Computer questions and solutions....thereof...

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blues2cruise
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#91 Unread post by blues2cruise »

Well, I think the time has come to call in a tech. It's so slow, it's pathetic.

For example, when I click to open a page here it takes 9 or 10 seconds for the page to open. When I click submit, it sometimes won't submit and I have to click a couple of times.

Sigh.......

How much should I expect to pay for a housecall?

(I hit submit for this and it took 17 seconds and then it went to "This page cannot be displayed...you know the one I mean...so I hit refresh to come back here and add this)

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#92 Unread post by blues2cruise »

The last one took 8 seconds after the second try. :roll:

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Fathertork
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#93 Unread post by Fathertork »

Had the same problem after installing the new explorer and was about ready to buy a new computer after uninstalling it twice.
I can't tell you what Exactly I did to correct it other than:

1/ ran the virus-spyware software provided by the cable company.
2/ Defraged several times...3 I think.
3/ Scanned the drive "Checked volume for errors"

4/ Unplugging the cable moden as well as the router for 2 minutes before turning back on. Give it a try before spending the money on a techy.

That seemed to do it and the pages were loading again and the computer was back to its normal speed.
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ofblong
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#94 Unread post by ofblong »

Nalian wrote:
A router's firewall WILL block you from getting internet based spyware/adware installed but if you install something like yahoo toolbar you are allowing your computer spyware that way. A router doesnt stop spyware that you yourself allowed to be installed by either settings on your browser or settings elsewhere or you hitting "yes" to something.
A router will absolutely not do any of that. What you are describing is called content filtering and it would need to be done by a real time proxy scanner. There are absolutely NO home user products that would do this via a router.

A router can protect your system by not allowing traffic directly in to you. Most often it does this by port filtering. When you request something from the web (on port 80) it will allow information back from that address via a random port that the webserver communicates to the client it will be transmitting over. The router doesn't care what any of that information is - whether its a virus, spyware, adware, or whatever. Routers do not do content filtering.

Google and Yahoo toolbar are not spyware. Spyware is something placed on your system without your permission. Adware is placed on your system with your permission (you are told about it in the click-through EULA). I know that google's toolbar will send data back to google about your browsing habits, but you have the option to turn that off if you wish to. I do not know about Yahoo's toolbar, but I do know that it is absolutly not spyware.
you need to reread what you just said. A router does stop you from getting spyware/adware/virus's that you dont tell or allow your computer to install because it blocks the ports that those virus's spyware/adware try to connect to your computer on. thats exactly what I said and exactly what you just said.
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#95 Unread post by Nalian »

ofblong wrote:
Nalian wrote:
A router's firewall WILL block you from getting internet based spyware/adware installed but if you install something like yahoo toolbar you are allowing your computer spyware that way. A router doesnt stop spyware that you yourself allowed to be installed by either settings on your browser or settings elsewhere or you hitting "yes" to something.
A router will absolutely not do any of that. What you are describing is called content filtering and it would need to be done by a real time proxy scanner. There are absolutely NO home user products that would do this via a router.

A router can protect your system by not allowing traffic directly in to you. Most often it does this by port filtering. When you request something from the web (on port 80) it will allow information back from that address via a random port that the webserver communicates to the client it will be transmitting over. The router doesn't care what any of that information is - whether its a virus, spyware, adware, or whatever. Routers do not do content filtering.

Google and Yahoo toolbar are not spyware. Spyware is something placed on your system without your permission. Adware is placed on your system with your permission (you are told about it in the click-through EULA). I know that google's toolbar will send data back to google about your browsing habits, but you have the option to turn that off if you wish to. I do not know about Yahoo's toolbar, but I do know that it is absolutly not spyware.
you need to reread what you just said. A router does stop you from getting spyware/adware/virus's that you dont tell or allow your computer to install because it blocks the ports that those virus's spyware/adware try to connect to your computer on. thats exactly what I said and exactly what you just said.
Heh, no we did not say the same thing. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding on your part on how viruses, adware and spyware work. I'll break down the most common ways for you.

