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some thoughts sought on computers and internet - Inspiring Photography Forums

I am getting sick of spyware, malware, viruses, and god knows what, that creep around the internet, and into my computer.

I have serious thoughts of getting a simple computer, to connect to the internet, and leave my work computer internet free, and working them side by side.

I have all my dog images backed up, and my customer emails, but I am having issues, ongoing for a while now.

Sometimes, for no reason, cs3 just seems to go soooo slow.

Didn't have that issue to start with.

I am sick of it running slow, then fast, then slow, doing weird things, etc.

I think my usb ports are now corrupted somewhat.

One example is I plugged in an external hard drive the other day, and my computer had a heart attack, went into blue screen mode, and started a physical memory dump.

I have never come across that sort of thing before.

It is going in for a checkup on friday.

Does anyone else here do this?

Would having an internet free computer solve some of those sorts of issues?

Tina, I do not have an internet free computer but I tend to sit on the sofa with the laptop or netbook and simply use the desktop for processing.

Get a decent AV program and you should not be that affected by bad stuff...I use the free AVG on the laptop and it seems to do a good job.

I'm not an expert but here are some thoughts - It could be a solution if your work computer does all you want it to - you are never going to upgrade any software add any different hardware or replace any bits.

If you do any of these you are probably going to have to connect to the internet for the updated software version or latest driver that fixes the problem they didn't tell you about when you bought whatever.

If you only connect very rarely when you do your anti virus software will need updating before you try to do anything else but quite probably a host of other software on your computer will try to update itself at the same time.

In short I don't think this is a realistic option.

Best is to hide behind a hardware firewall run a software firewall and anti virus, keep these and the operating system updated, run anti spyware every now and then.

After that just be careful of what you do online. David

What Neil said...a good antivirus and making sure that you run it and keep it up to date can work wonders. Your pc will also benefit from a defrag and probably a clean up of old files too.

I use Ccleaner , which is free. The more drastic solution is either a return to factory settings with a restore disk or a fresh install of windows.

Windows can gather up junk over time that slows your system down and a fresh install is a good, though rather drastic, cure.

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

I run avg, it scans every day.

I run error fix, and it picks up god knows what, i run god knows what.

Somehow i think my computer picked up something anyway.

I have used ccleaner too.

I run a defrag every now and then.

I do all the stuff i should, but something is not right.

I just wonder, with all the stuff we need to keep our computers clean, whether to run a seperate one is the way to go.

It does seem to be a pain, but wondered if anyone did theirs that way.

Someone had suggested that to me a while ago.

Reckons he never has any issues with his work computer.

If you did go down the route of keeping a computer just for work and nothing else then I would recommend a fresh install or restore.

Then you put the minimum that you need on this pc and keep it that way.

Any updates you do, you can use a usb stick to install and keep this one off the internet totally.

Where's the whistle icon. http://store.apple.com/au/browse/hom...co=MTMzNzQ4NzA

I agree with previous posts, good AV software and regular maintenance should keep the PC running smoothly. Have you thought of, or done, maxing out you ram?

This would help speed up the PC, especially if you are processing large image files. I keep all of my data, photos, music, videos etc.

On a separate external HDD and try to keep non application/OS data off the main internal hard drive.

This allows me to reformat/re-install of the OS/applications at least twice a year to clear out any "rubbish" on the internal HDD. This is what I do with my Windows laptop.

On the other hand I don't need to do this with my Apple PC I don't mean to start a Apple/MS flame war with this post as I use both, so I'm not bias, well not much anyway.

I'm just pointing out this out from my personal experience. <<<dons flame proof suit and leaves quickly >>>

Quote: : <<<dons flame proof suit and leaves quickly >>>

Have you a spare one.

Quote: : Have you a spare one.

Yes but it is slightly charred

Do you run Malware protection software?

I don't know if AVG includes anti-malware software but you may want to consider some.

That may be the root cause of your problems as Malware and Viruses are not always the same thing. As for the USB ports causing problems, make sure you download all the updates from Microsoft.

The USB drivers may just be out of date. As for the slowdowns, is it just Photoshop or Windows in general?

Is there lots of disk activity during the slowdown?

As a side note, all computers (including Macs ) slow down as disks becomes full.

It's an inescapeable consequence of hardrives.

Defragging doesn't help much.

