legov8 was not lying... I too got a virus from vgmuseum.com

[Steven]

I know Joe locked that thread but I'd just like to share my experiences. It was the only site I had loaded up at the time, and it gave my PC a virus all right. Trust me it came from there.

Now I know a lot of people haven't gotten a virus going there, but if it happened to two people I'd just say "go there at your own caution."

[digitalpress]

I hope you guys have contacted them with the specifics. I'm sure they'd like to know what's up so they can get their server cleaned up.

[yok-dfa]

It could be that 'someone' bought some ad-space and is using the banner ads on that site to install spyware and/or virusses without vgmuseum even knowing about it.

[legov8]

Nice to know I'm not the only one who got a virus from them.

[pragmatic insanester]

i'm glad someone brought this up. i've been getting crap while looking at gamefaqs' screenshots (from vgm) for quite a while.

[§ Gideon §]

:eek 2: Thanks for the heads-up. I visit that site fairly regularly.

[Link_Chrono]

I know it's not completely related, but I recently got several virus warning pop-ups while I was on Gamespot. Maybe someones done what yok-dfa said on both sites...?

[Steven]

I know it's not completely related, but I recently got several virus warning pop-ups while I was on Gamespot. Maybe someones done what yok-dfa said on both sites...?

Its really sad with websites these days. I mean, in the past 10 months my PC has gotten like 4, 5 viruses from SIMPLY visiting a website. Now I only go on the ones I KNOW contains no viruses. I *never* click on links I can't trust any more, and if I never been there, I can't trust it.

Back in the day I thought viruses came only when you downloaded something, now I know you can simply pick up a virus from viewing a website... man that just sucks.

Click only where you're certain it's safe is now my belief on the net...

[Simply Dave]

i'm glad someone brought this up. i've been getting crap while looking at gamefaqs' screenshots (from vgm) for quite a while.

Same thing here.

[Satac]

I know it's not completely related, but I recently got several virus warning pop-ups while I was on Gamespot. Maybe someones done what yok-dfa said on both sites...?

Its really sad with websites these days. I mean, in the past 10 months my PC has gotten like 4, 5 viruses from SIMPLY visiting a website. Now I only go on the ones I KNOW contains no viruses. I *never* click on links I can't trust any more, and if I never been there, I can't trust it.

Back in the day I thought viruses came only when you downloaded something, now I know you can simply pick up a virus from viewing a website... man that just sucks.

Click only where you're certain it's safe is now my belief on the net...

Why don't you use a secure browser like Opera (http://www.opera.com) or Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com)? With them you won't get a virus just by vistiting a website and they are more comfortable to use.

[Haoie]

Does that virus thing affect the subsites, like Mr P's Castlevania realm?

[Ed Oscuro]

Wierd. Well, sorry for the hasty judgement earlier.

You guys invested in Spybot: S&D, and SpyWare blaster, among various other things? Very good investment, only $0 :D

[Damion]

My suggestion Stop using IE and switch to Firefox.

I stopped using IE about a year ago back when I had to run spyware checks almost every day. Now I'm down to about once a month if that and still come up with damn near nothing and thats only because My wife thinks some things will only come up in IE even though firefox has all the right plugins now and everything works for me.

also some antivirus programs will find and stop some spyware and call them virus's which in a way is true.

There is also some rather nasty explots if your using an IE thats earler then 5.5 where all Ad/spyware will just install apps onto your system with no authorization from the user.

[anagrama]

Let it be a lesson learned: don't use IE.

[SoulBlazer]

I use IE and don't see the need to change from it as my primary browser. It's the only one that will load everything and combined with the Microsoft pop-up blocker and a good virus program you're fine.

Still, there are a lot of hackers out there who will bother even secure websites, so you can't be paranoid about everything out there. I'm sure it will be fixed soon.

[TeddyRuxpin]

I use IE and don't see the need to change from it as my primary browser.

