Messages

2176

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free copy of snapstream beyondtv 3 after 50$ MIR

« on: December 04, 2005, 12:52 PM »

Don't see how it can be free if the rebate is $50 while the product costs $70.

Must be the new math.

2177

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: December 04, 2005, 09:33 AM »

mouser,
Forget NetCaptor! If you want to stay with an IE-based browser then that's cool. A lot of people prefer the way IE does things, but do yourself a favor...check out Maxthon. It beats Netcaptor on all fronts. Furthermore, Maxthon has plugins like Firefox does so if there's any lack of features out of the box chances are a plugin will take care of it.

And did I mention that unlike NetCaptor Maxthon is free?

2178

Living Room / Re: The Great Firewall Hunt ... frustrating ...

« on: December 03, 2005, 08:24 PM »

Kerio & Tiny both get my recommendation, but they are very complex and not for the newbie. However, the rewards are great. They offer vast amounts of power and protection for those willing to master them.

F-Secure is very nice with an all-in-one solution, but some people complain that it is a little bloated & sluggish, though I didn't have that problem when I used it. They use Kaspersky as well as two other AV engines to cover the AV end of it so you'd definitely not be giving up anything by using their AV solution.

I would not recommend ZoneAlarm at all. Lots of people have no problems, but lots of people do have problems with their TrueVector engine.

I went the same way Mark did, but as Emeril would say I kicked it up a notch. I've got a Cisco router/firewall sitting here. Provides both inbound and outbound protection for my entire network. I keep a very tight reign on what is installed on any PC on my LAN so I don't require the hand-holding of some of these software firewalls.

2179

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: December 03, 2005, 08:15 PM »

mouser,
Used to be a bigger IE fanboy you'd never find. Nowadays though, I am a staunch Firefox supporter. You start out with a basic, very secure browser. Then with the addition of plugins you have the power to make the browser you want. If you want something small, fast and lean or if you want something expansive and full-featured with abilities other browsers cannot touch...either way Firefox can do it.

2180

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: December 03, 2005, 06:55 PM »

I use too many FireFox extensions to list them all, but I'll try to mention the best ones:

TabBrowser Extensions - the tab browsing extension that rules them all. Has everything all the others have and much, much more. Install this one and be amazed.

FlashGot - The best plugin to use with download managers. Period.

Download Statusbar - Sometimes a third-party download manager is not the right tool for the job & this prevents Firefox's built-in Downloads window from popping up all the time.

Findbar Basics - Turns on and off Find with Ctrl+F & some other things.

Flashblock - Keeps flash objects from auto-loading so you get to choose what loads and what doesn't.

Inline Autocomplete - Turns on auto-complete for the address bar so it works like IE's.

Minimize To Tray - Minimizes Firefox to the system tray.

OpenBook - Turns the Add Bookmark dialog into what it should have been from the start.

SearchPluginHacks -  Allows the uninstall of search plugins easily.

SuperDragAndGo - Gives you super drag-n-drop like in Maxthon.

Extended Statusbar - Turns the Firefox status bar into something much more informative.

IE Tabs - Changes the rendering engine for the tab you select to IE.

ContextSearch - Allows the context search function to use any installed search plugin.

FasterFox - Supercharges & fine-tunes your Firefox performance.

2181

Official Announcements / Re: NOVEMBER SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS

« on: December 03, 2005, 02:28 PM »

I never expected to win, but thanks for the generosity Mouser & Rar Labs. This is actually software I can see myself using a lot.

I purposely did not choose VmWare as I'd never really use it & I thought someone who'd get more use out of it than me should have a better chance of winning it with me keeping my beak out of the competition for it.

2182

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« on: November 27, 2005, 10:39 PM »

Carol, love your quote by Symantec. When they exclusively licensed AtGuard from WRQ they said the exact same thing. Before Symantec got their hands on it AtGuard was less than 3 MB in installer form and had a very small footprint when running. After Symantec got ahod of it they turned it into the lumbering behemoth that is Norton Internet Security.

