h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since upgrading to XP, my internet has been incredibly slow! Usually, after about half an hour, I have to restart the computer as pages just refuse to load

I've been to computing.net and asked about the problem there, where I was told that it could be a virus. So I installed Spybot and ZoneAlarm, but it's still not working!

So, can anyone give me anymore suggestions? I've noticed something called Remote Assistance that's been installed, would anyone be able to walk me through what to do, with this?



Fb

ZoneAlarm deals with protecting your computer from outside interference, and whilst you should have had it before, it won't do anything to help the situation.



People, if you don't have a firewall, please go and google "ZoneAlarm" *now* and download it. It's free and it works great.



What's your antivirus? Have you updated it? Have you updated Spybot? Have you run them both whilst updated? Try downloading AdAware, updating and running it.

If you haven't got an antivirus, go here to get one, update it, and run it : http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

If that doesn't clear it, you'll need to run the System Maintenance tools - specifically Disc Defragmenter, ScanDisk and Disk Clean up. You should do that regularly anyway, just to keep the machine ticking over.

And you should do a Windows Update - if you don't have the link in the Start menu, then it should be in the Help section of IE.

And you shouldn't use IE. Use http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ for browsing and the Thunderbird client for your email. Most viruses target IE, and this is the way to avoid them.

Oh, and *REBOOT* between each of the different things.

Chances are, I reckon at least, it's the use of IE that's slowing it down.

I haven't got an antivirus as far as I know, I'm just downloading the one you've given me a link to

I installed Spybot a couple of days ago, so it should be the most updated version, right?

I'm already using Mozilla Firefox too.

for your help!

Uninstall XP!

Windows XP 'saves you time' () by running most of your applications in the background. Unfortunately, if your processor can't cope with this, then it runs very, very slowly.

Either uninstall XP or get a new processor.

B

Oh, and all web browsers (even IE with its interminable branches and files that you can never find to delete) use too little memory and processor power to slow down your PC noticeably.

B

"I installed Spybot a couple of days ago, so it should be the most updated version, right?"

Things change on the net a lot. Mainly because a lot of people now have spy removal software, anti virus software and some form of firewall.
This means that the ne'erdowells are constantly coming up with new stuff.
Somewhere in Spybot (I assume, I don't use it) there should be an option to update it. Either manually (usually an Update Now! button or option) or on a regular basis. Some, like ZoneAlarm check automatically as well and notify you of updates.
So no, 2 days ago is not necessarily the most recent.
AVG (from Grisoft) also needs regular updates. I do this at least once a week. The advantage is that if you do it regularly, the changes are only a few hundred Kb, but do it less often and it'll be downloading several Mb of data.

If your net connection goes slow it may be down to shed loads of spyware and adware.
I have found that each spyware/adware removal tool seems to have its own set of things it does. I use AdAware from Lavasoft which seems to do a pretty good job.


p.s. and don;t you be going on that internetty thing again, don;t you know it's full of axe murderers?

Oh, and as we have had the mozilla plug, here's the requisite Opera plug. www.opera.com
Different experience to IE and Mozilla.

I've just downloaded NoAdaware. It did the scan and found some nasty stuff. Now it says to remove said nasty stuff i have to pay for the software!
I thought this was supposed to be free- it has 'free' plastered all over the homepage. I don't mind paying for programmes if i know in advance the cost, but i goddam hate being mislead

Or even

Then try Ad-Aware It is free! From Lavasoft. Do a google on Lavasoft and you'll get the link (be warned, there is another Lavasoft who games software, not related).
I also downloaded another one from aluria software (google for aluria software - first hit is it) which is not free, but does have a 30 day trial. I ran it once and it found 2 things that ad-aware did not, but nothing since. It is a bit sensitive though (as is ad-aware) and pick up a few things that looked a bit scary but turned out to be just remnants and not active.

Footbacon, do you even have an antivirus loaded? (ZoneAlarm and Spybot are not)

For browsing protection, SpywareBlaster does some neat stuff: blocks hostile ActiveX, AND sets the kill bit for Macromedia Flash player (the only thing I know of that does this.)

Ad-aware is good; Spybot is also good. Professionally, I also use PestPatrol for malware cleanup.

Never hurts to have too many tools....

Of course, XP does have its own issues.

(i'm one of those folks who were dragged kicking&screaming into the win9x world. And I'm mostly happy with the performance of my current w98 system. The stuff that doesn't work, I can do without.)

Stu

Aye, I only went to Win2k cos the win98SE support for ACPI and nForce motherboards was a bit flaky, to say the least!

Thanks Ictoan

Have installed and run Ad-Aware and after a very exhaustive search it found 25 'suspect' items including auto-diallers

Now if my computer never boots up again i will know it has removed something it shouldn't have ...

On the other hand, it might *not* be a virus. How are you connected to the internet? I had a similar problem with my dial-up connection when I upgraded to XP. I would connect to the internet and everything would be fine, then after a random amount of time (usually between 5 and 30 minutes, sometimes as little as 30 seconds and occaisionally not at all) the connection would effectively shut down and no traffic would come through, despite XP claiming everything was hunky-dory. Hanging up the modem and re-dialing would fix it, but only for another random amount of time. If you're using a broadband connection, stopping and re-starting it in the Network Connctions folder might have a similar effect.

After several frustrating weeks of finding nothing of use on the net, I eventually tracked the problem down to the modem driver. Changing from the manufacturer-provided drivers to generic 56k modem drivers that came with XP fixed the problem permanently.

Dolt, thats the exact same thing thats happening to me!

I'm connected through broadband, not dial-up though. So it sounds like it's the modem driver...right, I just have to find out what that is exactly and i'm off!

Fb

Sorry to say FB that if you go off looking for a broadband modem driver you are going to have a very long search as such things do not exist.

If its a USB modem then you will have a USB driver that came with it. If thats the case, you might like to check the manufactures web site for an updated driver.

If its an Ethernet modem, then the only driver that matters is the Network Interface Card driver. You might like to check that that is installed and working correctly. To test the Network card bring up a DOS prompt and type Ping 127.0.0.1. You should get a return of less than 1ms. If so your network card is working properly.

Donald

AdAware deleted ALL my diallers so i couldn't get online today

I Have therefore had to restore everything from the quarantine log, so will now have to scan again and delete more selectivly next time. Nothing is ever simple

I give up!

FB - list what you've done so far, just so everyone's up to date. Lots of advice here.