suspended

Sometimes the computer will be like suspended-just sits
there. Can't get it to do anything. It will be either in
my mail or on the web. Is this common? I have to shut the
computer down and restart it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

It's not uncommon and it's called a total freeze, sometimes a crash.

You probably need to run IE Repair, but save that until after reading and
absorbing the following. IE Repair *should_be* found in the Tools menu of
System Information (use Start=Run to run MSINFO32)

[Note to regulars: I will soon create a webpage or two or three that
replicates the following (with enhancements, of course, plus some additional
t-shooting, Grystmill style), so I can reduce the load I impose here by
repeating it so often. I know it's long overdue, but that's life, s.) The
below includes significant new material. Review, comments and corrections
requested.]

See my article, "Clean Boot--What it is and why you need it"
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%2...GP11.phx.gb l

Because some of the more recent known invaders are capable of interfering
with the suggestions contained in the above, I suggest you also consider
first doing the following, though it may be necessary to set up a clean
boot, and even then manually kill a malicious process or two before you can
even get these accomplished. Many invaders are built to first detect and
disable protections that are in place, so that you might, for instance, have
to obtain and employ a DOS-boot antivirus like F-Prot. Repeated running of
scanners, booting back and forth from Safe Mode to Normal, or into DOS
Mode--a lot of gymnastics are often required to get to an error-free and
nasties-free condition. Once there, however, some user sanity and education,
plus regular "wetware" updating, will *keep* your system healthy.

Update your Antivirus, run a full scan. Then, if you haven't already,
obtain, update, and run any or all of the following
Trojan/Parasite/Adware/Spyware cleaners. I recommend getting and running
*all* of them. They each target slightly different things. Again, be sure
you update the definitions they are using to identify crap before running
them, each time you run them--which, depending on your surfing habits,
should be anything from once a month, to once a week, to once a day, to once
an hour if you're really into junkware sites (aka "Free goodies", game
sites, fun-places-to-be, etc.)

Tradition had it that Firewalls were generally not needed when using simple
dial-up modem connections. Alas, this is no longer the case. *Everyone*
needs a firewall! Also, I make no bones about it--Norton, McAfee and
Trend-Micro products (and probably a few others) are ABOMINATIONS!,
particularly when it comes to Win9x systems. They are massive suites that
intrude into basic functions where they simply do not need to go. For
freeware solutions, I suggest AVG or AVAST (based upon the recommendations
of others, though each has it's minor drawbacks) and ZoneAlarm Firewall. But
for really good, inexpensive, and trustworthy protection, you simply can't
beat eTrust Armor. Antivirus and Firewall combined, very non-intrusive upon
the system itself (I've *never* seen a crash caused by EZ Antivirus, and
there's hardly any impact whatsoever on Resources, etc.) eTrust is from
Computer Associates Inc.--the antivirus is a version of their corporate
product usually known as Inoculan, and they got smart recently and switched
to using a version of ZoneAlarm for their firewall.

You can get a one-year free trial of eTrust EZ Armor at
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/. This offer was initially slated to end
this June, but has been extended through February 2005. The trial offer is
also included in at least some versions (not sure about all languages) of
Microsoft's Windows Security Update CD, an item *everyone* should own.
(However, do *not* just run the Update CD on your system without a proper
analysis of where your system stands with regard to Updates. Might do more
harm than good.) EZ Armor would normally cost $50 for the first year (a deal
in itself), and yearly renewal subscriptions only cost $25--an absolute
steal when compared with other offerings. Order the Windows Security Update
CD directly from MS, totally free, including S&H, at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

In addition to Antivirus and Firewall protection, I consider the following
items to be indispensable protection and clean-up utilities. My judgment is
based upon their being free, good, accurate, and safe, if handled correctly.
See, also, suggestions from MVP Mike Burgess on his site,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/, particularly the general Windows/IE
Security page, http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm. More current
discussions of Security issues can be found at the Windows Support Center
(provided by MVP Jim Eshelman, a true Saint!) at http://www.aumha.org

(SpyBot S&D = "SpyBot Search & Destroy")

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
HijackThis http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe
CWShredder http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
Spyware Blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PLEASE! Before doing any of these, see also,
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm for suggestions and cautionary
information about internet surfing, and some important hints about using the
above. ESPECIALLY, be aware that HijackThis scans result in a LOT of stuff
that you *don't* want to delete. The admonishment to save a log and show it
to an expert is critically good advice. Not following that advice can really
do some damage to your system. SpyBot S&D, too, is capable of similar
problems, especially if you change default scan settings, or "Immunize".

