• dailyachesandpains said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Hey Bloc:  Thanks for this post!
  I know how much you hate that I'm on a PC, but that's the way it is, lol.  I'm curious to know, how can you dig deep to find a virus?  A virus that anti-virus software might miss?  How can you tell if someone has keylogged you?  I am a total idiot when it comes to this "stuff" and I'm just curious to know. 
  I want my PC to be faster, but I don't know what I can do.  It's brand new, it's pretty fast as it is, but I feel the need for more speed!
   
  Thanks!
  Daily

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Lots of questions there :)
  
  viruses, keyloggers, etc:
  There are two ways to deal with them. Use an antivirus program or become somewhat of an expert. They aren't mutually exclusive, and unfortunately there aren't any easy answers. A determined hacker can always hide them differently than the norm. The only way to tell if you are being logged is to find the key logger or find some activity of the key logger (like the log).
  
  Security tip:
  you should not hook your computer directly to your cable/dsl modem. Put a cheap router in the middle and it will add a good layer of security (because of NAT).
  
  Computer speed:
  Read my comment on this post.
  

• silverwhisper said on Sep 11, 2007....

  don't mind me, i figure i'm bound to pick up something even though i don't have any questions off the top of my head. :>
  
  ed

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  I'm sure you can think of something your curious about relating to computers :)

• gingersoul said on Sep 11, 2007....

   Bloc....i love you!....:-)

  Ok, i think i am in deep trouble...i went to check my comp performance and my Available Physical Memory is 4244.

  My CPU usage though is very low 7% uo to 20%. So i shouldnt have any virus going on.

  System Cache is 86272 and Total Physical Memory is 326.128.

  MY RAM are dying, correct?

  I noticed lately my comp is very slow, and recently it froze to the point i have to shut it down more than once.   

  Help!

   

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  you need more ram :) How many programs do you normally have open?

• silverwhisper said on Sep 11, 2007....

  bloc: OK, i have 2, about defensive software. what do you use for AV and what do you use for spyware?
  
  o, and about routers: remember to change the default router password, folks!
  
  ed

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  i don't use an AV or anything. We don't really have those problems on the mac.

• silverwhisper said on Sep 11, 2007....

  why is it that when you say that, i kinda picture you thumbing your noise at me? :>
  
  ed

• gingersoul said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Bloc..how do i get more RAM then?

  Can i run to Wal Mart to buy them? Do they come in pink too? Do they cost a lot?...LOL...

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  I don't know if they have it at walmart, I don't shop there, but they do have it at places like best buy. You just have to make sure you get the right kind. I'd recommend finding a friend that knows such things and have them do it, or ask best buy or fry's if you can bring your computer in and have it installed.
  
  It should cost under $200, maybe even $100 depending on which kind you need and if you have an open slot. 
  
  Btw, you want to get at least a gig total, maybe 1.5 gigs.
  

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  @sw
  not thumbing my nose, just very happy that I don't have to deal with that head ache :)
  

• gingersoul said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Bloc...thank you very much....i went to check again the Available Memory and it went up : from 4244 to 73945...why the increase then?

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  it depends on what programs you have open and what they are doing. The more stuff you have open the more ram you need. I actually keep things closed if I'm not using them. 

• gingersoul said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Thank you again.....i bet i am the most serious candidate to be the recipient for Soulcast Dumb Asking Question Award.......lol....  

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  don't even worry about that. I was talking to an engineer (a real one, with a degree in engineering) on the train the other day and he couldn't understand the difference between ram and his hard drive :/
  

• gingersoul said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Really? Well......now i feel better....well, except for my RAM rash......lol...

  Do you think if i dont feed my comp more RAM it could all of a sudden die on me? .. or if i keep one program open at the time i could still manage to survive even though slowly?........

  between me and you, i dont have money for these stupid RAM now...:-(

   

• bloc said on Sep 11, 2007....

  lack of ram isn't going to hurt your computer, just make it slower than it could be. How many programs do you normally have open?
  
  what you can do is check your available memory every now and then. You will be able to tell which programs use a lot and which don't. But, it depends on how you use them :) I use Firefox for my browser, and I keep a lot of different pages open at the same time (12 at this moment). This uses a lot of ram compared to only having one page open at a time.
  
