Privacy on the Internet

[Mike 64]

Is there such a thing?

NOTICE: We collect personal information on this site.

Do you ever read the small print on the bottem of web pages. I've been noticing more and more of this on sites like yahoo, google and other sites lately. It seems like you cant go anywhere on the internet anymore without a server taking personal information from your computer and doing who knows what with it.

[RyanH 14]

Usually when you visit a site it will do a few things.

It will place a cookie on your machine and track your history on a site. Places like Amazon will keep track of what type of purchases you make and searches you initiate so they can provide specialized ads that will appeal to you specifically. For example, if you do lots of searches on "Mozart" you will see ads pertaining to classical music with an emphasis on Mozart....you won't see many more related to Black Eyed Peas or 50 Cent.

Sites will also track how long you spent on certain pages, which progression of pages you followed to get to a certain site, and what type of content you view. They do this for reasons similar to the one above but they can also use it to streamline information to ensure that you find what you look for quickly....Google may alter their results to show those that more closely match things you've searched for in the past (usually they will base it "per session"). They will also show advertising relevant to YOU, like is done here now on TGS. I wouldn't worry about these sites trying to use the information to steal your money or read your medical records.

[Jon 533]

One way to keep your computer lean and clean is clean your cookies weekly or every couple weeks along with clearing old files and history.

Sure you will have to re-enter your passwords once you remove the cookies but it sure keeps the spies out of your system.

That and download the free verison or buy the Pro Ad-Aware from Lavasoft and run it weekly too.

You will be surprised how much spying goes on in your computers.

Just remember there is no foolproof way to totally remove all bugs.

[paul-uk 500]

download ccleaner and run it everynight b4 shutdown.....you will have to put your p\w in when you visit here but that nothing.it also keeps you pc fast.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[Larry B 55]

I use Ad-Aware from Lavasoft.com It is pretty well rated and finds those "data miner" cookies. It also finds registry keys as well. Best of all it is free unless you want the all inclusive version.

[seymore 90]

I use Microsoft's anti spyware and also it's free....:cool:

I figure it's better to use Microsoft's sofware to protect a "Windows product"

Since Windows is Microsoft's platform who would know better how to protect Windows than Ole'uncle Bill Gates..:D

[RyanH 14]

who would know better how to protect Windows than Ole'uncle Bill Gates..:D

Those guys who come up with new trojans and cracks to bypass Windows "security" every week.

I've used ZoneLab's ZoneAlarms for several years now in combination with Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and have had good results. I also use Mozilla's FireFox and related program suite for web browsing.

[seymore 90]

Those guys who come up with new trojans and cracks to bypass Windows "security" every week.

I've used ZoneLab's ZoneAlarms for several years now in combination with Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and have had good results. I also use Mozilla's FireFox and related program suite for web browsing.

Yeah i know Ryan those guys that write the trojans laugh at Microsoft's security...:D

I wonder how Microsoft's new OS is going to be on security?I think it shoudl be out by the end of the year.

I've used Zone Alarm before it's a good program.I've used just about all the diff. anti spyware programs out there.

I like being a geek trying out diff programs,building my own p.c,OVERCLOCKING my processor,video card etc..:cool:

[Mike Williamson 198]

I absolutely HATE zone alarm...Have tried it more than once, and always wind up with problems.

I do use Ad Aware Pro, Norton antivirus 2006, and keep my windows and norton up to date.

[seymore 90]

I also use Mozilla's FireFox and related program suite for web browsing.

I just started using Mozilla a few months ago.. I like the Tab browsing feature on it.Is it me or does it take forever to open up? My IE opens up a hell of a lot faster and loads faster but then again IE built in the OS probally has a lot to do with it.

Are there any settings in Firefox i can make it to open/load up faster?

My system is that new Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLI Mobo W/Athalon 2200 Mghz overclocked to 2375mghz... 1gig of DDR Ram...ATI 256mb 3DDR video "overclocked too"...2 Raid SATA HD's 200gig-160gig....DVD R+RW dual layer.

I think if people have 2 HD's to run the OS on the master HD and the secondary for improtant files.You won't lose any info you have saved if you crash. Also your pc runs faster if you have the paging file on it's own partition.

So as you can see i'm a .... :lgkeyboar

PS... DO NOT USE SPY-BOT thats the worst spyware i've used.You can really screw up your registry!!

[PressurePros 248]

:lgbow: Damn, Shane. You should think about upgrading that dinosaur LOL.

