[(JD)]

WOW the Windows updates crashed my computer and I had to wipe the hard drive. I'm on an older computer right now, until I reinstall all the stuff I had... like mozilla, adobe, avast etc. (Probably take tomorrow and do that.)

But, what I found out is that the reason I must not be able to enter chat normally is not the computer ... but must be the ISP configurations, because it is the same for this one.

Sigh.

I think AVG is better then Avast since I think Avast has become "bloatware" according to DocJohn

[(JD)]

Kaika, I must have missed that memo. What is AVG?

After spending about 4 hours last night on this issue, I then had to install all of the updates Windows had made in less than 3 years... 106 of them! Took nearly 5 hours. Then of course, update java, adobe yep I'm about ready to rumble! The new firefox won't play nice with the new Yahoo mail... so we'll see about that. I hate the men's contests of who can hit the wall higher... and this is what it seems to be between firefox and yahoo, and of course between microsoft and anybody else!

I will survive!

Now to reset my home network :chillidancing:

[John25]

Oh, I didn't know that. I use Avast for several years now without any complications. What I like especially about Avast is that it updates itself automatically. I think with AVG updating is a manual process.

Originally Posted by Kaika

I think AVG is better then Avast since I think Avast has become "bloatware" according to DocJohn

[Tones]

My last experience with Avast was about 3 years or so ago, and I don't know if I'd call it bloatware, but it's either written inefficently, a resource hog, or both. At least it was back then. I ran it on several computer for some time and it REALLY slowed things down a lot, especially loading of programs.

I've run AVG and had pretty decent luck with it until an attempted upgrade to a newer version caused problems with AVG loading properly at startup. I attempted to troubleshoot/fix it, but when I didn't succeed in several attempts I bagged it.

Since then I've been running Avira and I have no qualms about recommending it. It's fast, there IS a free version that covers my needs pretty well, and I haven't run into any issues with it in 3 - 4 years of usage. The free version does pop up an "ad" screen daily when it updates, but you click a button and it goes away.

However, if you're in the habit of opening email attachments without giving it a lot of thought then I wouldn't recommend the free version of Avira since it doesn't include an email scanner. Theoretically any bugs should still get caught when they load, but since there's lag time between the time a virus is released into the wild and the time any antivirus can be updated with a definition/signature/fix, it does raise the risk of infection for those users who don't practive reasonably "safe email".

Just my $.02, hopefully someone will find the info useful.

/tones

[(JD)]

GRRRR. I dumped my avast and downloaded and installed avg... and now I can't access the internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've tried to find where it can be told to allow things... which is stupid because it's my browser I have loaded (firefox) I mean... grrrr

I'm not in a good brain way today... and haven't been really... and now this? I can't be standing here at this computer to do my searches, and I need info stat!

OK... can anyone give me a clue as to where to find the problem that avg won't allow me to access the internet???

Thanks.

This is off topic but, I'm sorry your hard drive had to be wiped out! That happened to me once this year, and I lost everything from three years ago to that day. *mutters bad words* My mind went numb.. :|

Again, I know this is off topic lol.. Take care all!

[(JD)]

tis OT ok. lol I would be upset too if God hadn't urged me to copy everything onto DVDs last week! All I lost was a photo or two from my iPhone that I had just taken and uploaded to the computer. Whew!

I couldn't fix the problem with avg, and have just NOW (after how many hours?) been able to get onto the internet without any antivirus and downloaded/reloaded avast! again.

I'm still open to assistance, since y'all feel the avg is a better utility.

[FooZe]

I used AVG (paid) for almost six years but for the last several months the company was no longer supporting the version I had. That meant I couldn't get the updates I'd already paid for unless I switched to an operating system that could run their latest version. I gave up on AVG for good when they abandoned me, even after I got a second computer that would've supported it. I never had any trouble with AVG keeping me off the internet, though.

I was positive I wanted to keep my old operating system (which I knew pretty well by then and which had been almost completely trouble free for me) so I eventually switched to Avast! instead. I found Avast! quite troublesome except when I kept it on a very short leash, not letting it load itself at startup and only using it for an update-and-scan every so often. It never kept me off the internet but when allowed to load itself, it would often crash Windows as it was starting to display the desktop. Once the problem started it seemed to be persistent, so to get around it I'd have to reboot in Safe Mode and disable Avast! Among other problems, the reduced resolution in Safe Mode would scramble all the icons on my desktop so I'd have to waste half an hour restoring them afterwards. I'm still using Avast! but as I said, only on a short leash where it never gets a chance to crash.

