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5276

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 12:48 PM »

Can I suggest if you are experiencing problems you go and add your 2p worth on the X1 forum.

Here is the thread I started over there:

http://forums.x1.com...viewtopic.php?p=7726

5277

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 10:04 AM »

I haven't used YDS for a long time so I don't remember.

The big issue for me is why is X1 modifying files? Surely it should only have them open in read-only mode? It may be that Outlook wants full control of its PST files and other utilities scanning causes problems.

Personally I am giving up on Desktop Search tools - everything I have tried has some issues or annoying quirks.

5278

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 08:37 AM »

PS: I have posted a potential bug report to X1 and also added a poll to their support forum to see if anyone else is experiencing these problems.

5279

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 08:09 AM »

Oh dear - sorry to hear that! Hope you didn't lose too much. If you did the repair you will find a copy of your old file (renamed to .BAK) in the same folder as your PST file. There will also be a log file to tell you a bit about the problems that were encountered.

Another experiment .... do another scan after downloading your email or deleting some spam etc. and see what happens.

If it is corrupted again try disabling X1 (remove it from Windows startup sp that it doesn't index or remove the Outlook indexing in the X1 settings) and then try again.

I had lots of errors with my PST files and they stopped completely when I removed X1 - strangely I didn't seem to have these problems with Outlook 2002 (XP) and X1.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 05:14 AM »

Could you try running ScanPST.EXE and see what happens? (It backs up you existing data before doing any corrections)

You should find the utility here:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\SCANPST.EXE

You can find the location of your PST file (if you don't knwo where it is!) by opening Outlook and going to File > Data File Management which gives a list of all the open PST files and their locations.

5281

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 07, 2006, 04:44 AM »

Thanks for the feedback - must be an unusual interaction on my system because since I uninstalled X1 I haven't had any corruptions at all whereas before everytime I closed Outlook I was finding my file was corrupt.

Out of curiosity have both of you actually run ScanPST.EXE on your Outlook database - or are you assuming no corruption because there are no messages? Outlook is really crap at informing users that there is a problem - it will happily open totally stuffed up PST files and continue to use them. I don't understand why there isn't some data integrity built in to Outlook rather than having to second guess the problem by running a separate and little known (also elusive) tool !

5282

General Software Discussion / Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 07:22 PM »

I had X1 desktop search running on my system without problems with Outlook XP. Recently I got the opportunity to upgrade to Outlook 2003 and ever since I have found my PST files are getting errors (I am paranoid about PST files and often run the Inbox repair tool to ensure all is well).

Since removing X1 the errors seem to have stopped but I don't want to point the finger too harshly in case there is something else in my system causing the problems (I have a lot of Outlook plugins which may have interacted badly with X1 for some reason).

The problem is there is no way of knowing how much data is lost when the file is fixed by ScanPST.EXE

Anyone else experience anything like this?

5283

Living Room / Re: WiFi woes and a big WOW from Netgear's new product lines !!! WOW WOW WOW !!!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 07:15 PM »

I'm just praying it lives up to the hype .... you know the way these things work (hopefully) ...

5284

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 06:49 PM »

Actually one of the things I am finding a bit frustrating with Outpost is that AdMuncher has dozens of connections open with MSN Messenger and Firefox - it isn't surprising that my system is slow at times !

5285

Living Room / WiFi woes and a big WOW from Netgear's new product lines !!! WOW WOW WOW !!!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 06:44 PM »

I have been having endless problems recently with my WiFi network - the router keeps dropping out and there are often long pauses. I have spent hours fiddling with it and having looked at various web sites it seems that it has always had a bit of a mixed reputation (it is a Linsys WAG54g v1.2 by the way so it is now a bit 'old hat').

Consequently I have taken the plunge and ordered (gulp) some new kit from Netgear - the latest router which is supposed to run at 14x 802.11g speeds (270Mbs) and have a much higher range. I have also ordered new PCI cards to take advantage of the new features - so on Monday hopefully I will say bye bye to the WiFi woes!

Here is what I have ordered  - they look really impressive ...

http://www.netgear.c...ssadapter_wn311b.php
http://www.netgear.c...androuter_dg834n.php

in fact I found a good deal so that I will end up with 2 routers (it was a bit cheaper to by two routers and cards than one router and two cards - go figure). If anyone in the UK would like a cheap top of the range all singing, all dancing superfast wireless ADSL modem/router/LAN switch PM me ... and we can talk dosh ...