I felt that way and said the same thing until I forced myself to try FireFox so i could honestly say I didn't want to use it for a reason. However, I loved it. Now I recommend it to everyone and have a button for it on my site. 8-)

[NE146]

I don't know what the heck you guys are doing. But I'm using IE and I've been surfing vgmuseum tonight to check this out. Zero anything. Sure get a lot of popups though.. :P

[TeddyRuxpin]

I don't know what the heck you guys are doing. But I'm using IE and I've been surfing vgmuseum tonight to check this out. Zero anything. Sure get a lot of popups though.. :P

Could be one of the popups. Sponered ads are well rotated sometimes. So maybe you just haven't gotten the offending ad yet.

[XxMe2NiKxX]

Firefox will still pick up the Trojan (not virus) from vgm. I think it's from an ad, it's nothing to get your panties in a bunch about.

[SuperNES]

I use IE and don't see the need to change from it as my primary browser.

I felt that way and said the same thing until I forced myself to try FireFox so i could honestly say I didn't want to use it for a reason. However, I loved it. Now I recommend it to everyone and have a button for it on my site. 8-)

same here. everyone was saying how great it was, and i was all "bah, i don't need me no newfangled moziller firefoks" but then i decided to try it out just so i could say "bah, firefox suxorz" but it turned out it was really good, and now i never use IE anymore. it has excellent pop-up blocking, and i honestly do not know how i lived without tabbed browsing.

[Neil Koch]

This is a bit off-topic, but since you guys are talking about viruses and whatnot, I need some help.

I was surfing last night on my home computer and everything was going very slow. Usually, this indicates that I've picked up something. So I ran Spybot and Ad-Aware, which didn't turn up anything, but my anti-virus scan (EZTrust) did pick up a few things (Trojans) which I deleted.

But now I can't "connect" to the internet. None of my web browsers work (Mozilla, IE, Netscape and Opera) and other programs like my Telnet client and MSN IM can't connect either.

I check under network connections and it said my connections were active, and I was able to get onto Xbox Live, so it's not a problem with my net connection (broadband through satellite). It's not a problem with my router either, since I tried hooking everything directly into my computer and I got the same result.

Can anyone help?

[Ed Oscuro]

Firefox blah blah.

That's completely secondary, as far as security goes, to getting Spybot S&D from security.kolla.de, and Spyware Blaster (linked from within the Spybot program).

Neil: Run the program again after a reboot to make sure you're clean (I say always reboot and run again after a clean, with some exceptions). Try using System Restore. If that doesn't work, back up any stuffs you want to keep and then reformat :$

[Neil Koch]

Neil: Run the program again after a reboot to make sure you're clean (I say always reboot and run again after a clean, with some exceptions). Try using System Restore. If that doesn't work, back up any stuffs you want to keep and then reformat :$

I tried rebooting several times and got the same result.

I'll try the System Restore -- don't know why I didn't think of that before, thanks.

Luckily, I backed up my site (the only thing I really care about on my computer) a few days ago, so if worse comes to worse, I'll be okay with re-formatting I guess.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I need to back up my stuff bad. I usually just lose it all every five years when a hard drive dies LOL

Best of luck with that, hope you get that PC running again soon.

[TisLord]

Run WindowXPHostFixer or a similiar program, your host files and table are more then liekely corrupted

[rbudrick]

I have IE set to prompt me for any and all cookies. Never had a virus since, since I turn down almost everyone of them except for sites I know are safe. Not sure why everyone doesn't do this. Cookies are a gateway to allow malicious shit to get on your PC. Before I used to do this, I had hundreds of pieces of spyware every week. Now I only get a few every now and then

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

Prompting for cookies is a hassle, and doesn't fix all yer problems - go with Spybot, go, go go!

[NE146]

Cookies aren't viruses though (like those tracking cookies from doubclick.com or something that spyware programs like to catch). With an updated OS/IE, I have yet to find a single website that installs anything on your computer without you knowing. Although I don't deny it can happen (I once knew a website that altered your mirc scripts just by visiting.. it was pretty cool how it did it too). But all I'm saying is it's getting hard to find any WEB sites these days that can install anything without your consent unless they're real cutting edge taking advantage of the latest found exploit.

Common sense is still one of the best weapons against most viruses :)

[Geo1126]

I recommend the Firefox browser with the adblock extension. It blocks those unwanted ads and you can customize it to block ads made by doubleclick and any of the advertisers that make ads. It's great to avoid tracking cookies. If you want to use IE, then make sure you have SP2.