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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:48 am Post subject: Just bought a computer |
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It's the first computer I have ever owned. I got the KT-ADSL hook up. It is slow and has been cutting out or not connecting sometimes. I installed "zone alarm" and use "Limewire" to download some music. The music part has been OK.
Perhaps I need to know and do more to get it running more smoothly, avoid viruses or whatever? I'd like to maybe get some programs to watch, though that apparently takes a long time. The computer has a DVD player, so I suppose I could rent DVDs or "burn" CDs, whatever that means or involves. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| abunchoffolks wrote: |
The following is a compilation of posts by Demophobe, Peppermint, Mankind, Superhero, Derrek, Boyslander, and Laika containing invaluable links to freeware software and productivity packages.
Free Anti-virus
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html Avast. Considered by many to be the best among the freebies.
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/40/lng/ww AVG. I use this one one of my systems and have been problem-free.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ TrendMicro online scanner. It�s only a scan, not an install. It may help in a pinch, but personally, I don�t like letting 3rd party scan happen.
http://www.free-av.com Never heard of this one, but perhaps someone here can be a guinea pig.
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/ Again, not a program, but a scan. Panda has a good reputation. Same thing about 3rd party scans apply.
Free Firewalls
http://www.iopus.com/guides/free-firewall.htm Good reviews.
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conte...reeDownload.jsp ZoneAlarm. Perhaps the most popular, and for a good reason.
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm Sygate Tiny Personal Firewall. Good program, small footprint, and a tough little bugger.
http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html Kerio Personal Firewall. Seems to have good reviews�actually, according to some sites, better than Sygate.
Alternate Browsers
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Firefox. Need I say more?
http://www.opera.com/download/ Opera. �The fastest Browser On Earth�. Ok then�
http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/ Netscape. Who? Right�.
Media Players
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ This video software will play anything.
http://www.winamp.com/player/ Winamp. THE MP3 player.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html Quicktime, stand-alone. No I-tunes with this one.
http://gom.ipop.co.kr/ Gom Player. This baby reqires some Korean ability, but if you want to watch movies (it has a very good player) with an easy route to Korean subtitles, get this. To search for subtitles, enter the movie name in the search field in the top right.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download...CoDecS_Pack.htm The Ace Mega codec pack. Install this baby and you will be able to play anything. However, after a full install, some people have had some problems. Use with discretion. PM jack on this�he knows a lot about video codecs, etc� .
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Great sound editor. Freeware...very powerful.
__________________________________________________ _
This may be the final edit to this sticky. This site has all the freeware you could want in a esy-to-read layout. If you can't find something that works for what you need here, I doubt it exists!
http://www.freewarearena.com/html2/
System Information:
Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser. It is totally secure.
The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard. Intel also has downloads for BIOS updates and drivers.
MyCPU is a small utility to find out which cpu is installed. It shows vendor, type, model, stepping and speed information. Additionally it scans for features like MMX, 3dnow and SIMD (ISSE).
Error Messages for Windows does exactly what it sounds like; it will tell you what the Windows errors codes on your computer mean.
DLL Show 2000 shows the dependencies of all running processes on your computer.
StartupList is a simple tool that lists all and every auto starting program on your system. You might be surprised what it finds, this is way better than Msconfig. Commonly used to troubleshoot malfunctioning systems, trojan/viral infections, new spyware/malware breed and the likes.
Uptimer 4 is a bar that sits at the top of your screen and can display over 20 pieces of system information that might be useful to you. System time, system date, uptime, free RAM, free pagefile, free disk space, CPU usage, IP address(es), Winamp controls, battery status, running programs, netstat, etc.
Drive Cleaners:
cCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
Spyware/Adware/Malware:
Adawre Personal SE is one of the best in the free category and has the option to upgrade to the Plus and Pro versions which include process watches and better scanning engines. *Sorry for the Download.com link... it actually irks me that their downloads are located there.*
HijackThis is a general homepage hijackers detector and remover. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent and unless you are sure what you're doing, you should always consult with knowledgable people on forums such as www.cexx.org before cleaning ANY of the entries.
CWShredder and BugOff are utilities for killing the CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names), virus and remnants.
Spybot Search & Destroy removes ad- and spy-bots from your computer and in conjuction with Adaware SE will do a fine job of keeping your computer clean.
Spyware Blaster stops activeX, Flash, cookies, BHOs, and spyware from ever getting to your computer in the first place.
Antivirus:
Network Associates (McAfee), Stinger an "in case of emergency, break glass" scanner which contains DATs that are not yet released to the public. If you suspect an infection on your system but your scanner turns up nothing, Stinger might catch it. NOTE: this is not a subsitute for a full real-time scanner, just a temp fix.
