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Hey! There's A Virus In My Pq!


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No. I don't trust what Micro$oft says.

 

Have the PQ sent to a different email address, like a new email address created at Yahoo!

 

You might run some anti-spyware/adware software like Spybot--Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware on your computer in case you have something else going on.

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A good idea about trying another email address, but I run pqs frequently, and this is the first "virus" notification. If it actually is a virus, shouldn't the PTB be aware of it?

PQs are basically nothing but text in a special format. I don't think there are any known viruses that could infect a PQ.

Also, if I remember right, there is no way the PQ server could get infected in the first place, since it doesn't receive any outside files.

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What are those virus thingies everyone keeps talking about?

I too wonder about this strange reference to viruses. My mom got pneumonia, but my Mac has never seen any trouble.

We only have one computer running in our store, so to speed things up when we get busy, i took in the iBook. Wecan't ring people out on it, but it can handle almost everything else.

 

You would be shocked to know how many customers fall in LOVE with is, mainly the ones who have never used a mac.

 

 

on the other hand, it keeps getting brain farts with the wireless network :laughing:

 

Oh, and if you zip your files, it should pass the virus scan easier.

 

 

Joe Smith

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What's the point in writing a virus that'll affect 342 people? :laughing:

 

Having been primarily a PC user all my life, but a technician in our comp. labs in HS, I will agree that win machines have more troubles, but in general are many times easier to fix when they do. OS crashes? No prob. Kick back to old-school DOS mode and fix it from there. I've never seen a win-based machine during a routine startup unable to find it's own hard drive...but it happened many times at our school on the macs (then-new powerPC units and brand-new macs at the time) Don't know what caused it, only know it took us about 3 days to get the machine back online each time. Macs--decent machines to work with, LOUSY machines to work ON.

Edited by dkwolf
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Macs--decent machines to work with, LOUSY machines to work ON.

Just as Windoze XP and 95 are worlds apart, Mac OS X is worlds apart from OS 9 and earlier. Actually further apart, as OS X is totally new from the ground up, as opposed to band-aids on tops of guaze pads on top of obsolete code. And that's just what the Windoze-oriented published reviewers are saying.

 

My company IT person and I got my new Mac PowerBook onto our Windoze network in under two minutes, but after 4-1/2 hours we still can't get Windoze XP running in Microsoft Virtual PC 7 to hook up with it. Which one is lousy to work on?

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It is pretty obvious that a clean PQ does not have a virus. But there is no reason why a file with a name like 234456.ZIP cannot contain a virus. Even a file with the extension "gpx" can theoretically be created by a virus to contian some sort of script that can cause problems. The reason we use anti-virus software is to detect these instances. It is extremely unlikely that a PQ would contain a virus, but if an infection of a brand new virus were to occur on the server, then it is not inconcievable that outgoing files could be infected and that the content of these files be something other than xml.

 

It is important not to assume that files are safe just because they normally are. If a file is declared to you as potentially having a virus, you should always update your anitvirus software to the latest files and then scan the file before opening it in any software.

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Even a file with the extension "gpx" can theoretically be created by a virus to contian some sort of script that can cause problems.

And if that GPX file still has the .gpx extension, then it can't be executed if it contains a script instead of valid XML data. Opening a .gpx file will open the application that is associated with .gpx files on your OS. That application will throw an error on the invalid data.

 

A zip file itself is non-executable. It could contain an executable program, but opening a zip file is safe. If you're downloading zipped PQs and the zip file contains an .exe, you'd be pretty daft to be executing it.

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What's the point in writing a virus that'll affect 342 people?  :(

 

Having been primarily a PC user all my life, but a technician in our comp. labs in HS, I will agree that win machines have more troubles, but in general are many times easier to fix when they do.  OS crashes?  No prob.  Kick back to old-school DOS mode and fix it from there.  I've never seen a win-based machine during a routine startup unable to find it's own hard drive...but it happened many times at our school on the macs (then-new powerPC units and brand-new macs at the time) Don't know what caused it, only know it took us about 3 days to get the machine back online each time.  Macs--decent machines to work with, LOUSY machines to work ON.

Having designed, built and repaired computers for most of my llife I have seen loads of PCs unable to find the HDD. As for Macs being hard to fix, don't confuse inexperience for difficulty. Macs are actually a pleasure to work on compared to PCs.

 

Sorry back OT.

 

There could be a string in the pq that the anti virus software sees as a virus

For example a few years ago we used to do this just to freak people out,

 

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

 

Hey it worked

Edited by tttedzeins
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Even a file with the extension "gpx" can theoretically be created by a virus to contian some sort of script that can cause problems.

And if that GPX file still has the .gpx extension, then it can't be executed if it contains a script instead of valid XML data. Opening a .gpx file will open the application that is associated with .gpx files on your OS. That application will throw an error on the invalid data.

 

A zip file itself is non-executable. It could contain an executable program, but opening a zip file is safe. If you're downloading zipped PQs and the zip file contains an .exe, you'd be pretty daft to be executing it.

A zip file can sooo execute an executable file when it is opened, how do you think about 1/4 of the viruses in the world are spread. Just check out one of the anti virus companies they will show you.

Mp3 files can and in some cases do contain viruses. I should imagine that if GPX files were as popular as zip or some other format some one would create a virus for them.

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There could be a string in the pq that the anti virus software sees as a virus

For example a few years we used to do this just to freak people out,

 

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

 

Hey it worked

:( What fun! I pasted the string into Notepad. As soon as I saved the text file, Symantec AV would delete it and give me a notification. The fun part is, it's still in Notepad....ctrl-S, popup, ctrl-S, popup, ... Sometimes, it's the little things that can make your morning fun :wub:

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There could be a string in the pq that the anti virus software sees as a virus

For example a few years we used to do this just to freak people out,

 

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

 

Hey it worked

:( What fun! I pasted the string into Notepad. As soon as I saved the text file, Symantec AV would delete it and give me a notification. The fun part is, it's still in Notepad....ctrl-S, popup, ctrl-S, popup, ... Sometimes, it's the little things that can make your morning fun :wub:

Now I never thought of that. Could have provided hours more entertainment

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"There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux. Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory."
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What are those virus thingies everyone keeps talking about?

I too wonder about this strange reference to viruses. My mom got pneumonia, but my Mac has never seen any trouble.

Nor have any of my 5 windows machines, and nor would yours if you protected them correctly.

 

There are viruses that affect MacOS, but not many people bother to write them because...

 

wait for it...

 

NO ONE USES MAC! :(

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A good idea about trying another email address, but I run pqs frequently, and this is the first "virus" notification.  If it actually is a virus, shouldn't the PTB be aware of it?

PQs are basically nothing but text in a special format. I don't think there are any known viruses that could infect a PQ.

Also, if I remember right, there is no way the PQ server could get infected in the first place, since it doesn't receive any outside files.

Isn't a .gpx file an XML file renamed with the .gpx extention? XML files can contain scripts and those scripts can be viruses.

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