Contageous sites?

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

Have someone ever had problems with tracking cookies or other parasites when surfing on COWPIE? AdAware warns for that site and that puzzles me somewhat.
I would rather suspect porn sites and their equals for spreading lice and not a country song lyrics site.
What are your experiences? Is this a false alarm or is there something to it?

Leon Grizzard · From: Austin, Texas, USA

Cowpie is notorious. There have been a few threads on the topic. The last time I went on Cowpie, I got a bunch of adware/spyware on my computer, and it was the devil to get it off.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Had the same problem with a drive-by download from lyrics.com a year ago. Scary stuff and time consuming to clean up.

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

How come that a country lyrics site is full of malware? I can understand if porn site owners wants to parasite on their customers, but why on earth would country fans want to hurt each others? I can't understand the logic behind this.
What people are behind COWPIE? Can't someone talk it over with them?

Bobby D. Hunter · From: USA

Cowpie and some other lyrics websites are subsidized by advertisers, some of whom use drive-by downloads and Internet Explorer exploits to install crapware onto the computers of anybody unlucky enough to visit those websites with an Internet Explorer browser that has not been totally locked down.

I strongly advise anybody who intends to browse lyrics websites to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer!

You can get Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

[This message was edited by Bobby D. Hunter on 10 December 2005 at 09:13 AM.]

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

Thanks, Bobby!

Now I've installed Firefox and lots of uppdates and plug-ins. I haven't surfed COWPIE yet but will later.
Is Firefox generally safer than Internet Explorer, or do the two programs have some strong and weak sides each?

[This message was edited by Anders Brundell on 10 December 2005 at 01:16 PM.]

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Anders;
Most of the current crop of drive-by downloads and browser exploits only work in Internet Explorer. Many of those are due to that browser's use of ActiveX controls and some Jscript programming deficiencies.

Firefox does not recognize ActiveX at all. Any program that wants to install as a plug-in or "extension" causes a warning browser bar to appear in the upper section of the browser. The default action is to block any download that installs anything into the Firefox browser, unless you click on the warning bar and allow that website to download and install software. Firefox's Javascript engine is state of the art and is updated regularly, as are fixes for bugs and exploits, as they are discovered.

Given the options and risks I have opted to use only Firefox to browse the 'Net. I now use Internet Explorer only to verify layouts when working on website designs and CSS layouts.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services

Don Walters · From: Saskatchewan Canada

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

Thanks a lot for all advises!

Is there an update function somwhere for Firefox like http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/ (the link is not complete here; just meant as an example) for Explorer? I can't find any update link on the Firefox sites and don't want to miss that opportunity.

[This message was edited by Anders Brundell on 10 December 2005 at 10:24 PM.]

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Anders queried:

quote:

Is there an update function somwhere for Firefox?

Yes, Anders, there is a built in function in Firefox to search for updates.

In versions prior to 1.5 you would go to Tools > Options > Advanced and scroll down to find Search for Updates. Select updates for Firefox and Extensions and click the Check Now button.

Firefox 1.5 and later have a much simpler path to get updates. Go to Help > Check For Updates. It has an option available during installation to periodically check for updates, and you should enable it. Don't forget to educate your firewall that Firefox is a trusted application and allow it and it's updater to access the 'Net. Some firewalls will complain when you update the program version, so be prepared to acknowledge and permit the changed app to access the 'Net (as long as you know you just updated it!).

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

Thanks, Wiz!

I had already enabled auto updating but fogotten about it. I'm not good at handling computers and will never be - I'm simply too old. The neigbor's kids are lightyears ahead of me.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I got some malware from COWPIE, so I advise everyone not to use it. Same thing with "Snopes". Along with urban legends, it downloads spyware to your computer.

Anymore, if I click a link, and nothing happens for 10 seconds (like...it's downloading something), I just shut off the modem. Then I restart the modem, open a new browser window, and search elsewhere.

Larry Lorows · From: Zephyrhills,Florida, USA

Donny, That sounds like a great idea to me. Thank you. Larry

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U12 Williams keyless 400
Evans SE 150, Nashville 112, Line 6 pod xt

Bryan Knox · From: Gardendale, Alabama...Ya'll come

I used to frequent Cowpie quite often. My Adware is not finding anything that they may have left on my box...should I investigate further, and if so, how.

FYI...I am running McAfee as well as Adware.

Thanks for your help,
Bryan

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Bryan;
Even if Ad-Aware doesn't find anything don't relay on only one opinion. Get more tools to check for spyware, like these...

Spybot Search and Destroy and Microsoft AntiSpyware are both freeware, as is Spywareblaster. I use all three regularly and always install this trio on client machines when checking for and fighting off PC infections.

All three play well together.

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services

Bryan Knox · From: Gardendale, Alabama...Ya'll come

Thanks Wiz

B.

Anders Brundell · From: Falun, Sweden

A given follow-up question got to be: Wich reasonably safe lyrics sites are there out there? Is COWPIE the biggest or are there other sites that can replace it one by one or together (maybe that's a new topic, BTW)?
Those of us who have other native languages than english needs those sites better than americans/englishmen, I guess.

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Mozilla Firefox was developed by a bunch of expert programmers who got tired of all the crap that Internet Explorer was letting into their computers. It is now a non-profit California company dedicated exclusively to solutions for that kind of problem.

Here's an excerpt from the July 15 announcement:

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