Windows Malicious File Remover and AntiSpyware Beta are exactly what they sound like.
Ipod shuffle database builder
http://shuffle-db.sourceforge.net/
Get your bookmarks from any computer
http://sitebar.org
Firefox extensions
adblock blocks ads
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org
bugmenot fills in online applications forms
www.roachfiend.com
HAND
Video Editing
Jahshaka
Audio Editing
Audacity
I just thought of another one.
Word Processing etc...
Open Office handles word documents, powerpoint, excel and more...
If you need a plain text editor (html/php coding) then...
Notepad++ is the best one.
IRfanview is an excellent free program for quickly compressing .jpg files, and other things. It loads quickly and is very easy to use and crop photos with. It also has an excellent "batch compress" feature to size all of your photos super-fast.
www.irfanview.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack
Windows Malicious File Remover and AntiSpyware Beta are exactly what they sound like.
The catch here is that this software is a prime candidate to become an "activated user only" one, or possibly needing a subscription. It's free now, but the tea leaves say it won't be in a year.
The following software is available for free in both Linux and Windows:
GIMP
It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring (basically a free Photoshop). If I'm at school and need to edit a photo, I install this if the machine doesn't have PS on it already.
Thunderbird
Free and excellent e-mail client. Got a USB drive? A "portable" version of Thunderbird fits easily on it and lets you carry your e-mail with you, accessing your IMAP and POP accounts with an interface that's at least as good as Outlook.
Nvu
Open source website designer software, like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. Creates far cleaner code than FP, Word, or Publisher. It's not perfect yet but it's useful to have around even if you already have FP and Dreamweaver. Some things it does very well. And it also fits on a USB drive.
7-zip
neat little compression tool that handles .rar files too.
**Credit goes to BoySlander for this**
OK, I'm not sure how many of you are using Firefox, but version 1.5 is now out and it kicks ass... With this post, I'll try to convert you Internet Explorer users to Firefox... and also talk about some of the kickass extensions available for Firefox so you can enhance your browsing experience.
For those of you who don't use Firefox because Korea's Internet is so IE-centered, here's two extensions that will help... With this workaround, Cyworld WILL work in Firefox (albeit without music). And for those pages that absolutely require Internet Explorer (ie. auction.co.kr and online banking), this extension will train Firefox to automatically load certain sites in IE.
Next up, something an extension that will force Firefox to use your Internet connection as fast as possible, Fasterfox . And for even more powerful browsing, check out Tab Mix Plus which can tweak the way your tabs work. I also love to use SessionSaver which can automatically save exactly what you were doing in Firefox and restore it (even what you were typing!) - especially useful in the event of a crash. DownThemAll lets you download bunches of stuff from web pages all at once...
These next two extensions definately not for noobs...Nuke Anything Enhanced is a bit complicated to explain but can let you delete any element of a webpage. Greasemonkey which lets you edit the way pages behave - I use it to make any website address clickable and remove the ad-pages when I read my e-mail at mail.com.
And finally, there is the StumbleUpon toolbar, which is the biggest timewaster-surfing-thing I've ever used. Bounce from site to site and rate the page thumbs-up or down. As you use it, it will learn the types of stuff you like to see and show you more. Fun stuff. A similar idea is del.ico.us - though this is more bookmark-oriented.
Oh yeah and Firefox is available for Windows, Mac-OSX, Linux, and more. |
This is from another site, but Laika and I had a good hand in compiling it, so I don't think it will be a problem to re-post it here. I'm sure none of the contributors will mind too much....I hope.
This is a good list of things one might need.
Jajdude...try to make the next month of your casual surfing about computing. Find out as much as you can using Google. Computers are great, as long as they work and you know how to fix them when they don't.
Good luck and have fun. |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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A great freeware site that I recommend, all organized into easy categories:
http://100-downloads.com/
From the site:
What started as the freeware Top-100 for Windows XP, currently contains over 250 excellent free programs. Since we don't want to change our name everytime the list gets longer, we keep calling it 100-downloads.com. You won't find trial versions, spyware or malware, only the best freeware available. Because the best things in life are for free! |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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Great link! Wish I had seen this long ago, before work began on the list above.
Thanks hanguker. |
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Njord
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| For those of you who don't use Firefox because Korea's Internet is so IE-centered, here's two extensions that will help... With this workaround, Cyworld WILL work in Firefox (albeit without music). And for those pages that absolutely require Internet Explorer (ie. auction.co.kr and online banking), this extension will train Firefox to automatically load certain sites in IE. |
Actually, I've been wondering about this. For a country that prides itself as a "technology superpower" it is a little surprising that much of the Korean web is not compatible with other browsers. That's just bad web design and there's no reason to piss-off 10% of your users. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks to the above for the info and links. I guess there's a lot to learn. Is "Firefox" better than Internet Explorer? I know some people prefer it. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:25 am Post subject: |
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| jajdude wrote: |
| Thanks to the above for the info and links. I guess there's a lot to learn. Is "Firefox" better than Internet Explorer? I know some people prefer it. |
Yes it is.
