Is the CM safe to download from?

[flybynight]

While downloading the out of date objects, I got a "URL could not be found error"

Now I assumed the content was being downloaded from the Auran servers, so if there was something that could not be found I would think it would give a "file not found error"

So is the content that is on the CM tested and verified before being made available.

I found a "bush" object of a pot plant(that I am ok with, but wonder if a youngsters mom walkes in and sees a field of pot plants on the screen how well that would go down) and someone posted a near naked man of an object they have found, who to say someone dosn't stealth a virus in one of these objects?

 

[Muliebuck]

That 'pot plant' you refer to is known as hemp, it is NOT the illicit substance many associate it with, but is a geninely naturally occuring plant, that has many uses, including the production of clothing, rope and other items. I hope this clears up any confusion. As for 'stealthing' any sort of viruses etc, I'd sooner download from the Auran Download Station, than half of these third party websites, that come and go (often frequently), who insist on packaging their content as zip files, rather than as CDP files. I've downloaded more items from the DLS, than anywhere, and never once had a 'virus' or anything of the sort.

 

[flybynight]

Trust me I know the difference from hemp and pot... and except when its actually in its flowering stage, it looks very much the same.

Again I say, tell that to the youngersters mom that walks into the room and sees a screen full of a "field" of hemp ("umm son.. I thought that was a game about trains").. that is the example I was trying to use.

And here in Texas USA... well put it this way I would not plant a "hemp" plant in my back yard.

It may not be an illicit substance where you are.. but in the US it is.

 

[paulzmay]

The vast majority of stuff on the DLS is hosted by Auran. There are a handful of objects which are linked to external sites via the DLS.

There have been very, very few issues with unsuitable content on the DLS in my memory. I can think of only one instance when a (frankly fairly innocuous) item was hidden by Auran after some complaints. Nothing else has even caused comment.

I have yet to hear of any report of any virus or malware hidden in any Trainz asset from any source (including 3rd party websites). If you want to be even safer, make sure you only download .cdp files, as I doubt if anyone has bothered to hack this format to include anything damaging. Zip files can theoretically hide just about anything.

And the error message you got could well be down to some maintenance or upgrade on the servers. There have also been numerous issues where items are listed in the DLS's index, but the actual files have failed to upload. Most of these are corrected in time.

Hope this clarifies things a bit...

Paul

 

[flybynight]

As long as no malware has ever been found in the past via the CM is good enough for me.

Thanks Paul.

 

[johnwhelan]

While downloading the out of date objects, I got a "URL could not be found error"

Now I assumed the content was being downloaded from the Auran servers, so if there was something that could not be found I would think it would give a "file not found error"

So is the content that is on the CM tested and verified before being made available.

I found a "bush" object of a pot plant(that I am ok with, but wonder if a youngsters mom walkes in and sees a field of pot plants on the screen how well that would go down) and someone posted a near naked man of an object they have found, who to say someone dosn't stealth a virus in one of these objects?

The DLS is by far one of the safest places to download from. There are some .exe files on their from a very early version which could be infected but they have been there a long time and downloaded many times.

a .zip file can be infected but the current .cdp format files are first only used by Trainz so there is little point in targeting them and secondly they are data files which are used by cm2 or cmp or Trainz. They are not executed.

Items uploaded to the DLS from something like TRS2009 go through four sets of tests, the first the the content creators TRS2009 will only accept certain file types within an item for upload. Second an automated test is run on all uploaded items, third a manual check is run on all items uploaded to the DLS. The fourth and final test is actually other users. They would shout quite loudly here in the forums if there was a suspicion that something had been downloaded from the DLS and contaminated their machine.

Also remember that all content creators are known, so if you stick with ones who have half a dozen or more items on the DLS over a period of time the risk of being infected is extremely remote.

Security is knowing who you are dealing with, and procedures and in this case with data files only being uploaded and downloaded it would need to trigger something in the Trainz code, quite unlikely.

Cheerio John

 

[ColPrice2002]

Hi,

Just to add that "pot plant" is (in normal South of England usage) - a plant in a pot...

Often used for plants kept indoors in the winter - like cyclamen, hyacinth, orchids etc (all without the aid of a spell checker).

As noted, hemp is still a useful plant, though a lot of uses are out-of-date. Not all varieties are illegal.

Colin

 

[flybynight]

Hi,

Just to add that "pot plant" is (in normal South of England usage) - a plant in a pot...

Often used for plants kept indoors in the winter - like cyclamen, hyacinth, orchids etc (all without the aid of a spell checker).

As noted, hemp is still a useful plant, though a lot of uses are out-of-date. Not all varieties are illegal.

Colin

Pot Plant...

Sad to say tho.. here in the US.. all forms of the hemp plant is illegal.

Now there still are some hemp products you can find, but the actual
growing, of anything "hemp" related is a big no-no..

Funny thing is, my mom told me during ww2 they had pro "hemp" clips they would show before movies (durning the news reels and such) that would talk about hemp being used for rope and such.

So "go some some rope"