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[famu97]

I'm new to JRiver Media Center but I love what I see so far.  I downloaded this latest version and installed it but when I tried to download one of the remote IR plug-ins my Trend Micro anti-virus software said that it detected the PAK_GENERIC.001 virus.  Has anyone seen this problem before? Should I be worried it's any actual virus?  Are these 3-rd party plug-ins being downloaded from an unknown source that maybe unsecure or not properly tested and vetted?

Thanks
KT

[Alex B]

I'm new to JRiver Media Center but I love what I see so far.  I downloaded this latest version and installed it but when I tried to download one of the remote IR plug-ins my Trend Micro anti-virus software said that it detected the PAK_GENERIC.001 virus.  Has anyone seen this problem before? Should I be worried it's any actual virus?  Are these 3-rd party plug-ins being downloaded from an unknown source that maybe unsecure or not properly tested and vetted?

It's probably a false alarm. I have never heard about "plugin virus problems" and those plugins have been available for a long time. Which plugin exactly?

EDIT

I searched for the PAK_GENERIC.001 virus. Seems like it is not an actual virus detection: http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=PAK%5FGENERIC%2E001&VSect=P

[John Gateley]

I'm new to JRiver Media Center but I love what I see so far.  I downloaded this latest version and installed it but when I tried to download one of the remote IR plug-ins my Trend Micro anti-virus software said that it detected the PAK_GENERIC.001 virus.  Has anyone seen this problem before? Should I be worried it's any actual virus?  Are these 3-rd party plug-ins being downloaded from an unknown source that maybe unsecure or not properly tested and vetted?

Plug-ins must go through a verification process before being added to the web site. This includes virus scanning with the latest virus definitions.

Which plug-in was it?

j

[jkrzok]

I'm new to JRiver Media Center but I love what I see so far.  I downloaded this latest version and installed it but when I tried to download one of the remote IR plug-ins my Trend Micro anti-virus software said that it detected the PAK_GENERIC.001 virus.  Has anyone seen this problem before? Should I be worried it's any actual virus?  Are these 3-rd party plug-ins being downloaded from an unknown source that maybe unsecure or not properly tested and vetted?

Thanks
KT

At the risk of me going OT, may I suggest that you upload the file in question to http://www.virustotal.com/ and have the site run it through a dozen or so different, updated scanners. It's an excellent source for a second, third, thirteenth opinion.

[benn600]

I suggest not running anti-virus software like me.  You never have to worry about "OH NO, I HAVE A VIRUS!"

It's better to just not know.

However, you have to be moderately careful to avoid viruses.

[benn600]

I have no clue if any of our household computers have a virus.  I have no spyware or anti-virus software running.  I feel confident enough because they run very well and I keep pretty good tabs on what exactly gets installed...and the users are moderately educated to not just install random stuff.  Plus, lots of our friends run Macs so we are unlikely to get bad email (somewhat anyway).

[John Gateley]

Yesterday was patch tuesday. Did you update your windows systems? If you don't keep your systems up to date, there's a good chance you've got a virus, whether you notice it or not, whether you are careful or not...

j

[mark_h]

I ran, and paid for a well known virus software suite for a number of years - during that time my nephews trashed their machine a number of times due to viruses; I never had a single one and none were caught by the virus software either.  I recently stopped subscribing to the software and uninstalled it to release resources.  I now run without virus/malware software and am confindent that I will have no issues, but If I do, I keep daily, weekly and monthly rolling backups from which I can restore.  My regime is a solid hardware firewall, regular windows updates and Firefox with many of it's security plugins - and of course I do not download any dodgy software...

I am not advocating running without such software, but with a robustly secure system, good browsing software and common sense practices it's not impossible to do so.

Cheers,

Mark

[jgreen]

I think the reason this hair-brained course of action has any currency today is that for so many years Symantec ignored most spyware and convinced us we were secure because we could delete our cookies.  I certainly agree that anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall software can be cumbersome to use and has a hard time protecting us against our own stupidity, but in today's environment common-sense surfing is no longer enough, and not even luck can protect an exposed system. 

So you have no important personal info on the machine, apart from one or two places where you registered software in your real name?  Oh, and you accessed online banking through that machine, but only once or twice.  That's a decent start.  Let's say that you have a business account with B of A for your ebay store.  Did you know B of A will not cover fraud losses on business accounts?

Stack the potential losses against the agravation factor of using protection.  IMO, there is no possible way to construe that the cure is worse than the disease. 

[Mr ChriZ]

I think it depends what the machines used for.
We've got virus scanners running round the clock here
on several machines.  However I can't remember the last time
one of them actually picked up a virus. 

