NationStates Jolt Archive

If i were to *cough*acidentally download some crappy spy/adware that changed my desktop to a virus warning (false but still annoying as i cant get rid of it) and stopped IE from working- how do you guys suggest i fix the problem?

I downloaded adware-se from google and i've got something called spyware doctor but full scans with each haven't solved this problem- although they fixed some other stuff the adware was doing.

Please post some suggestions, i'm assuming you all know more about computers than me.

Pandascan
If that doesn't work, system restore back to before you 'accidentally downloaded' it

Awesome. thanks for the quick reply.

Add a spybot Search And Destroy to the list ... and potentialy some probing for hijack this (not for the average user)

stop using IE, too many security holes. Go to mozilla and download/use firefox. spyware is less likely to work.

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.

Also try the 15 day trial run of Counterspy available at http://www.sunbelt-software.com/. It kicked ass better than Spybot, Spyblaster and Ad-Aware combined on my machine.

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.


I didnt say it didnt, Im just saying its better than IE

I didnt say it didnt, Im just saying its better than IE
Correction IE6

While I am still a FF fan (specialy cause it ports to machines like this one ... not running windows)

IE 7 is looking quite good actualy

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.

Also try the 15 day trial run of Counterspy available at http://www.sunbelt-software.com/. It kicked ass better than Spybot, Spyblaster and Ad-Aware combined on my machine.
Ehhh Personaly I find A combination of Spybot and Adaware to be the best combo on our clients machine

We have used CounterSpy on a few of them (for specific issues) but it in the long run has shown us to cause some registry issues (more so then adaware)

Some of the new ones are adding modules to the WINLOGON process and CounterSpy is not so gentile removing them ... bluescreaning is not fun and we have been seing a lot

(you have to remember we are geting our hands on about 6 thousand machines a simester ... so our view may be different then the standard home user)

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.

Also try the 15 day trial run of Counterspy available at http://www.sunbelt-software.com/. It kicked ass better than Spybot, Spyblaster and Ad-Aware combined on my machine.
...yeah...remember when you recommended that to me? Whenever I did a scan, I never was able to remove anything. Told me I had to register to actually do more than scan with it. Piece of crap...

And Firefox is only having security problems now because it's gotten to be so popular. By being so popular, those who make spyware and adware start designing stuff to penetrate IT. It's still a lot safer than IE. 'Course, you could use something like Opera. =/

Anyway, also get Spyware Blaster and the Sygate Personal Firewall. Good stuff.

Oh, and quit looking for keygens and serials, you dirty software pirate.

...yeah...remember when you recommended that to me? Whenever I did a scan, I never was able to remove anything. Told me I had to register to actually do more than scan with it. Piece of crap...

And Firefox is only having security problems now because it's gotten to be so popular. By being so popular, those who make spyware and adware start designing stuff to penetrate IT. It's still a lot safer than IE. 'Course, you could use something like Opera. =/

Anyway, also get Spyware Blaster and the Sygate Personal Firewall. Good stuff.

Oh, and quit looking for keygens and serials, you dirty software pirate.
You are right about the target thing ... the bigger the target the more attackers to some extent that is their biggest problem

And firefox is comming that way

Thats why I use this

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/general.jpg

You are right about the target thing ... the bigger the target the more attackers to some extent that is their biggest problem

And firefox is comming that way

Thats why I use this

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/general.jpg
what exactly is that? IRC?

what exactly is that? IRC?
...

Once again, my friend, you prove your ignorance. NO THAT IS NOT IRC. I don't know what it is, but it looks like something meant for the technically minded. In essence, something neither you or I could run. It would work, though. I doubt many peeps are targeting that.

what exactly is that? IRC?
Naw connecting from my work machine back to my FreeBSD machine using ssh then accessing the general forums using links (which is a text based browser)

I could do it directly from that machine as well

:) I was just being silly normaly I just use it for remote downloads and such when I want to work on my machine from a distance

But honestly my normal setup nowadays is FireFox on a Ubuntu or FreeBSD machine ... I really have no problems with spyware :) but when you work tech support like I do (well I am the head of a tech support department) you DO have to be on your toes as far as malware goes

...

Once again, my friend, you prove your ignorance. NO THAT IS NOT IRC. I don't know what it is, but it looks like something meant for the technically minded. In essence, something neither you or I could run. It would work, though. I doubt many peeps are targeting that.
Links is what it is ... what you are actualy SEEING is me connecting back to my FreeBSD server and then using that to connect to general

It was just me goofing around for another thread its not real practical to actualy surf the web ... usualy used for downloading applications

...