While I was browing though I noticed these items too .... which look yummy .... maybe Father Christmas will be kind this year (if not I'll mug him with spiked mince pies) ...

Check out ...

http://www.netgear.c...apterkit_hdxb101.php (you can do away with wireless pretty much altogether with these!)

and

http://www.netgear.c...tertainer_eva700.php (don't you just want one NOW!)

5286

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 06:09 PM »

You can schedule the built in window defragger (but it isn't obvious and I can't remember off hand how to do it). There is an MS article on this here

A simpler solution is to get a copy of PerfectDisc (which I prefer to Disk Keeper having used both) and run it in screensaver mode or use it's built in scheduler. It also has the advantage that you can do boot time defragmentation which allows pagefile and system files to be defragmented and moved into optimum position on the partition.

5287

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 05:15 PM »

I tried using the MVPS Hosts file for a few weeks and found I had so many broken sites I restored my original HOSTS file (which only has a couple of entries I made manually). Like so many things I did not notice problems at the start and by the time I was being bugged I had forgotten about the HOSTS file. I only rememebered when I got an update email. As soon as I removed the HOSTS file my internet experience was so much easier.

Crap Cleaner does a really good job and there is no reason why you could schedule an automatic daily cleanup to keep things ticking cleanly.

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General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 06:00 AM »

Speaking of excessive paranoia and cookies, has anyone ever actually had a problem with them? Tons and tons of applications detect and warn you about them, lots of people have things set to block them, etc, etc. and yet I've only found annoyance and less functional sites in doing that, and never had a problem just allowing them. I'm all for protecting privacy, but this stuff has never seemed like a major invasion to me. Maybe it's just because I'm not surfing naughty sites though.

-JavaJones (October 05, 2006, 07:19 PM)

You are probably right on cookies - however if you want to keep the number of them down to a dull roar (ie. just the useful ones that keep you logged in to useful site) use CrapCleaner to remove your cookies regularly. You can specify which ones to keep and it works with IE and Firefox without problems - it will also let you clear up a lot of other rubbish too. Worth a look to keep things tidy.

5289

Living Room / Re: Xara X1 Massive discount (expires 28th September)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 06, 2006, 05:52 AM »

Well done you two - precisely ... not a figment of my imagination at all

5290

Living Room / Re: Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 05, 2006, 03:40 PM »

Yes I am using version 4 and I just did a defrag waiting to make this reply.  Sorry I can't figure out what is different in our systems. I always have the latest beta as I am one of the testers but the last beta is the release version.

-chrisclu (October 05, 2006, 03:04 PM)

Well this is what it says ...

Known Issues:

   1. Outpost's Self-Protection will block any action with the potential to affect Outpost, including copying files into the Outpost program folder or relocating files (including disk defragmenters and registry/file cleanup utilities). There is currently no way to specify exceptions for trusted programs but Self-Protection can be disabled temporarily to allow a specific action. Users running other security software that controls file/registry access may prefer to configure this to cover Outpost's configuration instead.

taken from  Outpost 4.0 - What to Expect

I haven't tried defragging when it is running so I can't say what happens here - but presumably there is some effect if you run a defragmenter while Outpost 4 is loaded otherwise it wouldn't be loaded as a known issue ???

5291

Living Room / Re: Xara X1 Massive discount (expires 28th September)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 05, 2006, 03:36 PM »

LOL - but no cigar

Actually it is a real, honest to goodness, Uncle Sam sum ...

Someone must be able to guess where the logic applies ...

5292

Living Room / Re: Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 05, 2006, 04:22 AM »

Are you using version 4 ? The aritcle I quoted was from Agnitum and they state that in version 4 defragenters will not work properly and you need to disable Outpost 4 before running defragmenters and registry utilities.

The thing I don't understand is if self protection is supposed to stop you altering files, storing extra files in the program folder and even stop you physically moving files in defragmentation - how come you can do it when you disable Outpost - and it isn't undone when you restart it ?

5293

Living Room / Re: Xara X1 Massive discount (expires 28th September)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 05, 2006, 04:19 AM »

LOL ...

Actually here is an American sum ...

199 X 0.53 = 199

can anyone guess what it is and where it applies ?

