One for you I.T. guys....

[PunkRocketScience]

I'm going through withdrawals here... The TRF site will not load properly on my browser at home. I'm limited to what I can sneak in before and after work. The load progress bar makes it about half way and then the browser freezes. Any kinda help anyone can offer? I've already tried clearing my cookies and cache with no success...

 

[sandman]

Gee, even I can't help you there!

I used up all my computer and internet knowledge on a different thread.

sandman

 

[PunkRocketScience]

It occurrs to me that a little more info might be helpful.

I'm running XP on a P4 w/HT and the SBC DSL browser (basically IE with a facelift...)

 

[illini]

Try downloading and installing Mozilla. Its a better browser anyway (no popups, better security, and tabbed browsing!) and just might fix your problem.

 

[DavRedf]

Try doing a nasties check ( adware, malware, virus )
Its suprising what does get through.

David

 

[shockwaveriderz]

might try clearing IE's internet cache by right clicking and selecting tools/internet options....

or type: clearmgr from start/run, select the C: drive

also you might connect to windows update and see if there are any IE updates/fixes/patches to the IE browser...

sometimes when I try to connect to TRF my browser hangs too....I just assume its TRF's problem not mine......and sometimes I just do a refresh or I will close the browser and just try again...



hth

 

[ymj365]

Recently (like the last week or two) I've been having a problem similar to what you describe, primarily on eBay. I've found that clicking Stop makes it draw the stuff it's downloaded (which may not be the entire screen), but then clicking Reload (refresh) makes it redraw the screen correctly every time. I don't know what the cause of my problem is, though I did upgrade my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) a few days before I noticed the problem.

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Originally posted by RocketmanTM
...and the SBC DSL browser (basically IE with a facelift...)

Questions

Are you directly connected to the ADSL modem and using the PPoE client software?

Are you running 802.11 wireless?

 

[flying_silverad]

A couple of thoughts....

Get some Adware/Spyware software and run it (the slftware that is)

Do you have dial up? Casue what you're decribing happens top me on occasion and I got the dial up blues!

 

[stevem]

SPYware could certainly be causing this.
I have seen SPyware do a lot of nasty things to a PC.

Spybot- Search & Destroy from www.safer-networking.org (looks like their web site is down at the moment - keep trying)
is a great program I use all the time to clean up PCs.

Another is Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de

Also make sure you have the most current virus definitions for your anti-virus software as well. Many new types of viruses every week so you must keep virus software up-to-date.

 

[flying_silverad]

Originally posted by stevem
SPYware could certainly be causing this.
I have seen SPyware do a lot of nasty things to a PC.

Spybot- Search & Destroy from www.safer-networking.org (looks like their web site is down at the moment - keep trying)
is a great program I use all the time to clean up PCs.

Another is Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de

Also make sure you have the most current virus definitions for your anti-virus software as well. Many new types of viruses every week so you must keep virus software up-to-date.

Yep...I have the Ad-ware software and run it every time I shut down for the day. I usually come up with 14 items that may be causeing havick!

 

[PunkRocketScience]

I have and run on a regular basis Ad-aware, Spy-bot and Spy Sweeper as well as Avast! anit-virus. All of them are coming up with no spyware or malware.

I'm connected straight to the DSL modem. No wireless stuff.

The hanging only happens on two websites that I frequent. TRF and Upromise (trying to build up savings for the kids for college).

I have hit a few files that won't erase from the temp internet folder. The names are partially readable, but partially random characters it seems. Possibly sectors that have gone bad on the hard drive?

 

[gothique_97]

Originally posted by RocketmanTM
I have and run on a regular basis Ad-aware, Spy-bot and Spy Sweeper as well as Avast! anit-virus. All of them are coming up with no spyware or malware.

I have hit a few files that won't erase from the temp internet folder. The names are partially readable, but partially random characters it seems. Possibly sectors that have gone bad on the hard drive?

Run your anti-virus scans and adware scans in safe mode. If it turns out to be malware problems, find a program called HijackThis [do a google.com search], run a scan, and post the results to any number of IT troubleshooting forums.

Those files that won't delete from your Temp Internet Files folder may be malware transponder files that download a new set of files everytime you delete the first set. Funny how the difference between virii and malware is becoming less and less clear.

Also, if its malware, check Add/Remove Programs and look for stuff you don't remember putting in. Some malware will actually play fair and uninstall when you tell it to.

