Megaupload downloading bogus files?

[Not Right in the Head]

Has anyone else seen Megaupload download a small garbage file along with the file that you're trying to download? This has happened to me twice in the last two days, and on two different platforms (XP and OS X). The gibberish file appears to be downloaded via the Megaupload Toolbar pop-under window, while the real download comes from the usual place. On OS X, the file was downloaded to my desktop (which is NOT the default download dir) and given an '.exe' extension. On XP, it was downloaded without an extension. One of the files is named 'v137h34m', and it doesn't appear to be a virus, unless some He-Programmer has managed to write a 7-byte one (impossible).

All this makes me dislike Megaupload even more, but since it's the preferred host for this forum's seeders, I'm hardly in a position to complain.

[dicartwright]

you-re in every position to complain. I don-t download from here anymore unless it-s on sendspace, yousend it or my fav, savefile. Which is rarely. I hate megaupload, just hate it. Don-t worry, I really think people here will stop using eventually. Why doesn-t everybody use savefile+ I-ll never know. And thanks for the info, I'll keep my eyes open, I'm using someone else's PC andd I'm a bit scared

[El Manzo]

The megaupload toolbar is Alexa, and it contains a spyware.
In any case DO NOT WORRY, it won't harm your computer but it's better to stay away from it. Megaupload is not working anymore without their toolbar.
If you want to download from megaupload without the toolbar you should:
1 - download and install the free multi platform browser firefox (http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/)
2 - manually add the string of the Alexa toolbar so that Megaupload thinks that you have installed it. Here is what to do:

-Start firefox
-write in the address bar about:config and hit return, choose a line of the list, right-click and choose new>string
in the inputbox, write: general.useragent.override and hit OK,
in the other input box write: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible); MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; NET CLR 1.1.4322; FDM; Alexa Toolbar and hit OK.
-Restart the browser and you should be able to download.
Note that sometimes this won't bypass the 'Download limit exceed' alert if all the slots for your country are busy, but is the same with the toolbar installed.

***IMPORTANT EDIT***
This fix can affect your browser using other web based services like forums or mail accounts.
If somebody is having issues simple write about:config in the address toolbar,
search for general.useragent.override, right click and hit delete.

If you are using Firefox as your only default browser for everyday use and you don't want to add and then delete the string before downloading from megaupload you can create a new user profile dedicated to megaupload, and switch whenever you need to download from it.
You can do this using the profile manager, here's how to do it:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

Thanks to unrulyboy for reporting this issue.

[dicartwright]

Megaupload is not working anymore without their toolbar.
I don't have internet at home, and at the cybercafes you-re usually not allowed to install anything. So Megaupload is dead to me.

[El Manzo]

you-re in every position to complain. I don-t download from here anymore unless it-s on sendspace, yousend it or my fav, savefile. Which is rarely. I hate megaupload, just hate it. Don-t worry, I really think people here will stop using eventually. Why doesn-t everybody use savefile+ I-ll never know. And thanks for the info, I'll keep my eyes open, I'm using someone else's PC andd I'm a bit scared

savefile is one of my favourite too: clean, excellent and user-friendly interface but unfortunately, in my country, the download speed is sometimes veeeery slow.

[El Manzo]

I don't have internet at home, and at the cybercafes you-re usually not allowed to install anything. So Megaupload is dead to me.

You're right then. No solution if they won't allow you to install anything on their machine. :mad:
You could try to run Mobile Firefox from a USB pen drive on one of the PC at the cybercafe.

[dicartwright]

savefile is one of my favourite too: clean, excellent and user-friendly interface but unfortunately, in my country, the download speed is sometimes veeeery slow.
Where is that? I'm from Uruguay (and savefile is the fastest I've found...) I have lousy connections anyway

[El Manzo]

Where is that? I'm from Uruguay (and savefile is the fastest I've found...) I have lousy connections anyway
Yes, download speed can be different from times to times and from country to country, sometimes is very slow to download and sometimes is very fast.
Savefile used to be superfast for me untill a couple of months ago, now it depends from day to day but overall is absolutely one of the best. Upload speed is always great. I'm glad in Uruguay it's working fine.
Are you asking about my country? It's written in the 'location' field, right under the Warhol's Marilyn.

[dicartwright]

"location", I see. I don-t know my way around here!

[The Cat's Mother]

Diana! Wondered when you'd turn up here :)

[unrulyboy]

El Manzo-

Thanks for that fix. Much appreciated.

I personally think megauploaded should be avoided now. Anyone downloading spyware on my machine is suspect, at best.

- unrulyboy -

[El Manzo]

El Manzo-

Thanks for that fix. Much appreciated.

I personally think megauploaded should be avoided now. Anyone downloading spyware on my machine is suspect, at best.

- unrulyboy -

You're welcome.

Agreed: their pop-ups are among the most terrible ones on the internet, and their toolbar is something to avoid. Hope that fix helps, because a lot of great stuff is constantly posted over there...

[dicartwright]

Diana! Wondered when you'd turn up here :)
Oh hey there! I wonder about this section sometimes, but until megaupload is totally banned it won't be often...

[drifter]

what is the life of a file? i only use mega because its long shelf life

[unrulyboy]

The one problem I had with this fix is that it affected me in other places. My gmail account reverted to simple view and had less features available. Also a Java chat client I regularly use stopped working, so I had to remove this. Any way around this, or other ways to use mega without the spyware?

- unrulyboy -

[Zenith Nadir]

Has anyone else seen Megaupload download a small garbage file along with the file that you're trying to download?

It's probably not the answer you want, but if you're a paid up subscriber to megaupload, you don't get the pesky garbage file. As soon as I log-out of MU, I get redirected to the toolbar page.

[El Manzo]

The one problem I had with this fix is that it affected me in other places. My gmail account reverted to simple view and had less features available. Also a Java chat client I regularly use stopped working, so I had to remove this. Any way around this, or other ways to use mega without the spyware?

- unrulyboy -

Thanks for reporting the issue and sorry about that, that fix can indeed affect your browser using other web based services like forums or mail accounts.
If somebody is having issues simple write about:config in the address toolbar,
search for general.useragent.override, right click and hit delete.

If you are using Firefox as your only default browser for everyday use and you don't want to add and then delete the string before downloading from megaupload, you can create a new user profile dedicated to megaupload, and switch whenever you need to download from it.
You can do this using the profile manager, here's how to do it:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

[MozDesign]

Yep, thanks for this. If you do not have the file downloaded on your desktop IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVEN'T GOT THE SPYWARE.

I didn't have any indication of Spyware on my desktop or any of the download folders I have in operation, but I ran the free program "Adaware" and it detected 8 files under the "Alexa" name tag.

ADAWARE got rid of it quickly and easily, but you need to nip it in the bud before it gets serious. Adaware is a fantastic free program to detect and delete spyware, I advise you all get it now :)