Once again, my friend, you prove your ignorance. NO THAT IS NOT IRC. I don't know what it is, but it looks like something meant for the technically minded. In essence, something neither you or I could run. It would work, though. I doubt many peeps are targeting that.
yeah... thats why I was asking what it was, since I have little idea. I just put IRC out there because it looks somewhat similar. You admit you dont know what it is either so you are just as ignorant as I

Links is what it is ... what you are actualy SEEING is me connecting back to my FreeBSD server and then using that to connect to general

It was just me goofing around for another thread its not real practical to actualy surf the web ... usualy used for downloading applications
Ah, okay then.

UNA: I...nevermind. No one can win with you.

Ah, okay then.

UNA: I...nevermind. No one can win with you.
This is how I normaly browse the forums/web

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/fedora2.jpg

This is how I normaly browse the forums/web

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/fedora2.jpg
I like that, though I doubt I'd ever run it that way myself. =/

I like that, though I doubt I'd ever run it that way myself. =/
It was a bit too dark for me ... I dont use that distro .... but something else with gnome or xfce (so simmilar)

Well the xfce looks different

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/newxfce.jpg

Pandascan
If that doesn't work, system restore back to before you 'accidentally downloaded' it
Last time I used Panda, it totally destroyed my puter.

Actually, the Microsoft Anti-spyware is my saviour. I had spy/adware out the wazoo and Microsoft demolished it. Never had a problem since.
Adaware and Spy-bot made a signifigant contribution, but I figure a lot of people have already told you that.

Also, switch to FireFox. the tabbed browsing and extensions alone are worth it, and less security holes is no turn-off either/

Actually, the Microsoft Anti-spyware is my saviour. I had spy/adware out the wazoo and Microsoft demolished it. Never had a problem since.
Adaware and Spy-bot made a signifigant contribution, but I figure a lot of people have already told you that.

Also, switch to FireFox. the tabbed browsing and extensions alone are worth it, and less security holes is no turn-off either/
We have used that utility a few times for some rootkit issues ... but all and all they are laging behind some of the others

Not bad just not quite up to snuff yet

Also may want to check out IE7 ... tabbed browsing as well

But I am no big Microsoft fan

On a related note, my cousin has pop-ups galour on his computer. What should he do?

And since we are bragging UpwardThrust, my Ubuntu/Firefox. (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Yatt1/snapshot2.png)

And since we are bragging UpwardThrust, my Ubuntu/Firefox. (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Yatt1/snapshot2.png)
;) GO GEEKS!

Btw did you install ubuntu with gnome or go for the kubuntu install (or the server install with kde loaded after)?

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.

Also try the 15 day trial run of Counterspy available at http://www.sunbelt-software.com/. It kicked ass better than Spybot, Spyblaster and Ad-Aware combined on my machine.
I suggest not using anything with a trial. If you need something more than Ad-Aware and Spybot, get Microsoft Defender (formerly Microsoft [GIANT] Anti-spyware) and use online scanners by antivirus companies, though most won't remove non-viruses and you will have to delete it manually.

1a) Trend Micro Housecall online virus scan (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/)
1b) Damage Cleanup Engine / Template (http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp) (specifically Sysclean Package)

2) a-squared Anti-Malware Personal Edition (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/)

3) Spybot - Search & Destroy (http://www.download.com/3000-8022-10122137.html)

4) Ad-Aware Personal (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/)

5) SpywareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html)

6) CWShredder (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html)

7) HijackThis (http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/)

8) Microsoft Windows Defender (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Popup-Ad-Spyware-Blockers/Windows-AntiSpyware.shtml)

9) Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en)

Make sure you have a good Antivirus program and keep it up to date.
I use: AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic (http://www.free-av.com/) With AntiVir gaurd always running.
I also use AVG Free Edition (http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01) as a secondary on demand antivirus scanner.

I use every one of the above programs and almost never have any problems from viruses or crapware. The most I usually get are a few datamining cookies.

Surfing porn and downloading pirated software/keygens are a big source for viruses and crapware.