Viruses/adware/spyware infection way #1: Infected website. You go to the website and through activeX, javascript, etc, it will infect your system. In the case of spyware, often it is a bad browserhelperobject (ie mainly problem) that will do the spying and ad display. A router will do nothing to stop this. You have requested that webpage, and because the router does not check the content (content filtering) it will allow any page you have gone to, to load. This means if you have a router and visit a website like this, you will get a virus unless your anti-virus solution is on the ball. This scenerio covers pretty much all spyware infections.

Virus #2: You receive an infected email. You open this, it infects your system. A router will do nothing to stop this. You told your email client to go fetch your mail, and your router allowed this traffic through..again not checking the content of what you asked for. And again, unless your anti-virus solution..blahblahblah. You get the gist.

Virus #3: Someone on your local broadband network is infected. This means someone on the same broadband network as you (e.g. comcast, verizon, etc) is infected and is blasting out the viruses over ports 139/445. A router WILL stop this traffic from coming in.

Adware #4: You download a program that claims to provide a service for you (keeping track of your username/passwords on websites like gator, etc) and while it does what you ask, it also installs adware to pay for its services. This is legal because the EULA it asks you to accept for the install tells you about this. A router will do nothing to stop this.

Routers do, as you stated, stop direct attacks against your machine from the outside. However I can tell you with 100% certainty that the vast majority of viruses and do not infect people via that method, and spyware does not utilize that method either.

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#96 Unread post by jonnythan »

ofblong wrote:you need to reread what you just said. A router does stop you from getting spyware/adware/virus's that you dont tell or allow your computer to install because it blocks the ports that those virus's spyware/adware try to connect to your computer on. thats exactly what I said and exactly what you just said.
You are not understanding the function of a router and network address translation, or you are not understanding how malware typically gets installed.
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#97 Unread post by Nibblet99 »

To summarise, essentially most spyware, adware, viruses come straight through Firewalls, as they are attatched to an item you're computer has requested (eg part of a web page)

The only thing that will protect you here is real time virus protection filtering

Disabling real time filters, means viruses have free reign to propagate onto your system until you manually scan for them, more and more of which are starting to get sophisticated and actively target anti-virus software like norton. So should you do a manual scan later, it can already be too late.

There are many many ways to speed up windows, but disabling real time virus scanning is just not an option from my point of view. If you're computer is still too slow with virus protection (assuming all unnecessary services are disabled, virtual memory increased, hard disk defragmented, seperate disk for applications, etc), Suck it up, or buy a better computer.

just my $22
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#98 Unread post by blues2cruise »

My computer is only 1 year old. It is a decent system and when I first got it and first got the high speed connection is was blazingly fast. It has just been the last few months that it has been so slow.

When a person spends the kind of $$$ I spent for this system, I should not have to "suck it up".
Which is why I have tried to troubleshoot.

I will be calling a tech to take a look.

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#99 Unread post by jonnythan »

No computer made in the last 10 years should have trouble saturating the fastest of consumer internet connections.

Networks moved past 10Mbps many years ago because they could easily surpass that, and 10Mbps is faster than 99% of broadband connections. Any computer from the last 5 years or so can saturate a 100Mbps connection.

Basically, it's not that the hardware is incapable..
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#100 Unread post by Shiv »

Just don't buy a new system because the internet is slow. My uncle did that and was pissed that his internet didn't speed up. Your computer specs have little to nothing to do with the speed of the internet. What does affect it has already been mentioned (malware/viruses/spyware/etc.)

So as the most extreme measure, do a format, but don't waste your money on a new machine. Try the tech thing if you don't know how to get rid of the various problems.

By the by this is in response to this:
Had the same problem after installing the new explorer and was about ready to buy a new computer after uninstalling it twice
Just wanted to clear up the new computer thing not working bit. There's a lot of people that think a new computer will solve their problems and, to an extent, in the end it does. But only because they got a new hard drive (read: clean hard drive) with that new computer and it'll slow down again in a few months.
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