I rarely praise & evangelize programs. Ad Muncher is one of the very few I think that is top notch & that I'll sound out and recommend. The author is top-notch & not only is his program better than other ad blockers he sells his for cheaper than all the others as well. I've just been waiting for a discount...which Mouser soundly secured for us all.

2183

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« on: November 27, 2005, 10:49 AM »

Carol,
You may have been (un)lucky enough to get a new variant of that trojan. Perhaps one that wasn't coded right & didn't deploy properly. That happens all the time.

As far as wireless security, you are going to be wanting to run some kind of WPA encryption over there at the very least. WPA2 if your equipment offers it. If your equipment only offers WEP encryption then you should think about replacing it as WEP is an easily compromised algorithm.

NOD32 is a very capable anti-virus program. The anti-spyware apps are great to run as well, but I see nothing for trojan detection. That's not as important if you are able stop everything at the front door. You may want to start shopping around for a new firewall program. Sygate's product has got some bugs & it's been discontinued by the company. You're at a dead end, programming-wise.

I'm going to resist pitching Ad Muncher to you again, but I will point out that lots of individuals use Java, JavaScript & ActiveX to deploy viruses and trojans across the internet. Usually they are hidden in pop-ups and banners and such. To your system, your firewall, your anti-spyware apps,and your anti-virus they all look like standard web traffic.

2184

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« on: November 27, 2005, 10:33 AM »

mouser,
I misunderstood your question. You are right. It's best not to just do a knee-jerk reaction of deleting the file. Running anti-trojan programs and research on a search engine are definitely the first steps towards education and eventual eradication.

2185

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« on: November 26, 2005, 10:25 PM »

Obviously what you do is clean the machine. Now whether that be by a specialized tool especially programmed to remove that trojan/virus or a more general purpose tool like Kaspersky or TDS3 is up to the individual.

A manual cleaning can sometimes be an option, but it can be a very involved complicated process with some of the nasties that are out and about.

2186

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« on: November 26, 2005, 07:57 PM »

Well, here's the first result I found...

http://www.auditmypc.com/process/k.asp

2187

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 21, 2005, 12:38 PM »

Gads, that's a lot of stuff...you're almost as bad as me. I keep my boxes full all the time, too, but I have never run into anybody who has even half as bad as me.

I'm currently running 3 hard drives totalling ~900 GB of space, a 3.5" floppy drive I refuse to get rid of, and no less than 3 CD/DVD type devices. I'd surely add more, but my drive bays are all full. And yes, I need every bit of storage space and all three optical drives...and my floppy drive.

You may want to consider bringing some of those ports around to the front of your case. Companies sell really nifty break-out type boxes these days that will match your case color & fit in a 3.5" or 5.25" bay that could bring not only those USB ports to the front of your case, but also firewire & sound card connections for headphones, microphone, and line-in. Some even incorporate fan controllers and tempurature read-outs.

Buying one of these might give you some free PCI slots to work with.

2188

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 20, 2005, 03:27 PM »

Gads! No more slots? What have you got over there taking up all your slots?

2189

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 20, 2005, 01:14 AM »

I'm running out of ideas that won't cost you money.

All I can think of now is to reinstall Windows, install the chipset drivers off the CD that came with your motherboard first before installing anything else. Then use the Promise driver off that same CD.

2190

General Software Discussion / Re: Best FREE IRC client?

« on: November 19, 2005, 03:29 PM »

Lots of people really like Bisirc because it is small, fast, and free.
http://bersirc.free2....net/index.php/home/

Icechat is a new client in alpha, but it has a pretty aggressive development cycle going right now.
http://bersirc.free2....net/index.php/home/

2191

General Software Discussion / Re: Needed ... MD5 checksum utility

« on: November 19, 2005, 03:24 PM »

Only thing I can think to add to this thread is that you are using the right tool for the job, Carol. Beyond Compare is widely considered the best program for this sort of work & it's the gold standard that all other programs of this ilk are compared to.

