As you know, I recently asked about free mmorpgs, or mmos, and my dad talked to my today about playing internet games. He doesn't like me doing it because he's afraid that a virus can attack us, and that would be our end since our network is screwd and the only comp that has internet is the work one. So I was wondering what are the statistics, and how can I prevent this from happening. Pleas help me one last time massassi.

Well your best bet is a firewall, you can get a pretty good free one at: http://www.zonealarm.com/ this will let you choose which programs have access to the internet.

Playing internet games is a lot less dangerous than surfing the web.

One other solution would be to get a router (that way all your computers could have internet access too) routers block all inbound traffic unless you tell them to send it somewhere (on a port by port basis usually).


Oh and... tech forum. :p

Anything free?...

You could just cancel your internet subscription, or not turn on your computer. That'll keep most of the viruses away. Apart from that...if you have broadband I don't think playing games increases your chances of getting virused.

most? MOST? more like NONE

You mean all.

A few steps to prevent virii:

1) Install FireFox. It helps, especially if you don't know what you're doing. It helps a lot more with spyware than with viruses, but the lack of ActiveX is indeed good.

2) Don't download anything that comes from a source you even THINK you can't trust. That includes sitehere.geocities.com sites.

3) Run SpyBot and AdAware every week, at least once. Spyware is a different entity altogether, but it CAN download malware, or virii to your computer.

4) Get a router. If you can't get a router, get ZoneAlarm personal edition. The free one.

5) http://housecall.trendmicro.com your best friend. Ironically enough, though, it can only be used with IE right now.

Finally, don't fret over virii. Sure they're a pain in the ***, but there's nothing that really screws you over in any way. If nothing else I'd reformat if you can't fix it. That's a pain, but hey, it's better than having a virus on your system

Also, tell your dad that online gaming has no impact whatsoever on the system as far as virii go. In fact, it is infinitely safer than just browsing the intarweb.

Yoshi put out a good list of advice, there, and I would suggest following it, especially the Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware Scans, not to mention Firefox. Never click on any pop-up! Even clicking on one will install spyware/tracking software on your hard drive. This stuff can such a pain to remove, and weaken your computer's defences. Online gaming isn't a problem.

You have a much higher chance of getting viruses straight off of websites that you ever would off of an MMORPG. Plus, any MMORPG that released a virus through their system would not be in business very long. Any respectable MMO nowadays (especially the ones you pay for) will not download viruses to your computer.

The likelyhood of getting a virus that way is the same likelyhood of getting a virus from a storebought game.