From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Nov 5 22:16:57 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Nov 5 22:25:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! Message-ID: Yesterday my Vista Windows Mail app started acting funny, and today it stopped working almost entirely. This is the weirdest problem I've ever had with a mail app: 1) I can SEND email and reply to existing emails in my inbox 2) I can download, read, and send messages to the spamcop NGs However, when I to recieve new email the connection hangs and times out. It gets as far as being able to see that there's 10 new emails waiting for me, 42.1 Kb in size (total), but it won't download the actual emails. I just spent close to an hour on the phone with a Comcast rep (even my webmail access wasn't working), and we reset my passwords, added my second Comcast email account to Webmail (I never bothered to add it since I never use webmail), changed the incoming port to 587 in Windows Mail, but I keep getting the same error message when attempting to download new mail: "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity. Account: 'mtb666', Server: 'mail.comcast.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F" Anyone have a clue what might be the problem? I *did* see in some process app tonite that claimed that someone else was sharing my same IP address (how is that possible?), so I ran ipconfig /renew but no joy. Someone please help me! From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Nov 5 22:30:39 2008 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Nov 5 22:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > Yesterday my Vista Windows Mail app started acting funny, > when I to recieve new email the connection hangs and times > out. It gets as far as being able to see that there's 10 new emails > waiting for me, > 42.1 Kb in size (total), but it won't download the actual emails. The transactions between OE/Mail and the comcast are gagging for the pop. > my > webmail access wasn't working), You have to have webmail access to empty the webmail inbox for the account. > "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Gag. > Anyone have a clue what might be the problem? It can be gag for corrupted email, big mail, or for no good reason whatsoever, except that the comcast server and the OE/Mail can't get the popping done. The #1 thing is to get the webmail inbox cleaned out so that there is no possibility that a piece of mail is the actual gag. Then, with a nice clean webmail inbox you are free to tinker with test mails and determine if there is something wrong with your MUA mailuseragent, which is much less likely. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Nov 5 22:54:53 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Nov 5 22:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:getoct$fsn$1@news.spamcop.net... > It can be gag for corrupted email, big mail, or for no good reason > whatsoever, except that the comcast server and the OE/Mail can't get the > popping done. The #1 thing is to get the webmail inbox cleaned out so > that there is no possibility that a piece of mail is the actual gag. > Then, with a nice clean webmail inbox you are free to tinker with test > mails and determine if there is something wrong with your MUA > mailuseragent, which is much less likely. Ok, I'll clean out the mailboxes (there was some spam in there) in webmail then reboot. See what happens tomorrow. From me at privacy.net Thu Nov 6 06:19:44 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Nov 6 06:20:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Any have any experiance with Magicjack? Message-ID: Any have any experience with Magicjack VoIP? Good, bad, cautions? TIA FP From joegill at removethis Thu Nov 6 19:22:18 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Nov 6 19:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:getnr5$enp$1@news.spamcop.net... > Yesterday my Vista Windows Mail app started acting funny, and today it > stopped working almost entirely. This is the weirdest problem I've ever > had with a mail app: > > 1) I can SEND email and reply to existing emails in my inbox > 2) I can download, read, and send messages to the spamcop NGs > > However, when I to recieve new email the connection hangs and times out. > It gets as far as being able to see that there's 10 new emails waiting for > me, 42.1 Kb in size (total), but it won't download the actual emails. > > I just spent close to an hour on the phone with a Comcast rep (even my > webmail access wasn't working), and we reset my passwords, added my second > Comcast email account to Webmail (I never bothered to add it since I never > use webmail), changed the incoming port to 587 in Windows Mail, but I keep > getting the same error message when attempting to download new mail: > > "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes > for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of > inactivity. Account: 'mtb666', Server: 'mail.comcast.net', Protocol: POP3, > Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F" > > Anyone have a clue what might be the problem? I *did* see in some process > app tonite that claimed that someone else was sharing my same IP address > (how is that possible?), so I ran ipconfig /renew but no joy. > > Someone please help me! > > I had multiple problems with Windows Mail. I posted these problems over in the Microsoft public.windows.vista.mail newsgroup via msnews.microsoft.com What I received back in answers led me to believe that Windows Mail has been 'functionally stablilized'. That is, no new enhancements and minimal break/fix support. I was told that all efforts/development are now in Windows Live Mail http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview i am playing with that now... Looks pretty good. I have not completely cut over to it. I download the mail, but 'Leave on Server' option is set. One quick fix that may help is to set your server timeout higher. On the 'Advanced' tab on properties for that mail server, slide the time out slider to the right... See if that helps. It also could be that your mail 'store' is hosed up. There are ways to rebuild that, too... but I would get to Windows Live Mail ..ASAP. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Nov 6 19:33:03 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Steven Underwood) Date: Thu Nov 6 19:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:gf01nd$4u3$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Indigo" wrote in message > news:getnr5$enp$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Yesterday my Vista Windows Mail app started acting funny, and today it >> stopped working almost entirely. This is the weirdest problem I've ever >> had with a mail app: >> >> 1) I can SEND email and reply to existing emails in my inbox >> 2) I can download, read, and send messages to the spamcop NGs >> >> However, when I to recieve new email the connection hangs and times out. >> It gets as far as being able to see that there's 10 new emails waiting >> for me, 42.1 Kb in size (total), but it won't download the actual emails. >> >> I just spent close to an hour on the phone with a Comcast rep (even my >> webmail access wasn't working), and we reset my passwords, added my >> second Comcast email account to Webmail (I never bothered to add it since >> I never use webmail), changed the incoming port to 587 in Windows Mail, >> but I keep getting the same error message when attempting to download new >> mail: >> >> "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes >> for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of >> inactivity. Account: 'mtb666', Server: 'mail.comcast.net', Protocol: >> POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F" >> >> Anyone have a clue what might be the problem? I *did* see in some process >> app tonite that claimed that someone else was sharing my same IP address >> (how is that possible?), so I ran ipconfig /renew but no joy. >> >> Someone please help me! >> >> > > I had multiple problems with Windows Mail. I posted these problems over in > the > Microsoft public.windows.vista.mail > newsgroup via > msnews.microsoft.com > > What I received back in answers led me to believe that Windows Mail has > been 'functionally stablilized'. That is, no new enhancements and minimal > break/fix support. > I was told that all efforts/development are now in Windows Live Mail > http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview > i am playing with that now... Looks pretty good. I have not completely cut > over to it. I download the mail, but 'Leave on Server' option is set. > > One quick fix that may help is to set your server timeout higher. On the > 'Advanced' tab on properties for that mail server, slide the time out > slider to the right... See if that helps. > > It also could be that your mail 'store' is hosed up. There are ways to > rebuild that, too... but I would get to Windows Live Mail ..ASAP. > > > > 2 questions.... I'm looking at the site you referred to earlier but do not see the answers: 1. I assume it does IMAP? 2. Does it do newsgroups? I am using both on this machine with Windows Mail right now. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Nov 6 21:03:07 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Nov 6 21:10:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:gf01nd$4u3$1@news.spamcop.net... > > What I received back in answers led me to believe that Windows Mail has > been 'functionally stablilized'. That is, no new enhancements and minimal > break/fix support. > I was told that all efforts/development are now in Windows Live Mail > http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview > i am playing with that now... Looks pretty good. I have not completely cut > over to it. I download the mail, but 'Leave on Server' option is set. Well, I finally fixed it after a day of mucking around with the registry file and using DriveSpacio and other disk cleaners to remove multiple incidences of directories. In the process, I somehow deleted my Windows Mail accounts, so I recreated them and all is kosher now. That leads me to this weird frigging problem I struggle with almost all day long -- I sometimes use EasyCleaner to rid my HD of unecessary files, and I spent over 3 hours trying to get it to run and finish today. It kept crashing, because of long filenames, I think. Somehow, Windows has created a spider's nest of sub-directories under "users/application data" and "documents and settings/application data", which led to me having almost 50 GB of duplicate files I downloaded from Napster. The end directory was "windows/media player/transcoded file cache" full of .tmp files. This is an example of the convoluted file path to some of these directories (that's all one filepath!): C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\Favorites\channels.xml.bak In some cases, I had up to 11 "Application Data" subdirectories underneath other Application Data directories! How the hell did this happen? I spent the last 3 hours deleting crap and hoping it solved the problem, then ran EasyCleaner again without a problem (and it didn't find any transcoded file caches). But now I'm scared to death to turn off the computer, fearing I screwed around with everything so much I totally fscked up my system. Right now it's functioning fine.......I still saved all the deleted extra folders/paths in the recycle bin (which I needed to use along the way to recovering the functionality of my PC), so I might be ok....guess I better create a system restore point right now just in case.... From joegill at removethis Fri Nov 7 10:26:08 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Nov 7 10:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:gf07om$mi9$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:gf01nd$4u3$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> What I received back in answers led me to believe that Windows Mail has >> been 'functionally stablilized'. That is, no new enhancements and minimal >> break/fix support. >> I was told that all efforts/development are now in Windows Live Mail >> http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview >> i am playing with that now... Looks pretty good. I have not completely >> cut over to it. I download the mail, but 'Leave on Server' option is set. > > Well, I finally fixed it after a day of mucking around with the registry > file and using DriveSpacio and other disk cleaners to remove multiple > incidences of directories. In the process, I somehow deleted my Windows > Mail accounts, so I recreated them and all is kosher now. > > That leads me to this weird frigging problem I struggle with almost all > day long -- I sometimes use EasyCleaner to rid my HD of unecessary files, > and I spent over 3 hours trying to get it to run and finish today. It kept > crashing, because of long filenames, I think. Somehow, Windows has created > a spider's nest of sub-directories under "users/application