An additional tool that is very helpful in protecting your machine is a
HOSTS file. Microsoft MVP Mike Burgess maintain a frequently updated list of
bad sites. They may be sites that provide most of the junky advertisements
you see in other places, or sites that install spyware/adware, or that, for
whatever reason, you shouldn't allow into your system. Using the HOSTS
file, you can redirect such addresses to a site that's guaranteed will fail
to load on most machines--your own computer.
HOSTS Overview -- http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Also handy is MVP George Geyde's HOSTS File Manager. You can find it at the
bottom of this page:
http://www.mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/Software.htm


--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"saltshaker02" wrote in message
...
Sometimes the computer will be like suspended-just sits
there. Can't get it to do anything. It will be either in
my mail or on the web. Is this common? I have to shut the
computer down and restart it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Dear Gary,
To start...Thank You very much for your efforts to help
so many people. You are one of the greatest!
Your suggestion on useing Computer Associates products
are right on line. Bravo!
Now...I use Sygate free firewall. It works great. I had
to learn how to configure it. But once done it keeps just
about everything,bad, out. If it can't? It will at least
alert me to it. And what the firewall does not stop? My EZ
Antivirus will.
But niether will stop all malware.
A tool you REALLY ought to look in to is "Complete
Internet Cleanup" from http://www.pcmesh.com
It does cost. About $25. But it has a,short lived, trial
version also.
I have gotten spyware/malware on this computer. And know
where it came from. Spybot or AdAware will find them and
get rid of them. HijackThis works where the other two may
fail.
What I'm getting at is that if I get some type of malware
on the PC and delete it with,say, AdAware. I went back to
the site/s and got it again. Now useing "CIC Pro".(With
all options checked) I click on it's desktop icon select
OK and answer "yes" to the restart. The machine reboots.
Once back to desktop. I run Adaware or Spybot and there
is nothing bad on the machine. When before I run the "CIC
Pro" the malware was there.
Tell me if I am wrong. Most malware,that can't be
stopped, are attached to cookies that IE loads to your
system. Right? And AdAware and Spybot finds these. If you
are running a big system and doing a deep scan. This may
take a minute or two.
"CIC Pro",with three mouse clicks, cleans/shreds IE temps
and deletes index.dat files plus alot of other temp files.
And the time is just the time required to reboot. With
mine is about 30 seconds. Adaware takes more than a minute
to do it's thorough scan.
I am not saying just to use "CIC Pro". But it IS another
very effective tool. And will get rid of stuff that may
take AdAware a couple of passes to find.
I do not have to go into Dos and worry about typeing the
temp string right with the proper spaces and proper
direction to rid my machine of pesky malware. CIC Pro does
this for me,in half a minute, useing,only,three mouse
strokes.
I would suggest you try it. You may like it.
-----Original Message-----
It's not uncommon and it's called a total freeze,
sometimes a crash.

You probably need to run IE Repair, but save that until
after reading and
absorbing the following. IE Repair *should_be* found in
the Tools menu of
System Information (use Start=Run to run MSINFO32)

[Note to regulars: I will soon create a webpage or two or
three that
replicates the following (with enhancements, of course,
plus some additional
t-shooting, Grystmill style), so I can reduce the load I
impose here by
repeating it so often. I know it's long overdue, but
that's life, s.) The
below includes significant new material. Review, comments
and corrections
requested.]

See my article, "Clean Boot--What it is and why you need
it"
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%


Because some of the more recent known invaders are
capable of interfering
with the suggestions contained in the above, I suggest
you also consider
first doing the following, though it may be necessary to
set up a clean
boot, and even then manually kill a malicious process or
two before you can
even get these accomplished. Many invaders are built to
first detect and
disable protections that are in place, so that you might,
for instance, have
to obtain and employ a DOS-boot antivirus like F-Prot.
Repeated running of
scanners, booting back and forth from Safe Mode to
Normal, or into DOS
Mode--a lot of gymnastics are often required to get to an
error-free and
nasties-free condition. Once there, however, some user
sanity and education,
plus regular "wetware" updating, will *keep* your system
healthy.