I'm not at all eager to go through trying yet another antivirus package.

[Tones]

(JD):

I'm assuming you downloaded and installed AVG Free... What's puzzling is that AVG Free does not include a firewall, which would be the most likely cause of complete loss of internet connectivity. Did you get any unusual error messages or did Firefox just give you the old "The server you're trying to reach is not available..."?

If you haven't had any problems with Avast! and you're happy with the performance of your computer, I.E. Avast is not slowing things down to the point of being an annoyance, I'd just stick with it... I'm a firm believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

Fool Zero:

If you're techically proficient enough to know exactly what you're doing and extremely careful on top of that, please disregard my comments. I just wanted to caution you about running an antivirus with the resident protection disabled. IMHO that's kind of like feeling secure because you have an alarm system in your home, but never actually arming it.

Your periodic update and scan approach might alert you to viruses that are already on your system and active, but by that time there's a good chance that the damage has already been done. I Just thought I'd raise a red flag in case you're not fully aware of the dangers of this approach.

Best,

/tones

[FooZe]

Thanks, Tones. The conditions under which I operate seem to make my system relatively unattractive to viruses. Historically, I've had much more trouble with antivirus software crashing the system, raising false alarms and deleting apparently innocent files than I've ever had with the viruses themselves.

Picture this: I used to save text from online news articles in a file called TEMP.TXT, then run a DOS program called NED.COM to reformat the text quickly for printing. The desktop icon for the latter was titled "Ned temp.txt" and stored in a file called (Windows long filename) "Ned temp.txt.pif". The first version of AVG that I used, immediately identified "Ned temp.txt.pif" as probably infected because of the double extension. I changed the icon title to "Ned temp txt" (no period) and had no further problems.

[DocJohn]

I appreciate the well-meaning intentions of the member saying what I recommended, but one of our guidelines is to not speak for others here. In this case, a well-meaning member recommended the exact opposite of what I actually said --

I use avast now, NOT AVG. I'm pretty sure any anti-virus software is better than none, however.

DocJohn

[(JD)]

Thanks DocJohn.

My computer did slow, but I'm pretty sure that was due to not having all those windows updates (for several months because they crashed my computer.)

I've had issues before when downloading/installing an additional antivirus program with the one already on the computer running full tilt. I only go to the antivirus site when in the "off" mode on that.

Right...about the firewalls. I have to constantly turn off the window's defender one to allow avast to operate effeciently (or I have other problems too, you know how that goes.) But I couldn't find any more to turn off for AVG to work.

I'm sticking with avast!

Sigh. This has been an issue I didn't need these days. But I'm up and running, and my network is quite smooth (but that's another issue I will figure out once my brain returns!)

Thanks all for comments ... it's tough enough to be trying to figure things out, but alone is frustrating.

[WLFTW]

I hope this is all on topic

Firstly, it is well worth it to buy an external hard drive and then use Acronis, Norton Ghost (I believe it's called that), or windows 7 for the automatic backup that comes with it.

Personally, I recommend Acronis. It has an option that allows you to enter a recovery mode before windows loads for instances when it won't even boot in safe mode so you can then use the windows system restore (which is included in XP, Vista, and 7). I have mine scheduled to backup my system every night at 1AM.

External hard drives just plug into a USB port and you won't have to perform surgery on your computer to install an internal hard drive, which can be problematic for the casual user. The prices have come way down.

For antivirus I like avast though AVG also has a free version. I don't remember if AVG does this but avast has a feature where it both scans web sites you're visiting as well as email (if you use a client like Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, or Outlook). If you visit a site with malicious code, it will alert you. I don't think AVG monitors the web sites you're visiting but I easily could be wrong.

For antivirus programs that aren't free, I highly recommend nod (or it might be called nod32). I've used nod before and while comparing nod to norton, nod detected viruses that Norton AV didn't detect.

As for firewalls, I use Zone Labs Zonealarm firewall. I like the feature where it alerts you if a program is trying to access the internet and you can prevent it from doing so. Such activity is called leakage I think; zonealarm prevents leakage which I don't think the windows firewall protects against.