data" and > "documents and settings/application data", which led to me having almost > 50 GB of duplicate files I downloaded from Napster. The end directory was > "windows/media player/transcoded file cache" full of .tmp files. > > This is an example of the convoluted file path to some of these > directories (that's all one filepath!): > > C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Application > Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application > Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application > Data\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\Favorites\channels.xml.bak > > In some cases, I had up to 11 "Application Data" subdirectories underneath > other Application Data directories! How the hell did this happen? > > I spent the last 3 hours deleting crap and hoping it solved the problem, > then ran EasyCleaner again without a problem (and it didn't find any > transcoded file caches). But now I'm scared to death to turn off the > computer, fearing I screwed around with everything so much I totally > fscked up my system. Right now it's functioning fine.......I still saved > all the deleted extra folders/paths in the recycle bin (which I needed to > use along the way to recovering the functionality of my PC), so I might be > ok....guess I better create a system restore point right now just in > case.... If I were you.. and this may sound harsh.... A) Backup all you data and applications. B) Run a low-level 'CHKDSK' or equivalent. B) Reformat the hard drive. - You may think about and 'operating system' partition and a Data partition C) Install and bring Windows up to date. D) Install and bring all products up to date. E) STAY AWAY FROM MOST REGISTRY CLEANERS/ SYSTEM OPTIMIZERS etc.etc. F) STAY AWAY FROM MOST TWEAKS http://home.comcast.net/~supportcd/XPMyths.html Just my $.02 worth... I am running XP on a 500mhz P-III and surviving... Same PC I have had since 1999. Replace HD once, and added upgraded to XP(Was 98SE) Never reinstalled Windows... Never ran optimizers etc. From joegill at removethis Fri Nov 7 10:27:40 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Nov 7 10:30:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! References: Message-ID: "Steven Underwood" wrote in message news:gf02c5$6ha$1@news.spamcop.net... > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:gf01nd$4u3$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> "Indigo" wrote in message >> news:getnr5$enp$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> Yesterday my Vista Windows Mail app started acting funny, and today it >>> stopped working almost entirely. This is the weirdest problem I've ever >>> had with a mail app: >>> >>> 1) I can SEND email and reply to existing emails in my inbox >>> 2) I can download, read, and send messages to the spamcop NGs >>> >>> However, when I to recieve new email the connection hangs and times out. >>> It gets as far as being able to see that there's 10 new emails waiting >>> for me, 42.1 Kb in size (total), but it won't download the actual >>> emails. >>> >>> I just spent close to an hour on the phone with a Comcast rep (even my >>> webmail access wasn't working), and we reset my passwords, added my >>> second Comcast email account to Webmail (I never bothered to add it >>> since I never use webmail), changed the incoming port to 587 in Windows >>> Mail, but I keep getting the same error message when attempting to >>> download new mail: >>> >>> "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes >>> for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of >>> inactivity. Account: 'mtb666', Server: 'mail.comcast.net', Protocol: >>> POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F" >>> >>> Anyone have a clue what might be the problem? I *did* see in some >>> process app tonite that claimed that someone else was sharing my same IP >>> address (how is that possible?), so I ran ipconfig /renew but no joy. >>> >>> Someone please help me! >>> >>> >> >> I had multiple problems with Windows Mail. I posted these problems over >> in the >> Microsoft public.windows.vista.mail >> newsgroup via >> msnews.microsoft.com >> >> What I received back in answers led me to believe that Windows Mail has >> been 'functionally stablilized'. That is, no new enhancements and minimal >> break/fix support. >> I was told that all efforts/development are now in Windows Live Mail >> http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview >> i am playing with that now... Looks pretty good. I have not completely >> cut over to it. I download the mail, but 'Leave on Server' option is set. >> >> One quick fix that may help is to set your server timeout higher. On the >> 'Advanced' tab on properties for that mail server, slide the time out >> slider to the right... See if that helps. >> >> It also could be that your mail 'store' is hosed up. There are ways to >> rebuild that, too... but I would get to Windows Live Mail ..ASAP. >> >> >> >> > > 2 questions.... > > I'm looking at the site you referred to earlier but do not see the > answers: > > 1. I assume it does IMAP? > 2. Does it do newsgroups? > > I am using both on this machine with Windows Mail right now. Yes to both, but no practical experience yet.... Just looking at capabilities, but not how good/bad they work. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Nov 7 12:30:54 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Nov 7 12:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:gf1mmg$spt$1@news.spamcop.net... > > If I were you.. and this may sound harsh.... > A) Backup all you data and applications. > B) Run a low-level 'CHKDSK' or equivalent. > B) Reformat the hard drive. > - You may think about and 'operating system' partition and a Data > partition > C) Install and bring Windows up to date. > D) Install and bring all products up to date. > E) STAY AWAY FROM MOST REGISTRY CLEANERS/ SYSTEM OPTIMIZERS etc.etc. > F) STAY AWAY FROM MOST TWEAKS I backed up everything before I started mucking around, I'm not stoopid ;-) I've read both sides of the arguments about system tweakers and cleaners, and I fall firmly on the side of "I like them". Even so, they're not perfect. While in the reg file yesterday I manually deleted a whole bunch of dead keys (old software long removed) that two of those "registry cleaners" had been missing forever. And don't get me started on the windows uninstall process, which leaves crumbs of the old program littered all over your HD. Well, I had to reboot this morning. One of the things I destroyed yesterday messed up AVG8, which in turn messed up email scanning in WinMail, which stopped WinMail from downloading new mail. I just finished reinstalling AVG8, now all's well again (and I've recovered over 50 GB of wasted disk space in this long process, it was worth it). From joegill at removethis Fri Nov 7 14:46:51 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Nov 7 14:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:gf1u0h$t1l$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:gf1mmg$spt$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> If I were you.. and this may sound harsh.... >> A) Backup all you data and applications. >> B) Run a low-level 'CHKDSK' or equivalent. >> B) Reformat the hard drive. >> - You may think about and 'operating system' partition and a Data >> partition >> C) Install and bring Windows up to date. >> D) Install and bring all products up to date. >> E) STAY AWAY FROM MOST REGISTRY CLEANERS/ SYSTEM OPTIMIZERS etc.etc. >> F) STAY AWAY FROM MOST TWEAKS > > I backed up everything before I started mucking around, I'm not stoopid > ;-) I've read both sides of the arguments about system tweakers and > cleaners, and I fall firmly on the side of "I like them". Even so, they're > not perfect. While in the reg file yesterday I manually deleted a whole > bunch of dead keys (old software long removed) that two of those "registry > cleaners" had been missing forever. And don't get me started on the > windows uninstall process, which leaves crumbs of the old program littered > all over your HD. > > Well, I had to reboot this morning. One of the things I destroyed > yesterday messed up AVG8, which in turn messed up email scanning in > WinMail, which stopped WinMail from downloading new mail. I just finished > reinstalling AVG8, now all's well again (and I've recovered over 50 GB of > wasted disk space in this long process, it was worth it). I hear ya..." I'm not stoopid ;-) " However I am coming around to believe that leave things alone, unless there are major problems. If it ain't broke... don't fix it. See the link in B) below where many people assume situations are bad.. and they are not. Reasons: A) Personal experience B) Read through this link http://home.comcast.net/~supportcd/XPMyths.html C) I get another publication that did a review on 'speedup' utilities http://windowssecrets.com/2008/11/06/02-These-speedup-utilities-arent-worth-your-money D) That same publication has many other reviews off it's home page http://windowssecrets.com From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Nov 7 23:13:06 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Nov 7 23:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Fscking Windows Mail problem HELP! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:gf25va$hqd$1@news.spamcop.net... > However I am coming around to believe that leave things alone, unless > there are major problems. If it ain't broke... don't fix it. > See the link in B) below where many people assume situations are bad.. and > they are not. Well, thinks *were* getting broken.....I was getting tons of "program not responding" errors, probably due to the multiple incidences of app data. My system was slowly bogging down and getting worse by the day. I had to do what I did. Why Vista created 11 layer deep app data file paths of duplicate data, I'll never know.....but it's BS, what a crap piece of software! My new bone to pick is with DRM Converter Pro, an app I purchased to strip the DRM rights from Napster downloads so I could copy MP3s to my player. Two days ago it decided to stop working, claiming that I didn't have valid licences for the songs. That's what the fscking software is supposed to do, create unprotected music files! And it worked fine for 2 weeks, then crapped out (before I did all the messing around with my system). So now I have about 50 wma files drive that I'm unable to convert. I'm probably going to demand a refund from the software company, seeing that I still have a valid Napster account. From dfmanno at mail.com Sat Nov 8 19:01:43 2008 From: dfmanno at mail.com (D.F. Manno) Date: Sat Nov 8 19:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Any have any experiance with Magicjack? References: Message-ID: In article , "Frog Prince" wrote: > Any have any experience with Magicjack VoIP? Good, bad, cautions? You're a Mac guy, aren't you? MagicJack only works on Intel Macs, not PPCs. -- D.F. Manno | dfmanno@mail.com Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. (Ambrose Bierce) From me at privacy.net Sat Nov 8 21:11:42 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Sat Nov 8 21:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Any have any experiance with Magicjack? References: Message-ID: "D.F. Manno" wrote in message news:dfmanno-3AAB13.19014308112008@news.cesmail.net... : In article , : "Frog Prince" wrote: : : > Any have any experience with Magicjack VoIP? Good, bad, cautions? : : You're a Mac guy, aren't you? MagicJack only works on Intel Macs, not : PPCs. : Mostly PC but wife does have an Intel MacBook Pro From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Nov 12 20:05:37 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Nov 12 20:10:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Weird WMP problem Message-ID: How do I stop WMP from auto-playing when single left clicking on a music file to rename it (only purpose for selecting the file)? P.S. I had a huge compilation of MP3s I tried to add to a WMP playlist so I could upload them to my MP3 player, and fscking WMP RENAMED almost every single filename, adding all kinds of crap -- like (album)(bit rate) etc. I *think* I solved the problem by unclicking the "go out to the internet and update file information" checkbox in Preferences.....at least I BETTER have solved the issue....what a mess it made! From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Nov 13 23:48:51 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Nov 13 23:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Evan Platt" wrote in message news:ebnph4pelnbvu0hc8oiu93ocuigslgtr7m@4ax.com... > On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:05:37 -0500, "Indigo" > wrote: > >>How do I stop WMP from auto-playing when single left clicking on a music >>file to rename it (only purpose for selecting the file)? > > Uhh I'm guessing you're using Windows, and under Tools, Folder > Options, you have Single Click selected? Hover over the file. After > about a second, the file will be highlighted. Hit F2 to rename. Nope, I have double-click enabled, always have. I'm wondering if it's some setting in WMP 11, but damned if I can find it......I'm on Vista SP1, BTW.... From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Nov 14 00:54:15 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Nov 14 00:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > How do I stop WMP from auto-playing when single left clicking on a music > file to rename it (only purpose for selecting the file)? > > P.S. I had a huge compilation of MP3s I tried to add to a WMP playlist > so I could upload them to my MP3 player, and fscking WMP RENAMED almost > every single filename, adding all kinds of crap -- like (album)(bit > rate) etc. I *think* I solved the problem by unclicking the "go out to > the internet and update file information" checkbox in Preferences.....at > least I BETTER have solved the issue....what a mess it made! Do you have to use WMP to sync your MP3 player, or would you be willing to do it manually? Once plugged in, the MP3 player should show up in Explorer.exe (the file manager thingie, not IE) under My Computer. You can open it up, find the folder that the player uses for media, and copy your files over. I do this on my Panasonic player. I think if I want to create a directory, I have to do it on my computer and copy the folder. For some reason, using Explorer and the direct UI to my device, it will not let me create folders. