Beware Of !setup.exe Files!!!
 

Watch out for those !setup and *.exe files. Those executables often direct you to porn sites. Worse they put those addresses in your startup folder, in your favorites, and add to your Registry.

Some could also be dangerous viruses. I wouldn't touch them!

They often come disguised as related to a music file title - for example: !setupYesterdays.exe installs and runs a short mpeg porn flick on your computer.

All through out this foum are warning about these files. I am glad to see some one else let people know what they really are. Thanks for renforcing this.

As usual create something useful and someone will come along and try to ruin it. I tried some mp3 searches that I was pretty sure should not return hits. I mean my dog is not in a band or anything but her name comes up with the !! in front of it when I did a search for her. I really think an end needs to be put to this kind of abuse asap. Xolox needs a filter to block out filenames that do this kind of thing. I also think it might be helpful if Xolox and other p2p programs would list the ip of where the files are coming from so steps could be taken to remove the abuse of the system.

I do think that these files are a menace, I always watch my downloads carefully to make sure I'm not downloading them but I think it would be terribly difficult to remove these files or block the ips. If I search for something I typically see a score of around 10 for these files. This means that there are at least 10 sources of these files, and this is only from my personal hostlist. There must be hundreds of these things laying around with ips I haven't encountered. Someone mentioned a p2p program that blocked ips of known advertisers and such, not a bad idea. I don't think these files are dangerous, I mostly think its just dirty businesses trying to advertise.

For me, any file I download, or any email I get that tries to sell me something, I consider trespassing into my home. I've been saving all the emails I've received from junk emails because under the law I live in I'm allowed to sue these companies and make $25 per email, not a bad deal eh? :) You should check out your local laws hehe.

I do disagree on one point however, I dont like the idea of allowing users to see our ip addresses. We talk a lot about how personal privacy is wonderful, and getting junk is a part of it. I want people to know as little about me as possible, not because I'm paranoid, I think the great majority of sharers here seem to be good people, but you only need one bad apple to ruin the whole barrel.

Its quite possible that the 5 files being downloaded from me are from the same ip, but if users had the choice they may keep the ip from downloading too much, or block them all together? For many people they don't keep their programs on all the time so when they log in they can get spammed from a single ip trying to download a file, it happens. I select quite a lot of files to download and keep Xolox running day and night because I want the file and want others to enjoy my files. A great majority of the time I keep Xolox running but I'm not downloading anything. When I used Bearshare I was blocked numerous times from various Bearshare users because they thought I was spamming them with download requests, when I had no problem with the same users doing the same to me. I don't know what the answer is but I think Xolox should be kept simple. Safer but simple.

Kinda like a war between the script kiddies and the people who pay no attention to details of a file, eh?

This is not only limited to MP3 files. In my earlier experiences with Xolox, I found that thereare several files that contain this for every type of program I was searching for. The key is to look at the size. If it is compressed, it will be 175,900 mb. This holds true for every program. Give it a try and you will see. This type of porn is listed as any of the popular programs that are on the network. Just be aware of the file size and you should be ok.

Just keep your favorite hex editor handy....

I just virus scan a file then have a little look inside.

That's all there's to it....!

Those *******s will never fool me.

Most of these fake files along with the porn/ads/etc renamed as what you search all come from the same range of ip's.. Since the majority of this happens to be fake copyrighted material hosted on EXTREMELY fast servers I wouldnt exactly rule the mpaa/riaa out.