But, the main thing you'll need to do is run all of those scans in safe mode, and make sure that your scanning software is up-to-date with virus and malware definitions. You may even need to disable system restore [for WinME or XP users] so it doesn't restore the system to a previous, still-infected state. Run HijackThis, post the results log somewhere where folks can help you, or learn what each entry means.

Sadly, surfing the Internet isn't what it used to be.

 

[gothique_97]

Originally posted by flying_silverad
Yep...I have the Ad-ware software and run it every time I shut down for the day. I usually come up with 14 items that may be causeing havick!

It sounds to me like you've got transponders hiding out somewhere, especially if its the same 14 items giving you grief. Like I said above, run your updated adware scanners twice in safe mode. Run then again in normal mode before logging on to the internet.

 

[stevem]

you have to make sure you have the latest updated reference lists for both Ad-Aware and Spybot. Like viruses, new spyware comes out all the time so if you have old reference lists a lot can be missed.

Spybot provides an online update tool within the program that you should run periodically.

For Ad-Aware you need to go to their web site and download the newest reference file, extract it and then copy it into the C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware folder.

 

[stevem]

Sadly, surfing the Internet isn't what it used to be.

Boy ain't that the truth. My IT job used to be a lot of fun. Now I spend most of my time cleaning this crap of company computers.

If it weren't for TRF and Rocketry the Internet would be worthless!!!


SPYWARE, TROJANS and WORMS OH MY!!!!

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Okay, I'm back...but running Mozilla now instead of the silly IE based browser. Thank you all for your suggestions!

 

[ymj365]

Originally posted by stevem
you have to make sure you have the latest updated reference lists for both Ad-Aware and Spybot. Like viruses, new spyware comes out all the time so if you have old reference lists a lot can be missed.

Spybot provides an online update tool within the program that you should run periodically.

For Ad-Aware you need to go to their web site and download the newest reference file, extract it and then copy it into the C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware folder.

Actually, Ad-Aware has online updates the last few versions as well.

 

[hokkyokusei]

Another good free anti-virus program that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is Grisoft AVG. You have to register to get it, but there's no charge. It's regularly updated and has a plugin for Outlook/ Outlook Express, if you're still using that. Whatever tools you use, it's very important to keep them updated, and of course that you run them often!

I use mostly just AVG and ad-aware (also, occasionally, spybot, but it doesn't often find stuff that ad-aware has missed, and it's not updated very often), and it keeps me pretty clean. _Very_ occasionally I'll find that AVG won't run. In those cases I reboot, go immediately into task manager/processes and shutdown any process I don't need to be running that are under my user name. Basically, everything but explorer, then re-run AVG to get rid of whatever was preventing it from running.

I recommend getting rid of Internet Explorer and Outlook Expresss and replacing them. In the past I've used Opera, which works very well. The only caveat is that the free version has a fairly large advert window. I'm currently using Mozilla Firefox, which I can't quite reccomend unless you are tolerant of a few quirks - it's not quite ready for primetime!. All of my kids are now using Mozilla.

For news I use Forte Agent, which isn't free, but I really like it. Waaay better than OE for news. Most of the kids all use web clients for mail, but I just started using Mozilla Thunderbird. It's also quite good at extracting your settings, address book, and stored emails from Outlook Express. The reason I stuck with OE for so long was that I couldn't get anything to import my rather large email archive. Thunderbird did it first time. There are also other good email clients around, notably Eudora. I tried that and liked it, but it couldn't import all of my email archive, so that's something to watch out for if you try it.

Thunderbird also does news, and while it's not good enough to lure me from my already paid for Agent, it might have been good enough to prevent me buying it in the first place, if you see what I mean?

 

[stevem]

I have found that Ad-Aware will miss some that SpyBot will catch and visa-versa. I use both programs on all my machines to keep them as clean as possible. Sometimes there will be something that neither program can remove. When you run into that, go to yahoo or google and do a search on the offending spyware and you should be able to find info on manual removal.

Some of this malware stuff is not only nasty but it is also poorly written and buggy.

ymj365 - thanks for th einfo, I didn't realize ad-aware had aut updates now. I have been doing it the hard way.

 

[davel]

https://www.cjwd.demon.co.uk/spybot-adaware.html is a great guide for setting up both Spybot and particularly AdAware for maximum effectiveness.