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Poster: sandymac Date: May 13, 2004 7:18am
Forum: freecache Subject: Re: What about Security? A: no different that other mirror systems.

This problem isn't any different than any other mirroring system out there. As a downloader, if you're concerned you should verify a checksum of the download to make sure it's correct. Unfortunately most places don't provide that info.

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Poster: Gizzmo Date: May 13, 2004 5:24pm
Forum: freecache Subject: Re: What about Security? A: no different that other mirror systems.

that's right. but the difference is: If I download an linux image from ftp.suse.de, I know that it comes from this server and I trust SuSE (ok, I cannot be 100% sure) - but with freecache, I don't really know from which server I'll get the Download - and I don't know who is responsible for this server. Well, anyway freecache is a great service :)
This post was modified by Gizzmo on 2004-05-14 00:24:41

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Poster: Newsbyte Date: May 13, 2004 6:01pm
Forum: freecache Subject: Re: What about Security? A: no different that other mirror systems.

I'm not sure how valid the extra concern is. ISP's regulary use proxies and cache mechanisms themselves, so that, instead of retrieving files directly from the original server, you already get (some of) them from the cache of your or another ISP/server.

In fact, the problem is the same with P2P systems: who says the other guy didn't put a virus in the file you are d/l? And in fact, it sometimes does happen, but all in all it's a minor problem (compared to the total amount of data transferred) and people use those systems happily, it would seem.