Update your Antivirus, run a full scan. Then, if you
haven't already,
obtain, update, and run any or all of the following
Trojan/Parasite/Adware/Spyware cleaners. I recommend
getting and running
*all* of them. They each target slightly different
things. Again, be sure
you update the definitions they are using to identify
crap before running
them, each time you run them--which, depending on your
surfing habits,
should be anything from once a month, to once a week, to
once a day, to once
an hour if you're really into junkware sites (aka "Free
goodies", game
sites, fun-places-to-be, etc.)

Tradition had it that Firewalls were generally not needed
when using simple
dial-up modem connections. Alas, this is no longer the
case. *Everyone*
needs a firewall! Also, I make no bones about it--Norton,
McAfee and
Trend-Micro products (and probably a few others) are
ABOMINATIONS!,
particularly when it comes to Win9x systems. They are
massive suites that
intrude into basic functions where they simply do not
need to go. For
freeware solutions, I suggest AVG or AVAST (based upon
the recommendations
of others, though each has it's minor drawbacks) and
ZoneAlarm Firewall. But
for really good, inexpensive, and trustworthy protection,
you simply can't
beat eTrust Armor. Antivirus and Firewall combined, very
non-intrusive upon
the system itself (I've *never* seen a crash caused by EZ
Antivirus, and
there's hardly any impact whatsoever on Resources, etc.)
eTrust is from
Computer Associates Inc.--the antivirus is a version of
their corporate
product usually known as Inoculan, and they got smart
recently and switched
to using a version of ZoneAlarm for their firewall.

You can get a one-year free trial of eTrust EZ Armor at
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/. This offer was
initially slated to end
this June, but has been extended through February 2005.
The trial offer is
also included in at least some versions (not sure about
all languages) of
Microsoft's Windows Security Update CD, an item
*everyone* should own.
(However, do *not* just run the Update CD on your system
without a proper
analysis of where your system stands with regard to
Updates. Might do more
harm than good.) EZ Armor would normally cost $50 for the
first year (a deal
in itself), and yearly renewal subscriptions only cost
$25--an absolute
steal when compared with other offerings. Order the
Windows Security Update
CD directly from MS, totally free, including S&H, at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

In addition to Antivirus and Firewall protection, I
consider the following
items to be indispensable protection and clean-up
utilities. My judgment is
based upon their being free, good, accurate, and safe, if
handled correctly.
See, also, suggestions from MVP Mike Burgess on his site,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/, particularly the
general Windows/IE
Security page,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm. More current
discussions of Security issues can be found at the
Windows Support Center
(provided by MVP Jim Eshelman, a true Saint!) at
http://www.aumha.org

(SpyBot S&D = "SpyBot Search & Destroy")

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?
page=download
HijackThis
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe
CWShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PLEASE! Before doing any of these, see also,
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm for
suggestions and cautionary
information about internet surfing, and some important
hints about using the
above. ESPECIALLY, be aware that HijackThis scans result
in a LOT of stuff
that you *don't* want to delete. The admonishment to save
a log and show it
to an expert is critically good advice. Not following
that advice can really
do some damage to your system. SpyBot S&D, too, is
capable of similar
problems, especially if you change default scan settings,
or "Immunize".

An additional tool that is very helpful in protecting
your machine is a
HOSTS file. Microsoft MVP Mike Burgess maintain a
frequently updated list of
bad sites. They may be sites that provide most of the
junky advertisements
you see in other places, or sites that install
spyware/adware, or that, for
whatever reason, you shouldn't allow into your system.
Using the HOSTS
file, you can redirect such addresses to a site that's
guaranteed will fail
to load on most machines--your own computer.
HOSTS Overview --
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Also handy is MVP George Geyde's HOSTS File Manager. You
can find it at the
bottom of this page:
http://www.mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/Software.htm


--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"saltshaker02"
wrote in message
...
Sometimes the computer will be like suspended-just sits
there. Can't get it to do anything. It will be either in
my mail or on the web. Is this common? I have to shut
the
computer down and restart it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

.

