Should I be worried about a virus on a single machine affecting the network?

[Spork829]

I'm doing an experiment (long story as to why) that may involve going to some sketchy sites, as part of the whole point is to accumulate some viruses. I have an old PC to be the subject (or victim, more accurately), because I don't care about it or its Windows install at all. But I'm wondering: Could a virus on that PC downloaded from who-knows-where potentially infect the network/other devices on it? AKA should I not run this experiment with the PC on my home network? If so then what might be a better way of going about it? Thanks.

[m0k]

yeah some of them definitely can, from what ive heard over the years. 
you might want to be a little more cautious with this experiment

run this experiment on a vm instead?

[Spork829]

Just now, mok said:

yeah some of them definitely can, from what ive heard over the years. 
you might want to be a little more cautious with this experiment

run this experiment on a vm instead?

Would a VM be any more secure? Otherwise I've got the old machine sitting around anyways, may as well avoid putting the possible wear on a drive in my main system that I care about.

[Guest]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Would a VM be any more secure? Otherwise I've got the old machine sitting around anyways, may as well avoid putting the possible wear on a drive in my main system that I care about.

Buy a computer from bestbuy. Put a shit ton of virus there and return it claiming the computer is defective.

[Spork829]

Just now, dexxterlab97 said:

Buy a computer from bestbuy. Put a shit ton of virus there and return it claiming the computer is defective.

Sadly that might work.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

A VM is more secure because it is a computer inside of a computer and anything downloaded on the VM will stay in the VM it self

[Spork829]

Just now, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

A VM is more secure because it is a computer inside of a computer and anything downloaded on the VM will stay in the VM it self

Is the VM not still connected to the network? I'm not fully understanding how it's more secure in that regard than another PC.

[Canada EH]

I learn something new from LTT everyday.

Aside from you project, reverse would be to use a Sandbox program.

I think VM uses up too much resources. But it works good from what I see.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Most viruses stay on the computer/VM in this case. Very few can go over a network. Put the VM on your old PC to be safer than on your newer PC just in case. A VM is pretty good at keeping the viruses on the VM itself

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

Most viruses stay on the computer. Very few can go over a network. Put the VM on your old PC to be safer than on your newer PC just in case. 

Okay, yeah I guess the best way to go about it would be a VM on the old PC. Could it even handle one though? It's...pretty old (Core 2 Duo)

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Give me the specs of the pc.

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

Give me the specs.

Core 2 Duo E4400, 2GB RAM, Some old 200GB HDD, no GPU 

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

It might use want to use a copy of windows xp or vista or demo copys  of them on the VM.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

or since it is so old you can just use the computer itself.

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

or since it is so old you can just use the computer it self with specs like that.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. None of the potential viruses should be that bad anyways so I don't think the network is a huge issue.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

I use a virtual machine on my computer that has specs of:a AMD e1 6010 @1.35gh and 6 GB of ram. The ram can handle it but it maxes out my CPU.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

3 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. None of the potential viruses should be that bad anyways so I don't think the network is a huge issue.

Yea. Most viruses are targeted at your computer anyways and not focused on spreading across your network.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Plus the cpu is most likely worn out by now so dont feel bad destroying your old pc.

[Spork829]

Just now, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

Plus the cpu is most likely worn out by now so dont feel bad destroying your pc.

True. And if anything would be destroyed by a slew of viruses it would probably be the HDD.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Yes. It will just fill up with viruses and eventually be unusable. But it depends on what viruses you are able to / want to download.

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

Yes. It will just fill up with viruses and eventually be unusable. But it depends on what viruses you are able to / want to download.

Well the experiment is on a certain type of content (not porn) that people often think you can get a virus from. Going to investigate the truth behind it. So I might not even get any.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Well what kind of content are you planning to experiment with.

[Spork829]

Just now, ANONYMOUS_POTATO said:

Well what kind of content are you planning to experiment with.

Clickbait articles, like the 'sponsored stories' on the sides of huge news/media sites. I'll then click similar ads on those, and see how many levels of clicking it takes until something malicious happens.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

That might take a while if it is on the same website. Try to clock on ones that go to different websites. Or start on a suspicious news site and go from there.

[ANONYMOUS_POTATO]

Click on stupid ads that look suspicious.