Messages

376

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: August 05, 2014, 01:30 PM »

Here's a bit more elucidation about 'short stroking' a hard drive:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/255224/how_to_partition_your_hard_drive_to_optimize_performance.html

377

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: August 05, 2014, 12:58 PM »

Update: it was my Western Digital Caviar Black 750gb 3.5 7200rpm internal hard drive that kept giving me daily BSODs, and running MalwareBytes on it made the entire OS slow down noticeably.
So yesterday I switched to my newer Western Digital 250gb 3.5 10,000rpm drive, got sparkling performance back even with MalwareBytes running and so far no BSODs.
Kind of makes me wonder if Shades might be right about the slower drive getting ready to croak; but then again, a scan with Belarch said the slower drive was healthy.

Here's an interesting article on 'short stroking' a rotary hard drive;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/short-stroking-hdd,2157-2.html

I skimmed it, but didn't quite understand it exactly.
I only need about 250GB of useful storage space on a drive for my size OS.
Is there any chance of me 'short stroking' my Western Digital 750GB 7200rpm drive, and would it make it as 'fast' or 'faster' than the 10K one?

378

Living Room / Re: SPAM reaching epidemic proportions

« on: July 30, 2014, 11:33 PM »

I do appreciate everyone's helpful advice to start using virtual email addresses.
I already do that with my active email address, which is shielded behind SneakEmail and SurfSolo and works through SeaMonkey Portable.

The problematic email address is the unencrypted 'standard issue' one my ISP provides, which I set up to work with Thunderbird, and which is just for a few contacts that don't really generate a lot of emails--until recent spam problems.
I've successfully defended that email address from spammers for the last 10 or 15 years, using KnujOn, among other things.
Then an important service needed an email contact for me over the telephone, and I gave my ISP email address out as a convenience since I wasn't near my computer, and next thing I know it's getting all this spam.
MailWasher is settling down somewhat now, but when it bounces spam, that prevents me reporting it to KnujOn, so I don't know if I'll stick with MailWasher, or quit that and just start reporting all the spammers to KnujOn.
Maybe I can figure out how to report it to KnujOn first, and then bounce it anyway using MailWasher.

KnujOn is NoJunk spelled backwards, and they have a delay factor between reporting spam and them shutting it down by tracking down the sources and reporting them to law enforcement authorities.
But with patience over the built-in delay in their response time, they've been surprisingly effective over the years.

379

Living Room / Re: SPAM reaching epidemic proportions

« on: July 30, 2014, 11:24 PM »

I found this Firetrust Support MailWasher tech support advice.

quote--
Re: MailWasher launch on Windows startup

Post by sst » Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:45 am
http://www.firetrust.com/en/products/mailwasher-pro/support/frequently-asked-questions#how-can-i-stop-mailwasher-from-starting-up-at-windows-startup

How can I stop MailWasher from starting up at Windows startup?

Answer: Click, Settings>>General>>Application, and from the "Startup:" menu select, "Launch when windows starts", and click Save, then select, "None" and click Save again.
If this doesn't work, please check the startup folder under Start>>All Programs>>Startup to ensure MailWasher is not listed there.
If not, click Start, search for msconfig and click msconfig.exe.
Click the startup tab, and uncheck MailWasher if there.

As for MailWasher refusing to close when desired, I went into Settings and unchecked 'Minimize MailWasher when X is checked' and that made it just quit when X is checked (X being the 'X' in the upper right corner that normally closes a window).

380

Living Room / Re: SPAM reaching epidemic proportions

« on: July 30, 2014, 01:45 PM »

I think what has happened is that in the last 2 years, more than the usual amount of people have started using the internet and phones and stuff.  These were the holdovers, the technophobes, and now they are playing with their phones more.  They are not used to the protection measures longtime users of computers are familiar with...antispam, firewalls, privacy, etc.

-superboyac (July 30, 2014, 01:34 PM)

Heh! I never owned a cell phone, but never thought of myself by that terminology; 'technophobe'.  
I grew up when Operators gave you numbers free of charge, and you only paid for your own outgoing phone calls, not incoming calls (which you have no control over).
That to me was the greatest scam of all; getting people to pay for callers' incoming calls to you.
Then I watched one day as a friend stared at his printer blowing expensive ink and paper on an unwanted and unsolicited incoming spam message printed out on his printer, and felt as if some kind of penultimate milestone of spam idiocy had been reached.
That's what made Robert A. Heinlein the s-f writer so great; in 'Podkayne of Mars' during a taxi ride a 3-D spam vid advertisement popped up in the faces of the passengers, and when they paid extra then the driver was able to make the sound go away but not the video; Heinlein had it wired way before the first home pc was even on the horizon.

