the last few weeks, my computer has been on the fritz. for a while it was not letting me into internet explorer or to check any kind of mail or to post entries on my blog. now it just won't let me post entries, rebuild my site, upload pictures or anything. kammer came and looked at it. he couldn't figure it out. that scared me.
it seems only to be my computer at this time. cause i can post from work and kammer can put my posts up. but this is frustrating. any ideas as to what to do? kammer thought maybe put up a new broweser, but daddy doesn't want to do that. i dunno why, but he doesn't. could it be something with the internet settings? or maybe the settings on my website?
for questions, comments, and/or snide remarks, please respond, or email me.
Posted by hill at July 13, 2004 01:45 PMdo you do regular computer maintenance? such as--how current are your virus definitions and anti-spyware software? is your windows software update with patches? do you defrag? just some little things that may or may not be significant.
Posted by: dw at July 13, 2004 02:28 PMI'd say it's your browser. Since you're using IE it is very possibly spyware. In which case you should grab a free copy of Ad-aware 6. It's a handy utility for getting rid of the nasties. Even if that fixes the problem, I would still update your browser. Firefox 0.9.1 came out and is wonderful. IE is a little over 3 years old. In web years that's older than most dogs live (3 months = 1 web year).
Firefox has an easy installer now, so it should be a simple installation. I'd try those first. If you still have trouble, let me know.
Posted by: Benjamin at July 13, 2004 08:42 PMi'd say you should answer your phone b/c i've been trying to call you for the past hour!!!!
call me on my cell phone sometime before midnight ok?
thanks
It might be worth asking/explaining that installing a 'new browser' (eg Firefox, etc) doesn't mean the old one becomes unavailable. Anyone who wanted to use IE still could - it would remain unaffected in its ineffectiveness. This may move the 'new browser' category over into the more acceptable category of 'freely & legitimately downloadable software serving some useful purpose'. (Just be certain to silence the attempts to become the default browser which may appear when said alternate browser is first run or the old browser may *seem* to disappear.)
One such program already mentioned which fits solidly into this second category is AdAware. Another program performing the same task is Spybot Search & Destroy (some seem to recommend this program as the more effective of the two... most run both in tandem to deal with a known problem).
Posted by: Unknown Soldier at July 14, 2004 01:04 AMthanks to all who have helped so far. i am going to run this all by my dad and see what he thinks.
Posted by: hill at July 14, 2004 07:26 AMI'll go ahead and put my .5 cent in...
This is what I generally do to both work and home 'puters and I don't have a problem (unless MIS at work doesn't do their job and I get spammed with all kinds of junk ... but that's another post ... :))
Download and run Adaware, Spybot, & Spysweeper. Those three together knock out 99+% of spyware, etc...
Make sure your virus stuff is up to date.
Run the Error-Checking and Defrag utilities a couple times (in that order). Error-Checking does just that - fixes file and folder errors and Defrag puts everything in its proper place. Then run them again.
See if you can download your Service Packs and updates for your OS as files and try installing them. Sometimes they also will have fixes for your issue. (Also M$ can send out a CD of all current fixes and updates (but that would be a last resort...)
Use a different browser.
Umm... that's it. I see I have overstayed my welcome...
:)
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