  As you can see it's not so simple, like all things in life. There are no magic pills :)
  

• pickersplock said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Oh boy, one of my predictions came true.  LOL
  http://www.soulcast.com/post/show/77256/I-Predict%21%21%21%21%21%21

• fearing said on Sep 11, 2007....

  Oh you dear poor soul.  I can really ask you stupid computer questions that I don't have a clue about?  Bless you.

• D6fer said on Sep 11, 2007....

  ok bloc....lets see if you can redeem yourself! (just kidding)
  how about system registry? how important is it to be "cleaned up"?
  it takes my comp f-o-r-e-v-e-r to start up....I downloaded a program called
  uniblue registry booster...it was just a trial version and said it would fix 15 problems for free and then it's 30 bucks....it said I had something like 472 registry problems.....so is that a good program? is it worth 30 bucks?

• GreenTaz said on Sep 12, 2007....

  D6fer: Please allow me to suggest a freeware registry cleaner (if Bloc recommends it too *grin*) called CCleaner that not only cleans your registry but also fixes all the registry bugs and also offers a few other options that will help make your computer run faster and better. You can download it here.
  
  Bloc: I need your help on my Highjackthis log.  I tried posting it on in some forums that promised to analyze the log and help me which entries to delete but none of them has answered my post yet and its been almost a week. Please help me analyze it. I'll post it here or maybe on a PM if you can help me. Thanks!
  

• scipio said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Thanks, bloc for your offer to sort our computer problems.
   
  Something interesting for a change.
   
   

• Suddenrain said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Post marking again. I downloaded the CCleaner thing. It works great. Thank you.

• queenparanoia said on Sep 12, 2007....

  hi bloc i have a computer related problem. read my post about it.

• DesertMermaid said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Hi bloc, well this is not exactly computer related but I thought I would ask anyway.

  My net at home is not working. So I'm doing everything from the opera browser of my cell. I can access SC as well as flickr from here. But the problem is though I can upload pics in flickr from this, I upload pics in SC or even create a link.

  I would be very grateful for help or reference. Thank you.

• the_infernal_optimist said on Sep 12, 2007....

  I can't figure out how to best word my question. Has to do with processors, hard drives (RAIDs, specifically), the next bottleneck in computing re:information flow, and whether we'll end up with grid computing on a small scale in our homes.
  
  BBL when the kids aren't all over me. I swear I'm smarter than it sounds, just can't think straight w/o caffeine in  the morning!
  
  ~Infernal
  

• RollingC said on Sep 12, 2007....

  How do you put a password or lock a router....I have one but it's not secured as I always screw up the password setups.   I could probably come up with more questions but getting ready to go out. Will check in later.
  Thanks for this post bloc.....
  Rc
  

• evil_twin said on Sep 12, 2007....

  I've got a problem logging into a certain website when my Zone Alarm firewall is turned on. It won't let me do it and just keeps redirecting me back to the home page. If I turn the firewall off, it works. This just started happening a few days ago. Is there a way to configure the firewall to let me in without turning it off every time I want to access that website?
  
  -evil_twin LA
  

• bloc said on Sep 12, 2007....

  wow, lots of questions this morning. Please give me some time to get to them all :)
  
  @d6
  the registry is a windows thing and I'm not  windows expert. Someone else may be able to give you a better answer, but my gut feeling is that it's not worth cleaning up unless it's actually broken in some way. It's size is relatively small so I can't imagine the processing of it would make your computer slow.
  
  @greentaz
  post or pm it :)
  
  @desertmermaid
  I think you left out a word or two :) I'm not sure what the problem is. If you are saying that you can NOT post pics or create links on SC then I would recommend the 'edit html' mode. Are you using that already?
  
  @rollingC
  it's different for each router. My linksys allows me to connect through the web browser from the local lan and has a page for changing the password.
  
  @evil_twin
  does the firewall give you any kind of error or warning message? Firewalls can filter or block traffic based on many different parameters so we have to figure out why it's doing it to this website. Hopefully there is an error or warning message, if not tell me which site it is and I'll take a look at it.
  

• DesertMermaid said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Oh! I missed the *Cannot* part, that changed the meaning completely...grrr!