I'll admit, until I get another test machine online, I am loathe to load
anything that doesn't come with a ton of recommendations--and even then, I
usually limit my listening to the pronouncements of fellow MVPs.

Which is why, for instance. I recently added Spyware Blaster to the panoply.
Between that and the MVP HOSTS file (with George Geyde's HOSTS File
Manager), while I still run the other "Four Horsemen" (AdAware, Spybot S&D,
HijackThis and CWShredder) on a weekly basis, it's been months since they
found anything.

IOW, I'm not about to load CIC onto my working machine. I understand the
lure of apps that "do it all", but even Cleanup Manager in Windows is a pile
of junk.

My maintenance recommendations, when practiced regularly, don't take much
time at all. And they keep the user *aware* of what, precisely, is happening
in the TEMP folder, for instance.

As for where malware comes from, there's no one source. Some cookies can be
a problem, but I use IE6 Advanced cookie handling, and permanently reject
99.99% of all cookies. Even so, the worst malware (aside from out & out
viruses) are installed by code that's embedded in the HTML of the pages you
visit. With proper Security settings, you usually have to perform some overt
action (some particular click) to permit the installation.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"ppoatt" wrote in message
...
Dear Gary,
To start...Thank You very much for your efforts to help
so many people. You are one of the greatest!
Your suggestion on useing Computer Associates products
are right on line. Bravo!
Now...I use Sygate free firewall. It works great. I had
to learn how to configure it. But once done it keeps just
about everything,bad, out. If it can't? It will at least
alert me to it. And what the firewall does not stop? My EZ
Antivirus will.
But niether will stop all malware.
A tool you REALLY ought to look in to is "Complete
Internet Cleanup" from http://www.pcmesh.com
It does cost. About $25. But it has a,short lived, trial
version also.
I have gotten spyware/malware on this computer. And know
where it came from. Spybot or AdAware will find them and
get rid of them. HijackThis works where the other two may
fail.
What I'm getting at is that if I get some type of malware
on the PC and delete it with,say, AdAware. I went back to
the site/s and got it again. Now useing "CIC Pro".(With
all options checked) I click on it's desktop icon select
OK and answer "yes" to the restart. The machine reboots.
Once back to desktop. I run Adaware or Spybot and there
is nothing bad on the machine. When before I run the "CIC
Pro" the malware was there.
Tell me if I am wrong. Most malware,that can't be
stopped, are attached to cookies that IE loads to your
system. Right? And AdAware and Spybot finds these. If you
are running a big system and doing a deep scan. This may
take a minute or two.
"CIC Pro",with three mouse clicks, cleans/shreds IE temps
and deletes index.dat files plus alot of other temp files.
And the time is just the time required to reboot. With
mine is about 30 seconds. Adaware takes more than a minute
to do it's thorough scan.
I am not saying just to use "CIC Pro". But it IS another
very effective tool. And will get rid of stuff that may
take AdAware a couple of passes to find.
I do not have to go into Dos and worry about typeing the
temp string right with the proper spaces and proper
direction to rid my machine of pesky malware. CIC Pro does
this for me,in half a minute, useing,only,three mouse
strokes.
I would suggest you try it. You may like it.
-----Original Message-----
It's not uncommon and it's called a total freeze,
sometimes a crash.

You probably need to run IE Repair, but save that until
after reading and
absorbing the following. IE Repair *should_be* found in
the Tools menu of
System Information (use Start=Run to run MSINFO32)

[Note to regulars: I will soon create a webpage or two or
three that
replicates the following (with enhancements, of course,
plus some additional
t-shooting, Grystmill style), so I can reduce the load I
impose here by
repeating it so often. I know it's long overdue, but
that's life, s.) The
below includes significant new material. Review, comments
and corrections
requested.]

See my article, "Clean Boot--What it is and why you need
it"
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%


Because some of the more recent known invaders are
capable of interfering
with the suggestions contained in the above, I suggest
you also consider
first doing the following, though it may be necessary to
set up a clean
boot, and even then manually kill a malicious process or
two before you can
even get these accomplished. Many invaders are built to
first detect and
disable protections that are in place, so that you might,
for instance, have
to obtain and employ a DOS-boot antivirus like F-Prot.
Repeated running of
scanners, booting back and forth from Safe Mode to
Normal, or into DOS
Mode--a lot of gymnastics are often required to get to an
error-free and
nasties-free condition. Once there, however, some user
sanity and education,
plus regular "wetware" updating, will *keep* your system
healthy.