If you're not using the machines for downloading stuff, emailing,
and they're up to date with Windows updates then realistically there's
not many ways they're going to get virus's, unless of course
you've got some whizz kid sticking they're memory stick in it from
somewhere else...

If on the other hand you download every random bit of software
going, then you're more likely to get bitten.

[DarkPenguin]

I get them emailed to me all the time.

[gappie]

i actualy have the same feeling as mark h. im getting tired of all this security stuff. it takes a part of the fun/conviniance of the internet away, and slows down the machine. but then again. it does not happen often, but out of nowhere, no software downloaded or what ever, my scanner picked up a DoS.JS.WhatEver virus.
i even thought about changing my operating system to Zeta, but thinking about all the complications.... maybe there is something that like a configuration where i use an other machine to first check what ever comes through my network on virusses and stuff, but still is fast enough to let me have a good remote desktop connaction to some clients of me in holland. somekind of virtual condom.

[KingSparta]

Please, no one heed that advice.

Ditto

I run into them almost daily

[JimH]

I get them emailed to me all the time.

At least you get mail though.

[benn600]

I have no anti-spam software or anything running on my family email server.  I do get the occasional spam but don't think I've ever really got a virus in an email.  Everyone I deal with the most is smart enough or runs anti-virus software.  It's all good.

I, at one point, enabled the built-in anti-spam software in my email server and it just created annoyances like delayed delivery and for some really crazy reason, once I enabled it I seemed to get about 90% less spam -- but it was set to just add [Spam] to the subject--NOT delete them.  No idea what that was all about.

Perhaps the graylisting or whatever I used upset the spammers and I was removed from their mailing lists.  I get ~1 spam per week right now and a modest 30-60 messages per day of good stuff--which is steadily increasing.

[KingSparta]

At least you get mail though.

Lonely?

[benn600]

So Sparta, are you in your new office?

I think it would be cool to take pictures of everyone's home and work office.  It would provide more basis for the things we say in these threads.  It provides a good backing for "picturing" another forum member as you imagine them sitting in front of their screen in the backdrop of their office.  Your posting made me interested in doing so.  I'll want to clean up a bit before doing so, though.

[gappie]

since im thinking of switching to vista (business edition, i think), i wondered if using windows own virus scanner and firewall, together with this uad (i think its called) would be enough security?

[mark_h]

I get a lot of spam each day - and it's all automatically quarantined - I use POPFile to tag all my incoming mail and it's now trained to 99.9% effectiveness on catching spam.  But the real key is to NEVER EVER open an attachment from an unknown/untrusted source...

Mark

[KingSparta]

So Sparta, are you in your new office?

Yes

I did go to NJ To See my mom and dad Dad told me the same stories and asked the same questions like 5 times each day. My mom is in a bit better shape memory wise, but she does the same thing but not as many times (They Are 76 Years Old).

we Stopped along the way to take pictures, and took the senic route up.

http://www.takeapictureitlastsforever.com/

[jgreen]

mark, your "real key" is providing virtually no security.  Passing infected email attachments through contact lists is the first and easiest contagion vector for a virus.  Malware athors are constantly looking for new entry points based on supposed reputational credentials. 

You need to sniff EVERYTHING that passes to your computer with an updated signature scanner.  That will catch most viruses that are more than a few days old.  Then you need an internal firewall and/or some sort of heuristic monitor that will watch for malware-type behavior.  Symantec is famous for having screwed this last operation up so badly that most of us deleted the software from our machines.  This is why I like Zone Alarm, which creates an internal "OS Firewall".  Properly configured--that's a big "IF", I realize--this operation spends much less effort trying to slow down obviously benign transactions (like accessing the drive) and more effort on preventing unknown infections from contacting outsiders.  So there are FAR fewer false positives.

Mark, for myself, the only virus that ever successfully planted itself on a machine of mine came from an email attachment from a trusted source--he later emailed an appology to everyone on his contact list (I felt so much better after that).  Symantec was NEVER able to identify or find it.  But thirty times an hour for two years, I got unsuccessfully pinged from somewhere in Quangdong province.  Apparently my machine (an old one now idle) was sending out invitations which Symantec would then block the incoming response to.

[hit_ny]

Hmm, i think i fall in the mark_h school of thought when it comes to virus scannning with perhaps some more twists.

- a hosts file that blocks most ads
- a NAT'd box
- zonealarm

- clamwin (so no active scanning), works with outlook (preview disabled) for mail, that gets popped from Yahoo. Anything strange gets nuked at yahoo already.