MailWasher is great, but I just need a way to get it to stop self-starting.

381

Living Room / Re: SPAM reaching epidemic proportions

« on: July 30, 2014, 01:20 PM »

I haven't seen a legitimate spam message in...6 years now. I love it!

-Josh (July 29, 2014, 04:48 PM)

no illegitimate spam either?

PS how come?

-tomos (July 29, 2014, 05:26 PM)

Because he hasn't been at a computer in 10 years.

-Deozaan (July 29, 2014, 05:34 PM)

^Cheese, you  guys. Luv it.  
Okay, MailWasher for Desktop pc is freeware and can delete or bounce spam.
I only use it with Thunderbird and it does the job.
So far, so good.

But it persistently self-starts on Boot and tells me the same 5 emails just came in, every time I boot, for 2 days in a row.
I used StartCop to disable it from starting on boot; it still starts on boot, and ties up CPU power as it pops a big window in the middle of all my other boot-up stuff that normally goes so smoothly, and says the same 5 emails just came in as the last time.
When I click to close MailWasher, it closes the window but keeps an open tab at the bottom of Desktop that refuses to go away.
I need it to not self-start on boot, as I only check my Thunderbird emails every few days, and it's becoming a bit of a nuisance.

382

Living Room / Re: SPAM reaching epidemic proportions

« on: July 29, 2014, 03:09 PM »

My Thunderbird email program has started getting multiple daily spam emails from a couple of sources.
My ISP is supposed to block any sources if I forward the emails to their spam department, but so far no joy.
One source is in a foreign alphabet I can't even read.
I know not to reply or even click on included links; I avoid even opening the emails and just forward them to my so-far useless ISP spam blocking department.

I am not giving up this email address.
I don't have money to get something like a paid MailWasher account.
What is a good way to block or bounce the spam emails?

edit/update: Looks like MailWasher is free and am downloading it from MajorGeeks.

383

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 26, 2014, 04:37 PM »

^Some of the newer and larger HDs have enough built-in CPU power to rival entire early computers.

384

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 23, 2014, 07:38 PM »

I keep hoping Sandra Bullock's role in 'The Net' will turn out to be legit and that she'll turn up any moment now and solve all our problems.

385

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 23, 2014, 04:09 PM »

Viewing videos in Firefox through TOR Vidalia, the Adobe Flash plugin has been really crashy lately.

386

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 23, 2014, 09:25 AM »

I used to get 'failure to reboot' way too often after a BSOD and have to do a complete backup restore of my OS from a slightly outdated copy of my OS saved on a backup HD.
I seem to have eliminated the 'failure to reboot' now though; what I do, immediately after a successful reboot to Desktop from a BSOD, first I run CCleaner, then I run a fresh 'create a restore point'.
For others who are 'computer challenged' like me, you access that by clicking on 'Start' and typing 'create' in the little window, and it pops up the option to 'create a restore point'.
That's all I do, and my OS pretty much always recovers successfully from BSODs (Blue Screen Of Death).
Gone are the old Win98 days when a crash meant an hour or more of manually finding and reloading the video drivers before I could even begin the grinding process of totally reinstalling Win98.

387

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 23, 2014, 08:24 AM »

For me, the BSOD causative IDing process is mostly experimental guesswork.
My entire OS slowed down so that there was about a 3 to 5 second delay in response time, and the only real change I had made recently was that I had added Malwarebytes.
When I uninstalled Malwarebytes as an experiment, the delay all but disappeared.
Since my machine is about 6 years old, I fault my aging hardware, not Malwarebytes.

The BSODs continued to happen after uninstall of Malwarebytes, so there had to be another cause.
Having removed Malwarebytes and still getting BSODs, I added a ram booster, MZ Ram, which failed to eliminate the BSODs.
It seemed to happen anytime after running TOR Vidalia (which incorporates an integral stripped down or locked down anti-stalker version of Firefox that won't play videos), plus a fully functional version of Firefox that does play videos, which seems to destabilize the OS resulting in BSODs.
Switching exclusively to Seamonkey for a time seemed to prove this out because I mostly stopped getting BSODs.
Then my Java ran a self-update, and most of the BSODs went away even with TOR Vidalia and running videos with full Firefox mode.
So I kind of fault the Java as having been in need of an update, but I'm only guessing.

