can websites download things to my computer without me knowing?

Question by Fil C: can websites download things to my computer without me knowing?
like can going to certain websites slow my computer down…example : slow startup and freezing

Best answer:

Answer by John C
Not if you have proper protection on your computer!

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Post Tags:

Computer, download, knowing, things, Websites, without,
3 Responses to can websites download things to my computer without me knowing?
  1. Dunbar Pappy ϟϟ says:
    February 15, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    Why all 3rd party cookie should be stopped:
    See a simple diagram here: http://www.grc.com/cookies/operation.htm

    You request a site with your browser & the web hosting server for them sends you the sites images, text, audio, cookies, etc. as they built it. These are called the ‘assets’ of that web page.
    That hosting service may have sold advertising space to a non-related entity, whose web hosting is on another server, but your browser dutifully asks for that ‘asset’ because it ‘s on the requested site’s URL, and so that 3rd party’s assets are returned, and may include images, text, tracking cookies, and so on.

    Serious problem arises if any of these “assets” contain ‘Active Scripting’ because your browser makes no distinction between text and script, and so it dutifully executes whatever is in the script (‘on the fly’), including malware, IF you have your browser set to permit these types of behavior, as so often occurs with Internet Explorer users.
    That’s this setting: IE> Tools> Internet Options> Advanced> Security: “Allow ACTIVE CONTENT to run files on my computer”.
    This encompasses Javascript, Active X, and other exploits of this breed; and because of the architecture of the “Web 2.0″, these exploits can be hidden within the ‘iFrame’ (non-display items) which you also get, and your browser executes.

    So, compromised exploit sites (from the 1st party or a 3rd party) can contain malware; be it intentional, or through hacking; and you may NOT be notified (because of the above mentioned script setting).

  2. joelj1964 says:
    February 15, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    Infections can be the cause of a slow or freezing computer. But, that’s not always the case. Usually, there will be other signs of an infection if that’s what it is. Without other symptoms I would say it’s a hardware issue. I would also ask if you are performing routine maintenance to keep the pc running smoothe. Follow the steps in the link below if you are not already doing these things. Good luck!!

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/improveperf.mspx

  3. Wm says:
    February 15, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    Yes, which is why some countries are advising people not to use Microsoft Internet Explorer and to choose an alternative. This is just an example, because of another vulnerability in that series of browsers that allows bad things to be downloaded and run on your computer without you even clicking on anything.

    I would recommend using the latest version of Firefox from http://getfirefox.com or Google Chrome as your browser.

    Best Regards

Leave a Reply