Porn Showing up in my Browse List--Big Time

[schnoodles]

Here’s a problem on WinMX I’d like to get rid of--FAST! Any ideas?

I have a person or several persons putting ghost files on my browse list (close to a hundred by the time I initially got wind of it several days ago). Since the initial shock, I've changed my handle and reshuffled my files so my collection would not be so identifiable—all with no success. These undesirables have found me and are at it again--big time.

Because I have very few on-the-level types downloading from me now, methinks I’m unwittingly offending the good guys who after scanning my collection and finding real trash, quickly exit and go elsewhere. I bet the majority out there are like me and won’t download from anyone sporting porn in his/her collection. Oh, the irony!

If (as mentioned in another thread) it were just a matter of a few porn pieces, the astute would realize the offending files as “ghost files” and it wouldn’t be so bad—I guess. Still, getting up there in years has only heightened my distaste for the distasteful.

So, how am I dealing with the situation? Why, just as any card-carrying coward would do. The first inkling of trouble, I shut down WinMX and run for the nearest exit. So far the count is 30 for the Bad Guys and Zip for Us Others. Any suggestions out there other than “Live with it!” (oooh how I hate that expression. “Loser” is another non-starter with me—however descriptive it might be!)

[eclectica]

schnoodles:

methinks I’m unwittingly offending the good guys who after scanning my collection and finding real trash, quickly exit and go elsewhere. I bet the majority out there are like me and won’t download from anyone sporting porn in his/her collection. Oh, the irony!
I'm one of the good guys who is offended by the prudes. That just goes to show you, that who we think are the "good guys", varies from person to person.

Personally I think anyone who has a problem with your porn can stick the bible up his ass.

[BuzzB2K]

Originally posted by Loser
Here’s a problem on WinMX I’d like to get rid of--FAST! Any ideas?

I have a person or several persons putting ghost files on my browse list (close to a hundred by the time I initially got wind of it several days ago). Since the initial shock, I've changed my handle and reshuffled my files so my collection would not be so identifiable—all with no success. These undesirables have found me and are at it again--big time.

What on earth are you talking about? Ghost files?


:mellow Buzz

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

my favorite method of dealing with porn is to download it as quickly as possible, then watch it.

[Whoa]

it's a bug in winmx.

[schnoodles]

Some of your replies have been quite humorous--guess I'm just taking this whole thing too seriously. Still, I am a prude, notwithstanding that you're right about my defining who the "good guys" are. Depends on your point of view, right? But note, according to the poll so far, there are those who wouldn't chat with me if they saw porn in my collection--and those other prudes as some of you call them are precisely the types that I do want to chat with. Besides which, I like to be represented as I am, so I still want to be delivered from those miscreants who are messing with my collection. WinMX, get this thing cleared up for this ol' duck and others like us.

Thanks to those who have responded--saying how you feel without rancor. I like that!

[schnoodles]

eclectica, just wanna say that not all prudes are religious. I'm a prude who subscribes to no religion, which I think is for the birds and I guess best left to another type of forum. Cheers.

[Mr. Crowley]

Nobody is messing with your collection. It is caused by a bug in WinMX. I'm not sure, but I think it is due to the fact that users on a secondary connection have there searches and other things routed through a user on a primary connection. In the process, some files may be given an incorrect name. The files are not "ghost files" so to speak. They are actual files that are in your shared folder that have been given the wrong file name by WinMX. So, your "AC/DC - Hells Bells.mp3" file may show up in a browse as "Sex with farm animals.mpg". Anyone who shares several files on WinMx will have this problem. Sometimes it is worse than at other times. It has been that way since version 3.1 at least. It would be nice if it were corrected. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken.

[schnoodles]

Thank you, Mr. Crowley for what seems like a plausible explanation of so-called "ghost files." You've helped to ease my paranoia. Why I may even get back to the business of downloading some rip-snortin' with-it tunes from the mid-20th century. So what if no one will chat with me!

[wesr]

omg, will rae i was laughin ssoooooo hard when i read ur post. that was so funny. anywho, i dont care if someone has porn in there d/l folder, i will d/l from them if they have the file that i want

[Caitlyn Marble]

Mr. Crowley got it right, though I thought that the ghost files were leaked from other peoples' shared folders, not accidentaly renamed files.

Though either way it is annoying.

[eclectica]

And how can we be certain that you're really not sharing porn, SCHNOODLES?

Maybe I had better play it safe and cut off all people who have an inkling of porn in their collections, because I wouldn't want a real porn freak actually "getting one over on me".

