Answers to frequent computer questions

[BaseballGuy]

I thought I would make a thread about common issues most people face.

1) My computer is running slow, what could be the cause, and what can I do to solve the problem?

ANSWER: Several things can cause a computer to run slower than on the day you got it. The problem could be caused by and not limited to, Spyware, Adware, trojans, viruses, excessive cache, lack of memory (ram), and low hard disk space.

ADAWARE (Spyware removal program)
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

TRENDMICRO (No Download Virus removal program)
http://www.trendmicro.com

HOW TO CLEAR CACHE AND COOKIES
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm

2) My inbox has been infultrated with spam and junkmail. What can I do to minimize the effect of such mail?

ANSWER: Well there are a few solutions to this problem. For starters I would suggest opening up an additional mail account, at yahoo, hotmail, gmail to be used as a junk mail account. Keep your primary address, and use the free email for gambling site correspondence. Yahoo has a great junk mail filerting program which puts spam in a junk folder where you can easily delete the unwanted messages. You can also download programs that can help eliminate junk mail. While not failproof they do help lessen the amount of junk you get.

Mcafee (Free to Comcast Users)
http://www.mcafee.com

http://email.about.com/cs/eliminatespamtip/

3) I hear that it is easy to get viruses by just opening an email is this true?

ANSWER: Not exactly. You would have to download an attachment/file and execute it for your computer to get infected. HOWEVER, there are some viruses that cloak themselves within html. The easiest solution to this program is to disable html in your email preferences.

4) My friends tell me that it is possible for people to hack into my computer and have access to my files, is this true?

ANSWER: It is most certainly true. With just your Ip address and a few other details your computers data can be compromised. To solve such a problem you will need a firewall. A firewall helps block access to your computer through internet lines thus keeping your computer safe.

http://www.zonealarm.com

http://www.mcafee.com

That is all I can think of for now. I will see if I can have the mods edit this post to add more as ideas come in.

 

[TTinCO]

Great opening post BaseballGuy! :toast: I'll have more to add tonight.

 

[OccamsRazor]

Baseball guy how much disk space should I use for my Internet explorer settings. Does more disk space equal more speed or less speed or no correlation at all?

 

[1cheater]

Nice tip for improving your surfing speed..

Speeding up your browsing by increasing your cache size.
You can have Internet pages download faster if you devote more of your hard drive space to storing web documents. To do this, you need to increase your memory and disk caches. If you have some extra hard drive space and wish to do this:

Open up Internet Explorer.
From the Tools menu click Options.
Click the General tab.
Click Settings.
Now simply drag the slider to a desired percentage.
Click OK to save your settings. You can test it out ans see how much you improve on speed and adjust it accordingly.



Improving browsing performance for Internet Explorer.
You can improve Internet Explorer's browsing performance by disabling graphics, sound, music, video, and other multimedia files. This will allow you to browse faster and more efficiently if you are just interested in getting text. To do this:

Click Options from the View menu.
Click the General tab (it should be the default tab).
Now you can deselect the options you don’t want to have from the Multimedia section. This way you can speed up your browser performance.
Another option is to disable ActiveX controls and plug-ins. To do this:

Click on the Security tab.
Deselect the options you want here (preferably all 4).
Click OK to save your settings.

 

[BaseballGuy]

Baseball guy how much disk space should I use for my Internet explorer settings. Does more disk space equal more speed or less speed or no correlation at all?

Depends on your connection.

If you have a fast connection I would set it to 0.

If you are on dialup I would set it at 500mb

 

[juice]

Add Spybot to the list of spyware software as well. Between that and Adblock, you're set .

 

[OccamsRazor]

Baseballguy and Cheater thanks for your replies. But now I'm more confused,

Cheat says "speed up by increasing cache size"

Baseball you say "0" (I have a cable connection)

Are you both talking about the same "disk space"? I'm refering to the cache size.



Thanks again... On my spare time, I'm gonna be asking you guys lots.

 

[BaseballGuy]

Baseballguy and Cheater thanks for your replies. But now I'm more confused,

Cheat says "speed up by increasing cache size"

Baseball you say "0" (I have a cable connection)

Are you both talking about the same "disk space"? I'm refering to the cache size.



Thanks again... On my spare time, I'm gonna be asking you guys lots.

I was referring to Cache Size. Cache basicly stores page information (Photos, etc), so pages load faster for those with slow connections. Since you don't have a slow connection you have no need for cache. In fact it can even slow you down.

 

[kidslick]

CHEATER WHAT % DO YOU USE mine was on the left should i increase it


also for about a week now both of my browser i use keep on getting timed out

it say i am not connected to the internet has been happeneing 1 every 10 20 minutes for acouple of minutes

wierd

 

[chips2424]

aol has a computer checkup which i went into last night it said there were 2 issues i needed to fix one was download the new java and the other was a connectivity problem i downloaded the java but left the connectivity alone.anyway got up this morning and my windows xp would not load they had options for example start in safe mode go to recent startup went to recent startup but nothing happened any suggestions

 

[TTinCO]

Sorry-I hadn't seen this thread.

Start it up in Safe mode & try to uninstall Java. Reboot & see if it will start up normally.

 

[chips2424]

ok thanks i'll give that a try