You can test your firewall here at a site called GRC shields up. Everyone should test their firewall, imo. There are two things to look for: file sharing and common ports. What you want is a "true stealth" result. Hackers constantly scan IP addresses for computers. If they ping your computer and your computer replies to the ping, they will know there is a computer present at your IP address; that will be noted and then they might later attempt to do something malicious to your machine. If you have a "true stealth" rating, your computer is invisible to hackers and they won't even know anything at your IP address exists.

grc

As for paid firewalls, BlackIce is flat out the best firewall you can get, imo. I'm not currently running it since I get a "true stealth" rating with zonealarm.

There are a couple of other defensive programs to note. Malwarebytes will scan for things that would adversely affect your machine but are not considered viruses. It does not actively scan so you have to scan manually every so often. Spybot search and destroy does something similar but it has an active scanner so it prevents damage rather than Malwarebytes' detection of threats after the fact. Also, adaware is good for checking for tracking cookies, spyware, and key loggers.

[(JD)]

hehehe well I do have an external hard drive ... and it seems it came with some type of software program already on it... which subscription I knew nothing about expired and I couldn't access my files. I stored it with the rest of the stuff for months, and haven't yet pulled it to see exactly what is with that.

I hate Norton and McAfee. Nothing but problems for years and I always had to rely upon Lavasoft to catch the gremlins that plagued my activities. I'm happy with avast, though, and whenever I check with lavasoft, it finds nothing.

The wipe was easy, just takes time.

However, now that I think about it, I will drag out the harddrive because I lost the printer program in the wipe. I can't find the CD which includes the OCR ... so if that hard drive has the entire printer program on it, that will be worth the price of the hard drive! Thanks for reminding me... now where did I put that???

[Aunt Donna]

I wish I could loan you Brent. He is the computer tech for my office and is in charge of all the computers on one of the big gambling boats nearby. There is nothing he can't fix and take it from me I have some problems with computers. I would be lost without him. He works on my computer and I spoil his three year old son in return.

[(JD)]

Thanks for the thoughts and words!

I used to have people like that in my life. They all disappeared.

Well I hooked up the external hard drive "E" but when it loaded it wanted all new info about folders and items and only gave me option "C" for back up ... so I unplugged it. If all it did was back up my own files onto my own computer, they might be gone too. I'll have to read the info to set it up.

I need a better thinking day to do that. Sigh. Haven't had one of those in weeks.

[FooZe]

Originally Posted by (JD)

... I will drag out the harddrive because I lost the printer program in the wipe. I can't find the CD which includes the OCR ... so if that hard drive has the entire printer program on it, that will be worth the price of the hard drive!

When I install software (or drivers for new hardware) from the factory CD, usually a "setup" program takes over, copies the needed files into the directories where they belong, and makes any necessary Registry changes. Just copying the files, even into the correct directories, may not be enough if the Registry changes aren't made too.

I've found that when I download things like printer drivers or browsers, what I get is an "installer" -- typically a self-extracting .exe file -- on my Desktop. When the .exe is run it creates any needed folders, unzips the appropriate files into them, and pehaps runs an .inf file or something to update the Registry. I collect these installers in case I ever need them again (as I did when my hard drive crashed last year). I have a folder called Recovery with copies of all my drivers, installers, and my notes from when I last used them, and after any changes (like a new installer) I burn the whole thing to a CD.

For routine backups (daily, more or less) I copy any changed files from certain folders to a CF card ("Compact Flash" memory, originally meant for cameras and such). Once a month or so, I burn everything on the CF card to a CD and put the CD away in a fire chest. If there's too much data for one CD I'll do it in two installments -- perhaps all pictures on one CD, everything else on the other. Of course saved data from 2 years ago is worth a lot less than the stuff from yesterday so when I run low on fire chest space, the oldest backups are the first to get relegated to the closet shelf.

Btw, I don't try to make backups of Windows itself nor most of the files that Windows maintains. I figure if Windows ever gets so damaged that I have to replace system files, I'll be better off starting fresh with the installation CD.

[(JD)]

Thanks fool. <----- this is probably the only place I could say that and not have negative repercussions!

My brain isn't engaged yet today.

I did find the ext HD and connected it. Hmmm it acted like I had never used the program before, and now I have 30 tries or something before I have to register. (Except everytime I boot the computer it automatically clicks down a day.

I need to find where it's putting the back ups ... it's supposed to be on IT! But why would it say I'm new if it already has what it was keeping safe for me from before.

sigh. Yeah.. gotta wait til the brain wakes.