I believe the extensions mentioned above without links are the view in IE and IE tab extension. I just installed IE tab and it is the best extension I've installed other than the gmail and bloglines extensions. |
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Dodgy Al
Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:07 am Post subject: |
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| jajdude wrote: |
| Is "Firefox" better than Internet Explorer? |
My arse is better than Internet Explorer.
An alternative to my arse (and Firefox) would be Opera. It's not as hairy as my arse, butt still a damn good browser. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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I think there must be some virus or something on my computer. I have the "zone alarm" for firewalls. I tried to install "avast" (anti-virus) but it warned about a conflict or something, I'm not sure. Something about having two security things going at once? I think it mentioned the presence of a virus. Can't remember now.
What else should I have for security/protection besides the zone alarm?
And I can tell Firefox is better. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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You ned an anti-virus program. AVG free (in the links above) does well for me with ZoneAlarm.
Do a complete scan when you download it. Also, tick "remember this setting" for the AVG update program, that way it will automatically update. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the heads up demo. I installed "avast"--- seems like a good option. It did a scan. Damn I had a lot of infections, can't say how many, at least a dozen. A conflict was mentioned with zone alarm, but it seems like no worries. I had "norton" anti-virus already on when I bought the computer, but I doubt it was actually working. Took me a half hour to remove it, something that didn't work anyway!
Ah, it seems good now. Nice and quick.
Cheers
PS. It actually says, "Caution, a virus has been detected." Then it recommends "move to chest." I have no idea what that means, so I just delete it. I suppose that's OK? |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:41 am Post subject: |
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Move to chest means it wants to remove the file and isolate it. It won't delete it right away, in case you lose some functionality (it may be a crucial file), you can replace it?! Right...replace an infected file? It also wants to move it so you don't run it.
You can just let it move it to the vault, then go to Program Files / Avast or whatever and find the virus chest and empty it.
Get Ccleaner and run it after every internet session. Maybe play with your settings in Firefox to clear the cache after closing the program and change the cache settings to a smaller numbr than what they are. It just helps limit the number of temp files stored on your system.
| Demo wrote: |
Windows is a hog. In all ways. Here are some ideas that will hopefully help you people have a smooth, long-lasting install.
If you can get your hands on Window Washer at www.webroot.com (not free), it's a great little program and well-worth the money. It takes care of most of the major directories that can be emptied and really does a nice job of wiping away your virtual footprints after surfing. Webroot makes some fine software. Browse their "products" list.
Another good program which is free is CCleaner. http://www.ccleaner.com/ Basically the same program as Window Washer, but free.
A general list of files that need to be cleaned up periodically:
In the C:/ DocumentsAndSettings folder, under your user name, look in "local settings". If you can't see this folder, go to the "folder options" in the "tools" list at the top of every folder. Go through the "view files" and uncheck "Hide filenames of known types", "hide system files" and anything else that has to do with "seeing" files in the folders.
Now you can see the "local settings" folder. Go into that and you will see a "temp" folder and a "temporary internet files" folder. These can be safely emptied. This list goes for all users in the C: Documents and Settings" folder. Each user has this set of folders to be checked. They should be empty if you are an only user, but you never know. I have found stuff in my "All Users" area before, though noone else uses my system.
In C:/Windows, the "Internet Logs" folder can be emptied (although some files will be "in use" and un-deleteable), as can the "Prefetch" and "Temp" folders.
After surfing, go into the browser options and delete all cookies and internet cache files. It's a good idea to set this number low...change the "cache size", as it's not very useful anyways, and it just stuffs up the system with lots of cached files from the webpages you have visited. The idea is that the browser holds on to some of the files in a web page, to speed loading next time you go there and so save on some internet bandwidth. Pages that have a lot of "post" data are always changing, and sometimes one needs to "refresh" the page (F5) to get the newest version. I have this set at 10MB and "days to keep history" set at 0.
Now, Window Washer and CCleaner will take care of some of these files, but not the ones in the Cocuments and Settings" folders. You will have to create a custom wash item Window Washer, or do it manually, as CCleaner has no add-on wash capabilities.
The browser clearing is also taken care of by both programs, but I just threw that in there as it's good to do even in the middle of a surfing session...anytime, really. Also clear the address bar while you are at it. Don't need your friends to see "ihearvoices.com" in the drop-down, eh?