You'll have to accept being collateral damage in the righteous war against porn.

[PhilT]

Am I missing something here? As I understand it no-one can download a file into your collection just by "browsing host". With a p2p network you only get what you request from other users. So if you haven't elected to download a file it can't get on your disc. I have no porno's forced on me, my shared folders contain only what I have put there, either by downloading or ripping my own stuff. Can someone please explain how you can have anything you don't want added to your PC.. Or maybe I have miss-read the original post.
Cheers,
Phil.

[schnoodles]

So if you haven't elected to download a file it can't get on your disc. I have no porno's forced on me, my shared folders contain only what I have put there, either by downloading or ripping my own stuff. Can someone please explain how you can have anything you don't want added to your PC.. Or maybe I have miss-read the original post.
______________________________

I'll try one more time--the "questionable files" that appear in my browse list are not--I repeat--are not on my hard drive, but from an onlooker browsing my files, it would appear that the "questionable files" are on my hard drive. Guess that's why they've been dubbed "ghost files."

I confirmed all this for myself by stepping inside a chat group, where to the right of the chit-chat is a list of all the handles whose owners are part of the chat group. I scan down, find my handle; click on it and browse my own collection.

I now change my handle frequently and somehow (and for goodness sakes do not ask ME why), the collection is "cleaned up" to reflect the real McCoy. However, it doesn't take long before the whole mess starts up again under the new handle.

I'll also say again that I have used WinMX for several months and up until recently didn't have a problem (at least I don't think that I did, as I never used to check my browse list). The problem was brought to my attention; otherwise, I'd still be none the wiser.

Those who are "in the know" about how WinMX works say that these so-called "ghost files" are a bug in the WinMX program. I know as much about these P2P programs as I do about my car--and I enjoy both--except when I encounter a problem. Then I run for help, which is why I joined this forum.

I have no intention of trying to convince any one "out there" that I don't collect this garbage. But I do understand why a few individuals in this forum question my veracity--and that's o.k., as in the internet environment (among others), there are many who seek to deceive. Enough said, lest another of you venture forth to say, methinks you protest too much.

[Caitlyn Marble]

NOTHING GETS ADDED TO YOUR PC UNLESS YOU DOWNLOADED IT YOURSELF

Winmx sometimes gets other peoples files mixed up with yours when someone browses you (even if you browse yourself). these are just browse "results" it doesn't mean that someone dumped porn on to your HD. kinda like doing a search on searchengine.com and getting a broken link. if the user tries to download the ghost result they will get a little notice in the transfers window that says something like "file has been removed/does not exist"

this only happens to users who have the secondary connection. if you are on primary and browse someone on secondary they might have ghost files when you browse them. if someone on secondary browses you (you primary user) they will see nothing but the truth.

if it bugs you so much, use primary connection or opennap. you will not have ghost files show up when someone browses you, whether they be opennap user or secondary winmx.

capiech? :wings

[gorphon]

thats twice youve said methinks now.

gorphon finds this very odd indeed.


and porn or no porn, if someone has a file I want I download. hell, why even bother to check what they are sharing if the file is what you want? It does not harm them in anyway and in fact saves them bandwidth. And it harms you in that you have to continue your search for your desired media which takes time. not to mention the time to browse through what amounts to gigabytes of files. In my opinion, you should relax some.... if porn perturbs you that much then the internet is a bad place to be. after all, it is everywhere whether you go looking or not.

ok, I just have one more thing to add.... the last sentence of your post is positively shakesperean; I read it thrice!

[Lamourlady]

some of u make it sound like, "hey....put up with it, as long as it isn't "really" in your files....who cares?"
well, i don't think anyone should put up with anything.
whether i like/dislike porn, if it's not listed in my files and not on my harddrive, then damnit, they shouldn't show up, as if they were.
if it's a bug.........well it's a damn dirty one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and should be complained about until it's fixed.

[bagpipechick]

I had this happen to me a few months ago..I was downloading the movie 'Moulin Rouge' but i noticed when other people were trying to download off me it often came up as 'Teen Raped in Pool'. I did a DivFix on it to make sure it was in fact the film I wanted to see and not a porn file.It turned out to be Moulin Rouge. When I would check the users downloading from me I'd see what it came up as. If if came up as the porn name and they had other porn files in their folder, I'd actually send them a message and tell them that the file was actually Moulin Rouge and if that's what they really wanted or if they were expecting it to be the alternate name.
I only cut porn users off if they have things in their collection may contain illegal pornographic things..otherwise, I guess it's a part of life that we have to deal with whether we like it or not. I personally don't, but that's me.:wings

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

This issue seems to be a bit more widespread and serious than it seemed at the start of this thread....... i couldnt care less about good (i.e showing consensual acts bewteen adults) porn showing up in my lists let alone anyone elses (although i can sympathise with the fact that others have different attitudes and dislike this)...but when winMX allows a bug which they are obviously aware of, and can lead to the sickest kind of porn showing up in anyones list , well thats something else alltogether.
Imagine a situation where a parent checks to see what their kid has been downloading and spots folders full of this stuff.....not every parent will buy that its just caused by a software bug. Easy to cook up similar nasty scenarios..........
This needs to be looked into as a matter of urgency by the developers.