Update your Antivirus, run a full scan. Then, if you
haven't already,
obtain, update, and run any or all of the following
Trojan/Parasite/Adware/Spyware cleaners. I recommend
getting and running
*all* of them. They each target slightly different
things. Again, be sure
you update the definitions they are using to identify
crap before running
them, each time you run them--which, depending on your
surfing habits,
should be anything from once a month, to once a week, to
once a day, to once
an hour if you're really into junkware sites (aka "Free
goodies", game
sites, fun-places-to-be, etc.)

Tradition had it that Firewalls were generally not needed
when using simple
dial-up modem connections. Alas, this is no longer the
case. *Everyone*
needs a firewall! Also, I make no bones about it--Norton,
McAfee and
Trend-Micro products (and probably a few others) are
ABOMINATIONS!,
particularly when it comes to Win9x systems. They are
massive suites that
intrude into basic functions where they simply do not
need to go. For
freeware solutions, I suggest AVG or AVAST (based upon
the recommendations
of others, though each has it's minor drawbacks) and
ZoneAlarm Firewall. But
for really good, inexpensive, and trustworthy protection,
you simply can't
beat eTrust Armor. Antivirus and Firewall combined, very
non-intrusive upon
the system itself (I've *never* seen a crash caused by EZ
Antivirus, and
there's hardly any impact whatsoever on Resources, etc.)
eTrust is from
Computer Associates Inc.--the antivirus is a version of
their corporate
product usually known as Inoculan, and they got smart
recently and switched
to using a version of ZoneAlarm for their firewall.

You can get a one-year free trial of eTrust EZ Armor at
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/. This offer was
initially slated to end
this June, but has been extended through February 2005.
The trial offer is
also included in at least some versions (not sure about
all languages) of
Microsoft's Windows Security Update CD, an item
*everyone* should own.
(However, do *not* just run the Update CD on your system
without a proper
analysis of where your system stands with regard to
Updates. Might do more
harm than good.) EZ Armor would normally cost $50 for the
first year (a deal
in itself), and yearly renewal subscriptions only cost
$25--an absolute
steal when compared with other offerings. Order the
Windows Security Update
CD directly from MS, totally free, including S&H, at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

In addition to Antivirus and Firewall protection, I
consider the following
items to be indispensable protection and clean-up
utilities. My judgment is
based upon their being free, good, accurate, and safe, if
handled correctly.
See, also, suggestions from MVP Mike Burgess on his site,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/, particularly the
general Windows/IE
Security page,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm. More current
discussions of Security issues can be found at the
Windows Support Center
(provided by MVP Jim Eshelman, a true Saint!) at
http://www.aumha.org

(SpyBot S&D = "SpyBot Search & Destroy")

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?
page=download
HijackThis
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe
CWShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PLEASE! Before doing any of these, see also,
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm for
suggestions and cautionary
information about internet surfing, and some important
hints about using the
above. ESPECIALLY, be aware that HijackThis scans result
in a LOT of stuff
that you *don't* want to delete. The admonishment to save
a log and show it
to an expert is critically good advice. Not following
that advice can really
do some damage to your system. SpyBot S&D, too, is
capable of similar
problems, especially if you change default scan settings,
or "Immunize".

An additional tool that is very helpful in protecting
your machine is a
HOSTS file. Microsoft MVP Mike Burgess maintain a
frequently updated list of
bad sites. They may be sites that provide most of the
junky advertisements
you see in other places, or sites that install
spyware/adware, or that, for
whatever reason, you shouldn't allow into your system.
Using the HOSTS
file, you can redirect such addresses to a site that's
guaranteed will fail
to load on most machines--your own computer.
HOSTS Overview --
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Also handy is MVP George Geyde's HOSTS File Manager. You
can find it at the
bottom of this page:
http://www.mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/Software.htm


--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"saltshaker02"
wrote in message
...
Sometimes the computer will be like suspended-just sits
there. Can't get it to do anything. It will be either in
my mail or on the web. Is this common? I have to shut
the
computer down and restart it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

.

