Optmist, thanks

not really sure if I've got a firewall router, its a netgear wireless thingy

just sick of all this spyware crap and cookies trojans etc getting into the PC even thou I've got 2 or 3 firewalls working and virus checkers running at the same time but the gits still get in

everyday I can check the PC and the get thru the PC defences, ummm

The Netgear Wireless ADSL or cable routers are fine so long as you have WPA wireles security enabled.

Most cookies are harmless although you can set Internet Explorer to prevent them but this will stop some sites working.

Spyware and trojans are normally downloaded as part of a web page or email. They will not normally be stopped by a firewall and are not always considered to be viruses by AV software.

If you are really serious about it then buy one of the top Internet security packages (Kaspersky was considered the best the last time I checked) and set it to maximum protection. The downside is that they use a load of computer resources, prevent you from accessing some websites and will keep asking you if you want to download others. If you say yes and something gets through then it's your fault.

There is no substitute for careful and responsible browsing. If you want to visit any dodgy sites then you could always set up a virtual machine with a virtual disk that you can trash at the end of each session but you still need to be careful.

When I "forward" an email which contains graphics or photographs recipitents often say they cannot open the pictures or graphics - can anyone help ?

Optimist, thanks

I've got Norton Internet Secruitiy 2008, AVASTI 4.8 and Zonealarm Internet Secruitity running with firewall and viruse checkers running in the background when on the net.

I then do Adaware, SuperAntispyware checks every week and running the full viruse checks and still they get thru

Rather like London Buses - I refer to one problem and another comes along - I now get nothing showing on clicking STOCKWATCH - JAVA OK and updated version installed.

Anyone know if it is possible to boot up a Flash player without being on The Net?
I have a file (.flv) which I want to open to view, but it prompts me for a program to open it. Win Media Player & Real player won't do it. Has to be a Flash Player I think.
Have found the Macromedia/Adobe Flash Player in Windows, but can't find the .exe file to boot it up.

Harry

Try entering the full path and filename into the IE7 address bar.

Richgit

Yo seem to have all of the right programs but I would sugest just using the Norton IS and possibly Microsoft Windows defender. If you have too many protective programs running, at best they will slow you down, at worst they may interfere with each other. It is still worth running weekly scans with the other utilities.

If you keep getting reports of trojans or spyware (as opposed to cookies), it could be that a rouge program is recreateing them each time they are deleted. Are they the same ones that reapear each time? Do they reappear after you visit certain sites? Do they reappear when you are connected to the Internet but without you browsing any websites?

Thanks. Have tried that but comes back 'Unsupported file type'.
Have found a converter on the net which changes .flv files to easier to read format, such as .wmv or .avi Not sure if that's the way forward.

Sorted thanks. Have found that the new free REAL 11 player will now save & play all formats.

I can't find my setup disk for an old server.

Has anyone got an NT 3.x Setup CD that they could copy for me?

TP: From your post #7084

The only other thing I needed to do was to alter the Network Connection from O2 Active to Mobile Web. Both seem to work on the XDA, but now when using it as a modem for a PC.

The carriers keep doing this. I bet O2 Active is their WAP portal. Voda do the same. All the useful stuff won't work through it, but they send the phones out preconfigured with WAP.

My new Sony Ericsson W980 couldn't access email until I changed the setting from 'Contract WAP' to 'Contract Internet'. To the carriers I say "WAP - get over it, it failed!".

Optomist try http://www.bootdisk.com/

Thanks for that suggestion Spaceman.

Unfortunately I need to get hold of a copy of an original CD. I'm trying to reinstall an NT4 Server but the version I have is an upgrade from NT3.x and the instalation insists on seeing an original CD before proceeding.

MM,

"The carriers keep doing this. I bet O2 Active is their WAP portal. "

Thanks. It seems that it is. But agreed, pretty useless.

TP

MM, what's the size of that Belkin cooler? I really need to cool my lappy down. Mine's roughly 30cm wide x 25cm deep.

BIOS settings have been changed on my P.C. (long story, but not worth repeating!) & the system will now not boot up. Power comes on & the light on the CD-ROM & the A Drive come on, but the BIOS does not boot up. I cannot find out what has been changed in the BIOS, but it appears to now want an external command from the A Drive. Nothing appears on the screen, but the internal speaker bleeps 10 times.
Is this a bootstrap loader problem or Power on self test problem & if so is there a donwloadable boot program which I can insert to the A Drive just to get the DOS command prompt to activate? Have tried the Windows bootdisk, but to no avail as have no command prompt.

SC,

This is the one I bought.

The Cooling Shop are a decent bunch and phoned me back when I placed the order to say they'd discovered they only had that model in silver and did I mind.

Works fine.

TP

Harry I havnt read you r earlier posts on this problem, here are a few thoughts:

1) The 10 beeps probably mean something, do a search for beep codes for your BIOS. It could be something like memory failure.

2) BIOS backup batteries fail and cause the BIOS contents to be lost, an easy way of picking this up is to look at the time and date in your BIOS, if that keeps getting reset to something like 0000 on 1/1/1990 its likelt the battery has failed.

3) To get to the bottom of the problem (if the beep codes don't help), I would unplug all attached to USB etc protsdevices and reboot, if it works reattach one at a time and see when it stops booting. If it still does not boot will all attached devices also remove the memory and hard disks and have another go using a single stick of memory and adding memory and disks to find out whats causing the problem.

Thanks Spaceman. Beep codes are all very well, but apparently the codes differ with each manufacturer & even AMI BIOS varied it's codes as the years went by!!!
Your suggestion of unplug everything & start re-attaching is spot on! For some reason I have grilled one of the RAM sticks. Once that is out, the system reboots. I have no idea why it happened, but set all the BIOS settings back to the default & am trusting in luck. Phew, scary moment! Thought I was looking at a new motherboard. Thanks again as was slightly out of my depth with the beep codes.

SC:

The Belkin cooler is 10.5" (26cm) wide by 11" (28cm) deep. It's made of plastic, has a single fan, but is shaped to provide effective convection cooling even without the fan running. My ThinkPad overhangs it on either side by about an inch, but that doesn't constitute a problem as the cooling air wafts out on each side under the overhang.

It has wide non-slip strips to accomadate a variety of laptop footprints. It cost 19.95 (inc VAT).

However, TP's choice looks jolly good too!

MM