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Nov 14 22:23:34 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Nov 14 22:25:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird ground loop problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:gc0ai6$n5q$1@news.spamcop.net... > > That means the hum is STILL affected by moving closer to/away from the > stereo, right? It's important. How much change does it make? Lots? > Barely noticeable? Are you certain it changes or do you just step > into/out of a node in the room? > > Your physical presence changing the amplitude of the hum normally > indicates there is still a missing earth ground somewhere. I have seen a > ground loop cause such a thing but only in very early prototypes where a > ckt card was either missing a ground or the digital/analog grounds got > mixed up. Well, after all this time I finally figured it out. I had Y-jack (or pass-thru jack) RCA connectors plugged into the downstairs stereo so I could plug the downstairs PC audio output into the same stereo output from the upstairs PC, theoritically allowing me to listen to either PC's output on the same basement stereo input channel. Problem was that I never ran a stereo RCA cable from upstairs to downstairs, so I had two open inputs on that channel, which probably were picking up EMF noise from flourescent lights etc. I have in the basement. I ordered a 50 ft 3.5 mm to stereo RCA male jacks so I could run a line output from my upstairs PC straight to my upstairs stereo, which would allow me to listen to PC streaming audio in my living room and outside (my B speaker set). I tried hooking it all up last night, still had horrible interference humming on my upstairs and downstairs stereos. This morning I unplugged EVERYTHING from the downstairs stereo and connected the new cable from my upstairs PC to the upstairs stereo (ran the wire down the hallway to avoid any power cables). It WORKED! After a bunch of fiddling around, that's when I discovered that the unconnected extra RCA jacks on the dual input lines in the basement were the root cause of the problem. Now I have everything hooked up the way I want, and it all works just the way I want it to -- except for an occasional minor hum that disappears when I jiggle the audio output splitter on the back of the upstairs PC. I can even plug in the downstairs PC now (the power feed) and not introduce any interference. Whew! Note: While investigating the problem, I borrowed an electric/magnetic/microwave meter from a friend. I went around the house checking for various EMF interferences, and to my shock my microwave oven was emitting off-the-chart microwaves! I remember dating this girl back in 2000, at the the time we were talking about getting married and having kids, and she'd always playfully pull me away from the microwave oven when it was running to avoid, erm....spermal aberations. I told her "don't worry, these modern microwaves have solved the leakage issue". Boy, was I wrong! I also measured strong magnetic fields coming from the ceiling fans in my bathrooms and the electric stove burners. The LCD monitors and TV's were clean. IIRC, electric fields have been debunked as causing problems via investigations of people that live under high voltage power lines, but magnetic fields *absolutely* have an effect on the human body. My chiropractor sometimes uses these tiny stick-on magnets on me, and several times I've had instantaneous reactions from their application, some good, some bad. In fact, just last week, she put a magnet on my right big toe without telling me why, and my pulse rate went from 90 to 80 in about 10 seconds. Weird, but scary science results, overall.....at least in the end I know not to stand near the microwave oven when it's running, not that it matters as much since I'm neutered......and I won't stand under the bathroom ceiling fans while they're running either (the magnetic field dissapates by the power of 4 with distance, IIRC, but I held the meter at head height and still measured pegged values). I wonder how many other folks are possibly endangering their overall health buy this unknown knowledge? From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Nov 14 22:30:50 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Nov 14 22:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:gfj3q5$ch8$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Do you have to use WMP to sync your MP3 player, or would you be willing to > do it manually? I originally was using Rhapsody to create playlists, but it creates duplicate music files on the MP3 player for each song that's contained in a different playlist, sucking up disk space. WMP doesn't do that. > > Once plugged in, the MP3 player should show up in Explorer.exe (the file > manager thingie, not IE) under My Computer. You can open it up, find the > folder that the player uses for media, and copy your files over. Yes, I can and do use Explorer to examine the contents of the MP3 player. Unfortunately, I have yet to discover an app that can download the player .PLA playlist and read them. > > I do this on my Panasonic player. I think if I want to create a > directory, I have to do it on my computer and copy the folder. For some > reason, using Explorer and the direct UI to my device, it will not let me > create folders. Right. For whatever reason, you HAVE to use a Windows media player (any kind) to copy files to the MP3 player and create playlists. That sucks. From news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com Sat Nov 15 04:01:25 2008 From: news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com (Ian Smith) Date: Sat Nov 15 04:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird ground loop problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > Note: While investigating the problem, I borrowed an > electric/magnetic/microwave meter from a friend. I went around the house > checking for various EMF interferences, and to my shock my microwave > oven was emitting off-the-chart microwaves! I remember dating this girl > back in 2000, at the the time we were talking about getting married and > having kids, and she'd always playfully pull me away from the microwave > oven when it was running to avoid, erm....spermal aberations. I told her > "don't worry, these modern microwaves have solved the leakage issue". > Boy, was I wrong! I think that you are more wrong to trust the meter. Making kit to accurately measure broad-band emissions is very difficult. > > I also measured strong magnetic fields coming from the ceiling fans in > my bathrooms and the electric stove burners. The LCD monitors and TV's > were clean. IIRC, electric fields have been debunked as causing problems > via investigations of people that live under high voltage power lines, > but magnetic fields *absolutely* have an effect on the human body. Oh yes? We know that to be the case - targeted strong magnetic fields can disrupt the thought processes in the brain. > My chiropractor sometimes uses these tiny stick-on magnets on me, and > several times I've had instantaneous reactions from their application, > some good, some bad. In fact, just last week, she put a magnet on my > right big toe without telling me why, and my pulse rate went from 90 to > 80 in about 10 seconds. I'd wager that you'd get similar results, with an acupuncture needle applied directly to the toe .... of a voodoo doll held in front of you. Overall, these results appear predominantly subjective. regards, Ian From user at domain.invalid Sat Nov 15 08:33:44 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Sat Nov 15 08:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 13.11.2008 22:48, Indigo wrote: --- Original Message --- > "Evan Platt" wrote in message > news:ebnph4pelnbvu0hc8oiu93ocuigslgtr7m@4ax.com... >> On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:05:37 -0500, "Indigo" >> wrote: >> >>>How do I stop WMP from auto-playing when single left clicking on a music >>>file to rename it (only purpose for selecting the file)? >> >> Uhh I'm guessing you're using Windows, and under Tools, Folder >> Options, you have Single Click selected? Hover over the file. After >> about a second, the file will be highlighted. Hit F2 to rename. > > Nope, I have double-click enabled, always have. I'm wondering if it's some > setting in WMP 11, but damned if I can find it......I'm on Vista SP1, > BTW.... > Select single click, exit, do a single click somewhere, re-enable double click. Fix it? From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Nov 15 14:29:34 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sat Nov 15 14:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "User" wrote in message news:gfmj3d$f6u$1@news.spamcop.net... >> > > Select single click, exit, do a single click somewhere, re-enable double > click. Fix it? > Strange -- there are several items greyed out on the "general" folder options page, including the single-click option. I may have permanently set some folder settings in the control panel. Let me pole around a bit.....nope, even going to folder options in control panel I see the same thing...single click is greyed out. Now I'm going to have to check some "tweakers" to see if I disabled that option....ok, this is really strange....I ran a couple tweakers, didn't see anything about "double-click" options, but I ran Uniblue's System Optimizer and Disk Cleaner, and now I don't have the single-click auto-play WMP problem anymore! Weird, eh? Still have the single click option greyed out in folder options though.....any thoughts on that? From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sat Nov 15 19:35:10 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Nov 15 19:40:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem References: Message-ID: > "User" wrote in message > news:gfmj3d$f6u$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> >> >> Select single click, exit, do a single click somewhere, re-enable >> double click. Fix it? >> > > Strange -- there are several items greyed out on the "general" folder > options page, including the single-click option. I may have > permanently set some folder settings in the control panel. Let me > pole around a bit.....nope, even going to folder options in control > panel I see the same thing...single click is greyed out. Now I'm > going to have to check some "tweakers" to see if I disabled that > option....ok, this is really strange....I ran a couple tweakers, > didn't see anything about "double-click" options, but I ran Uniblue's > System Optimizer and Disk Cleaner, and now I don't have the > single-click auto-play WMP problem anymore! Weird, eh? > Still have the single click option greyed out in folder options > though.....any thoughts on that? Hi Indigo, Normally I'd say that means you have it enabled and functioning, but obviously you don't. Or it's being over-ridden somewhere and the system thinks it is enabled. I'm not sure how other than local policies you could have turned it off unless it was one of your "tweakers" you mentioned are still hanging onto it. Don't take offense at this because I don't mean any; in general I don't like, and avoid, "tweakers" and other such 3rd party apps when the OS provides ways to handle the same things. I consider it a lot smarter to learn how to control things in windows where things are always known than to use 3rd party things that never tell you what they did, how they did it, or where they did it. That's how people end up spending days trying to figure out how to replace or revise