I have used "CIC Pro2.0" for about 3 years now.
Run it before any shut down. The newer version has options
to restart or shutdown.
Sometimes I run it as soon as I disconnect off the net. If
I am going to still leave the PC on.
I have had no,what so ever,ill effects from useing it.
I think after 3 years of use it would show some kind of
ill-effect if there was one.
What it simply cleans is:
index.dat files
typed URLs
names,passwords,etc.
recent Documents folder
Windows search history
Windows Run history
Windows temp folder
Recycle Bin
I know I can do most of this through Windows.
But you have to go to the various folders and do this
manually.
And I have not heard of anyway to delete index.dat files
other than going into dos to do it.
This is a sound program. And I recommend it to anyone.
The simplicity of it's use is what I like. And not all
users that come here are as adept as you or other MVPs in
dealing with dos. If they were? They wouldn't be asking
for help.
time at all. And they keep the user *aware* of what,
precisely, is happening
in the TEMP folder, for instance.
This program does no more than what it says it will. And
you can select what it is alowed to do.
It is a very usefull tool. Not a solve all.


-----Original Message-----
I'll admit, until I get another test machine online, I am
loathe to load
anything that doesn't come with a ton of recommendations--
and even then, I
usually limit my listening to the pronouncements of
fellow MVPs.

Which is why, for instance. I recently added Spyware
Blaster to the panoply.
Between that and the MVP HOSTS file (with George Geyde's
HOSTS File
Manager), while I still run the other "Four Horsemen"
(AdAware, Spybot S&D,
HijackThis and CWShredder) on a weekly basis, it's been
months since they
found anything.

IOW, I'm not about to load CIC onto my working machine. I
understand the
lure of apps that "do it all", but even Cleanup Manager
in Windows is a pile
of junk.

My maintenance recommendations, when practiced regularly,
don't take much
time at all. And they keep the user *aware* of what,
precisely, is happening
in the TEMP folder, for instance.

As for where malware comes from, there's no one source.
Some cookies can be
a problem, but I use IE6 Advanced cookie handling, and
permanently reject
99.99% of all cookies. Even so, the worst malware (aside
from out & out
viruses) are installed by code that's embedded in the
HTML of the pages you
visit. With proper Security settings, you usually have to
perform some overt
action (some particular click) to permit the installation.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"ppoatt" wrote in
message
...
Dear Gary,
To start...Thank You very much for your efforts to help
so many people. You are one of the greatest!
Your suggestion on useing Computer Associates products
are right on line. Bravo!
Now...I use Sygate free firewall. It works great. I had
to learn how to configure it. But once done it keeps
just
about everything,bad, out. If it can't? It will at least
alert me to it. And what the firewall does not stop? My
EZ
Antivirus will.
But niether will stop all malware.
A tool you REALLY ought to look in to is "Complete
Internet Cleanup" from http://www.pcmesh.com
It does cost. About $25. But it has a,short lived, trial
version also.
I have gotten spyware/malware on this computer. And
know
where it came from. Spybot or AdAware will find them and
get rid of them. HijackThis works where the other two
may
fail.
What I'm getting at is that if I get some type of
malware
on the PC and delete it with,say, AdAware. I went back
to
the site/s and got it again. Now useing "CIC Pro".(With
all options checked) I click on it's desktop icon select
OK and answer "yes" to the restart. The machine reboots.
Once back to desktop. I run Adaware or Spybot and there
is nothing bad on the machine. When before I run
the "CIC
Pro" the malware was there.
Tell me if I am wrong. Most malware,that can't be
stopped, are attached to cookies that IE loads to your
system. Right? And AdAware and Spybot finds these. If
you
are running a big system and doing a deep scan. This may
take a minute or two.
"CIC Pro",with three mouse clicks, cleans/shreds IE
temps
and deletes index.dat files plus alot of other temp
files.
And the time is just the time required to reboot. With
mine is about 30 seconds. Adaware takes more than a
minute
to do it's thorough scan.
I am not saying just to use "CIC Pro". But it IS
another
very effective tool. And will get rid of stuff that may
take AdAware a couple of passes to find.
I do not have to go into Dos and worry about typeing
the
temp string right with the proper spaces and proper
direction to rid my machine of pesky malware. CIC Pro
does
this for me,in half a minute, useing,only,three mouse
strokes.
I would suggest you try it. You may like it.
-----Original Message-----
It's not uncommon and it's called a total freeze,
sometimes a crash.

