Problems with WOS
Is there problems with this site tonight cos i keep crashing......other sites / forums / winmx / irc are fine but everytime i come on here tonight i start getting error message in <unknown> and it closes then after a few times it gets a general protection fault and ive just rebooted twice.
i havent got as much memory as i have had before cos some blew, but ive been ok with the same amount of stuff open as usual without problems....till tonight...still says ive got 191mb which is the same ive had for the past couple of months
i havent got as much memory as i have had before cos some blew, but ive been ok with the same amount of stuff open as usual without problems....till tonight...still says ive got 191mb which is the same ive had for the past couple of months
Post edited by mel the bell on
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
Comments
Of course, it could be also that a certain 'He who must not be named' (-100 for whoever said Voldemort) has finally managed to put a Trojan on the WoS site, and it has taken a liking to your system.
Apart from that, can't think of anything else. I need a cup of coffee!
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
just removed the speech option i added to ms office yesterday, since then i had memory problems even though i wasnt using it
but only wos and no name scripts websites crashed??
www.the-streets.co.uk, my unofficial streets forum and www.mirc.com seemed fine, no probs
strange, this one seems fine up till now
Have a look through you're event logs to see what happened when you crashed.
Also does WOS use a different version of PHP than you used in your streets web page.
Deffinatley sounds like its linked to the removal of memory.
You tried emptying all your web cache, cookies and web history?
Also chech you IE settings too see if any script settings have changed.
Funny thing is, ive just come online, wos is fine, its now my mirc / no name script thats now gone tits up :( if it keeps this up itll be getting a clean format :D
-Spybot S&D
-Ad-aware by Lavasoft
-Spywareblaster
t
My Arcade Cabinetl
;)
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
ive got active x switched off with spybot.....errm i think and java under control too
mind u i just got an xwxload dialer installed itself past that and 2 firewalls and norton av without me knowing....but it gave itself away when zonealarm asked to let it connect lol i said no :) as though im gonna say yes
and it wasnt hidden very well, in the temp folder ......i was on a full album mp3 site
Not to promote piracy but my take on P2P clients. Assuming Windows. Okay, here i go. Also some Windows maintenance and Spyware protection for those who don't know so much. Here are some of my reccomendations.
no one should use Kazaa. It's a piece of s**t. I'm not on the extreme to say it's completely useless like some, but i would use Kazaa Lite/K++. Although they have/had legal problems with Sharman Networks, it is still functioning.
The best thing for file sharing I have found is Bittorrent and Emule/Overnet etc. ( most Edonkey based clients ). There may be others that are great but i haven't tried everything yet. But in my opinion these are definitely among the best, if not the best.
Personally, I never liked Direct Connect and MIRC is just too slow.
Kazaa is good for music files and sometimes other things, like common applications most people want, etc. But not for hard to find things, and if something real *rare* does come up in Kazaa/Grokster, you're damn lucky if you actually get it to start downloading, let alone finish. Still I give certain things a try in Kazaa from time to time because you never know.
Kazaa Lite uses ( it might not now, I think they've managed to work around not having it ) a "dummy" dynamic link library replacing the old one that aids in spyware, but Kazaa Lite's does nothing. It's just there so the program can work.
PeerGuardian is not a real useful way to filter IPs that might spy on you and is a CPU hog. There are better programs and you can also update your HOSTS file in Windows.
Kazaa Lite removes the adware and spyware, adds new features and betters those found in the official Kazaa client.
Bittorrent is awesome. Sadly, once a torrent dies, it's 99% impossible to get a file unless people who have it continue to share it and if the torrent file gets too old it's usually worthless. You're better off trying to get the file from a newer torrent. This doesn't work like other clients. You have to go to certain websites that host TORRENT files and click on them. If you have a client for BT installed it should open it up and start rght away. Though I always right click and save the torrent to my hard drive so i don't have to revisit the site i got it from if I have to stop downloading or sharing for some reason and resume later. But when a torrent is fresh or not *too* old, if you've got your ports configured correctly and such, there's no faster way to get files in my experience. ( TIP: no matter what connection you have, always choose 'dial-up'. You should get it much faster, but then share it after you've got it ;) ). I happen to use Shadow's Experimental Bit Torrent Client and it's always been good for me.
Emule/Edonkey etc. are just simply great for hard to find files. You might find all/most the same old stuff you find in Kazaa, probably because people share their Kaaa shared folder, but you can find so much more. It's a goldmine. I just got archives of many Spectrum magazines including rare ones. Also lots of tutorials on Z80 and examples. I'll never uninstall it.
Spyware:
Ad-aware is helpful but doesn't catch everything. On the other hand Spybot Seek and Destroy doesn't either. Sometimes one will get things another missed. Obviously run by different persons, each side looks for new adware/spyware and each may become aware of some the other isn't. I use both, and I think Ad-Aware also comes with something called Ad-Watch. It'll monitor the computer and alert you and stop something that it finds to be malicious. So if you have it you might want to turn it on.