My box is an AMD 4400+ dual core with 3GB ram and a slightly newer video card, so it's getting old, and if I could get a new box I would not hesitate to reinstall Malwarebytes.
I paid for Malwarebytes and value it highly and regret not running it because it slows down my older box so much.
But it is so persistent on 'protecting' me even when it's in 'deactivated mode' -a very good 'nanny' feature- that I have not reinstalled it yet.
There is also still the off chance that Malwarebytes may have been a contributing factor in the BSODs due to the huge 3 to 5 second delay it caused my OS and anything I click on.

I mean, anything I clicked on, even a simple .txt file, would produce that huge delay before opening.
It made my entire OS react that way.

388

General Software Discussion / virtual cat

« on: July 22, 2014, 04:45 AM »

Check it out--
http://www.pageplugins.com/generators/virtual_cat/

389

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 13, 2014, 03:35 AM »

I continue to get daily crashes and BSODs.
I do want MWbytes available for occasional manual scans, but this is not cool.
Whenever MWbytes is running, everything I click on takes an extra 5 or 6 seconds to react.
Even opening a folder and clicking on a txt file adds 6 seconds for each action.
Obviously I'm running a slightly outdated box.
So I hunted in the menus and found some more MWbytes protections to untick.
So now MWbytes runs a delayed start icon in the system tray with a red circle and an exclamation point (!) over the blue icon to tell me "I'm your mother! How could you do this to me!" (shades of Sarah Connor talking to her iguana lizard Pugsley in the aparto kitchenette scene of 'The Terminator'; "There you are, young man. You mind your mother").
This would be comic if it wasn't so tragic; playing games to outwit protection I know I need and can't allow to run or I'll be computing in molasses and staring at nonstop BSODs.
We'll see if things settle down a little more now.

390

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 11, 2014, 04:23 PM »

It's a common problem that occurs when you do not have enough antivirus and antimalware.
Try adding a couple more, and you should have a completely unusable computer, instead of a partially messed up one.

Sorry for the sarcasm but couldn't help.

-eleman (July 10, 2014, 07:00 AM)

The ones that he's quoted so far are meant to be run at the same time since they cover different areas.

As far as Malwarebytes, there's a resident service that starts the app if it isn't running as a preventative against virii that shut down your protection.  In the menu it's referred to as the self-protection module.  Do you have this enabled?  And did you disable startup from within the app, or some other way?

-wraith808 (July 10, 2014, 09:09 AM)

Nope, I unticked the self-protection module in advanced settings, and it's still self-starting.
I do hate to speak like this of disabling such important software, but it's either that or get BSODs on an almost daily basis.

391

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 11, 2014, 10:28 AM »

It's a common problem that occurs when you do not have enough antivirus and antimalware.
Try adding a couple more, and you should have a completely unusable computer, instead of a partially messed up one.

Sorry for the sarcasm but couldn't help.

-eleman (July 10, 2014, 07:00 AM)

The ones that he's quoted so far are meant to be run at the same time since they cover different areas.

As far as Malwarebytes, there's a resident service that starts the app if it isn't running as a preventative against virii that shut down your protection.  In the menu it's referred to as the self-protection module.  Do you have this enabled?  And did you disable startup from within the app, or some other way?

-wraith808 (July 10, 2014, 09:09 AM)

Thank you very much, and I hated very much to untick the self-protection module, but a daily dose of BSODs is nothing to trifle with.
At least I did not have to completely uninstall it, and can still start it manually sometimes, and also do manual scans.

To eleman: your remark reminds me of an old Mad Magazine suggested cure for a broken leg; break other leg. =>

392

Living Room / Malwarebytes self-start problem

« on: July 10, 2014, 06:56 AM »

My box is an AMD 4400+ dual-core running Win7Pro 32-bit with 3GB ram, and it has all it can handle running Norton 360 Premium Edition, plus CryptoPrevent and one or two other anti-malware programs.
I also installed the paid version of Malwarebytes, but found that this overloaded the OS during web surfing so much that the OS began crashing with BSOD on a daily basis.
So I searched for and found how to click on the option for Malwarebytes not to auto-start with OS start-up.
That way, I could activate it as I felt it was needed and also run scans and updates, but keep it off and in reserve most of the time to avoid the BSOD.
I found that if after every BSOD I ran CCleaner and then created a new System Restore Point, my OS recovers consistently, but it's sort of a 'given' that this is pushing my luck and the OS can only take so many BSODs before it fails to reboot anyway, which fortunately hasn't happened in quite a long time now.

The problem is that even with Malwarebytes set to not auto-start with boot-up, it stays off for anywhere from 3 to 6 or 8 minutes, then self-starts anyway completely unnoticed by me and often causing system overload and a BSOD.