5294

Living Room / Re: Xara X1 Massive discount (expires 28th September)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 04, 2006, 03:44 PM »

Thanks Carol, I accessed the trial that way.  I got an email from Xara indicating that I could upgrade from X1 to Xtreme for $US29 but I can't find that price via any link they gave. 

Anyhow if I do decide to upgrade I might do it through your affiliate link.  I,ve to decide wheteher I really want/need it first.

Jeff

-JeffK (October 04, 2006, 05:00 AM)

Hi Jeff,

If you order the upgrade via my link the cheapest price is $39 - if you want to get it for $29 perhaps you should contact Xara by email and ask them how to go about that. It might be that it was only during the offer period - but I don't know for sure.

5295

Living Room / Re: Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 04, 2006, 11:14 AM »

I don't know how it works since I have had to uninstall it.

I did get a response from Agnitum tech support though ...

They asked for further detail such as dumps etc. (which I couldn't supply as I had already explained to them that I had found it necessary to remove the software) and their final response is:

Dear Carol Haynes,

Thank you for e-mail.

Sorry, but we are unable to give you any advice as we can't find out
the reasons of the problem.

best regards,
Anastassia,
Agnitum Support Team
www.agnitum.com/support/
Support Service Rate
www.agnitum.com/support/supportrate.php

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Living Room / Re: Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 04, 2006, 09:49 AM »

It is also worth noting that Outpost version 4 will not allow disk defragmenters to move its files (self protection) or registry utilities ! You will have to disable Outpost before using these tools.

See http://www.outpostfi...owthread.php?t=18611

-Carol Haynes (October 04, 2006, 04:31 AM)

That's nice to know,so Outpost 4 is pretty much worthless and a complete pile of crap by that knowledge alone.This is what happens when a firewall tries to be everything,anti-virus,spyware,etc.

-tinyvillager (October 04, 2006, 04:44 AM)

The problem doesn't arise from feature bloat - actually I think it has a pretty good feature set and at least it is easy to remove anything you don't want (such as the AntiSpyware plugin). The problem arises from the new self protection feature - which is a good idea but it does need the possiblility of declaring safe applications (such as Perfect Disk) to allow access to its files. As it stands modifying its files (including their location on the disc) and its registry entries are not allowed. This is potentially a good feature as it means you can always rely on non infiltration intot he firewall software.

I suppose the simple solution in Perfect Disc and DiskKeeper (to name but two) is to declare the Outpost folder as excluded from any defragmentation.

I presume Agnitum will eventually get to sorting a sensible solution.

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Living Room / Re: Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 04, 2006, 04:31 AM »

It is also worth noting that Outpost version 4 will not allow disk defragmenters to move its files (self protection) or registry utilities ! You will have to disable Outpost before using these tools.

See http://www.outpostfi...owthread.php?t=18611

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Living Room / Aghh -- they've done it again ... avoid Agnitum Outpost 4 (at least for now)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 03, 2006, 06:00 PM »

You'd think I would learn ...

I decided to update Outpost to the new version 4. A number of issues ...

1) It is a CPU hog - it averaged around 50% CPU usage on my system, frequently staying above 90% for periods, and rarely dropping below 25%

2) Slowed down system boot (even more than 3.51 which is bad enough)

3) If you use the new 'secure' mode install you face a never ending barrage of prompts (4 or 5 a minute sustained on my system) which make doing anything useful just about impossible. (I had already checked for spyware and viruses etc prior to installing and my system is clean). I suppose not allowing your system to do anything at all without explicit permission (even when most users, including me, don't understand what 90% of the prompts actually mean).

4) It didn't uninstall cleanly - and I have had the devil of a job to reinstall version 3.51 !!

All in all I would suggest avoing version 4 until they have got rid of the gremlins. The Outpost user forum is also populated with complaints about the new version!

5299

General Software Discussion / Re: SPAMPAL replacement

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 03, 2006, 07:42 AM »

Glad to be of assistance - glad you find it useful.

I really need to get to grips with POPfile - the Outclass interface for Outlook is pretty much dead in terms of development and has recently caused me some problems (probably because I have a recent version of POPfile installed). I think I need to ditch Outclass and use POPfile properly ...

5300

Official Announcements / Re: --> SEPTEMBER SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 02, 2006, 02:29 AM »

I have currently 442 installed (which isn't too ridiculous) but I do run Xtensis Suitcase which allows you to instantaly acticate new sets of fonts and have around 10000 on various discs (most of which have never seen the light of day and I can't imagine when they would!)