[gorphon]

I am not familiar with the design of winMX at all but I truly dont see how this can be a "bug" in the program itself.... perhaps a vulnerability. its probably something like the title not matching the filename like you see on fast track all the time... this seems even more likely to me given what bagbpipechick said about moulin rouge.
alternatively it could be due t osomething you have downloaded, vbs or whatever, allowing "hackers" to spoof files on your computer or share them remotely. But a bug? it doesnt seem like a plausible explanation to me. as I have no way to back up my suspicion I would appreciate it if anyone would correct me if Im wrong.

one last thing.. dont you think winMX would quickly correct a bug in their program that inhibited the ability to find what you are searching for?

[markyrwol]

The bug seems to be related to the “find sources now -or- search for alternatives” feature. It appears that the name and file type aren’t properly used by the re-search, and any identical file size match (regardless of name or file type) will be regarded by WinMX as the same file.

[schnoodles]

"...Lady" and "...Haddock" Thank you so very much for "getting it." :bling

To those who keep explaining to me that it's impossible for me to have anything on my hard drive that I didn't put there myself, please, please, please re-read what I've written.

Again, Lady and Haddock--you've made my day. You've pretty much summed it all up--and said it much better than I have.

[Havoc]

editttttttttttt

[gorphon]

thanks for the explanation markyrwol, now a bug sounds more plausible... my first reaction was that winmx could 'fix' this problem by implementing hashing. but then I thought about it and I think that would actually cause the program to lose efficiency when connecting and searching open nap servers. unless they implemented an option to search by file name or by hash....

but even with hashing the problem is likely embedded in the search function itself. so it might not even matter if winMX cant differentiate file names and types of like sizes? kinda interesting...

so I guess the best way to deal with the ghost porn is to switch networks until winMX fixes this or stop sharing for awhile.

I think a lot of the debate and such came from the nature of the thread. THe question asked in the poll and what you initially were talking about are two entirely seperate things. I, for one, will download a file from anyone, regardless of what else they might be sharing.... unless its sick and twisted, the people who have this stuff never have anything I want anyways. But I see no reason to- in effect- restrict myself due to the habits of another. it just makes no sense to me.

On the other hand, having "ghost porn" on my pc would annoy me quite a bit, especially if it was taking the place of another file that I wanted. itd be somewhat different if you actually got your intended file but I suspect this is not the case always. I dont know, just be patient, I am sure winMX knows of this bug and are working on it.

[Wolfie]

Hmmm, that's interesting. i have been on winmx for quite while and sharing lots of files I have never noticed this problem.

[Havoc]

editttttttttttt

[eclectica]

schnoodles:

I now change my handle frequently and somehow (and for goodness sakes do not ask ME why), the collection is "cleaned up" to reflect the real McCoy. However, it doesn't take long before the whole mess starts up again under the new handle.
i'm starting to suspect that you are a big time trader of child pornography and are looking for help from us on how to evade being caught.

rather than being forthright, your evasiveness and constant changing of usernames suggests that you have a guilty conscience.

like preachers or other zealots of so-called morality, the louder you preach, the more i suspect you of being a sinner yourself.

perhaps i should introduce you to my alter ego, the MASTURBATING JESUS, here:
http://www.tatom.org/MJshockwave.htm

[whiff]

my professional recommendation, "schnoodles" is to immediately delete all of your music files. Just drag them to the recycle bin and flush. Next, download a pig-choking mass of scabby amateur porn videos. I especially recommend anything featuring amputees, dwarves or the mentally retarded. Finally, flog mister happy steak until it breaks off in your hand.

good luck, and god bless,
whiff

PS: whiff say music bad, porno good.

[Skier809]

When you browse you will notice that all of the so called ghost files in your folder are incomplete and the same size. These are actually incomplete files you are downloading from a multipoint download. For some reason they show up in you list multiple times with a ton of different names. The best way to take care of the problem is to have your shared folder be different than the folder you download to. Once you have the file completed then move it to your shared folder.