A few site worth taking a look at:
SpywareInfo (http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php)

Spyware Warrior (http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-features.htm)

SpywareGuide (http://www.spywareguide.com/)

PC Pitstop (http://www.pcpitstop.com/)

1) Trend Micro Housecall online virus scan (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/)

2) a-squared Anti-Malware Personal Edition (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/)

3) Spybot - Search & Destroy (http://www.download.com/3000-8022-10122137.html)

4) Ad-Aware Personal (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/)

5) SpywareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html)

6) CWShredder (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html)

7) HijackThis (http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/)

8) Microsoft Windows Defender (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Popup-Ad-Spyware-Blockers/Windows-AntiSpyware.shtml)

9) Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en)

Make sure you have a good Antivirus program and keep it up to date.
I use: AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic (http://www.free-av.com/) With AntiVir gaurd always running.
I also use AVG Free Edition (http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01) as a secondary on demand antivirus scanner.

I use every one of the above programs and almost never have any problems from viruses or crapware. The most I usually get are a few datamining cookies.

Surfing porn and downloading pirated software/keygens are a big source for viruses and crapware.

Add or modify to that http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp sysclean

as an on demand standalone scaner and you have a very good list of the tools we use

On a related note, my cousin has pop-ups galour on his computer. What should he do?

I use the built in popup blocker in Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com/).

;) GO GEEKS!

Btw did you install ubuntu with gnome or go for the kubuntu install (or the server install with kde loaded after)?
Ubuntu w/ GNOME--->KDE

I use the built in popup blocker in Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com/).
Not going to help much. They are the kind that have downloaded themselves onto his hard disk and pop-up from there. Deleting them by hand is futile because they usually have a scriptthat will restore the file when it has detected that the file has been deleted.

Ubuntu w/ GNOME--->KDE


Not going to help much. They are the kind that have downloaded themselves onto his hard disk and pop-up from there. Deleting them by hand is futile because they usually have a scriptthat will restore the file when it has detected that the file has been deleted.
Look through the list that both me and bushy there have given and recomend them to him (personaly specificaly adaware and spybot) and give that a shot in safe mode

Look through the list that both me and bushy there have given and recomend them to him (personaly specificaly adaware and spybot) and give that a shot in safe mode
I did Adaware, Spybot, his anti-virus and that reduced the problem. I'll have to tell him to use the rest next time I talk to him.

EDIT: I figured out that SUSE did not work because of Nero. I cannot even get K3b to burn to the disks.

I did Adaware, Spybot, his anti-virus and that reduced the problem. I'll have to tell him to use the rest next time I talk to him.
Ok if the scanars posted to not work I personaly would venture in with a hijackthis and maybe some good old manual removal

(manual meaning hunting down suspicious processes ... using a process explorer to track down the calling file and removing them by hand)

Ok if the scanars posted to not work I personaly would venture in with a hijackthis and maybe some good old manual removal

(manual meaning hunting down suspicious processes ... using a process explorer to track down the calling file and removing them by hand)
Arg, sounds painful. I wish he had a Windows disk.

I'm starting not to like Firefox so much. It used to be really nice, right first when it came out... very fast and stable, not too loaded down with stuff I dont use, but still functional. Now it seems like it's getting pretty buggy... I dont use it much anymore, but I quit because it's bugs would get on my nerves... crashing when I went to certain sites, locking up if i put too much stuff in the bookmarks, crashing if i went to flash enabled sites, etc, and it was getting slower and more bogged down. I tend to like Opera, but it is also pretty heavy, I never had any problem with adware and spyware with it though, especially when running it on my linux box. Now I'm on my XP laptop though... the linux box's 40 gig hard drive died just the other day :(. I have 2 other linux boxes, however, they are headless. Ones my webserver (slack 10.2), and the other (Gentoo) I use for errr... you get the idea. The one that died was my main desktop, and it ran Gentoo on a 2.6.15.2 kernel, and Fluxbox. The thing is a junkheap 300MHz box with 256 of SDRAM, and it would outperform my mom's bogged down spyware ridden Win XP 1.67GHz with 256 of DDR box on most occassions when using normal applications in that setup because it was so lightweight and customized... and it would get uptimes of about 2 months on a regular basis (only went off if the power went out or if I wanted to change hardware or install a new kernel). The server made it to 8 months on my UPS once, but the power went out for like 14 hours and the battery died :(.

Sorry, got off topic.
I say use Opera, its nice. Has alot of features, but isn't too slow. It does take bit of a long time to start up, but once it's up, it outperforms Firefox and IE6.