You probably need to run IE Repair, but save that until
after reading and
absorbing the following. IE Repair *should_be* found in
the Tools menu of
System Information (use Start=Run to run MSINFO32)

[Note to regulars: I will soon create a webpage or two
or
three that
replicates the following (with enhancements, of course,
plus some additional
t-shooting, Grystmill style), so I can reduce the load
I
impose here by
repeating it so often. I know it's long overdue, but
that's life, s.) The
below includes significant new material. Review,
comments
and corrections
requested.]

See my article, "Clean Boot--What it is and why you
need
it"
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%


Because some of the more recent known invaders are
capable of interfering
with the suggestions contained in the above, I suggest
you also consider
first doing the following, though it may be necessary
to
set up a clean
boot, and even then manually kill a malicious process
or
two before you can
even get these accomplished. Many invaders are built to
first detect and
disable protections that are in place, so that you
might,
for instance, have
to obtain and employ a DOS-boot antivirus like F-Prot.
Repeated running of
scanners, booting back and forth from Safe Mode to
Normal, or into DOS
Mode--a lot of gymnastics are often required to get to
an
error-free and
nasties-free condition. Once there, however, some user
sanity and education,
plus regular "wetware" updating, will *keep* your
system
healthy.

Update your Antivirus, run a full scan. Then, if you
haven't already,
obtain, update, and run any or all of the following
Trojan/Parasite/Adware/Spyware cleaners. I recommend
getting and running
*all* of them. They each target slightly different
things. Again, be sure
you update the definitions they are using to identify
crap before running
them, each time you run them--which, depending on your
surfing habits,
should be anything from once a month, to once a week,
to
once a day, to once
an hour if you're really into junkware sites (aka "Free
goodies", game
sites, fun-places-to-be, etc.)

Tradition had it that Firewalls were generally not
needed
when using simple
dial-up modem connections. Alas, this is no longer the
case. *Everyone*
needs a firewall! Also, I make no bones about it--
Norton,
McAfee and
Trend-Micro products (and probably a few others) are
ABOMINATIONS!,
particularly when it comes to Win9x systems. They are
massive suites that
intrude into basic functions where they simply do not
need to go. For
freeware solutions, I suggest AVG or AVAST (based upon
the recommendations
of others, though each has it's minor drawbacks) and
ZoneAlarm Firewall. But
for really good, inexpensive, and trustworthy
protection,
you simply can't
beat eTrust Armor. Antivirus and Firewall combined,
very
non-intrusive upon
the system itself (I've *never* seen a crash caused by
EZ
Antivirus, and
there's hardly any impact whatsoever on Resources,
etc.)
eTrust is from
Computer Associates Inc.--the antivirus is a version of
their corporate
product usually known as Inoculan, and they got smart
recently and switched
to using a version of ZoneAlarm for their firewall.

You can get a one-year free trial of eTrust EZ Armor at
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/. This offer was
initially slated to end
this June, but has been extended through February 2005.
The trial offer is
also included in at least some versions (not sure about
all languages) of
Microsoft's Windows Security Update CD, an item
*everyone* should own.
(However, do *not* just run the Update CD on your
system
without a proper
analysis of where your system stands with regard to
Updates. Might do more
harm than good.) EZ Armor would normally cost $50 for
the
first year (a deal
in itself), and yearly renewal subscriptions only cost
$25--an absolute
steal when compared with other offerings. Order the
Windows Security Update
CD directly from MS, totally free, including S&H, at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

In addition to Antivirus and Firewall protection, I
consider the following
items to be indispensable protection and clean-up
utilities. My judgment is
based upon their being free, good, accurate, and safe,
if
handled correctly.
See, also, suggestions from MVP Mike Burgess on his
site,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/, particularly the
general Windows/IE
Security page,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm. More
current
discussions of Security issues can be found at the
Windows Support Center
(provided by MVP Jim Eshelman, a true Saint!) at
http://www.aumha.org

(SpyBot S&D = "SpyBot Search & Destroy")

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?
page=download
HijackThis
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe
CWShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PLEASE! Before doing any of these, see also,
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm for
suggestions and cautionary
information about internet surfing, and some important
hints about using the
above. ESPECIALLY, be aware that HijackThis scans
result
in a LOT of stuff
that you *don't* want to delete. The admonishment to
save
a log and show it
to an expert is critically good advice. Not following
that advice can really
do some damage to your system. SpyBot S&D, too, is
capable of similar
problems, especially if you change default scan
settings,
or "Immunize".