  So yeah I am using html now. I read the posts on how to post pics or create links but not sure how to do it from my phone browser or the opera mini that I'm using.

  Thanks a lot in advance. I'm really grateful.

• evil_twin said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Bloc, nope, I'm not getting any errors or warnings. I fill out the log in information, hit submit, then it goes to the next page for a split second, then brings me right back to the log in screen again. This is happening at My Space. I had the same issue recently with the personalized Google homepage too. But when I switch off Zone Alarm, both pages log in correctly. I'm also using Firefox as a browser, if that matters. Thanks!
  
  -evil_twin LA
  

• DesertMermaid said on Sep 12, 2007....

  bloc~ I know my turn is gone. Umm... would you mind terribly if I ask just one more silly question ?? The last one I promise! :p

  I have both an opera mini and an opera 8.65 (for S60) installed in my phone. Now all the sites can be accessed from the mini version but strangely the full version doesnt load a number of sites namely SC, ivillage.com etc. There seems to be a permanent error that goes like this : XML parsing failed : mismatched tags (line 29, character 2).

  Any suggestions?? Sounds greek to me! :D

• DesertMermaid said on Sep 12, 2007....

  bloc~ I know my turn is gone. Umm... would you mind terribly if I ask just one more silly question ?? The last one I promise! :p

  I have both an opera mini and an opera 8.65 (for S60) installed in my phone. Now all the sites can be accessed from the mini version but strangely the full version doesnt load a number of sites namely SC, ivillage.com etc. There seems to be a permanent error that goes like this : XML parsing failed : mismatched tags (line 29, character 2).

  Any suggestions?? Sounds greek to me! :D

• bloc said on Sep 12, 2007....

  @e.t.
  It seems a lot of people have problems with zone alarm. I don't know it' settings, but digging through google should lead to some help. This might help. Ultimately ou have to figure out how to configure zonealarm or scrap it.
  
  @desertM
  opera 8.65 seems to be failing on sites that don't have valid html, many many many sites fall into this category.
  
  In order you make a link in 'edit html' mode you have to use html :) The html to add a link looks like this.
  
  <a href="http://www.soulcast.com"> a link</a>
  
  Let me know if you need any of that explained. Flicker should give you a chunk of html that looks something like that. Just paste it into 'edit html' mode and it should work.
  

• DesertMermaid said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Thanks so much buddy! I'll try that and I'll pm you if I need help.. :D

• evil_twin said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Thanks! I'm gonna take a look at those links. I've been using this for awhile now and didn't have any problems until a few days ago. Know of any better firewall programs to use? I'm open to getting something else if need be.
  
  -evil_twin LA
  

• bloc said on Sep 12, 2007....

  are you using a router?

• silverwhisper said on Sep 12, 2007....

  d6, do some research online about that app--that would probably serve you in good stead.
  
  ed

• evil_twin said on Sep 12, 2007....

  Bloc, yes, I have a router hooked up.
  
  -evil_twin LA
  

• RollingC said on Sep 12, 2007....

  I was having problems with Zone Alarm suite (pro) and also the freebie in the sense that sometimes it won't let me get on the internet until I disable it and log on before enabling it again.  I fixed that by clearing the e-mail attachments out from quarantine.
  I haven't had the problem since but I'm still experimenting with it. 
  

• wakingharmony said on Sep 14, 2007....

  Ginger~prepare yourself to feel very computer smart, I have no idea about any your talking about I am still trying to figure out how you get the link line in a post.

  broc~ I am so glad you did this and I will probably ask somthing just to keep it handy......OK I have Windows Vista Toyshiba laptop..... My son in law loaded on Foxfire, I like it but cant seem to get my pictures or post a You tube... Where the heck is spell check...I have windows live too....what to do? I need a click once or twice direction if this is too much or crazy I understand. Thanks if you find the time.

  WakingHarmony

• bloc said on Sep 14, 2007....

  the spell check should be automatic in firefox, as for pictures and youtube, you should get your son to show you. It's far easier than me trying to explain in text :)

• wakingharmony said on Sep 14, 2007....

  Thank you bloc when I get back to houston I will..lol Thanks again

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