Now, after doing this 'cleaning' with WW or CCleaner, your computer won't have some of the info you are used to having...well, not really info, but functionality. All cookies will be gone, so no more auto-login stuff for Dave's and e-mail accounts. Some other useful-but-better-deleted things like this will be left to you to manually change/set/login each visit. It's the price of a clean, trackless computer, so think of it as a good thing.
This is just a "little baby" list of things to be cleared. There are registry settings and many more hard-to-find, pain-in-the-neck things left, so I urge everyone to get at least CCleaner. It's free and effective. Window Washer is more configureable and has more options, but it's not free. There is NO REASON not to get CCleaner! It's small, free and idiot-proof.
There are actually 2 reasons one would want clean. Web anonymity (to a degree) and for the sake of a cleaner OS.
Use a proxy when you can as well for a multitude of reasons. Gone are the days when only hackers need to shield themselves with fake I.Ps through proxies. The internet is a deadly place, and moreso for the innocent than those in the know. A proxy can do many good things for you, from cookies and connection speed to web bugs. Do a "Google" for "Public Anonymous Proxy" and then the fun begins.
You will have to go into your browser options again, and look at the "connection" menu in IE, or the "Proxy" menu in Firefox. When you have found a good proxy site, you will have to try a few to see if they are functional. Public proxies are free, and therefore somewhat unreliable. Here today, gone tomorrow, so setting up a good working proxy does take some time.
Open a second browser window and copy & paste the proxy I.P and port number into your browser proxy settings window. In the second window, try to connect top some of the URLs in your "favorites" folder, to see if it's fast and indeed does connect. If you get some error message, try a different proxy. You may have to go through a number of them to find a working proxy. When you do find a good one, do an online proxy check to see how anonymous you are. Again, "Google" "Online Proxy Checker" and you will find a nice list of sites to help.
The truly " high anonymity" proxies are often slower, so choose a "transparent" or "anonymous", depending on how "visible" you want your proxy to be and how patient you are. A "transparent" proxy simply means that the website can see it's a proxy. An "anonymous" proxy is transparent unles under certain conditions, ie; through some java controls or other types of scripts. A "high anonymity" proxy has no value of a proxy server detectable, and this coupled with disabling java in the browser options window makes one very tough to spot.
Now, java is a good and bad thing, as are active X controls. Disabling them will save many people a lot of headaches, but many internet pages won't load corrctly and many e-mail sites require it to be enabled. Try surfing for a while without java and active X enabled to see how much of your surf needs these enabled. Through these, many malicious things can be done on one's computer. Having Java and active X enabled makes a proxy useless against anyone who really wants to know your I.P, so if you really want to hide, these must be disabled to make the proxy of any worth. With Java and Active X enabled, a proxy can still be of great service, though not for hiding completely.
Check the browser options menu again for enabling/disabling these features, as well as the insane-if-you-have-it-enabled "install on demand" or "enable 3rd party browser extentions" boxes checked. These are often how browser hijacks occur.
Having a rich, colorful, animated surf means opening some vulnerabilities that many companies have a vested interest in. Closing these off via disabling some browser features will indeed "flatten out" your internet experience, but at least you will always have one.
So, a proxy, CCleaner, java and Active X all play a big (albeit basic) part in a few areas of internet/computer life. I will try to add to this when my brain cleaner is run...my cache is full right now.
I hope it helps and you all add to it as well. |
A re-post from a long time ago. So is this link from Bulsajo.
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto.html
Maybe useful, maybe not. |
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huck
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 7:21 am Post subject: |
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I've been having trouble w/zone alarm lately....it blocks me from sending email from my school's webpage, and it messed up my friend's msn messenger and wouldn't allow her to view people's photos or emoticons....little things, but i still wonder why we've both been having problems, when i've used it for a couple of years with no problems whatsoever...
it always tells me about everything that it blocks, but i still wonder if i really need it....guess i'll find out. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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huck...I wouldn't try to go without a firewall. If ZA is giving you grief, try the Sygate one linked above. It's easy to use and free...who could ask for more?
On the other side, you could try to figure out what happened with your ZA installation. Think about other software you installed afterwards. Did you give it all the permissions it needs?
Go to the setting "Program Control" and look for the particular program. Right click it and check that it has all the freedom it needs. I have accidentaly clicked "Remember this setting" and then "Deny" on occasion...just a slip of the mind. It pops up and it's almost a reflex. Double check the settings. You can always set ZA back to defaults and start all over again with permissions. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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The "ccleaner" seems to help. The computer still slows up sometimes or just freezes or cuts out. It doesn't work as smoothly as I'd like. PC rooms usually,
and the ones at work run better.
Perhaps there's more to figure out.....
How did the internet get to be such a minefield? |
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