Spybot seems to do this automatically for me when I browse. From time to time it'll pop up and warn me there's a malicious looking script or something trying to download without my permission and asks me if I want to block it before continuing. ( ALWAYS alerts when I goto Microsoft's Hotmail/MSN email login page )
There may be other good Anti-Spyware programs but these are what I use.
Aside from Symantec just filling up the damn registry everywhere with refernces to every little goddamn thing that is Norton, and not even removing it on uninstall whatever program of theirs it is, Norton Antivirus has stopped alot of crap coming in too. If i download a file, sometimes even before it finishes, including P2P downloads, it will warn me about it if it's a virus/trojan and quarantine it automatically. So, if not Norton, get a good Antivirus program and have it monitor the computer also. From Symantec i only use the Antivirus progam. I hate the rest.
I also have Zone Alarm Pro. If you don't want to pay for it just download their free version - it's pretty much almost as good, and better than most of other pay-for software firewalls also in my opinion. I've seen other people with other pay software firewalls and most are just terrible.
I also happen to have a hardware firewall. I've just configured it to allow access to specific ports to certain program. P2P ones.
It's good to invest in something like GoBack, which will revert your hard drives to the state they were in at certain times. XP users can just use System Restore if they like. But I like GoBack Pro because I can revert to any day back upto where it keeps information on it, and the hour and minute.
It will tell you what was going on with your computer at every minute and check system safe points that are extra safe to revert to, though i've not had any problems so far reverting to other specific points. Say you just installed Kazaa and then found it filled your computer with crap. You can go through GoBack's list and find the exact time when you installed it and you can just check the very previous point or other point and revert. Once your system is restarted in will be in the exact state it was right before you installed the piece of crap.
Another good thing to do is to try and find out what got on your computer. Locate where the spyware or whatever is on your harddrive and delete it manually if possible. Some stuff will even go into your Favorites! Sometimes it will also download other files it needs to operate. At times you can find out what it is based on its properties. I say this because sometimes if there is more than one file, Ad-aware, for example, might detect the main file and delete it, but leave orphan files on your drive.
Startup Control Panel - I like this utility alot. there are two flavours. a Standalone version and one that goes into the Control Panel. I'd go for the standalone version. If i suspect something went into my startup secretly, i simply open it and uncheck/delete those entries. also good to find out where they are to delete the files manually.
You can also use the more detailed, but cumbersome, msconfig, which you should have if you use Windows. Just goto RUN and type msconfig. You'll get a window and see eveything that starts up. But use with caution.
RegSeeker - a great free Registry program with lots of cool features, including some you find in Anti-XP programs to stop certain annoying XP features from bugging you and some other options. As a Registry editor it's also great and has many options. Great cleaner.
Also, if you can be bothered, before making any medium/majour change to Windows, for example installing a program you've never installed before and aren't sure you want to keep it but just want to try it out, backup your Registry first. Install. Try. You don't like, then Uninstall and then import the Registry you backed up.
( and maybe check where it was installed to make sure the program's folders are gone because they don't always get deleted. If they are there, delete them. If it won'e let you then check the properties it might be READ ONLY. Uncheck that. If it still doesn't work then wait until the next reboot. If that fails then try it by booting in Safe Mode )
Aside from the obvious, like system maintenance on a regular basis ( Virus Scan System, Disk Checker, Defragmentation, etc.) if you have/can get a utility to look for orphan files, clean out junk files ( in-depth. I'm not talking about Windows' Disk Cleaner here ) etc., then do so.
Fix-It Utilities is reccomended. Has alot of great features and also a very very good Registry Cleaner. Or Ontrack System Suite, which includes Fix-It utilities but has more stuff. It's sort of like the difference between having Norton Utilities and Norton SystemWorks. ( which i now despise )
At least once a week I go berzerk cleaning up my system and doing everything I imagine I can do, because I do alot of browsing, try programs and do alot of stuff. First manually, then I have a ritual I do next, running a few different programs I have in a certain order.
After all that is done I use some utility to check for all kinds of Windows system problems, stuff behind the scenes you can't see directly, which it corrects so it claims, and reboots.
Phew. well, i probably annoyed some people who already do this stuff pretty much, but i hope it helps somebody.
http://www.smoothwall.org
N.B. - If you look at the page today ignore the April fool bit.
Its a great use of an old machine and its free. It doesn't matter if you have no idea about Linux, you don't have to get your hands dirty.
I admit this is for the more serious user but if your into P2P and things like that it provides an excellent solution because you can leave a P2P machine in a semi-safe state but still fully protect your serious machines. Its also excellent if you run your own mailserver or webserver.
ADJB
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http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk
[ This Message was edited by: ADJB on 2004-04-01 09:43 ]