Question on Kazaa Lite

Trogan

Hi everyone.

My brother has downloaded Kazaa Lite and he says its safe and that no spyware, adware etc will harm our PC because it doesn't have a feature or something to harm our PC.

Is that true? I don't trust kazaa because i'v heard a lot of things that damage peoples PC

Thanks

TheBaron

kazaa lite shouldn't have spyware. with that said, its probably not a good idea to use kazaa at this point. find some other way to fileshare that isn't hounded by the RIAA

Leonardo

Kazaa Lite itself does not install spyware on your system. But as with most P2P programs, you must be careful. K-Lite does not have any software that will filter malicious code that another file sharer might insert into something you get from him or from a third party. Just use a good AV program, and open no files until they've been scanned. Run Ad-Aware and Spybot regularly if you use any P2P program.

entropy

the kazaa network is more bogged by virii than any other...so if not the software, then you might get infected via files you download

primesuspect

Yeah, kazaa lite itself is not harmful, but the network is so bogged down with trojans and virus installers that it's almost pointless to use. Plus, the RIAA just loves kazaa users

Kwitko

Use BitTorrent.

entropy

Or WinMX or Overnet (each networks have different strengths, as with every network)

Dexter

One other thing every user of a Peer to Peer sharing network like Kazaa should do is this:

Open any folder on your hard drive. Click Tools -> Folder Options -> View, then uncheck the option "Hide extensions for known file types." Click APPLY, then click APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS. Then Click OK.

This means that you will now see the file type extension for all files in every folder on your computer. Why is this important? Because without the real extension visible, it is possible to have files masquerading as a different file type by using bogus "double extensions." For instance, a mailcious file named "Britney Spears Naked.jpg.exe." If your computer is not set to show the real extension of a file, and you look at that file in a folder on your hard drive, all you will see is "Britney Spears Naked.jpg." Yummy, you think to yourself....and double-click it. Then, when the file opens...nothing to be seen. Thinking that you had a bad download, you delete it. But it's too late, the damage is done. You have launched an unidentified executable (.exe) file on your system. And who knows what it is doing....maybe a trojan that leaves your system wide open to a someone to log into it and help themselves to whatever they find. Maybe a keylogger that records every keystroke and quietly e-mails it to someone, capturing your passwords, your banknig info, maybe even your credit card numbers or paypal account information. Maybe even a virus that deletes your hard drive's master boot record.

Why is this set be default to something that is so easily used to fook the unsuspecting? Well, Microsoft decided to hide file extensions so that the user would not have to see something that reminds them of old DOS naming conventions. Seemingly embarrased by their 8.3 nomenclature past, and wanting to look more like the extensionless Mac OS whom they have been striving for years to emulate, they decided for esthetic reasons to hide extensions for known file types, because, they thought, the user does not need to see them, since the OS knows what program to use to launch a file. Apparently it never occurred to them that this just makes it way too easy to fool less knowledgeable users into executing malicious code on their system. Or maybe they did, and didn't care about the security risk this poses. Despite how glaringly easy it would be to reverse this default option, Microsoft still places esthetics over security on this issue. :shakehead:

So, Kazaa users, do yourself a favour if you have not done so already. Unhide the file extensions for known types, so that you won't be fooled by this simply but surpisingly effective and widespread trick.

Dexter...

Dexter...

Trogan

Hi everyone, Thanks for replying to this thread, I wasn't expectiong so many

I have WinMX, IMesh and recently unistalled Overnet.

Dexter I followed your instructions about 'Click Tools -> Folder Options -> View, then uncheck the option "Hide extensions for known file types." Click APPLY, then click APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS. Then Click OK.' and the box was already uncheacked.

Thanks everyone and I'l run a scan after every download