I'd like to ask formally, what guarantees are there against a virus attack on our computers from the products available in the marketplace? I have a reason for asking...

On the net there is no guarrantee of anything. Only one rule applies: Scan everything. The safest procedure is to scan your system before you go online, and make sure your firewall is on! Then before you shutdown you scan again. All downloads need scanning before installing That way if a virus appears from the downloaded file ~ it will tell you by scanning before and after net use... you can eliminate 'mysterious viruses' suddenly appearing be very careful to accuse a broker or a site of sending virus laden files. Make sure you have proof of your accusations. Viruses can attach themselves easily ~ through malicious time based or trigger based coding~ thus causing hardship to the accused ~ where the responsibility was not in their hands just my 2 cents on it

I don't think there is "ANY" guarantee, but if you have a reliable virus scan program, why are you worried? I use PC-Cillin, and if and when anything is contaminated, with anything.........it is Always caught before it gets to my system. The one and only time I ever got a "virus" is when I was foolish enough to let my anti-virus program expire. (: genny

I use Norton AV, and I never have problems. For a time, I was using a cheaper, BrandX virus program and... well, you get what you pay for. I went back to Norton and haven't had a problem since. I just set it on "auto protect" and it scans everything before I even touch it. bonni

I use AVG and update it regularly. The latest update threw up a virus which had attached itself to a marketplace product. Obviously, I understand that can't be conclusive so I downloaded the item again and scanned it. It showed up positive again. I let the relevant people know and have been waiting for a reasonable reply ever since. The virus in question is the Trojan backdoor.remotesob. Not particularly malignant but allows the perpetrator to scan my system. Not very nice at all. The worst of it all is that the item in question was a particularly useful poser utility which I can no longer use. I'd just like to say that I thought I was safe behind a firewall with automatic scanning on but this one still got through. I think that it was purely because AVG caught up with a recently produced version of the virus...

I ought to say that I felt particularly awkward about this. By not passing on the information I'm being disloyal to the community and by passing it on I'm risking becoming a pariah.... not easy.....

Best thing to do in such a case is to contact ClintH, the Admin who looks after the Marketplace. He can check the files they have stored on Rosity's servers. If there is a problem, he can notify you and advise you - and others - of the best course of action.

Never got a so called virus from there, even from freestuff utilities.
Chances are that same part of the program code can appear as a viral code, while it's a legitimate way to accomplish some routines; this advice is even told by antivirus makers, and generally (legitimate) software writers explain why their programs can be catched as viruses.
If I remember correctly, there was at least one case here when a program scanned by an AV was being told to be infected, while its programmer stated from the first time he released it it could be sensed as a virus (can't remember which program, sorry).

Obviously, if the author doesn't say anything related in his informations, best thing to do is to contact the store admins.

tbkoen released his Predator figure with an installer that showed up as infected even though it wasn't, still gets complaints about being a virus even now I think. saxon I can safely say that most people here would welcome knowing about a potential virus problem so they can avoid it, I reckon the only person who might be upset by this would be the person trying to spread the virus in the first place. I'll second what Sam said tho, let Clint know so he can deal with it as quickly as possible.

Attached Link: http://housecall.antivirus.com

*"what guarantees are there against a virus attack on our computers from the products available in the marketplace?"* Open 'em in Mac OSX? :) There is a palce where you can get your system scanned without the need for buying AV software to do it (see link up there- it goes to Trend Micro's AV online scan website - it requires IE to do it, tho'.) It also avoids having to worry if your virus definitions are current enough - it does that already. I run it on everything I download - as a plus, you can just have it scan certain files, folders, or the whole computer - your pick. I use it on downloads I get. /P

Attached Link: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

I appreciate the general 'caveat emptor' spirit but shouldn't it be reasonable to expect the seller to at least have some form of basic quality control?

If it's so easy to get an efficient virus (let's be sensible, I have one, a free one from grisoft (link above) and it worked so well as to be able to detect the virus that came with my marketplace purchase), if it's so easy then why doesn't the marketplace have one in place?

I shouldn't, for example have to laboratory test a burger before I eat one. Perhaps on second thoughts that's not such a good example.

efficient virus checker

One word answer, = LINUX. Almost all viral file types are targeted to micro$oft systems, would require administrator priviledges to install in a linux system, but "root" is kinda jealous of his password, and the virus doesn't know it. (Now if curious labs could somehow be convinced to code for a real operating system....)