their HOSTS file, set a new Home Page, things like that. That said, I do use "tweakers" now and then for things like registry optimization, icon display optimization, things like that, but those don't change any settings; they just compact things. Those are a lot harder to do manually and so I'll use them but I'm picky about them. I'm glad that's all that's left to figure out at least and you got it going OK. However, I still think you would be ahed of the game to learn how to do those things you're using "tweakers" for right in the OS. Once you get the hang of a couple of them, lots more becomes obvious and problems like the greyed out item become less and less. It's also handy to keep a "settings changed" log of your own in a WordPad document scrap, I've found. Then I have it for reference. My 2 ¢ anyway so good luck, Twayne From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Nov 16 00:27:13 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Nov 16 00:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: >> Once plugged in, the MP3 player should show up in Explorer.exe (the >> file manager thingie, not IE) under My Computer. You can open it up, >> find the folder that the player uses for media, and copy your files over. > > Yes, I can and do use Explorer to examine the contents of the MP3 > player. Unfortunately, I have yet to discover an app that can download > the player .PLA playlist and read them. With my Panasonic mp3 player that supports WMDRM'd tunes, copying to the player is a one way operation. I can only copy files to, and delete them from, the mp3 player. It does not function like a USB drive. >> I do this on my Panasonic player. I think if I want to create a >> directory, I have to do it on my computer and copy the folder. For >> some reason, using Explorer and the direct UI to my device, it will >> not let me create folders. > > Right. For whatever reason, you HAVE to use a Windows media player (any > kind) to copy files to the MP3 player and create playlists. That sucks. Are you sure? Have you tried copy/pasting or dragging a mp3 from one explorer window onto another explorer window that is opened on your player's media directory? AndrewB From user at domain.invalid Sun Nov 16 17:43:35 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Sun Nov 16 17:45:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 15.11.2008 13:29, Indigo wrote: --- Original Message --- > "User" wrote in message > news:gfmj3d$f6u$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> >> >> Select single click, exit, do a single click somewhere, re-enable double >> click. Fix it? >> > > Strange -- there are several items greyed out on the "general" folder > options page, including the single-click option. I may have permanently set > some folder settings in the control panel. Let me pole around a > bit.....nope, even going to folder options in control panel I see the same > thing...single click is greyed out. Now I'm going to have to check some > "tweakers" to see if I disabled that option....ok, this is really > strange....I ran a couple tweakers, didn't see anything about "double-click" > options, but I ran Uniblue's System Optimizer and Disk Cleaner, and now I > don't have the single-click auto-play WMP problem anymore! Weird, eh? > > Still have the single click option greyed out in folder options > though.....any thoughts on that? > Do you have TweakUI installed? Have you checked your mouse properties/prefs, etc. ? From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 17 08:47:24 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Nov 17 08:50:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:gfnprs$nj4$1@news.spamcop.net... > That said, I do use "tweakers" now and then for things like registry > optimization, icon display optimization, things like that, but those don't > change any settings; they just compact things. Those are a lot harder to > do manually and so I'll use them but I'm picky about them. That's really about all I do with them -- hide un-needed system icons like "network" etc. on the desktop, get rid of that dumb "arrow" pointer on a shortcut, and enable/disable items in folder menus, as far as changing registry settings goes. Most of the other stuff they do is just find all kinds of junk files and delete them. Three different 3rd party disk cleaners will all find something even when run consecutively, while Vista's built-in cleaner will find even other things. Ok, right this second I'm having a PITA problem with winbloze -- as I'm typing this message every time my PC polls the SC servers and my mail server for new messages WinMail is stealing focus from the message I'm working on. Please tell me how to "fix" that problem without a tweaker, because the Vista version of TweakVI doesn't contain that option, nor does UniBlue's System Tweaker (I paid for that one). From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 17 23:22:24 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Nov 17 23:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:gfoave$g2j$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Right. For whatever reason, you HAVE to use a Windows media player (any >> kind) to copy files to the MP3 player and create playlists. That sucks. > > Are you sure? Have you tried copy/pasting or dragging a mp3 from one > explorer window onto another explorer window that is opened on your > player's media directory? > Oh, that's easy. It's creating the playlist that's the PITA. From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 17 23:30:34 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Nov 17 23:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Weird WMP problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "User" wrote in message news:gfq7id$39f$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Do you have TweakUI installed? Have you checked your mouse > properties/prefs, etc. ? > I'm on Vista, so I have Tweak*V*I installed. What does mouse props have to do with it......oh wait, I'll check.....nope, nothing checked off for left or right click to automagically do anything. Amidst all this mucking around, I've somehow managed to turn off the MRU list in Excel. I've done this multiple times before, but right now I can't remember how I fixed it in the past. The MRU list of the "last 4 opened files" box is greyed out (again). From joegill at removethis Thu Nov 20 20:22:18 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Nov 20 20:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use Message-ID: I have a few spare PC (500mhz P-III and 666 mHz Celeron), both with Windows98SE on them and 128M of memory. I also have become aware of some refugee families that are in need of PC's One of more members of each family are good in using the PCs. .... at this point, before I continue, I don't want this to turn into a Windows vs. Linux debate! I am trying to validate an approach.... OK.. What I was thinking of doing, is taking each PC and putting a Linux distro on each. Now for the questions: A) Which distro, would be best for people with limited to no, PC knowledge, but have a strong desire to use the PCs for learning (classes on the web)? B) Is it possible to create linux systems that would work for 99%+ of the sites? C) Would these handle things like FLASH and WMV and QuickTime? D) Would I be able to create a 'maintenance-less' system that they could just take and run with? Thanks in advance. If people think a totally different approach would work, let me know... From news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com Fri Nov 21 03:43:04 2008 From: news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com (Ian Smith) Date: Fri Nov 21 03:45:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: I'll give you my opinion... > > A) Which distro, would be best for people with limited to no, PC > knowledge, but have a strong desire to use the PCs for learning (classes > on the web)? Ubuntu, but that doesn't run on just any machine. I've tried loading it on 3 machines thus far and it works on only one (1x network card not recognised and 1x video card not recognised). However, you can find that out before blatting Windows as it can be run from a CD without an install. > > B) Is it possible to create linux systems that would work for 99%+ of > the sites? The crux of this is in the following question... > > C) Would these handle things like FLASH and WMV and QuickTime? I've found all sort of issues with playing media on Ubuntu. In particular, using the BBC site. I've had to look up all sorts of FAQs on the web and install all sorts of add-ons, including using text based terminal sessions to make changes. So, ... > > D) Would I be able to create a 'maintenance-less' system that they could > just take and run with? No, absolutely not, with Linux. Stick with W98 if that is what you want. regards, Ian From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Nov 21 15:00:20 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Nov 21 15:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use References: Message-ID: > I have a few spare PC (500mhz P-III and 666 mHz Celeron), both with > Windows98SE on them and 128M of memory. > > I also have become aware of some refugee families that are in need of > PC's > One of more members of each family are good in using the PCs. > > .... at this point, before I continue, I don't want this to turn into > a Windows vs. Linux debate! I am trying to validate an approach.... > OK.. > What I was thinking of doing, is taking each PC and putting a Linux > distro on each. > > Now for the questions: > > A) Which distro, would be best for people with limited to no, PC > knowledge, but have a strong desire to use the PCs for learning > (classes on the web)? > B) Is it possible to create linux systems that would work for 99%+ of > the sites? > > C) Would these handle things like FLASH and WMV and QuickTime? > > D) Would I be able to create a 'maintenance-less' system that they > could just take and run with? > > Thanks in advance. > > If people think a totally different approach would work, let me > know... I think I understand where you're coming from, but unless there are only one or two types of machines in the pile, I'd think it was going to be quite a job to get them all up and working with any flavor of Linux. It's too bad things like Lindows never made it big time, because I think that would fit your bill here. I suspect your major problem will be drivers, BTW. IMO, keep win98, get it as updated as possible, and give it a try. 98 was pretty stable and reliable at the end there. I still have it running on one machine and it's great for the net, emails and anything that was written for it, along with most open source software I try on it. And at least with 98 you wouldn't have to be their single-source of Help either. At least docs etc. exists for those machines. There's still a LOT Of them in use. Best of luck, Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Nov 21 17:13:44 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Wazoo) Date: Fri Nov 21 17:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:gg52fp$ecm$1@news.spamcop.net... >I have a few spare PC (500mhz P-III and 666 mHz Celeron), both with >Windows98SE on them and 128M of memory. > > What I was thinking of doing, is taking each PC and putting a > Linux distro on each. > > A) Which distro, would be best for people with limited to no, PC > knowledge, but have a strong desire to use the PCs for learning > (classes on the web)? No way to answer that one at all. Even though most distros are 'labeled' as being x86 (some even stating that they were compiled to i386) codebase, the problem shows up starting in the kernal and working out from there. Folks keep working on addining in support for the latest and greatest, but also end up dropping support for the older stuff. Note that some conversations/descriptions that talk about "will run on old systems" don't actually reach back as far as your machines. Ubuntu is currently one of the most popular distros, but .... can't get it to boot on a 733MHz Celeron HP, 450MHz PIII Compaq laptop, on and on ... I've got a 600MHz+ Celeron Gateway that I do actually have a current Debian distro installed and working (Ubuntu is Debian based, but ....) Some of these would boot a two-versions-back Knoppix distro, but can't accept the current releases. And of course, even if you get them to boot from a Live-CD, you still aren't assured that all hardware will actually be recognized or work. Damn Small Linux will boot on most anything with a lot of tools available, though primarily command-line oriented. I've got a Rescue-CD that I remastered with a bunch of Windows apps (rootkit, antivirus, anti-malware, Open Office, etc.) that hasn't booted on only a couple of systems (out of hundreds) > B) Is it possible to create linux systems that would work for 99%+ > of the sites? Actually, there isn't much that will handle 99% of all web-sites without adding in additional software tools. So