Computer newbies forum: How To Determine A Safe Site?

If it's referred to in a Cnet article, I wouldn't give it much second thought. If it's here in the forums, I'd be more cautious depending on who it is that linked to it. If it's Bob, Toni, Mark, Ray (Harinec), etc, I don't worry as I know they'd never steer me wrong. However, if it's a new member with a few posts I'd be a little more leery for the simple fact that I don't know the person who's recommending it. If it's something on Cnet's download.com, I'd read the reviews and be cautious. They do scan the software offered, but things have been known to slip through. (I've caught/reported a few myself.)

Now, for the software-side of things, I have two primary recommendations...Netcraft Toolbar and Site Advisor, both of which are free and available for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Netcraft Toolbar will give you information about the site you're at and help detect phishing sites. (ie Site look-a-likes that trick you into handing over private information.) SiteAdvisor (highly recommended) will give the site you're viewing a Green, Yellow, or Red flag based on spam, malware, popups, tracking cookies, and other nasties. It can also be used to 'highlight' all search results through Google, Yahoo, and MSN, alerting to which search results are safe and which are not. I trust both and rely on them daily.

Aside from that, always make sure you have a firewall and the usual malware protection in case you do pick up something.

Finally, I'd like to note that ImageShack.us is fine...they use a few tracking cookies but do not pose a threat or security risk. I use it all the time and wouldn't recommend something I thought to be harmful.

Hope this helps,
John

Thanks John and Tom. You were more than helpful.

DC

What is Warez please? And why should we stay away from it?

Thanks.

Warez is illegal download sites for software. They upload the entire installation program and provide any serials that are needed. It is the equivalent of shop lifting.

...the owner of the copyrighted material is ALWAYS illegal unless the owner of the copyrighted material has given permission to do so.. Paying the owner of the P2P software, whether it be Limewire, or a warez site, it's bound to be illegal because they don't pay the owner of the music, movie, or software download.

Unfortunately, there are a number of users that get sucked into that scam..

Hope this helps.

Grif

I got a message saying Firefox wouldn't permit it to download. Is there a problem here?

DC

Thanks John. It took me a minute or two to find the ''edit options'' button but once that was found the rest was easy.
And thanks to the rest who have helped with this problem.
Another case of ''Newbies forum to the rescue''.

DC

As far as I am concerned there is no such thing as a safe site. If you really want to be safe you will never go onto the internet from your home computer. You will use the public library or some other source if you really want to be safe and even there you may not really be safe if you have to give your name, etc. I have used warez but not from my home computer.

What do I mean by safe? That the site does not know my computer IP or anything else about me. If all your are concerned about is Virus attacks and spyware, that is a another issue. Just get yourself some good Anti-virus software and anti-spyware software, and both hardware and software firewalls.