A yearly reinstall (not restore) is not a bad idea. Have you spent anytime configuring Photoshop's memory usage?

You simply may not have allocated enough (or may not have enough physical memory in the first place) and Photoshop is swapping to disk causing the slowdown. I think disconnecting from the Internet is a bit extreme.

If you could provide more information, more help can be offered. Regards... Steve

Quote: : I have serious thoughts of getting a simple computer, to connect to the internet, and leave my work computer internet free, and working them side by side.?

Quote: : A yearly reinstall (not restore) is not a bad idea.

Tina, before you go spending money on a PC just for the net, consider Steve's advice. I don't do it on an annual basis but periodically I format and reinstall. Some PC's/laptops have a drive image/factory reset which will take it back to the original state when you bought it. Hell, it's like having a new PC for free.

What operating system are you using? If you're using XP and Adminstrator mode that's begging for trouble, but it can be made secure.

I use a number of security solutions.

I prefer Avast over AVG mainly because it's lighter on resources and less known issues.

There is also Microsoft Security Essentials that I now install for people as it's gotten fairly positive feedback, and it's simple to use and maintain. Firewalls I use Comodo these days, mainly because it's a firewall/malware prevention utility plus it's 64Bit compatible. However the best solution, and people will flame me for this, is to use Vista or Windows 7.

Preferably 64bit.

These two OS systems are designed from the ground up to be more secure than XP ever was.

Most of the security of XP is patched onto the kernel/OS and it shows.

The 64Bit OS has some extra features over the 32Bit that gives an additional layer of protection. In the 10 years I've been on the 'Net I've never picked up a trojan, virii or any other malware.

This is from using Win 98, Win 2k, XP, Vista and Windows 7.

I've gotten the malware through emails and infected sites but I don't open attachments without first vetting them and all web traffic goes through the firewall/AV preventing it from running.

I also use a third party browser, Opera, to prevent ActiveX hijacks which are increasingly rare these days. Another application that can help for locking your system down is PSI which is free: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/ If you add and remove a lot of apps, or just have a lot of stuff installed on your computer it might be worth considering a rebuild.

I do a rebuild on my XP system once a year, I image the drive first to back it up (in case things go wrong) and then wipe and install from scratch.

I also have an image built specifically for all my machines with the drivers added and XP features I don't need removed (language packs, drivers and other stuff).

My Vista box has been running about a year and half with no real slow down, but it's not use as heavily as the XP box at present. The other aspect to consider how much RAM do you have, and how much is in use on your OS.

Task Manager will tell you this.

If you have a low amount buying extra RAM may speed up your system. If you have multiple hard drives setting your scratch disk to one of these can help performance as well. As you can see optimising and securing a system can be complicated.

Now that's what I call an informative post. Comodo ? Do you just use the firewall or do you use the included AV software. I'm quite happy with Avast on a Windows 7, 64 Bit system but always looking for better.

Quote: : I'm quite happy with Avast on a Windows 7, 64 Bit system but always looking for better.

I use the integrated AV solution, doesn't seem to conflict with Avast so I'm happy.

The great thing with Comodo is that you can choose if you want it running, plus if you do have it running it's one of the best multi-purpose firewalls on the market for a range of threats.

Avast has one of the best detection detecting malware from sites.

It's not perfect and there is simply no one solution that fits all sadly.

Spybot, Malwarebytes and AdAware are good scanners and removal utilities for a wider range of threats that the AV program can't/won't detect. Surprisingly the main reason for me using a firewall, and they key reason for not using the Windows one, is not so much to prevent stuff coming in but to stop traffic heading out without my permission.

I hate apps that try to phone home so that's why I use Comodo.

If you're behind a NAT router (which most are these days) then you've got a good layer of security there to start with. Of course the best AV for quite a few years has been Kaspersky but they don't offer a free version.

Avoid Norton and Sophos like the plague!

Sophos is good but it really cripples the system as it's a resource hog.

Norton has just caused me more headaches over the years than just about any other app. The best security you can get is free: It's common sense.

Thing about the site you're going to, think about the information it's asking from you and if you're in doubt contact them direct.

Scammers are getting better these days, and I was almost fooled by a near perfect clone of the YouTube site, the only reason why I didn't was that it asked me to download a Flash player from a non-Adobe site and it didn't have my log in credentials.




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