I use Avant browser which utilizes the IE engine (which I thought Mozilla did as well?) Anyway I like the tabbed browsing also. Question for you.. How do I setup Outlook to read the mail on my website? There was some type of script built into the site architecture but I get error messages when trying to use it. Are there better mail readers? I have gotten spoiled using web mail and since you are a definite guru perhaps you can guide me?

PS: I like CCleaner as well and I use adaware but I find that it doesn't pick up everything. I've been using shareware of Spyware Doctor.. it has no limitations and it finds a ton of adware. It also doesn't eliminate vital registry entries.

[CLASSICPW 14]

Jeeez, my old pc was a pile of crap because of spyware and virus attacks. When I bought the new pc for the business with all the bells and whistles I made sure to have my buddy come by, who's an IT manager, and he installed Macfee, spybot, adaware, microsoft anti virus and spyware and one more. He set them to run daily so my Pc is now fast and protected. It's a massive difference

[seymore 90]

:lgbow: Damn, Shane. You should think about upgrading that dinosaur LOL.

Question for you.. How do I setup Outlook to read the mail on my website?

Well I think i'll be set for a while till i maby upgrade my processor but that's only because i'm 'WEAK" when it comes to buying electronics.I will not need any HD's for a long time uless I have a physical hardware problem.

I'm using g-mail now and stopped using Outlook Express ..like you im spoiled with web base mail.I like the gmail notifier pop ups

Are those error messages in Outlook? Make sure you have all the service packs installed.

If you have error problems with Outlook and can copy and paste the error code in the search bar on Microsoft's web site it will tell you the problem and hopefully the answer.

You could back up your address book and messages you want to keep.Then try re installing Outlook.

You could look into Eudora for mail readers...I've read it's a decent program but i've not messed with it.

http://email.about.com/cs/winclientreviews/gr/eudora.htm

[seymore 90]

Jeeez, my old pc was a pile of crap because of spyware and virus attacks. When I bought the new pc for the business with all the bells and whistles I made sure to have my buddy come by, who's an IT manager, and he installed Macfee, spybot, adaware, microsoft anti virus and spyware and one more. He set them to run daily so my Pc is now fast and protected. It's a massive difference

Just remember to set up defrag to run every few days that speeds up all the programs to start up faster and find the info it needs.DEFRAG will clean up all the files that are scattered and organize them to optimize your file system.

Did your buddy upgrade your RAM memory?

That's one of the most important upgrades that will SUP -UP your pc.You need 256mb min now a days if you are running XP pro or photo editing software etc.I would max it out if you can cause memory is cheap.It helps speed things up if you are multitasking...IE:multiple browsers open etc

Upgrading your video card to give you a better resolution helps.Like just about everybody are using there pc on the net watching videos etc.

Here i go again....:lgkeyboar

PS it's nice to have a cousin that worked for Compaq desktop support

"when they were still around" to ask him questions when i'm learing as i go :cool:

You have mostlly 2 kinds of problems Operating Systems or hardware failure.9 out of 10 times it's software drivers.

[seymore 90]

Hey Mike you might want to put this thread in the computer section?

I don't think the internet will ever be private with all the $$$ being made online today!

You can try real hard to keep your pc secure these days but if some hacker wants to get in someones computer they will.

When the internet first came out .EXE files were the most dangerous when exectuted.Did you know you can also recieve a trojan virus through a .JPG picture?

Now a days you can catch a virus just from viewing a web page.The hackers write codes built in the web site to attack your pc.The more secure they try to make the browser the hackers figure how to crack it.

You're the chosen 1 NEO find the white rabbit..:D

[seymore 90]

Hey Ken that Avant browser is cool i like it better than Firefox. :cool:

[Mike Williamson 198]

I just started using Mozilla a few months ago.. I like the Tab browsing feature on it.Is it me or does it take forever to open up? My IE opens up a hell of a lot faster and loads faster but then again IE built in the OS probally has a lot to do with it.

Firefox opens very fast for me, at least as fast or faster than IE. I love it.

My system is that new Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLI Mobo W/Athalon 2200 Mghz overclocked to 2375mghz... 1gig of DDR Ram...ATI 256mb 3DDR video "overclocked too"...2 Raid SATA HD's 200gig-160gig....DVD R+RW dual layer.

