Link development without getting infected

Link development without getting infecting your PC with spyware

[spiritualseo]

Okay, so I hired a couple of manual link developers a few months back to approach sites and ask them for a link exchange. These people contact around 70 - 100 odd sites a day. That was good. The issue is the spyware infected sites. My PCs get infected with Spyware every now and then. I do use anti virus software but most of the time the Software is not able to remove the virus and I need to contact their support to finally get it removed. Same is the case with some directories. Many of them get hacked into.

I know the answer to this question is NO, but I am asking nevertheless.. is there any fool proof way of doing manual link development without getting your PC infected?

And is there a software out there where I can enter the URL of a site to see if it hosts spyware? I have used Siteadviser but I am not happy with their results.

[janharders]

why do your pcs get infected? with the proper setup, you shouldn't have to worry.

no direct connection to the internet, use a router with a firewall.
don't let your people work with administrative rights on the computer.
don't use the internet explorer.
if you want to go the extra mile: use noscript, a firefox plugin.
people shouldn't need to download programs when asking for link exchanges, and with those precautions, it's unlikely to get infected without the "help" of a local user that runs stuff intentionally.

also, you could go extra sure and use something like vmware to run the browser in a virtual machine. it can get messed with but it won't hurt your network (the vm shouldn't have access to fileservers etc, of course) and you can just reset the vm-image to a point you know is clean.

[creeking]

improve your odds by using a live linux cd (with no hard drives mounted)

[MichaelBluejay]

So link exchangers' PC's are getting infected with spyware? Can't say I'm unhappy to hear that.

[buckworks]

Use a Mac.

[Rosalind]

If you want to go the extra mile to ensure your link exchanges are going to the right sort of neighbourhoods, have your people check the pages out first in some way. With Firefox security options you can find out if the site is a suspected forgery or attack site. You could also have the SiteAdvisor plugin installed. Neither of these are 100% accurate, but they might be of some help.

Remember that if you're linking out to malicious or hacked sites it can affect your traffic.