Some of us don't want to use linux as we have programs that will only work with windows so that is not a good answer....sorry. Marque

s'okay Marque - that's what Win4Lin is for ;) Besides, there's always Macintosh (I have one of those, too... I lurve it. 'nuff said.) Me, I'll use what's handy. I've got my PC dual-booted between Linux and WinXP Pro. XP is more stable than Win2k, but it can't touch the Linux half of the box for ultimate security and stability. Once there are enough CG proggies running on it, I'll finally ditch Windows for good. Until then, I use what I gotta. /P

Saxon, It is NOT guaranteed that you have a virus. Many times code can appear similar to viral code and trigger the same flags, but it does not necessarily mean you have gotten a virus. I understand you are being careful, but you are making the assumption that it is a done deal, and not your scanner. Your insulting anyones quality care may just be that, an insult. The problem, as staed before, could be entirely on your end. Wait til you get a response before castinga llegations.

I'm almost a complete newbie to Linux, three days and about twenty years removed from the PDP-11, but it didn't take more than a couple of hours to discover it's far superior to any windoze version. Povray and windoze (98 and XP) and a 500 frame animation = Crash at frame 230, no recovery, and two hours down the tubes. Linux breezed through the same file without any problems. (4 hours 55 minutes, particle count increases as time progresses) Windoze file manager causes the problem, kill it and the render will continue, but without saving the frames, not much sense in doing it. SuSe Linux 9.0 Pro has win and dos emulators included, some programs, Art of Illusion being one, will run under either platform as long as Java is installed, no emulator needed. Some others come in either Linux or windoze versions, but I haven't gone that far yet. Still trying to remember the unix pipe commands. One can get pretty rusty after a long time using windoze. (And you have to admit that having a "gzipped tarball" beats having a zipfile.)

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck - you're saying it is in fact a swan?! And before I complain about this swan that looks suspiciously duck-like I should wait until the guy who's selling it tells me what it is... Yeah, right...!

Penguinisto - since when is XP more stable than Win2K? I've used Win2K since beta 3 and have never had a problem with it. I've had problems with XP from the first time I installed it, and not just on my machine, but on close to 100. (Yes, 100) XP managed to kill (yep, kill) 4 HDD's for me so far - which is why I will not use it again. It has a "La-la Land" interface by default which I absolutely loathe (my personal gripe, many people like it - I hate it) and will dump the second I see it. If you want to network the damned thing properly, prepare to have issues. It sucks RAM like there is no tomorrow. On top of that... I work at a college. We rolled out 45 laptops with XP Pro. Within 4 weeks, we got 15 of them back because they had crashing issues. We recalled all of them and wiped and installed Win2K Pro on them. Not ONE of them has had a problem since. And XP Home? Don't even GO there. Do not touch. Ever. If you must go for XP, then do yourself a favor and at least use XP Pro instead of Home. I wouldn't be so opposed to XP if it wasn't using as much RAM purely to run the OS as it is. To be honest, the time is fast approaching where I am considering a MAC for home use. If there were more apps for Linux and I could run most of the stuff I'm running on Linux, I would install Linux. Hell I would install just about anything before I install XP. Silke

I haven't had any problems running Windows XP Professional Edition on my computer in the last year and a half. None that the operating system itself was really responsible for. I've had viral infections and hard drive failures and bad drivers, but none of that is XP's fault. Sorry you had such problems on your "100" computers, I haven't had any with the "8" that I've dealt with. As for the RAM-hogginess, just get more RAM. Does wonders for Poser. ^_^ My computer (an XP Pro system running with 1.25 gigs of SDRAM) is home to several viral infections out and about today. None of them are active, as my PC-Cillin has already disabled each and every one, but they still exist. You may ask yourself, WHY ARE THE VIRII STILL ON YOUR SYSTEM?!?! Simple answer, because they can't do anything anymore. Disabling the virus' ability TO activate goes a long way towards having any viral outbreaks.

Silke that's about my experience with XP, home edition. Haven't lost the HD yet, but nothing will run on it with any amount of reliability. I'm just accepting that if I want reliability, I have to give up some things that I don't use often anyhow. Of my seven boxes, (3 older Macs and 4 Intel based) two are on linux now, but the progs I use most often are linux native anyhow. The box on line will probably stay windoze 98, but there's nothing else in it's pitifully small (micro$oft standards) HD. If I have to reformat and reload windoze, not a biggie, nothing lost.

XP Pro (once you disable all the unnecessary service that go with it - about 60% of them by my rough count) has ran pretty well for me. XP Home is IMO useless and worthless... Win2k w/ SP1 is nice, but limited. SP2 introduces some instabilities, and SP3 and 4 are downright unstable (constant WFP errors, registry hack won't remove 'em, registry itself becomes corrupt and useless six months after install, etc.) It depends on what you use your computer for, as well as what your computer is. I have a homebuilt Intel-based PC it runs on... Intel-brand mobo, Intel P4 2.5GHz chip, DDR 2700 RAM... seems to work well w/ XP more than it ever did w/ Win2k. (OTOH, I haven't had to reload the Linux half of the box at all, except to rebuild grub after a Windows reload... which involved two reloads of Win2k and finally loading XP three months ago.) /P