- a safe(r) browser like Opera or FF. IE only for essential sites that are unable to speak anything but ActiveX. Test how safe your browser is here

Any files got from the net get scanned through clamwin, which is bit slow but then don't pull too many files a day anyway. No clicking willy-nilly, with Opera not seen many pop-ups for a few yrs now.

I'm the sole user on the machine which i think is the deciding factor, if this is not the case, then all bets are off, may have to consider browser appliances

Not seen any viruses for long time now.

[jgreen]

I'm sorry, hitman, but ZoneAlarm isn't a "twist", as you put it, but an actual Firewall.  I you want to make common cause with mark, benn and the other sand-based head-hiders, you'll have to delete that from your machine.

As for non-realtime virus scanning, I'm almost there myself.  As it is, I ALWAYS right-click/scan everything that comes in from the outside as I receive it (which I urge you to do also), but other than that, the anti-virus--even AVG--is just getting in the way.  Of course, nobody ever did that better than symantec.

[KingSparta]

sand-based head-hiders

A New Term For A Shy Bar Fly?

[hit_ny]

I'm sorry, hitman, but ZoneAlarm isn't a "twist", as you put it, but an actual Firewall.  I you want to make common cause with mark, benn and the other sand-based head-hiders, you'll have to delete that from your machine.

Ahh..now that you put it that way, i have another fw as well with the router NAT, unpingable unless a connection is initiated from the inside. I'm not giving those up, so maybe i'm not in that camp after all. This setup would be safe even if not uptodate with the latest win updates.

On a LAN, no zonealarm would be too risky, very easy target for worm of the month.

My gripe was with realtime scanners, resource hogs.

Course if ever a trojan makes it past the inner perimeter, i'm hosed....unless i regularly check for unusual outbound activity to the 'Quangdong' province

[mark_h]

I you want to make common cause with mark, benn and the other sand-based head-hiders, you'll have to delete that from your machine.

I'm not burying my head in the sand.  I made an informed decision NOT to run virus checking software on my PCs and free myself and the machines from the burden of supporting them.  I am very aware that there is a chance that one day I might get infected, BUT I do not believe that chance is any higher now that I no longer run virus checking software than it was before.  I take a lot of other precautions to prevent such problems, but if I do contract something, as I said previously, I have daily, weekly and monthly snapshots of my PC (via Acronis) and also regular data backups (via Geniesoft) to roll back to.

Cheers,

Mark

[KingSparta]

Here is a page that Explains The Boot Time And CPU Slices That A Anti Virus Type Programs Will Use On Your System. And Some Other Programs That May Also Slow Down Your Computer.

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down/5

[jgreen]

So be it.

As for Quangdong province, it is an actual place that was the source for the repeated attempts to harvest my actual data.  I know this because I backtraced the pings to that blessed place.  I'm not sure what regular backups with Genie (or Acronis, which I use) can do to retrieve bank account info once it's gone there.

[jgreen]

Great article, King.  I was surprised to see the full version of ZA taking so long on file I/O, as that has not been my experience.  However, I disable the ZA antivirus function and use AVG instead, which is rated very easy on the resources.  As for boot time, I'm hosed anyway, so what's a little more delay?  I wish I knew what "Prime" was.

[KingSparta]

I Bought But Dropped Norton 2006 And 2007 As A Anti Virus Program Due To It Is A Resource Hog.

The Company It's Self Is Bloated, The Software I Call "BloatWare"

Don't Bother To Call Them For Help Without Your Credit Card Handy.

That's One Of The Things JRiver Has Going For It, If You Need Help A User And "Customer Service JimH" Is Normally Ready To Help.

[GHammer]

I lived for years in a high threat environment. A Chinese ISP disconnected one school I was at because of extremely high malware activity. I'll tell you, it takes ALOT to get China Telecom to shut you off.

Anyway, a router facing the DSL modem, Windows firewall, and KAV are all I have used and I have been blessedly unsullied for all this time.

When I'd come back from a classroom, KAV would go crazy killing things brought home on my USB drive I stored lessons on.

My sole data loss in all this time was from Windows Media Player and the Vista Search feature. They changed the tags and cover art for every album on my machine. Something I am still recovering from. Up to the mid-Ts now.

Until I noticed the Windows default images in music directories I had no idea that the search engine had called WMP and its default is to retrieve data from the Internet. So, my monthly backup ran automatically ignoring that the hash for source and target differed and faithfully copied all the changed files while erasing the originals. I have new backup software now...

The most destructive event I've had in all my computing days short of hardware failure and it had nothing to do with malware (MS puns aside).