I just put together my new system too. Intel D955XBKLKR motherboard with a Pentium D 840 3.2Mhz processor. 2 gigs of DDR2 Ram, ATI X700Pro 256mb in the PCI Express slot, 1 300gb SATA drive and 1 150bg SATA drive, and two Sony DVD dual layer burners.

I bought a copy of WinXP x64, but some hardward developers have yet to develop drivers for it, so I haven't installed that yet. I'm still running WinXP Pro.

The only processer faster than this one was the Pentium D 840 3.2Mhz Extreme edition, but that was $1000.00 just for the chip. This one was $570.00.

I think if people have 2 HD's to run the OS on the master HD and the secondary for improtant files.You won't lose any info you have saved if you crash. Also your pc runs faster if you have the paging file on it's own partition.

You won't lose info if the OS drive crashes, b ut you WILL lose info if the secondary drive crashes! Better to have some sort of backup system in place. I have a 300MB external one-touch drive. I love it.

PS... DO NOT USE SPY-BOT thats the worst spyware i've used.You can really screw up your registry!!

I used Spybot before the new computer, and never had problems with it. I used that, Ad Aware, and norton, as well as the previously suggested CCleaner. All worked great! I don't use the spybot now because both Norton and Ad Aware have incorporated spyware features into their products.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Just remember to set up defrag to run every few days that speeds up all the programs to start up faster and find the info it needs.DEFRAG will clean up all the files that are scattered and organize them to optimize your file system.

Defrag definitely does NOT need to be run every few days, unless you're doing a huge amount of downloading, moving, and deleting data. For most of us, defreagging once every month or two should be more than sufficient.

[seymore 90]

Defrag definitely does NOT need to be run every few days, unless you're doing a huge amount of downloading, moving, and deleting data. For most of us, defreagging once every month or two should be more than sufficient.

Yeah you are right on Mike i missed typed days instead of months.

[seymore 90]

Firefox opens very fast for me, at least as fast or faster than IE. I love it.

I just put together my new system too. Intel D955XBKLKR motherboard with a Pentium D 840 3.2Mhz processor. 2 gigs of DDR2 Ram, ATI X700Pro 256mb in the PCI Express slot, 1 300gb SATA drive and 1 150bg SATA drive, and two Sony DVD dual layer burners.

I bought a copy of WinXP x64, but some hardward developers have yet to develop drivers for it, so I haven't installed that yet. I'm still running WinXP Pro.

The only processer faster than this one was the Pentium D 840 3.2Mhz Extreme edition, but that was $1000.00 just for the chip. This one was $570.00.

You won't lose info if the OS drive crashes, but you WILL lose info if the secondary drive crashes! Better to have some sort of backup system in place. I have a 300MB external one-touch drive. I love it.

I used Spybot before the new computer, and never had problems with it. I used that, Ad Aware, and norton, as well as the previously suggested CCleaner. All worked great! I don't use the spybot now because both Norton and Ad Aware have incorporated spyware features into their products.

That is a monster you put together there Mike! What did that bad boy end up running you $2k?

I started out at $1100 then returned my original mobo and vid card upgraded so i'm around 1500 or so.

I see you bought the Rolls Royce Intel that's a nice chip for $500!

I think Intel is over priced compared to the AMD chips that have just as good benhmarks or better than Intel chips.

I'll have to try reinstalling my Firefox and see if speeds it up any cause i don't like how it runs now.That Avant browser is very similar to Firefox and starts/loads pages faster than Fox for me.

That's a nice ATIX700Pro vid card you have i looked at those before i bought the ATI X850 XT Platnum PCIEX.It took a lot for me to pay $500 for a vid card but i thnk it will be a more than enough of a video card for a long time.

Are you going to run dual vid cards in the future?

I like the feature but not sure if i'll ever need to run dual cards.

You are also right on with the external drives for back up that is the way to go.I'll make multiple DVD's of backup info cause i'd hate to come accross that one bad disk and not have a plan B.

I also use Ghost to image my HD for restoring my OS.

[Jon 533]

Guys seems like your using one word to describe two different programs.

Outlook Express

MS Outlook.

Outlook Express is a simple Email program that usually comes built in with IE and/or Office.

Microsoft Outlook is a stand alone program and is much more powerful and has tons more options.

The only problem with MS Outlook is it somehow piggybacks on Outlook Express, delete Outlook Express and MS Outlook will not work.

Microsoft needs to make MS Outlook a truly stand alone program so Outlook Express can be deleted, then the security problem will be half solved.

