Warning Regarding Various Host Sites

[yudashin]

Thanks for the warning. I subscribe to Megaupload and hopefully won't have any problems.

[Carmel]

I have a question about Turboupload, the last while when I go to upload things to Turboupload I get redirected to a site called USAupload - a site I'd never seen before it redirected me there the first time. The only way I can make it not do this in order to upload to Turboupload instead is by pressing the Stop button so the page won't finish loading to redirect me. I'm just wondering if this is a bad sign or maybe is USAupload is affiliated with Turboupload...?

Thanks for the information everyone, I have to admit, I use Sendspace a lot if the links are working, and Savefile is my third choice after Mediafire... I haven't had any known problems yet, but it's good to know these things.

[Arigatomina]

I had some attempted "auto-download+installs" on turboupload a while back. Now any time I'm forced to download from that site, I open up Opera. Firefox doesn't stop the auto-installs. Internet Explorer welcomes them with open arms. Opera stops them dead and then ignores them the next time they try.

Sendspace - Firefox stops the popups for me. Opera, stops them better. IE is dangerous.
Savefile - I've never had a popup from Savefile. Ever. That's with Internet Explorer. Naturally it's even safer with Opera or Firefox. Maybe it's because I have an account there and I stay logged into it a lot. Never seen a popup even once. It's my number 2 site to host files on.
Megupload - it started having popups recently. None of them are the auto-downloads. Most of them just make you click the little "x" on the right side of the screen rather than waiting 10 seconds for the redirect. If you use Opera or Firefox, it's a better site than Sendspace (except for the wait to download).

I like Mediafire right now. No wait, no popups, 100mb file size, no time limit on the files. I expect them to get some popups within the next few months as the site gets more popular. Until then, it's the best I've seen no matter what browser you're using.

[dm.su]

I haven't had problems with auto-installs because this os can't run exe's or Window install files lol but the only problems I have with the host sites are popups after you click download links.

[Otome]

So far I haven't had any problem with those sites because I have the NoScript allowed, and AdBlock Plus which mostly blocked anything that use Javascripts, unless I specified otherwise, add-ons with my Firefox. I recommended that whoever are using Firefox should get those two add-ons too because they really help a great deal, at least with my experience. If something wasn't block you can block it manually and It'll never shows up again.

However, thank you for the warning. I will try to avoid those sites in the future too just to be on the safe side.

[dm.su]

Another vote to use noscript and adblock plus to go stop nasties website scripts. But sometimes you've got to 'temporarily' allow the website to bypass noscript for the site to work and for you to download -_-

[yuki_hana]

Since a lot of the third-party ads load using Javascript and they are the main sources of malware, I agree with everyone who has said that disabling scripts is probably a good idea. Blocking popups is also a good idea.
I think that there are a couple of sites that work fine even if you disable scripts. The ones that I can think of are Savefile and Zupload (their speeds are not the greatest though but heck, I would rather have safety over speed). Yousendit used to work without needing scripts to be turned on but I have not used it for a long time.

I also agree with everyone who has said that Internet Explorer is not exactly the safest browser around. Most malware makers target IE vulnerabilities because it is the most commonly used webbrowser (plus IE does have a whole bunch of known vulnerabilities). Firefox and Opera are great alternatives.

It is not just websites that have porn ads that are potentially dangerous (although they tend to be more dangerous). Any site that has third-party ads is potentially dangerous (though I must say that so far, I have never had any problems with sites that use ONLY Google Adsense to supply ads). I remember feeling extremely pissed when my old computer was infected with a virus through an ad on fanfiction.net a long time ago because I thought that fanfiction.net was like the Disney of fandom sites (clean, safe material with generous doses of lousy writing). Edit: I am not trying to trash all fics posted on fanfiction.net here and I don't mean to offend anyone who posts their fics there

[blu chocobo]

o.o;;

I might have downloaded stuff from the 2 of the three hosts, but not for the longest time. Maybe I should do a virus scan.... ^^;

[Otome]

Another vote to use noscript and adblock plus to go stop nasties website scripts. But sometimes you've got to 'temporarily' allow the website to bypass noscript for the site to work and for you to download -_-

True that. However, all the third-party ads will still be blocked and even if some wasn't, you can right click and choose to adblock image/or adblock frame.