[Skier809]

When you browse you will notice that all of the so called ghost files in your folder are incomplete and the same size. These are actually incomplete files you are downloading from a multipoint download. For some reason they show up in you list multiple times with a ton of different names. The best way to take care of the problem is to have your shared folder be different than the folder you download to. Once you have the file completed then move it to your shared folder.

[[LaDeus]]

That's not true Skier809

[Lili Marlene]

wait a minute - you can't be serious about taking it easy if people browse your files and find kiddie porn :devil !!
that's actually a high risk to get in the attention of peeps that use to pursuit and punish that kind of stuff!
and i can't imagine what kind of "nice" fellow you appear from outside!?! :cross
that is actually an awful serious but and it makes me actually reconsider using winmx!:hole

[PhilT]

I think your explanation makes sense, I never download to my shared folders, I have a folder named "awaiting check" which I download to. Only after checking quality and labelling do I add it to my shares. That may explain why I have never noticed this problem.
Phil.

[Whoa]

the ghost files are gone now in the latest version 3.31! yup i browsed my own files and it showed the right ones! i just tried the secondary connection. havent tested primary.

[blå-gult]

Hmmmmm.................that explains why I sometimes end up
with files I dont want ...........what you see is not always what you get ..............

I check'ed out my files ( browsed my self).......
And ..........there it is ..................strange stuff !!!!!

From now on I'll will do a search on the ''Hash'' .....search for alternates..........before I waist to much time:cross

[Mr Anderson]

Schnoodles,
This works two ways. I can just imagine someone trying to D/L " Giant , Wild - Sex Orgy.mpg " and getting " Winnie the Poo and Friends '" instead. ROFLMAO.

On the other hand, child porn and the like is not a laughing matter. It is a serious crime. Even being wrongly suspected of it would leave a stigma not easily removed. Your concerns are definitely with merit. If you don't feel comfortable with the situation, one safe option would be to back out, until the problem is corrected, (if ever).

Option two, is what I subscribe to : basically, I don't give a flying f#ck in a rolling' donut what other people think about the files I have on my HDD. As long as I know that they are files that don't offend my own sensibilities, and if someone wants to D/L a file that has a ghost name .." Giant, Wild~...." I don't mind one bit when they wind up with "Winnie~.."

Just IMHO though.

[Z7895123Z]

The problem of ghost files has not gone away with WinMX Version 3.3. Out of 865 files in my shared folder I show 20 ghost porn files. The size of the ghost files varies but the actual count for the number of files equals the files that I have in my shared directory. Either some of my files are not listed or the program renames them. A few days ago it did not show any ghost files but now they are there again and the bug is still there; I do not share my download directory.

No comment on porn but I defiantly have problems with known bugs not being corrected. The WinMX programmers must have attended the Microsoft School of Programming.

[evil_dude_01]

Hey I cant be bothered typing the cure for the ghost files again so look here.

http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2450&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Long Live p2p .... :bling

[Z7895123Z]

Thank you but I was aware of how to deal with ghost files, I was merely referring to an earlier post that stated it was fixed in later versions, and I stated that problem is still there. Your admirable fix does not address the underlying issue that the WinMX programmers have not addressed the problem, and that their attitude is similar to the way MS programmer’s deal with security issues, they burry their heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away or at best fix only part of the problem.

[SkorchedHeads]

All benefit of techinfo to ZeroPaid has beeen removed.
Theees little postie has beeen Skorched! :-)

[CCSDUDE]

Originally posted by Lili Marlene
wait a minute - you can't be serious about taking it easy if people browse your files and find kiddie porn :devil !!
that's actually a high risk to get in the attention of peeps that use to pursuit and punish that kind of stuff!
and i can't imagine what kind of "nice" fellow you appear from outside!?! :cross
that is actually an awful serious but and it makes me actually reconsider using winmx!:hole

It's be discussed to death.... :mellow LOL

Anyway feel free to check out this ooooold thread...

http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=2619

Edit: JESUS! All Krell's posts in that thread are gone too....I look like I'm talking to myself along with afew others...lol

Later

[Wolfie]

That was prolly when Krell deleted something like 1000 posts or something way back

[nukehella]

Edit: JESUS! All Krell's posts in that thread are gone too....I look like I'm talking to myself along with afew others...lol

Later

Sure.You're not talking to yourself and Krell's posts are "missing".
(You could tell he was a little strange even back then.)

[Mels_Smileys45]

I'm still offended the original poster didn't like porn showing up in his shared list! The nerve!

