from their website - http://www.avast.com/eng/skins.html

Comodo comes top in leaktests

http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewal...

You should only browse the internet using a limited account not an administrative account, if a virus infects your computer and you are using an admin account it can make critical system changes, but a limited account does not have the power to make critical changes so the amount of damage a virus can do is limited.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityf...

Would also recommend that you use a safer browser like Mozilla Firefox 3, and download additional anti-spyware software my favourite is Ad-aware 2008.

Firefox 3:

http://www.mozilla.com

You should Install the McAfee SiteAdvisor add-on - when you search for something using Yahoo, Google or MSN, site advisor displays either a green tick (safe site), yellow exclamation mark (use with care) or a red cross (dangerous site) next to every result. http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Answer 6

If you're worried that installing Limewire might have brought some of these into your computer, I suggest using Frostwire instead, which is exactly the same, except it is developed by freelancers who want to ensure that Limewire's services will always be absolutely free of spyware, adware, etc.

However, if you're worried that you may download viruses etc. via Limewire, just be careful what you download. You can install free antiviruses (the most recommended are AVG and Avast) and firewalls (I think I read that CNET.com recommends ZoneAlarm, though that was a few years ago...) to help protect yourself.

Answer 7

Right click and scan every file before you open it.If you don't open it,it can't affect you.Make sure the shared file is the only one available on your computer.I've been using for over 3 years and never got anything by just following those 2 simple rules.