I'm starting not to like Firefox so much. It used to be really nice, right first when it came out... very fast and stable, not too loaded down with stuff I dont use, but still functional. Now it seems like it's getting pretty buggy... I dont use it much anymore, but I quit because it's bugs would get on my nerves... crashing when I went to certain sites, locking up if i put too much stuff in the bookmarks, crashing if i went to flash enabled sites, etc, and it was getting slower and more bogged down. I tend to like Opera, but it is also pretty heavy, I never had any problem with adware and spyware with it though, especially when running it on my linux box. Now I'm on my XP laptop though... the linux box's 40 gig hard drive died just the other day :(. I have 2 other linux boxes, however, they are headless. Ones my webserver (slack 10.2), and the other (Gentoo) I use for errr... you get the idea. The one that died was my main desktop, and it ran Gentoo on a 2.6.15.2 kernel, and Fluxbox. The thing is a junkheap 300MHz box with 256 of SDRAM, and it would outperform my mom's bogged down spyware ridden Win XP 1.67GHz with 256 of DDR box on most occassions when using normal applications in that setup because it was so lightweight and customized... and it would get uptimes of about 2 months on a regular basis (only went off if the power went out or if I wanted to change hardware or install a new kernel). The server made it to 8 months on my UPS once, but the power went out for like 14 hours and the battery died :(.

Sorry, got off topic.
I say use Opera, its nice. Has alot of features, but isn't too slow. It does take bit of a long time to start up, but once it's up, it outperforms Firefox and IE6.


Why would you run fluxbox? Just curious I have learned to hate it

I know gnome is a hog ... so is kde but why not something like xfce? rather then fluxbox?

Lol and for that matter why gentoo lol

Why would you run fluxbox? Just curious I have learned to hate it

I know gnome is a hog ... so is kde but why not something like xfce? rather then fluxbox?

Lol and for that matter why gentoo lol
Gentoo you have the choice to decide how the app is going to be compiled and you can get extremely lightweight apps if you do not care about sound/X/WindowManager integration.

Gentoo you have the choice to decide how the app is going to be compiled and you can get extremely lightweight apps if you do not care about sound/X/WindowManager integration.
Sorry I should have specified ... why for that machine :)

I understand the uses ... and have done a few installes myself but they have all been in very very specific applications (for example my ACM club I built a 3 machine cluster out of octane graphics rendering machines)

Gentoo was the only one that gave me the power for that custom hardware (though there were a few other distros I had a choice of)

But you really have to be a glutton for punishment if you wish to use gentoo for anything other then absolutly nessisary lol

I never really liked xfce very much for some reason. It always came off as sorta cheeseballish to me. Fluxbox is very fast, I click the window in the bar, and its right there. I also liked the look of it... very simplistic and minimal, yet stylish and customizable, and I designed my own themes for it so it looked very nice and not all generic like alot of people's look. As for Gentoo, I think its fast and customizable... the downfall being, you have to wait around for a long time for some things to install, but once they are installed, they seem to perform very well in comparison to other distros I've tried. Slackware may be up there in performance, but Slackware seemed weird with it's package managemnt, it didn't seem clean cut enough to me, I'd lose things. Debian is also pretty fast in some instances, however, from my expieriance if you want a very fast AND stable debian installation, it's probably going to be really outdated stuff. I don't wanna be on there using some 4 year old version of Gaim... but I don't necessarily want to be bleeding edge either. Gentoo just works for me... I also like the USE flags... makes the application compiles really customizable, in the sence that, if you dont want kde shit bogging you down, because you never use kde, you dont have to have that compiled in (as an example). The compiler optimization is also a big thing with some Gentoo users, but it's not really so much for me, I always found that playing with the optimization flags too much would render me with an unstable system, and I'd rather have stability over a .000001 second speed increase. A fast applications not much use if it crashes halfway through what your doing. The only compiler flags I do like are the ones that either speed up the compiles (like pipe), and being able to tell it specifically what processor to compile for... I don't need stuff for an Athlon XP processor in there if I have a Pentium 2, it would just bog it down.