An additional tool that is very helpful in protecting
your machine is a
HOSTS file. Microsoft MVP Mike Burgess maintain a
frequently updated list of
bad sites. They may be sites that provide most of the
junky advertisements
you see in other places, or sites that install
spyware/adware, or that, for
whatever reason, you shouldn't allow into your system.
Using the HOSTS
file, you can redirect such addresses to a site that's
guaranteed will fail
to load on most machines--your own computer.
HOSTS Overview --
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Also handy is MVP George Geyde's HOSTS File Manager.
You
can find it at the
bottom of this page:
http://www.mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/Software.htm


--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"saltshaker02"
wrote in message
...
Sometimes the computer will be like suspended-just
sits
there. Can't get it to do anything. It will be
either in
my mail or on the web. Is this common? I have to shut
the
computer down and restart it. Can anyone help?
Thanks.

.


.

"ppoatt" wrote in message
...
I have used "CIC Pro2.0" for about 3 years now.
Run it before any shut down. The newer version has options
to restart or shutdown.
Sometimes I run it as soon as I disconnect off the net. If
I am going to still leave the PC on.
I have had no,what so ever,ill effects from useing it.
I think after 3 years of use it would show some kind of
ill-effect if there was one.
What it simply cleans is:
index.dat files
typed URLs
names,passwords,etc.
recent Documents folder
Windows search history
Windows Run history
Windows temp folder
Recycle Bin
I know I can do most of this through Windows.
But you have to go to the various folders and do this
manually.
And I have not heard of anyway to delete index.dat files
other than going into dos to do it.
This is a sound program. And I recommend it to anyone.
The simplicity of it's use is what I like. And not all
users that come here are as adept as you or other MVPs in
dealing with dos. If they were? They wouldn't be asking
for help.time at all.
This program does no more than what it says it will. And
you can select what it is alowed to do.
It is a very usefull tool. Not a solve all.


I don't *want* most of those things deleted most of the time. I'm careful,
not paranoid, and all of those things are *helpers* as far as I'm concerned.
I use typed URLs, remembered passwords, forms fill-ins, Recent Documents,
etc., *all_of_the_time*. The only Cookies on my system are ones I
deliberately allowed to be set--and they perform quite useful functions.
With proper security settings, there is *no_need* to delete Cookies,
Index.dat files, etc., unless some specific problem suggests it. And, you
should *not* automatically delete RB and TEMP files without thinking about
it for at least a moment, and looking to see what's in there.

I am not a fan of idiot-proofing. If people don't know how to manage these
things manually, they should *learn*!

I believe you when you say you haven't had any problems with the program.
But I can easily envision someone else's system having some certain issue
that when combined with an automatic or habitual running of your suggested
app might cause a problem to become a disaster. This is true of almost *any*
utility. Most of the time there's no problem--but they can turn into
monsters under the proper conditions.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

Gary S. Terhune wrote:

As for where malware comes from, there's no one source. Some cookies can
be
a problem, but I use IE6 Advanced cookie handling, and permanently reject
99.99% of all cookies.

Even so, the worst malware (aside from out & out
viruses) are installed by code that's embedded in the HTML of the pages
you
visit.

You mean the pages YOU visit, Gary. Not me! :-)

Hey, only when my wife's not looking!

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"Bill in Co." wrote in message
...
Gary S. Terhune wrote:

As for where malware comes from, there's no one source. Some cookies can
be
a problem, but I use IE6 Advanced cookie handling, and permanently
reject
99.99% of all cookies.

Even so, the worst malware (aside from out & out
viruses) are installed by code that's embedded in the HTML of the pages
you
visit.

You mean the pages YOU visit, Gary. Not me! :-)