2192

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 19, 2005, 02:58 PM »

In this day and age with modern equipment IRQ sharing is nothing like it was in the old days. Your screenshot shows you using IRQs higher than 15 so you are using a motherboard capable of APIC.

If you bring up the properties for your promise controller in the device manager do you have any possible options that could be set?

2193

General Software Discussion / Re: how to play mp3 files faster?

« on: November 19, 2005, 02:52 PM »

Just doing what I can...there are more plugins available on Winamp's site such as:

This:
http://www.winamp.co...details.php?id=23981

This:
http://www.winamp.co...etails.php?id=135991

And this:
http://www.winamp.co...details.php?id=94279

Usually always more than one way to take care of a Winamp need/problem.

2194

General Software Discussion / Re: how to play mp3 files faster?

« on: November 19, 2005, 09:42 AM »

Or this?

http://www.chronotro...=products#chronotron

2195

General Software Discussion / Re: how to play mp3 files faster?

« on: November 19, 2005, 09:40 AM »

You mean something like this?

http://sky.prohostin.../oparviai/pacemaker/

2196

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 19, 2005, 09:36 AM »

Carol, the reason I point at looking at the VIA & Promise drivers first is that I have seen your exact problem on both VIA systems and systems with Promise controllers. Changing the drivers usually fixed it. That you have both puts you in I believe what the Brits call a sticky wicket.

One version of the Promise drivers had a setting that would alleviate the pauses. Searching through Google and Google Groups for the words Promise and "mouse stuttering" will show you that hundreds of people have had the same problem you are having now. The solution is not always pretty.

As for ATI is concerned, at least with older versions of the Catalyst drivers, it seems the ones with the normal control panel are best & the Catalyst Control Panel is a little flakey.

Finding faultless VIA drivers may be a trip into madness. The newest aren't always the best. You'll have to find the version that works best on your hardware.

The Roboform people are being unreasonable, IMHO. You bought the software & you are entitled to it. Fortunately for you, though, there is an activator out in the wild. If the Roboform people will not see reason you will be able to go to the shady side of the street for a bit & activate that to which you are legally entitled.

2197

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: The GodFather - Probably the best audio file organizer/tagger there is

« on: November 19, 2005, 12:31 AM »

I've used both and The Godfather is more powerful, but...it's harder to learn. It's not as intuitive as Mp3tag.

2198

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP >.... Some sort of IRQ conflict (I think) ... anyone andy ideas?

« on: November 19, 2005, 12:27 AM »

Oh, geesh...you have a VIA chipset I notice.

You may want to reinstall the latest VIA chipset drivers and see if that doesn't fix it. If not, we'll try something else.

EDIT: I just noticed double trouble...you may wish to ensure you have the latest Promise drivers as well.

2199

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP ... Any ideas - Bad Partition table (sometimes) ????

« on: November 12, 2005, 12:48 PM »

Carol,
You say "It's just a shame Norton now have it and don't seem to be devloping it any longer.", but what you probably mean is now Symantec has it. Symantec is the disease of the application software world. They buy products and companies continuously. Those good ones they don't discontinue right away, they load up with bloat and turn the programs into caricatures of what they once were. Norton was an excellent company before Symantec bought them out. Same with Central Point, Quarterdeck, the Partition Magic people, AtGuard, etc. The list goes on & on of wonderful products turned to poo by Symantec.

Their counterpart in the game software world, in case anyone doesn't know, is Electronic Arts.

2200

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: The GodFather - Probably the best audio file organizer/tagger there is

« on: November 12, 2005, 12:40 PM »

I have to agree. I've looked at every audio file organizer/tagger there is & while The Godfather may have a silly name, not be as pretty to look at as some of the others, and may not have the best-laid out user interface, it is a very powerful.

It's so powerful, in fact, that it puts a lot of those $30-40 programs to shame. Did I mention The Godfather is freeware?