Sorry I should have specified ... why for that machine :)

I understand the uses ... and have done a few installes myself but they have all been in very very specific applications (for example my ACM club I built a 3 machine cluster out of octane graphics rendering machines)

Gentoo was the only one that gave me the power for that custom hardware (though there were a few other distros I had a choice of)

But you really have to be a glutton for punishment if you wish to use gentoo for anything other then absolutly nessisary lol
lol, so I've heard. I tried to install Gentoo (I've heard it is a great way to learn lots about Linux) but the installers on the live CD both are fond of crashing.

lol, so I've heard. I tried to install Gentoo (I've heard it is a great way to learn lots about Linux) but the installers on the live CD both are fond of crashing.
My first time was on an old school Ipaq

Frigging like 50 hours into it I find out that there are issues with my chipset and gentoo lol

Bah it is a way to learn a LOT but holy god it can be work

Man, Nero fizzled up my DVd+RW's sooo bad that ubuntu does not even mount them. Any sugestions for a good free windows burning tool?

You don't have to use the installer. In fact, in what it means by learning more about the system is partially due to being able to do a console only install, not messing with a GUI and all that junk. Gentoo dropped official support for stage 1 and stage 2 installs for some reason, now you can aparently only install from stage 3 "officlaly". I believe they still do provide tarballs for starting from stage 1 or 2, however, you have to use some other instructions for installation. The first time I installed Gentoo a few years ago they did officially support stage 1 and 2 installs, and I chose to install from stage 1, and I really did learn alot. Took like a damn day straight to compile it all on a 300MHz machine though. :eek:

My first time was on an old school Ipaq

Frigging like 50 hours into it I find out that there are issues with my chipset and gentoo lol

Bah it is a way to learn a LOT but holy god it can be work
for me it crashed about five minutes in. It got about 2% in according to the progress bar.

I never really liked xfce very much for some reason. It always came off as sorta cheeseballish to me. Fluxbox is very fast, I click the window in the bar, and its right there. I also liked the look of it... very simplistic and minimal, yet stylish and customizable, and I designed my own themes for it so it looked very nice and not all generic like alot of people's look. As for Gentoo, I think its fast and customizable... the downfall being, you have to wait around for a long time for some things to install, but once they are installed, they seem to perform very well in comparison to other distros I've tried. Slackware may be up there in performance, but Slackware seemed weird with it's package managemnt, it didn't seem clean cut enough to me, I'd lose things. Debian is also pretty fast in some instances, however, from my expieriance if you want a very fast AND stable debian installation, it's probably going to be really outdated stuff. I don't wanna be on there using some 4 year old version of Gaim... but I don't necessarily want to be bleeding edge either. Gentoo just works for me... I also like the USE flags... makes the application compiles really customizable, in the sence that, if you dont want kde shit bogging you down, because you never use kde, you dont have to have that compiled in (as an example). The compiler optimization is also a big thing with some Gentoo users, but it's not really so much for me, I always found that playing with the optimization flags too much would render me with an unstable system, and I'd rather have stability over a .000001 second speed increase. A fast applications not much use if it crashes halfway through what your doing. The only compiler flags I do like are the ones that either speed up the compiles (like pipe), and being able to tell it specifically what processor to compile for... I don't need stuff for an Athlon XP processor in there if I have a Pentium 2, it would just bog it down.


Yeah like I said the only time I pushed gentoo really was clustering on some really unique machines

As for fluxbox I have found no real increase in speed or cleanlyness over xfce personally

And yeah compiling not an issue here either ... why bother when I got dual 2.0 opterons (246) and 2 gigs of ram lol

At least on my main machine

You don't have to use the installer. In fact, in what it means by learning more about the system is partially due to being able to do a console only install, not messing with a GUI and all that junk. Gentoo dropped official support for stage 1 and stage 2 installs for some reason, now you can aparently only install from stage 3 "officlaly". I believe they still do provide tarballs for starting from stage 1 or 2, however, you have to use some other instructions for installation. The first time I installed Gentoo a few years ago they did officially support stage 1 and 2 installs, and I chose to install from stage 1, and I really did learn alot. Took like a damn day straight to compile it all on a 300MHz machine though. :eek:
Yeah I started from stage 1 as well

Man... I wish I had a desktop setup like that. My newest machine is a HP laptop with a 1.4GHz processor, 512 of DDR, and an 80gig hard drive. It runs Win XP Pro though. It could probably install Gentoo like lightning compared to that 300MHz machine, but I'm afraid that all the weird propriatory stuff, and some other preherial on this laptop, like the internal wireless, my MP3 player, the coard to use my cell phone as a modem, the S-Video port, etc. wont be supported well under linux, so I've yet to try it. I may once it gets a bit older and I dont care so much...but I only got it a few months ago, and its my main machine for school, so I'm not looking to do that right now.