[Kevin33134]

The problem with porn is that it's more of a one time use thing.

[WRFan]

my favorite method of dealing with porn is to download it as quickly as possible, then watch it.

lol. me too

[Unsueable Davey Brown]

Does anyone ever work on a fantasy lawsuit in their heads?

It goes like, "If I ever get sued, how will I defend myself?"

So if I ever get sued for something I did on WinMX, can I say, "No. Only the file you downloaded was a copyrighted file. The other 999 were ghost files."

Would that work? It would cut down on the money I'd have to pay per file, if I lost.

[Mels_Smileys45]

If you don't like porn you shouldnt be using winmx anyways. BURN!

[Burd]

O.K., this concerns me a bit. But not because I'm worried about my image with other sharers. But, suppose the porn titles in question indicate that they are kiddie porn. Then, can you be busted for dealing in child pornography even though they are indeed "ghost" files? Would the authorities need just a list of what you are sharing, or would they need the actual files to get you? Hope I haven't frightened anyone, but I wonder if this is a serious possibility.

[moneoa]

O.K., this concerns me a bit. But not because I'm worried about my image with other sharers. But, suppose the porn titles in question indicate that they are kiddie porn. Then, can you be busted for dealing in child pornography even though they are indeed "ghost" files? Would the authorities need just a list of what you are sharing, or would they need the actual files to get you? Hope I haven't frightened anyone, but I wonder if this is a serious possibility.
you cant be busted just on hearsay, they would investigate your ass and really make sure
you are being a really sick puppy. If they did nab you for "ghost" files all they would need to do is scour you hdd for intact or even remains of pictures and video media.
(believe me they would look in fucked places to really make sure you clean)
If there is no proof they would probably give you back your computer in altered states and
maybe give you an apology. The computer being fucked up in a state might come way before the apology.

The burden of proof.......this is why they cant just bust your door down for a file listing on winmx

[black_magiic]

I remember this thread from awhile ago. Now who brought it back

[Whistler]

poll bumpers

[CRLocky]

curtis fo sho

[Mels_Smileys45]

Not enough porn is showing up in my browser. What are some good ways to fix this?

[The Hunter]

Download like hell.

[MS5150]

Something like this happened to me (it was a virus). Go browse your own files, click the show full paths button. If the paths are startrwin, kernell or sysdll (there may be more). If it's not a path you set up like C\documents&settings\mxshared then its prob. a virus. Also note what type of file extension the porno (or other unrecognized) files have if they are .exe .zip or other archive type files then ya got a virus. If you DL software you gotta be careful. Before you DL do the show full paths on the person and also be careful because a since most apps. are in .zip or .rar form somebody may throw in a "present". Set up only what you need, recognize or are comfortable with (don't go clicking every .exe or .bat etc, in the folder)...

[skankito]

Damn you people and reviving old threads. Anyways, after reading through this thread, and noticing someone mentioned that you can't search in wimx with hashes, I decided to inform them they they are wrong. You most certainly can. That is how the "find files now" function operates. Ever notice how if you look in your folder winmx saves all it's files to, the incomplete files are named like this.

__INCOMPLETE___movie file443956e771ea1b6e59eeae4977a22a2f.mpg

Now you notice all those letters and numbers stuffed in there before the file extension, as in...

443956e771ea1b6e59eeae4977a22a2f

That is the hash value for that file. If you know the hash value for a specific file you want, you can search using just the hash value. If you go to the search window in winmx, select the specific type of file it is in the file selection (ie. mp3, video, picture). Then in the SECOND search box, the lower one, enter...

HASH>Hash value here

So using the hash value above, it would be...

HASH>443956e771ea1b6e59eeae4977a22a2f

That would bring up JUST the files with that hash value. And when you're searching for popular movies, you will see a lot of the mislabeled files pop up too, but rest asured, they are the real thing. If you're interested in using this technique, and get tired of using the hit and miss method for finding your movies on winmx, try this website.

http://www.mxmovies.tk/

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

my professional recommendation, "schnoodles" is to immediately delete all of your music files. Just drag them to the recycle bin and flush. Next, download a pig-choking mass of scabby amateur porn videos. I especially recommend anything featuring amputees, dwarves or the mentally retarded. Finally, flog mister happy steak until it breaks off in your hand.

good luck, and god bless,
whiff

PS: whiff say music bad, porno good.

What happened to whiff ? That guy was fucking funny.

[crackerjacker]

What happened to whiff ? That guy was fucking funny.
whiff whiffsical
whimsical
i dunno but he seems cool
come back whiff
come back
cheers