this question really needs to be a bit more focused. There are at least a half-dozen different 'major' browsers available that run under Linus, to include FireFox. > C) Would these handle things like FLASH and WMV and QuickTime? >From the Windows perspective, ack!!!! Yet more vectors for viral/trojan infections. Why allow them in the first place? But, yes, these can be handled under Linux with additional software/tool installations (of course, also depending on support of the specific distro in question) > D) Would I be able to create a 'maintenance-less' system that they > could just take and run with? Hardly. Of course, perhaps the word 'maintenance' needs to be defined. Much in contrast to Microsoft's latest one-day-a-month updates, most major Linux distros have what can seem to be daily updates. Most major Linux distros will check for updates automatically, put an icon to the desktop to show updates are available, but the user must click on all that to actually get them installed. Of course, that also brings up the 'root' user issue, as compared to a normal user without 'admin' rights. Start downloading the Live-CD versions of various Linux distros, see if you can get them to boot on these systems to begin with. Get a taste for each flavor of packaging. Head off to Distrowatch for listings and reviews of the various distros. From MikeE at ster.invalid Fri Nov 21 16:25:22 2008 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Fri Nov 21 19:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > I have a few spare PC (500mhz P-III and 666 mHz Celeron), both with > Windows98SE on them and 128M of memory. You would need a lightweight linux distro for that. There are some nice ones. The 128meg limited resource is the 'nut' for Xwindows. > I also have become aware of some refugee families that are in need of > PC's > > One of more members of each family are good in using the PCs. So the idea is that the adept family member will be able to provide the support instead of you, you hope. > .... at this point, before I continue, I don't want this to turn into a > Windows vs. Linux debate! I am trying to validate an approach.... OK.. > > What I was thinking of doing, is taking each PC and putting a Linux > distro on each. I think that is a much better idea than keeping W98se, but I'm surrounded with machines with various linux distros and all but one box has lots more ram. Whenever I tinker with one old box here and one old box at a relative's house where I visit and try to choose a linux distro for 128-196megs of ram, I have to make some adjustments. Win98se is a lighter weight graphical environment that the 'typical' linux distro, so then when you start using the lighter distros instead of the standard distros, you have compromises to make - sometimes it is based on the configuration tools, sometimes the applications. 98se itself is a big compromise because of its insecurities and the adjustments you need to make -- you need a more modern browser than the most modern IE which 98se will run, which is IE6sp1. 98 can't run the newer firefox unless you mod it with kernelex -- but it can run new opera. > Now for the questions: > > A) Which distro, would be best for people with limited to no, PC > knowledge, but have a strong desire to use the PCs for learning > (classes on the web)? > > B) Is it possible to create linux systems that would work for 99%+ of > the sites? > > C) Would these handle things like FLASH and WMV and QuickTime? > > D) Would I be able to create a 'maintenance-less' system that they could > just take and run with? > > Thanks in advance. > > If people think a totally different approach would work, let me know... Try out Puppy. It will run in ram swiftly on those boxen, needing no installation. See if you like it. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Fri Nov 21 19:58:10 2008 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Fri Nov 21 20:00:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Upgrading PC's for some refugee families to use References: Message-ID: Wazoo wrote: > Ubuntu is currently one of the most popular distros, but .... can't > get it to boot on a 733MHz Celeron HP, 450MHz PIII Compaq laptop, on > and on ... One of the best things about ub is the amount of documentation and support which is to be found and which continues to improve. For example, if you pursue the issue of wanting to install ub on old hardware, you can follow the path of the recommendations for using an older version and in the form of the alternate install .iso and then using the nongraphical install and avoiding the live CD trick. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems How to install Ubuntu on low memory systems (Pentium III and earlier machines, with 32-192 MB RAM). [...] Installing Ubuntu on any system requires at least 32 MB of memory: The text-based installer included with the alternate (install) CDs needs that much space to run reliably. [...] Depending on the hardware requirements, you can expect a sparse Ubuntu system to boot to a graphical desktop on anywhere from 19 MB to 54 MB. [...] There is no practical speed requirement, although a slower processor will take more time to finish installing. Some Pentium machines will take hours to complete, simply because the CPU takes longer to finish. As a general benchmark, a 75 MHz machine finishes a command-line installation of Ubuntu 7.04 in about four hours, and a 120 MHz machine finishes in perhaps an hour less than that. 200 MHz and faster machines will see a still stronger improvement. When you go the very low resource route, the general trick is to use a text based install and then manually edit some files and then commandlines to get the xwindow system and then install some kind of low resource window manager so that you can start getting more graphically oriented. That link above has a pretty good description. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Sun Nov 23 13:11:52 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Sun Nov 23 13:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please Message-ID: It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have any suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated as AVG is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? Since AVG updated to 8.x it's become a pain. It auto updates then a little later it tries to update again and tells me it couldn't establish connection with the server. This keeps happening all day after the initial successful update and it's the free edition which should only update once a day. I've uninstalled it, cleaned out my computer, installed it again from latest install files and after a couple of days it's back to giving these update errors. Looks like AVG developers have tied themselves in knots making AVG too complicated and trying to do everything. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From MikeE at ster.invalid Sun Nov 23 13:46:18 2008 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Sun Nov 23 13:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and > moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have any > suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated as AVG > is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? Presuming that you are only considering freeware, this problem has been much discussed in the ng alt.comp.freeware. That group considers resource usage as a priority, perhaps moreso than percentage of viral template results. Another argument made by some is that if you behave and configure appropriately, you shouldn't need a realtime AV agent -- or considered alternatively, the best AV agent in the world can't consistently protect a clumsy user against malware, because there is always going to be a new agent which the user with inappropriate behaviors will contract because hir AV agent won't have a template yet. This is about W98se: in the past I've used AVG - I also use OE from the IEsp1 configured tight, Opera for browser since Firefox3 doesn't work on native 98se and occasionally IE6sp1 configured very tight. I've never used realtime AV on my mail in or out. I was recently considering switching from AVG to Avast. Since I consider my configurations and behaviors very secure, I decided that for the time being, I would drop all AV, which is my current configuration. I also don't run spyware. The average user probably wouldn't feel very good about that, so I would suggest Avast. There are plenty of discussions of such as compare AVG, Avast, Avira. One of the interesting comparisons is done on a video in something like realtime -- the tester used a virtual machine making for quick install/uninstall of each to compare identical scenarios of the 3 in terms of resources, speed, popularity, percentage success from a table. Avast was the fastest, AVG was the most popular, Avira was the highest percent success by one type of measurement. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sun Nov 23 14:17:46 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sun Nov 23 14:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: > Canopus wrote: >> It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and >> moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have >> any suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated >> as AVG is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? > > Presuming that you are only considering freeware, this problem has > been much discussed in the ng alt.comp.freeware. > > That group considers resource usage as a priority, perhaps moreso than > percentage of viral template results. > > Another argument made by some is that if you behave and configure > appropriately, you shouldn't need a realtime AV agent -- or considered > alternatively, the best AV agent in the world can't consistently > protect a clumsy user against malware, because there is always going > to be a new agent which the user with inappropriate behaviors will > contract because hir AV agent won't have a template yet. > > This is about W98se: in the past I've used AVG - I also use OE from > the IEsp1 configured tight, Opera for browser since Firefox3 doesn't > work on native 98se and occasionally IE6sp1 configured very tight. > I've never used realtime AV on my mail in or out. > > I was recently considering switching from AVG to Avast. Since I > consider my configurations and behaviors very secure, I decided that > for the time being, I would drop all AV, which is my current > configuration. I also don't run spyware. > > The average user probably wouldn't feel very good about that, so I > would suggest Avast. > > There are plenty of discussions of such as compare AVG, Avast, Avira. > One of the interesting comparisons is done on a video in something > like realtime -- the tester used a virtual machine making for quick > install/uninstall of each to compare identical scenarios of the 3 in > terms of resources, speed, popularity, percentage success from a > table. Avast was the fastest, AVG was the most popular, Avira was > the highest percent success by one type of measurement. I tried Avira because it was getting some pretty good press. Apparently on some disk structures it doesn't actually look inside any files but makes decisions based on where things are located. In particular it kept finding setup.exe's, two of them, and labelling them as rogues. Fortunately I checked them and even re-unzipped one and did a file comp on it - they were not rogues, they just weren't where Avira expected to see a setup.exe, apparently, because if I moved them to another folder they didn't get tagged. That's on my Gateway. OTOH, on the Dell behind me here, and my laptop, which doesn't have those setups, it ran fine. Another "habit" of theirs seems to be if they can't update you each day they send you an ad to update to the pay-for and the window is oversized so you can't even easily grab the title bar to drag the close-X over into view. You have to ALT-F4 to get out of it. This was on the Dell. My Gateway is always on so it never happened to it. Further, checking their forums, it looks to me like they're using their users to alert them to these false hits. They get a complaint, veryify it, fix it, and release an update; I didn't like that much. So, based on those false hits and the irritating upgrade ads, I quit using it. It might be the best thing since bread for viruses, but those problems are dealbreakers for me. Perhaps ymmv; dunno. But offering to delete valid setup.exe files for me as rogues isn't something I'd likely attribute to Avira by the time I came to use that setup again. I'm just not going to have something I have to constantly verify its finds for each time. I have to wonder how many systems it's flummuxed the setups on and the users have no idea. Had I let the program have its head, I would have lost two of them. Not nice IMO. Regards, Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Nov 23 18:37:22 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sun Nov 23 18:40:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Canopus" wrote in message news:ggc6d8$kmp$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Since AVG updated to 8.x it's become a pain. It auto updates then a > little later it tries to update again and tells me it couldn't establish > connection with the server. I have that problem too sometimes, but with a slightly different hitch -- my issue is that the update won't install completely, it's some kind of problem with their database and _usually_ goes away in 8-12 hours after (I assume) users complain to Grisoft and they fix the issue. This keeps happening all day after the > initial successful update and it's the free edition which should only > update once a day. I have mine set to update every night at midnight, and except for the issue I mentioned above I've never had any trouble with V8. From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Sun Nov 23 19:26:10 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Sun Nov 23 19:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Mike Easter scribed: >I was recently considering switching from AVG to Avast. Since I consider >my configurations and behaviors very secure, I decided that for the time >being, I would drop all AV, which is my current configuration. I also >don't run spyware. Thanks Mike, I've taken the plunge, uninstalled AVG completely and installed Avast. Not sure if I should have accepted the boot time scan after installing, it took over four hours to complete. Seems a smooth program and integrates well so far. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Sun Nov 23 19:35:37 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Sun Nov 23 19:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Twayne scribed: >So, based on those false hits and the irritating upgrade ads, I quit using >it. It might be the best thing since bread for viruses, but those >problems are dealbreakers for me. Just installed Avast and did a boot time scan. No false positives (so far). AVG also seems to rely on users letting them know about false positives and also has introduced the ad for its free version so I'm used to that. I'm also used to checking scan findings before taking action and seeing hits only happen once in a Blue Moon I think I can put up with that. As far as false positives are concerned, nothing can be as bad as AVG treating the system32.dll as a virus and quarantining it so that the next time you start your PC you can't boot up even to repair it. They had a notice on their web site that if it had happened to you and you couldn't boot up never mind get on line the solution was.... I'm glad I was out that day and missed the update :)) -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Sun Nov 23 19:45:35 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Sun Nov 23 19:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Indigo scribed: >I have mine set to update every night at midnight, and except for the >issue I mentioned above I've never had any trouble with V8. Odd, I've had many problems with the updates and I know it's not my connections. I see it update successfully either automatically or manually then a little later it tries to do so again and fails and continues to do so every couple of hours, sometimes quicker. I've gone through its advanced settings and it shouldn't be doing it and the Sys Tray icon always going exclamation mark due to it. Well, good by AVG for a while, you've been a good friend, but, now you are too irritating. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From loyal at spamcop.user Mon Nov 24 00:15:56 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Mon Nov 24 00:20:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and > moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have any > suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated as AVG > is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? I haven't paid for Win security software for years. I keep updating Zone Alarm Pro, Zone Alarm Internet Suite, Kaspersky AntiVirus and Kaspersky Internet Suite when they are free after rebate at Fry's. Usually they are free after a manufacturer and an upgrade rebate. So usually you have to bite the bullet once, and then watch for deals and sales. HTH, AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 24 15:19:44 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Ellen) Date: Mon Nov 24 15:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and > moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have any > suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated as AVG > is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? > > Since AVG updated to 8.x it's become a pain. It auto updates then a > little later it tries to update again and tells me it couldn't establish > connection with the server. This keeps happening all day after the > initial successful update and it's the free edition which should only > update once a day. I've uninstalled it, cleaned out my computer, > installed it again from latest install files and after a couple of days > it's back to giving these update errors. Looks like AVG developers have > tied themselves in knots making AVG too complicated and trying to do > everything. > I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it was valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. Hrmmm altho I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still sitting on top of the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually bothered to look at the icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm Admittedly before I updated to 8 I never got the message that I can remember but maybe it just didn't notify when it failed before? Drat now I know I am going to fixate on checking the icon in the systray a million times a day :-) Ellen From user at domain.invalid Mon Nov 24 15:54:11 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Mon Nov 24 15:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Ellen wrote: > > Admittedly before I updated to 8 I never got the message that I can > remember but maybe it just didn't notify when it failed before? > > Drat now I know I am going to fixate on checking the icon in the systray > a million times a day :-) > > > > Ellen With 7.5 the tray icon just goes grey and the daily updates stop. When you finally notice either or both symptoms and manually update, it seems happy enough for another x months. I've been waiting for it to tell me I absolutely have to go to 8 but so far it hasn't. From borgholio at storymind.com Mon Nov 24 19:17:41 2008 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Mon Nov 24 19:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Spybot S&D Message-ID: I installed Spybot S&D on my mother's computer some time ago and set it to run every morning. Lately for some reason it's been taking 4 - 5 hours to complete a single scan...when in the past it took far less time than that. I updated to the latest version and the speed seems to be back to the norm, but it still estimates about an hour to do the scan. It got me thinking...4 - 5 hours is pretty bad, but is 1 hour actually good? Anybody else using Spybot able to give me a typical scan time? Thanks! From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 24 21:02:58 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Ellen) Date: Mon Nov 24 21:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > > With 7.5 the tray icon just goes grey and the daily updates stop. When > you finally notice either or both symptoms and manually update, it seems > happy enough for another x months. I've been waiting for it to tell me > I absolutely have to go to 8 but so far it hasn't. yeah now that you mention it -- I do remember the greyed out icon and now that I am thinking about it that stupid exclamation point is still sitting there over the icon ... I am trying to remember when I upgraded this to 8 but I am thinking maybe because this is a fairly new system when I installed it rel 8 was already out and that was all that was on offer? E From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Nov 24 22:34:45 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Nov 24 22:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Something weird going on... Message-ID: I purchased DRM Converter Pro to strip RIAA protection from DVDs and downloaded (but not paid for) MP3s and WMA music files. However, it seems whenever I run some (unknown) disk cleaner or maybe a registry cleaner (rare usage) the DRM app gets damaged and I have to un-install then re-install. I look at damn near every reg file change and most of the "unwanted junk files" found by the disk cleaners and I've never seen anything related to the DRM app. But obviously something is is mucking up the app........there's also a selection in WMP to delete a temp file of converted files (protected to unprotected) that I discovered was eating up tons of disk space. Could this function somehow be messing up the DRM app? If not that, what? From oger at yahoo.com Mon Nov 24 22:37:47 2008 From: oger at yahoo.com (Oger) Date: Mon Nov 24 22:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > It's now getting to the point where I'm thinking of ditching AVG and > moving to a more reliable anti-virus application. Does anyone have any > suggestions of a good, free AV program that isn't over inflated as AVG > is or tries to do everything with gimmicks as AVG does? ClamAV for Windows works pretty well. From joegill at removethis Tue Nov 25 00:35:08 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Tue Nov 25 00:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Spybot S&D References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:ggfg6j$mqj$1@news.spamcop.net... >I installed Spybot S&D on my mother's computer some time ago and set it to >run every morning. Lately for some reason it's been taking 4 - 5 hours to >complete a single scan...when in the past it took far less time than that. >I updated to the latest version and the speed seems to be back to the norm, >but it still estimates about an hour to do the scan. It got me >thinking...4 - 5 hours is pretty bad, but is 1 hour actually good? Anybody >else using Spybot able to give me a typical scan time? Thanks! Not an exactly answer to what you were asking... but I was a Spybot S&D user for a couple years, until someone put me on to Superantispyware. I used the free version for about a year and have since ante'd up the meager amount for a paid subscription. I have had nothing but good results with the product... knock on wood. I even had a problem with a very difficult to remove item, and their tech support provided assistance without even asking "are you a paid subscriber? From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Tue Nov 25 07:20:35 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Tue Nov 25 07:25:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Ellen scribed: >I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update >message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it was >valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. Hrmmm altho >I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still sitting on top of >the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually bothered to look at the >icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm I suspect you didn't notice the pop-up telling you that the connection to the update server failed...easy to miss if you are looking elsewhere or think it's the email scan pop-up. I actually had no problems with the update, AVG control panel showed definitions were updated with date and time, but, it was later the exclamation mark appeared and control panel showed a fault in Update Manager due to failure to update yet when it occurred no updates were scheduled. You can disable notifications for that module, but, then you end up with a permanent error displayed on the control panel so it's then difficult to tell what your status is. Personally I think it's a mixed blessing as now I'm running Avast and am just beginning to realise what I've been missing. It's far more customisable with excellent features, weighs in less and uses far less resources. I think AVG, once very good, is now trading on its name. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Tue Nov 25 07:25:35 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Tue Nov 25 07:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Spybot S&D References: Message-ID: Borgholio scribed: >I installed Spybot S&D on my mother's computer some time ago and set it to >run every morning. Lately for some reason it's been taking 4 - 5 hours to >complete a single scan...when in the past it took far less time than that. > I updated to the latest version and the speed seems to be back to the norm, but it still estimates about an hour to do the scan. It got me thinking...4 - 5 hours is pretty bad, but is 1 hour actually good? Anybody else using Spybot able to give me a typical scan time? Thanks! It's an "how long is a piece of string" question. It depends on how much data it has to scan and how fast your system is. So saying it takes around an hour to scan my two disks. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Nov 25 10:47:46 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Ellen) Date: Tue Nov 25 10:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > Ellen scribed: > >> I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update >> message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it >> was valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. >> Hrmmm altho I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still >> sitting on top of the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually >> bothered to look at the icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm > > I suspect you didn't notice the pop-up telling you that the connection > to the update server failed...easy to miss if you are looking elsewhere > or think it's the email scan pop-up. I actually had no problems with > the update, AVG control panel showed definitions were updated with date > and time, but, it was later the exclamation mark appeared and control > panel showed a fault in Update Manager due to failure to update yet when > it occurred no updates were scheduled. You can disable notifications > for that module, but, then you end up with a permanent error displayed > on the control panel so it's then difficult to tell what your status is. > > Personally I think it's a mixed blessing as now I'm running Avast and am > just beginning to realise what I've been missing. It's far more > customisable with excellent features, weighs in less and uses far less > resources. I think AVG, once very good, is now trading on its name. > well bah now I am not sure what I am seeing -- maybe the autoupdate thing has turned itself off ... I expect that bubble if it shows up at all shows up in the middle of the night and then quietly expires ... this AM same ! and no update got downloaded last night apparently -- hrmmm OK I changed the autoupdate time from 4AM to 7AM so I will be here to see what if anything it says tomorrow morning at 7AM :-) And yes now that I know about this I might change over to avast ... but this depresses me cause I have recommended avg to so many people and used it for so long ... Ellen From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Tue Nov 25 14:59:44 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Tue Nov 25 15:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Ellen scribed: >Canopus wrote: >>Ellen scribed: >> >>>I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update >>>message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it was >>>valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. Hrmmm altho >>>I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still sitting on top of >>>the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually bothered to look at the >>>icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm >> >>I suspect you didn't notice the pop-up telling you that the connection to >>the update server failed...easy to miss if you are looking elsewhere or >>think it's the email scan pop-up. I actually had no problems with the >>update, AVG control panel showed definitions were updated with date and >>time, but, it was later the exclamation mark appeared and control panel >>showed a fault in Update Manager due to failure to update yet when it >>occurred no updates were scheduled. You can disable notifications for >>that module, but, then you end up with a permanent error displayed on the >>control panel so it's then difficult to tell what your status is. >> >>Personally I think it's a mixed blessing as now I'm running Avast and am >>just beginning to realise what I've been missing. It's far more >>customisable with excellent features, weighs in less and uses far less >>resources. I think AVG, once very good, is now trading on its name. >> > > >well bah now I am not sure what I am seeing -- maybe the autoupdate thing >has turned itself off ... I expect that bubble if it shows up at all shows >up in the middle of the night and then quietly expires ... this AM same ! >and no update got downloaded last night apparently -- hrmmm > >OK I changed the autoupdate time from 4AM to 7AM so I will be here to see >what if anything it says tomorrow morning at 7AM :-) > >And yes now that I know about this I might change over to avast ... but >this depresses me cause I have recommended avg to so many people and used >it for so long ... > > >Ellen They were also having problems with some of their servers that serve the definition updates so you may be plugged into one of those. That had nothing to do with my problem as I could update manually. Well rest assured you recommended AVG when it had no problems...that's the Internet for you. Problem is, with commercial applications such as AVG they have to employ a load of programmers and they may very well get an application working perfectly and simply, but, they have to justify their jobs so try to improve on their perfection which often makes it over-blown and complicated and introduces instabilities. The axiom KISS...Keep It Simple Stupid...is rarely followed which is often the downfall of many fine application. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Tue Nov 25 17:38:29 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Nov 25 17:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: > Twayne scribed: > >> So, based on those false hits and the irritating upgrade ads, I quit >> using it. It might be the best thing since bread for viruses, but >> those problems are dealbreakers for me. > > Just installed Avast and did a boot time scan. No false positives (so > far). AVG also seems to rely on users letting them know about false > positives and also has introduced the ad for its free version so I'm > used to that. I'm also used to checking scan findings before taking > action and seeing hits only happen once in a Blue Moon I think I can > put up with that. I just put Avast on the Dell machine; so far so good there, too. I don't mind a false hit now and then either, but when they waste my time needlessly I tend to get annoyed with them. I'm not real crazy about their rather cryptic control panel but it's minor as long as I know what it's doing (or not doing). > > As far as false positives are concerned, nothing can be as bad as AVG > treating the system32.dll as a virus and quarantining it so that the > next time you start your PC you can't boot up even to repair it. They > had a notice on their web site that if it had happened to you > and you couldn't boot up never mind get on line the solution was.... > I'm glad I was out that day and missed the update :)) Yike! lol, THATs not acceptable! My sister just put AVG on her machine; being pretty file-name ignorant, I'd better ask you whether that's a current rev or an old rev that happened on? I don't want to alert her without good reason; she's too paranoid already. Thanks for the clarification/verification efforts Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Tue Nov 25 17:43:37 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Nov 25 17:45:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: > Ellen scribed: > >> I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update >> message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it >> was valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. >> Hrmmm altho I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still >> sitting on top of the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually >> bothered to look at the icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm > > I suspect you didn't notice the pop-up telling you that the > connection to the update server failed...easy to miss if you are > looking elsewhere or think it's the email scan pop-up. I actually > had no problems with the update, AVG control panel showed definitions > were updated with date and time, but, it was later the exclamation > mark appeared and control panel showed a fault in Update Manager due > to failure to update yet when it occurred no updates were scheduled. > You can disable notifications for that module, but, then you end up > with a permanent error displayed on the control panel so it's then > difficult to tell what your status is. > Personally I think it's a mixed blessing as now I'm running Avast and > am just beginning to realise what I've been missing. It's far more > customisable with excellent features, weighs in less and uses far less > resources. I think AVG, once very good, is now trading on its name. FWIW, I've seen that comment about AVG falling in other groups, too. Most seem to be migrating toward Avast or, uhh, darn, forgot! Oh well Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Nov 26 07:23:16 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Ellen) Date: Wed Nov 26 07:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Canopus wrote: > > They were also having problems with some of their servers that serve the > definition updates so you may be plugged into one of those. That had > nothing to do with my problem as I could update manually. > > Well rest assured you recommended AVG when it had no problems...that's > the Internet for you. Problem is, with commercial applications such as > AVG they have to employ a load of programmers and they may very well get > an application working perfectly and simply, but, they have to justify > their jobs so try to improve on their perfection which often makes it > over-blown and complicated and introduces instabilities. The axiom > KISS...Keep It Simple Stupid...is rarely followed which is often the > downfall of many fine application. > yeah I remember a couple of years ago when the d/l servers were inadequate or borked or something and would sit there forever trying to d/l and then give up ... yeah there sure is a lot more foo in the product than there was when I started using it because it was lightweight, kept viruses at bay and did not try to suck up the whole machine AKA those other AVs that we all learned to hate ... bah after Thanksgiving when my head is not filled with a list of what I need to do between now and 2PM tomorrow I will revisit this :-) Ellen From joegill at removethis Wed Nov 26 10:36:35 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Wed Nov 26 10:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:gghv2d$en4$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Ellen scribed: >> >>> I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update >>> message/bubble a few times in the last 3 months and in all cases it >>> was valid. And after I did the manual update now it seemed happy. >>> Hrmmm altho I do notice that the stupid exclamation point is still >>> sitting on top of the icon in the tray ... maybe I never actually >>> bothered to look at the icon before you mentioned this .... hrmmmmm >> >> I suspect you didn't notice the pop-up telling you that the >> connection to the update server failed...easy to miss if you are >> looking elsewhere or think it's the email scan pop-up. I actually >> had no problems with the update, AVG control panel showed definitions >> were updated with date and time, but, it was later the exclamation >> mark appeared and control panel showed a fault in Update Manager due >> to failure to update yet when it occurred no updates were scheduled. You >> can disable notifications for that module, but, then you end up >> with a permanent error displayed on the control panel so it's then >> difficult to tell what your status is. >> Personally I think it's a mixed blessing as now I'm running Avast and >> am just beginning to realise what I've been missing. It's far more >> customisable with excellent features, weighs in less and uses far less >> resources. I think AVG, once very good, is now trading on its name. > > FWIW, I've seen that comment about AVG falling in other groups, too. Most > seem to be migrating toward Avast or, uhh, darn, forgot! Oh well > > Twayne > > Rumor has it, MS will be coming out with a FREE AV bundled with the FREE Anti-Spyware.... Must have been a significant enough rumor as Symantec and McAfee stock went down. AVG/AVAST others may have to scale down efforts, unfortunately as revenues may fall on their fee-based products. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Symantec-McAfee-slide-Microsoft-eyes/story.aspx?guid=%7BE37534C2-BF91-4797-B0D0-2712753E3B63%7D -or- http://tinyurl.com/5frcjd Some excerpts: Late Tuesday, Microsoft announced a product code-named Morro that it said is designed to offer "core anti-malware protection" from threats such as viruses and spyware. Analysts pointed to the fact that Microsoft's existing security product, known as Windows Live OneCare, has failed to dislodge the market leaders. Microsoft would discontinue OneCare some time next year, when Morro is intended to launch. "Microsoft's decision to pull the plug on its OneCare security offering and a subsequent release of free security software Morro (OneCare lite) is a sign of capitulation by the 800-pound gorilla on its consumer security offering," Shaul Eyal of Oppenheimer wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. "Our stance all along on OneCare has been tepid at best and a free offering doesn't alter it as 'free' doesn't necessarily spell 'secure.' From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Wed Nov 26 15:27:11 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Nov 26 15:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Joe Gill said: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:gghv2d$en4$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> Ellen scribed: >>> >>>> I use AVG on 3 machines and I have only gotten the couldn't update ... >> > > Rumor has it, MS will be coming out with a FREE AV bundled with the > FREE Anti-Spyware.... > Must have been a significant enough rumor as Symantec and McAfee > stock went down. > AVG/AVAST others may have to scale down efforts, unfortunately as > revenues may fall on their fee-based products. > http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Symantec-McAfee-slide-Microsoft-eyes/story.aspx?guid=%7BE37534C2-BF91-4797-B0D0-2712753E3B63%7D > -or- > http://tinyurl.com/5frcjd > > Some excerpts: > > Late Tuesday, Microsoft announced a product code-named Morro that it > said is designed to offer "core anti-malware protection" from threats > such as viruses and spyware. > Analysts pointed to the fact that Microsoft's existing security > product, known as Windows Live OneCare, has failed to dislodge the > market leaders. Microsoft would discontinue OneCare some time next > year, when Morro is intended to launch. > > "Microsoft's decision to pull the plug on its OneCare security > offering and a subsequent release of free security software Morro > (OneCare lite) is a sign of capitulation by the 800-pound gorilla on > its consumer security offering," Shaul Eyal of Oppenheimer wrote in a > note to clients on Wednesday. "Our stance all along on OneCare has > been tepid at best and a free offering doesn't alter it as 'free' > doesn't necessarily spell 'secure.' Yeah, I saw the notice about killing 1 care and replacing it with Morron. Didn't see this one though. I don't think anyone should get too excited about it though and I have my doubts about them misplacing anybody, based on the bugs and poor performance it had in 1 care. IMO MS is jumping in now with plans based on something they bought or coerced into selling, and don't understand or have any real experience on yet. It just seems to be their way these days; buy out the competiton, screw it up, and abandon it. Harsh words I know, but that's how it seems to me. Regards, Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Nov 26 21:43:30 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Nov 26 21:45:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:ggjqdu$fuo$1@news.spamcop.net... > Rumor has it, MS will be coming out with a FREE AV bundled with the FREE > Anti-Spyware.... And you'd actually use an MS product by choice?!?! From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Thu Nov 27 08:20:00 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Thu Nov 27 08:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Twayne scribed: >>As far as false positives are concerned, nothing can be as bad as AVG >>treating the system32.dll as a virus and quarantining it so that the >>next time you start your PC you can't boot up even to repair it. They had >>a notice on their web site that if it had happened to you >>and you couldn't boot up never mind get on line the solution was.... I'm >>glad I was out that day and missed the update :)) > >Yike! lol, THATs not acceptable! My sister just put AVG on her machine; >being pretty file-name ignorant, I'd better ask you whether that's a >current rev or an old rev that happened on? I don't want to alert her >without good reason; she's too paranoid already. > >Thanks for the clarification/verification efforts It was a week or two ago and was fixed the same day when they were alerted to it. Unfortunately the fix didn't help users that were running it on auto fix and had switched off their computer before they new what was happening. -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Thu Nov 27 08:28:19 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Thu Nov 27 08:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Joe Gill scribed: >Late Tuesday, Microsoft announced a product code-named Morro that it said >is designed to offer "core anti-malware protection" from threats such as >viruses and spyware. If it's M$ I wouldn't mind betting it will be more bloated than even Norton and full of holes to boot. Still, I expect in the future new PCs will come with it ready installed as a bundle and be difficult to uninstall...or is that legal these days? ;) -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com Thu Nov 27 08:33:33 2008 From: JLNKOOECOCGY at spammotel.com (Canopus) Date: Thu Nov 27 08:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Twayne scribed: >I'm not real crazy about their rather cryptic control panel but it's minor >as long as I know what it's doing (or not doing). It took me a little time to figure out where everything was, but, now I quite like it. When I brought up the Basic View I thought I had launched the wrong thing and was looking at some Media Player LOL :)) -- Rob http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/ http://canopianjournal.blogspot.com/ http://canopusarchives.multiply.com/ From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Nov 27 17:35:25 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Nov 27 17:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Canopus" wrote in message news:ggm79j$c2a$1@news.spamcop.net... > Joe Gill scribed: > >>Late Tuesday, Microsoft announced a product code-named Morro that it said >>is designed to offer "core anti-malware protection" from threats such as >>viruses and spyware. > > If it's M$ I wouldn't mind betting it will be more bloated than even > Norton and full of holes to boot. Still, I expect in the future new PCs > will come with it ready installed as a bundle and be difficult to > uninstall...or is that legal these days? ;) Think they want to lose another multimillion dollar lawsuite to the EU again? From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Nov 27 18:09:57 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Nov 27 18:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] TestBugID1 problem or not? Message-ID: I installed some Vista updates yesterday, and this morning I see this error message box on my screen: Your computer does not support TestBugID1 This problem was caused by a compatibility issue between your computer and TestBugID1, which was created by SpiralOrbit. At this time, your computer does not support this product. Solution -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To prevent this problem from occurring again, uninstall TestBugID1 or upgrade your computer hardware to meet the minimum hardware requirements. For more information about the hardware required to run TestBugID1, go online to the following website: SpiralOrbit ****website does not exist****** After almost an hour of googling, everyone seems to be up in arms about this issue, which has been occurring since at least Feb of 2008, and NO ONE seems to know what it is or how do get rid of it. My machine seems to be clean of it, searched the registry and there's nothing there (probably because the errror said the app isn't compatible with my machine). But who tried to install it? What does it do? Multiple folks seem to think it's tied to Yahoo Messenger, and low and behold YM was closed this morning, and I didn't close it. Any thoughts from the supergeeks? From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Nov 27 19:49:41 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Nov 27 19:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Free Anti-Virus Suggestions Please References: Message-ID: Indigo said: > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:ggjqdu$fuo$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Rumor has it, MS will be coming out with a FREE AV bundled with the >> FREE Anti-Spyware.... > > And you'd actually use an MS product by choice?!?! I might; long's it not another single-source crapware, I'd use the one that worked the best for me. Of course that ain't 1-care, but still ... I might try it if it had a better track record. I might not appreciate MS much, and even openly dislike them, harshly, but I'm not stupid enough to shoot myself in the foot if their offering is better than another, and not single-sourced entrapment from MS. From joegill at removethis Thu Nov 27 23:07:55 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Nov 27 23:10:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TestBugID1 problem or not? References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:ggn9c5$irs$1@news.spamcop.net... >I installed some Vista updates yesterday, and this morning I see this error >message box on my screen: > > Your computer does not support TestBugID1 > > This problem was caused by a compatibility issue between your computer and > TestBugID1, which was created by SpiralOrbit. > > At this time, your computer does not support this product. > > Solution > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > To prevent this problem from occurring again, uninstall TestBugID1 or > upgrade your computer hardware to meet the minimum hardware requirements. > > For more information about the hardware required to run TestBugID1, go > online to the following website: > > SpiralOrbit ****website does not exist****** > > After almost an hour of googling, everyone seems to be up in arms about > this issue, which has been occurring since at least Feb of 2008, and NO > ONE seems to know what it is or how do get rid of it. My machine seems to > be clean of it, searched the registry and there's nothing there (probably > because the errror said the app isn't compatible with my machine). > > But who tried to install it? What does it do? Multiple folks seem to think > it's tied to Yahoo Messenger, and low and behold YM was closed this > morning, and I didn't close it. > > Any thoughts from the supergeeks? > > If this is repeatable, please recreate and then look at the SYSTEM, APPLICATION and SECURITY logs in Event Manager.... Any suspicious entries at the time of the message? Still researching.. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Nov 28 18:34:11 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Nov 28 18:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TestBugID1 problem or not? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:ggnqqh$grf$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > If this is repeatable, please recreate and then look at the SYSTEM, > APPLICATION and SECURITY logs in Event Manager.... Any suspicious entries > at the time of the message? > > Still researching.. Ok, checked the Security section of event viewer, got this: - System - Provider [ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing [ Guid] {54849625-5478-4994-a5ba-3e3b0328c30d} EventID 5032 Version 0 Level 0 Task 12292 Opcode 0 Keywords 0x8010000000000000 - TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2008-11-27T16:31:03.920Z EventRecordID 36938 Correlation - Execution [ ProcessID] 672 [ ThreadID] 5788 I clicked on the "get help online" link and MS says "You can ignore this event if it is generated by a system, non-interactive service such as LSASS.exe". I checked the PID of the process and indeed, it is lsass.exe -- the weird thing is that this was a security audit failure and the "general" tab sez "Windows Firewall was unable to notify the user that it blocked an application from accepting incoming connections on the network.", which doesn't appear too friendly to me..... In the Apps section, I got this error alert at the exact same timestamp: "Faulting application YahooMessenger.exe, version 8.1.0.421, time stamp 0x46d76392, faulting module P2PCE.dll, version 1.0.0.0, time stamp 0x45a3e312, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00016675, process id 0x12dc, application start time 0x01c94ea623648c74." Which confirms what I found online about TestBugID1 being associated with Yahoo Messenger. I found nothing of note in the system section except that right before the above events occurred is when I woke the PC from sleep mode. I haven't had a re-occurence of the problem, and Yahoo Messenger has been up and running since yesterday when I restarted it. I haven't rebooted, so I don't know if it will happen again on reboot. The info I found online said that reboots didn't have any effect on whether you got the error message or not. Still befuddled, and slightly alarmed.......amazing that so many folks have had this issue and absolutely no one seems to know what it is....