Man... I wish I had a desktop setup like that. My newest machine is a HP laptop with a 1.4GHz processor, 512 of DDR, and an 80gig hard drive. It runs Win XP Pro though. It could probably install Gentoo like lightning compared to that 300MHz machine, but I'm afraid that all the weird propriatory stuff, and some other preherial on this laptop, like the internal wireless, my MP3 player, the coard to use my cell phone as a modem, the S-Video port, etc. wont be supported well under linux, so I've yet to try it. I may once it gets a bit older and I dont care so much...but I only got it a few months ago, and its my main machine for school, so I'm not looking to do that right now.

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/picturethree.jpg

Lol posi I know I know have been posting a lot

Also stats right now ... http://geek.upwardthrust.us/cpuz.html

Oh my, thats a beast. Are those serial ata hard drives too?

The page says it has 4 memory modules, 512 each, but I only see 2 in the machine...?

Oh my, thats a beast. Are those serial ata hard drives too?
Yeah SATA II actualy

Running 4 160 gb hitachi drives in a raid5 config

(I was in windows when I took that ... rather then my *nix install I dont have any ap as fancy as this in *nix and it does not like wine lol

The page says it has 4 memory modules, 512 each, but I only see 2 in the machine...?
Ohhh lol the pic is before my last gig lol that was added about a month ago

Only had 1 gig at the time of the pic (I have not updated pictures yet) lol

http://geek.upwardthrust.us/pictures/picturethree.jpg

Lol posi I know I know have been posting a lot

Also stats right now ... http://geek.upwardthrust.us/cpuz.html
My PC could outrun yours anyday. LOL.

I'm starting not to like Firefox so much. It used to be really nice, right first when it came out... very fast and stable, not too loaded down with stuff I dont use, but still functional. Now it seems like it's getting pretty buggy... I dont use it much anymore, but I quit because it's bugs would get on my nerves... crashing when I went to certain sites, locking up if i put too much stuff in the bookmarks, crashing if i went to flash enabled sites, etc, and it was getting slower and more bogged down. I tend to like Opera, but it is also pretty heavy, I never had any problem with adware and spyware with it though, especially when running it on my linux box. Now I'm on my XP laptop though... the linux box's 40 gig hard drive died just the other day :(. I have 2 other linux boxes, however, they are headless. Ones my webserver (slack 10.2), and the other (Gentoo) I use for errr... you get the idea. The one that died was my main desktop, and it ran Gentoo on a 2.6.15.2 kernel, and Fluxbox. The thing is a junkheap 300MHz box with 256 of SDRAM, and it would outperform my mom's bogged down spyware ridden Win XP 1.67GHz with 256 of DDR box on most occassions when using normal applications in that setup because it was so lightweight and customized... and it would get uptimes of about 2 months on a regular basis (only went off if the power went out or if I wanted to change hardware or install a new kernel). The server made it to 8 months on my UPS once, but the power went out for like 14 hours and the battery died :(.

Sorry, got off topic.
I say use Opera, its nice. Has alot of features, but isn't too slow. It does take bit of a long time to start up, but once it's up, it outperforms Firefox and IE6.

WHat kind of Extensions did you get? I've found that some of the extensions are buggy and can cause the whole browser to act weird, it only takes a little effort to hunt down the buggy extensions and removing them is a snap. Other than that though I've never had a problem with Firefox.
I'm not a fan of opera, the long start up time is just painful after Firefox's blazing fast startup and now that I've accumulated quite a few extensions, I just can't imagine life without them.

My PC could outrun yours anyday. LOL.
If it had legs ... yes mine is a heavy fuck lol

I never messed much with disabling the extentions, and I'm not running Firefox anymore, or I would check. Sorry.

If it had legs ... yes mine is a heavy fuck lol
Yeah but mine has some screwed up ram and may forget where it was running to. (stupid mushkin).

Yeah but mine has some screwed up ram and may forget where it was running to. (stupid mushkin).
Hmmm you have had problems with muskin? I have always heard good things


With my multi proc I went to ECC registered ... which corsair had the best price on

Otherwise crucial is also a fav of mine

Hmmm you have had problems with muskin? I have always heard good things


With my multi proc I went to ECC registered ... which corsair had the best price on

Otherwise crucial is also a fav of mine
14MB of the one modual are not used by Ubuntu. Windows uses it with buggy results. EDIT:scratch that, Windows asn't had one crash since I reinstalled.