It's gotten to the point that I'm considering uninstalling Malwarebytes to keep it from doing that.
I like Malwarebytes, and don't want to do that, and was hoping for any suggestions before I pull the plug on it?

393

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Eject!

« on: June 22, 2014, 03:20 AM »

Is there an app that will work with Win 7 and give me a button in Systray to open/close my CD tray?
Either that, or give me open/close in my drop down menu for the CD drive?
Mine has open but not close.

394

General Software Discussion / Re: Nice blog post on the parasitic software hosting sites bundling junkware

« on: June 09, 2014, 07:15 PM »

^ Umm... that article is from 2011?

-wraith808 (June 09, 2014, 01:04 PM)

What? You mean....this isn't 2011 anymore?!

395

General Software Discussion / Re: Nice blog post on the parasitic software hosting sites bundling junkware

« on: June 09, 2014, 11:49 AM »

"CNET Accused of Bundling Software Downloads with Trojans";
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/CNET-CBS-Malware-Trojan-Nmap,news-13410.html

"...security companies McAfee, Panda, F-Secure and seven others have determined the executable to be malware. Eight went so far as to label it as an actual Trojan."

"We've long known that malicious parties might try to distribute a trojan Nmap installer, but we never thought it would be CNET's Download.com, which is owned by CBS!" Lyon said. "And we never thought Microsoft would be sponsoring this activity!"

396

Living Room / Re: TrueCrypt is Now Abandonware?!

« on: June 01, 2014, 09:16 PM »

Okay this is just a super lightweight question as I'm following and tracking most of what's being posted here and it's kind of over my head in some ways but something just kind of nags at me and I can't help asking.
So I'm open to being politely ignored if it doesn't make any sense. :)
What if there was some way to run a 'shell program' to encapsulate Scramdisk in its own environment within one of the more modern OSs (Vista, etc....), with file sharing enabled to the host OS; mine being Win 7 Pro.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with Scramdisk, except it's not set up for the Win 7 file system.
I realize my ignorance must be showing.

397

General Software Discussion / Re: TrueCrypt alternative

« on: May 31, 2014, 02:09 AM »

AFAIC TrueCrypt is not 'dead'; v.7.1a works fine, and so does AxCrypt (which BTW includes a nice file shredder feature).

There may be a Scramdisk for Linux, but the reports are several years old and I'm not sure if it's compatible with any current Linux OS, and I would appreciate anyone cluing me in on that question.
Or if you can dual-boot to an older OS like Win98, Scramdisk works within that OS.
Scramdisk is freeware and rather robust, with plausible deniability, but does have the above limitations.

Another interesting alternative is freeware DIIT.
This is its pretty and brainy creator, Dr. Kathryn Hempstalk of New Zealand:


It includes plausible deniability, but is rather limited in file size capacity.
Also it is rather involved to work with because the GUI does not allow drag & drop.
But FWIW, it actually works.

"The Digital Invisible Ink Toolkit ((DIIT)) is a Java steganography tool that can hide any sort of file inside a digital image (regarding that the message will fit, and the image is 24 bit colour). It will work on Windows, Linux and Mac OS because it is written in Java and thus platform independent."
It also works fine with black & white pix.

398

Non-Windows Software / Re: Debian Tails OS question

« on: May 30, 2014, 01:30 PM »

^Wise words.
Thank you. 

399

Non-Windows Software / Re: Debian Tails OS question

« on: May 28, 2014, 10:35 PM »

Thank you very much!
Please excuse me, but this is sort of a change of subject; I run Windows 7 Pro, and it's going to be fine for a few years.
But eventually, it'll go the way of Windows XP.
So by then, if I ran a permanent Linux installation on a hard drive to replace an aging Win 7, would it make less demand on my hard drive and AMD 4400+ dual-core's resources than Windows?

Would Linux still need antivirus protection?

400

Non-Windows Software / Re: Debian Tails OS question

« on: May 22, 2014, 02:24 PM »

Edvard I'm glad you answered me here, and 40hz too, b/c I never knew any of this stuff. Thank you once again everyone. 

-bit (May 22, 2014, 01:39 PM)

That's the Linux "community thing" at work. "Helping ourselves by helping each other."
 (see attachment in previous post)
One more reason to become a part of it.

-40hz (May 22, 2014, 02:02 PM)

^heh.
To remaster Linux Cinnamon, which one of the above would anyone recommend?
Do I need to be working from a HD with Linux, or can I work from Win 7 32-bit?