Heartland

I really don't know what is wrong with my computer. It won't stay on-line for more than 10 minutes, e.g. it won't refresh pages it just sits there for ages but the little thingy still says it's connected but then the page I want to refresh says "This page is not available" like there's no connection but there is because the thing says it's still connected.
Also when I dial up and my home page comes up, I get about 4 more pages load themselves up over the top of it that I have to close and they all say things like "Bad Gateway" and "Page not available". Sometimes even porn comes up! That was interesting when my mum was over and was trying to book her holiday .
I do virus scans and things, delete cookies and off-line comtent but I'm afraid my computer knowledge is really a bit limited.

Help me

sounds like spyware screwing it up.

Download Ad-Aware (the personal version is free of charge) and run it - it should quarantine all the spyware, remote diallers etc that are stopping your computer working

I am downloading it as I am typing this!

Thank you LC

my fave spyware remover is 'Spybot Search and Destroy'. Another handy tool for cleaning up machines is 'System Mechanic'.

try www.webattack.com for both and many more freeware and shareware downloads.

oh and keep your anti-virus software up todate with all the latest pattern and engine updates.

hope you puter is back and healthy again

neither those two nor norton stopped trojan or netsky, over here...
ggggrrrrr

emilystrange wrote:neither those two nor norton stopped trojan or netsky, over here...
ggggrrrrr

but niether are anti-virus programmes, they'll clean your machine up from spyware. try www.symantec.com and run the online scan of your machine. If it is infected you should be able to download the removal tools. Although some virus will actually stop you from visiting anti-virus sites. the best advice is everytime you're online check for updates and don't open any dodgy emails and even attatchments from people you know always try and check they really did send them.

the problem is anti-virus can only protect you about virus's it knows about, it has problems when someone writes a brand new one

neither Ad-aware nor Spybot Search and Destroy will stop viruses - they're spyware removers which is a completely different thing.

For virus protection I use Anti-Vir which is free of charge for personal use, and has an automatic update facility to check and automatically download and install new updates (new virus definitions etc) . Mine is set to check for new updates once a day in the middle of the night (I leave my PC on all the time, and I've got broadband).

In addition to Anti-Vir and Ad-aware, I also run a firewall called Sygate Personal Firewall which is also free of charge.

Since using these three products my computer has never been infected with a virus, been hacked, or been plagued by spyware.

Oh yeah, I also stopped using Internet Explorer long ago

lazarus corporation wrote:neither Ad-aware nor Spybot Search and Destroy will stop viruses - they're spyware removers which is a completely different thing.

For virus protection I use Anti-Vir which is free of charge for personal use, and has an automatic update facility to check and automatically download and install new updates (new virus definitions etc) . Mine is set to check for new updates once a day in the middle of the night (I leave my PC on all the time, and I've got broadband).

In addition to Anti-Vir and Ad-aware, I also run a firewall called Sygate Personal Firewall which is also free of charge.

Since using these three products my computer has never been infected with a virus, been hacked, or been plagued by spyware.

Oh yeah, I also stopped using Internet Explorer long ago

so thats you that uses webTV is it? wondered who that 1 user was

now i need to work out who's browsing on an acorn RISK computer

Quiff Boy wrote: so thats you that uses webTV is it? wondered who that 1 user was

now i need to work out who's browsing on an acorn RISK computer

I've never even tried WebTV - it sounds horrendous.

I'm a total convert to Firefox these days - the web developer toolbar is incredibly useful in my line of work. And tabbed browsing rules.

see my avatar

lazarus corporation wrote:Oh yeah, I also stopped using Internet Explorer long ago

not only have i stopped using Internet Explorer...but i've never even set up my outlook express...all my e-mail is web based...like hotmail...but called Yahoo (maybe you've seen it?)...automatically scans all attachments for viruses before i open them or save to my 'puter...only ever got a nasty from a hacked messageboard...and my virus scanner cleaned it right up...nice...

Brideoffrankenstein wrote: Also when I dial up and my home page comes up, I get about 4 more pages load themselves up over the top of it that I have to close and they all say things like "Bad Gateway" and "Page not available".
Help me

\\


DIAL UP !!!

Internet use would immediately come to a complete dead end if I had to go back to dial up.
AdAware is very good for cleaning up spyware
I prefer BitDefender for protecting machines from nasty bugs and things.

they didn't work on the spyware either. which was a bit worrying.
i didnt mean they were supposed to kill my virus.. it just came out wrong...
anyway i've got netsky now. sigh.

Also get Spyware Blaster, which stops spyware programs, diallers, cookies etc installing in the first place:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Run Adaware and Spybot first before you install this though.

Quiff Boy wrote:now i need to work out who's browsing on an acorn RISK computer

Some of us still pine for the BBC Micro and the hours lost playing Labyrinth. Oh happy days.

If ad aware and spybot search and destroy don't work download "hijack this" http://www.net-integration.net/tools/hijackthis.html and perform a scan then save a log and post it here and I or someone else can advise which are the nasties that need deleting (It lists loads of legitimate stuff so don't delete anything unless you know what you're doing!).

If you use Outlook Express you probably picked up something from a dodgy email. To prevent this go to Tools-Options-Read and tick the box that says "Read all messages in plain text", and then you can never be infected by reading an infected email (just don't open any attachments unless you know for certain they're safe.)

If you have XP I would stick on Service Pack 2. But be aware it can screw your machine right up.

When the cure is worse than the disease, for some machines

Dan wrote:If you use Outlook Express you probably picked up something from a dodgy email. To prevent this go to Tools-Options-Read and tick the box that says "Read all messages in plain text", and then you can never be infected by reading an infected email (just don't open any attachments unless you know for certain they're safe.)

Best way to avoid this is to ditch Outlook altogether, it's a terrible, bug-ridden program full of security flaws. Get a decent e-mail program such as Qualcomm Eudora, and make sure your virus scanning software includes email scanning.

DerekR wrote:Best way to avoid this is to ditch Outlook altogether, it's a terrible, bug-ridden program full of security flaws. Get a decent e-mail program such as Qualcomm Eudora, and make sure your virus scanning software includes email scanning.

Maybe so, but making it display emails as text only switches off all the flaws (assuming you're not stupid enough to open & run attachments such as "hey!_open_this.doc.exe".

sisxbeforedawn wrote:If you have XP I would stick on Service Pack 2. But be aware it can screw your machine right up.

When the cure is worse than the disease, for some machines

tell me about it.

because i alreadt had my own firewall software, anti-virus software & popup blocker, and because i had "optimised" my pc for running music software and stopped a lot automatically running background processes, XP SP2 barfed in a major way.

i spent most of last weekend backing up my pc, reformatting it and putting windows xp back on it.

its just about there now but its all been a terrible waste of time - and i shan't be applying SP2 again in a hurry...

horrible thing.

I applied SP2 with no problems, well excpet for my graphics card flipping out I'm running a win2003k server with MS ISA as my firewall so no problems there.

I must admit SP2 is pretty good if you can get the sodding thing installed without problems. I had to rebuild a machine, everything was working fine apart from the graphics card, applied SP2 and this fixed it

it's all hit and miss though. But Bill is still a god

I created an install Win XP Prof CD with Sp2 integrated, and have installed
it on two machines without problems.

I hit 'Repair Permissions' in Mac OS X, alles klaar!

to my knowledge you can't run the windows update facility from any browser other
than IE. (e.g. Firefox).

Isnt that abit crap?

Erinyes wrote:to my knowledge you can't run the windows update facility from any browser other
than IE. (e.g. Firefox).

Isnt that abit crap?

Both of your statements are absolutely correct.