The mushkin warranty has expired, but since I bought a system through ncix.com (think canadian newegg) it is still under the system's warrenty. If I do things the official way they will repair it (any idea how effective that will be?) but my friend said he just walked into one of their outlets when his ram crapped out and they replaced it on the spot.

I was going to go with OCZ who has a lifetime no questions asked warrenty.

14MB of the one modual are not used by Ubuntu. Windows uses it with buggy results. EDIT:scratch that, Windows asn't had one crash since I reinstalled.

The mushkin warranty has expired, but since I bought a system through ncix.com (think canadian newegg) it is still under the system's warrenty. If I do things the official way they will repair it (any idea how effective that will be?) but my friend said he just walked into one of their outlets when his ram crapped out and they replaced it on the spot.
Hmmm not sure ... honestly I have only ever burnt kingston and crucial

Crucial took about 3 min online and they shipped me a new stick and kingston ... well it was "valueram" lol they dicked around and fucked things up

Hmmm not sure ... honestly I have only ever burnt kingston and crucial

Crucial took about 3 min online and they shipped me a new stick and kingston ... well it was "valueram" lol they dicked around and fucked things up
I wonder what will happen when I go in. I bought PC3200 Redlines XP which they do not make anymore. I wonder if I would get store credit (would be quite happy with that :)), or similar priced mushkin ram or what.

I wonder what will happen when I go in. I bought PC3200 Redlines XP which they do not make anymore. I wonder if I would get store credit (would be quite happy with that :)), or similar priced mushkin ram or what.
Not sure ... couldent hurt lol

Not sure ... couldent hurt lol
No, but we would have to take a short ferry trip (10 minutes) to get there. The wait for the ferry (probably 30minutes) could be leathal.

I hope I walk out of the place with new ram. Redlines are expensive. I checked their site for similar priced ram and found that (for mushkin and OCZ) that similar priced ram is usually PC4000 or PC4400. It is not officially supported by my mobo, but is reported to work flawlessly.

I hope I walk out of the place with new ram. Redlines are expensive. I checked their site for similar priced ram and found that (for mushkin and OCZ) that similar priced ram is usually PC4000 or PC4400. It is not officially supported by my mobo, but is reported to work flawlessly.
Cool go for it

My ecc registered was not cheep either

Cool go for it

My ecc registered was not cheep either
I will, one of these weekends.

download ewido, install, run in safe mode.

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

Liasia']If i were to *cough*acidentally download some crappy spy/adware that changed my desktop to a virus warning (false but still annoying as i cant get rid of it) and stopped IE from working- how do you guys suggest i fix the problem?

I downloaded adware-se from google and i've got something called spyware doctor but full scans with each haven't solved this problem- although they fixed some other stuff the adware was doing.

Please post some suggestions, i'm assuming you all know more about computers than me.
were you cough* loking at porn?

download ewido, install, run in safe mode.

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/
It does alright ... the sound effects are god damn anoying on a chock full machine though lol

If you've been reading ANYTHING in the computer magazines, you'll know Firefox has security problems of its own.
Indeed - that's why smart people use Opera (http://www.opera.com) :D

Indeed - that's why smart people use Opera (http://www.opera.com) :D
And the really smart ones either keep their machines patched or dont use windows at all

I can pick whatever browswer I want when the system vulnerability behind the exploit does not exist

Ubuntu w/ GNOME--->KDE


Not going to help much. They are the kind that have downloaded themselves onto his hard disk and pop-up from there. Deleting them by hand is futile because they usually have a scriptthat will restore the file when it has detected that the file has been deleted.

I had those, the first thime my computer got infested. Adaware sorted it out. *shrugs*

Liasia']I had those, the first thime my computer got infested. Adaware sorted it out. *shrugs*
Yeah it can do a fairly good job ... not always too gentile about it but it does alright

Indeed - that's why smart people use Opera (http://www.opera.com) :D
Does that really work better than other browsers? less spyware/security holes and the like?

Does that really work better than other browsers? less spyware/security holes and the like?
For now ... I just dont like the formating for a lot of things

I use adaware - the free personal version, recommended as one of the most efficient programs by New Scientist magazine :) you can download it here http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

For now ... I just dont like the formating for a lot of things
like what, if you dont mind my asking

like what, if you dont mind my asking
If you look at pages it sometimes messes up formatting such as tables
Text box look
Button layout at times

(all of them are geting better)

Also not a fan of how it keeps tabs open even when the window is closed