Well I will offer my weak ideas. I never worry about what a virus or Trojan is as long as my safety software takes care of business. My feeling is I will be no better off knowing the inner workings of the pests. Just me of course.

Yes you probably got it from one of those places today but as you are protected - and this incident is proof your protection is working - why will you stay away in the future if you found the site interesting? You could email each suggesting the possibility they may be infected, they may appreciate the 'heads up' or they may flame you.

Thanks, Owbist. Not comprehending what these virus's and stuff are, I thought they were potentially deadly (and very, very troublesome) and that I was supposed to stay a mile away from infected sources. I did not realize that Antivirus basically immunized my computer from harm.

I suppose I wondered about the nature of the pests bc. I want to gain a sense of what kind of harm I came close to (and do I want to keep this in "the chest" or permanently delete it). Do I know it is in fact something bad to get rid of?

Thanks.
Lynn.

I would guess that may well have been a false positive seeing as it was firefox's cookies.sqlite-journal.
I would not worry about it too much and yes just leave it there so that should you need it you can go there and retrieve it.

>>>> "Well I will offer my weak ideas. I never worry about what a virus or Trojan is..." Me neither.....

But then I run only Debian or a Slackware based Linux distributions on PCs here since early 2003....I do run an outgoing firewall though, though not much more than that "security"-wise, and I never ever run as "root".

I have been online full time 24/7 for as long as 8 months non-stop running as many as 19 programs and 4 or 5 browsers with 20-something windows & 123 tabs open simultaneously----and other than the very occasional browser hang-up....never an issue, and not a reboot or a defrag or a registry anything, ever.....

The link may be of some interest to you, or not. It is one of the preferred by noobies distributions, and it offers more to learn/do than any of the MSFT high dollar-ties you into MSFT formats forever-operating system. Though I have given out a few copies of VectorLinux ( http://www.vectorlinux.com/ ) or my personal fave SimplyMepis ( http://www.mepis.org/ ) or my other personal fave...Knoppix!!! ( http://www.knoppix.com/ )... Knoppix, never ever leave home w/o it...I take a Knoppix CD everywhere with me, there's one in the glove-box right now even......

But what the heck, eh? The most modern, safe, and secure, and very definately superior and it's, lemme see, oh yeah....free

A much better deal much more secure than any MSFT OS and software that you can buy, which BTW you can not under any circumstances even put an MSFT OS you BOUGHT & PAID FOR on any except the >>>one PC What the heck... it's free, it's easy.... and it's damn sure secure......If it's good enough for the National Security Agency to base its own systems and software on, you reckon maybe it's good enough for you too? Oh yeah.... and the SecurityEnhancedLinux packages are so secure that the NSA has released, and released for free too, all the SEL code and software into the public domain, and released it all free of charge too...something that all yer friends in Redmond were hoping would have never happened....
Hope you found this somewhat useful.....

Oh yeah, and if you like a particular distribution, you can even make 1,000,000 copies and give them all away, should that be your desire. More and more distro's are even including software so that you can "customize" a distro to your liking and then make a million copies of your newly modified OS, and give away the resulting OS/software package, with your name on it even if that's what you want to do with it........You should give Redmond a call and ask about doing that with an MSFT issued OS...
And now, it's off to the woods with Sasha and Duke....the big dogs!!!

HAGD!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: A more secure solution...

I agree with RC. Because of the file you reported I lean towards the alert being a false positive.

It's good that you responded in a timely manner and took proper action. If the file would have been malicious your immediate response could have been a lifesaver. All too often a member will be ill-prepared for a circumstance like yours and fail to take any action. Then comes the thread, "How Do I.......".

Since I can't reach out that far, give yourself a pat on the back. :)

DA

spunbondwarrior I hear ya! I my self use as my daily distro Simply Mepis7 32bit but the new Mepis8 has just been released and I am hoping to soon be able to have the time to get Mepis8 64 bit set up on my newer pc. About the only thing I do with my windows these days is go to windows updates to get those and do my scans.
for those that want to take a look see
MEPIS Linux 8.0

LOL, hello Spunbond, long time no see your hefty linux promotions.

No doubt you are right but surely you would garner more support at techie type forums. You know those who come here seeking advice range from gardeners, older first time buyers and those who simply want to 'do something' with a computer. These are not the types who willingly wipe an expensive XP or Vista program off a computer just so they can puff out their collective chests while anouncing they hav gone Linux.

DA - thanks for the pat on the back (it was duly transferred).

Spunbondwarrior - I had to laugh at the vast expanse between your knowledge and my comprehension. I certainly fall into the category Owbist described. I have occasionally described finding tech instructions that were Greek to me - but that was Ancient Greek. Wow - I am nowhere near being able to understand a word you said - but clearly you're onto something for those who know more.

Lynn.

I went linux after much trepidation and worry and hesitation and definitely with out the chest thumping and puffing(I was a scardey cat) LOL Thankfully I have a few good friends that are linux guru's who kept urging me to give it a try, and buying a little cheap pc to give it a try on was exactly what I needed. Honestly now I have to say one of the best moves ever and I did it in my old age!
I will be the first to say I am not a command line person I am a GUI person and learning command line is not high on my list but I get by just fine.
My main reason was to be able to surf safer and with much less stress and worry and I definitely have that now. Plus there is a wealth of freebies available with just a quick synaptic search and install.