We all know Microsoft is the laughing stock of the industry when it comes to security, never will they make a truly secure program, even the new OS system will have tons of bugs in it.

---------------

Now a question for all you computer experts:

I know there are hidden files, (using the word files for lack of knowing true word) in almost all Microsoft programs that the people that design them put in, more like fun things then true files but how do you find all of them?

I understand there are certain keystokes we are suppose to use to bring them out but again how do we learn them?

Are they only on the CD or built right into the program, meaning can we search the secret code from our computer without the CD installed?

[Mike Williamson 198]

That is a monster you put together there Mike! What did that bad boy end up running you $2k?

I started out at $1100 then returned my original mobo and vid card upgraded so i'm around 1500 or so.

It was right at about $1650, including the video card. That of course didn't include the monitor. I just used the same monitor (19" Samsung 930B...I love it. 8ms refresh rate, 160 degree viewable).

That price also includes a few little bells and whistles, like a combo floppy drive/card reader, a front 3.5" media center with usb and firewire ports and audio jacks, and variable speed 120" fans. The case kinda looks cool too, with blue LED lights in the front, and all the fans are blue LED fans.

I'm just parital to Intel, no reason in particular, just never had a problem with their boards or chips, so why change now? The differences in speed is minimal, and for what I use the computer for, not that important. This machine will run every game out there at full graphics settings, so no worries there.

The whole new computer thing started when I needed to upgrade the 120GB hard drive I had in the other computer (P4 2Ghz machine). I had run out of space mainly due to the number of digital pictures we take since we've had the baby!! It just snowballed from there.

This video card will run dual output if I want to. The new version of windows coming out this year is geared towards two monitors, and of course 64 bit software.

DVDs are another good choice, just a pain if you have a lot of data, or if you back up frequently. The drives really aren't that expensive.

[Mike Williamson 198]

The only problem with MS Outlook is it somehow piggybacks on Outlook Express, delete Outlook Express and MS Outlook will not work.

Microsoft needs to make MS Outlook a truly stand alone program so Outlook Express can be deleted, then the security problem will be half solved.

We all know Microsoft is the laughing stock of the industry when it comes to security, never will they make a truly secure program, even the new OS system will have tons of bugs in it.

In my experience, Outlook is a slow, resource hungry monster. I don't use it for that reason. Outlook express does a great job for email and newsgroups, and if you don't like that, Mozilla has one very similar without, of course, the common security issues.

Come on, Tony, chime in here! You're the computer expert among us!!

I think part of the reason they're so security vulnerable is simply that they're the primary OS out there. If you're a hacker and want to affect the most people you can, you go after windows. Any OS is going to be vulnerable in some way, I don't care how much time you spend testing and making sure you didn't miss anything. Hackers are always going to come up with new ways to attack you, spy on you, etc etc...At least MS has done a fairly good job of keeping up with security updates, and XP does a MUCH better job of security than 98 did.

---------------

Now a question for all you computer experts:

I know there are hidden files, (using the word files for lack of knowing true word) in almost all Microsoft programs that the people that design them put in, more like fun things then true files but how do you find all of them?

I understand there are certain keystokes we are suppose to use to bring them out but again how do we learn them?

Are they only on the CD or built right into the program, meaning can we search the secret code from our computer without the CD installed?

I know there are settings that you can change that aren't easily found without a third party program, or with Microsoft's Tweak UI program.

As far as other things in Windows, I don't know, other than the hidden files that IE uses, which is another reason I won't use IE.

Most games have cheat codes that will bring out hidden features in the game.

[seymore 90]

That price also includes a few little bells and whistles, like a combo floppy drive/card reader, a front 3.5" media center with usb and firewire ports and audio jacks, and variable speed 120" fans. The case kinda looks cool too, with blue LED lights in the front, and all the fans are blue LED fans.

That's a pretty good price for that machine Mike!

I like my led lights in my box too..here are a few pics. :cool:

[Mike Williamson 198]

That's a pretty good price for that machine Mike!

I like my led lights in my box too..here are a few pics. :cool:

Wow, looks like you went with the full tower case! Looks good!

Mine is a mid-tower, but I may change that at some point down the road.

[seymore 90]

Wow, looks like you went with the full tower case! Looks good!

Mine is a mid-tower, but I may change that at some point down the road.

Yeah the full tower makes it a hell of a lot easier to work on!

I'm not finished i have to wrap my wires with this silver wrap that makes it look all neat and clean.

This case was about $160 and it's tool less inatallation.