"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news

" JimH" wrote in message
. ..

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
" JimH" wrote in message
om...

Sure. Try running the programs I suggested to see what a good job
ZoneAlarm has done for you blocking spyware.

I guarantee you that you will be amazed at how much spyware you have
on your machine if you rely on ZoneAlarm only.




Oops.

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Spy...pydefense.html


Even "good" software can cause some interesting, evil conflicts with
things like sound & video drivers. It's one reason why you shouldn't
continually try all sorts of stuff. When these conflicts occur, it's
enough to drive you nuts, especially since uninstall routines cannot
reverse the problem much of the time.


I have not had a problem so far (knock on wood) running the programs I
listed.


Keep doing those backups..... :-)

Yep. I backup not only to a partition on my hard drive but more importantly
on an external hard drive. I am most worried about my pictures and music
files.

I use Acronis True Image and it has saved me a couple of times already.

I have now gotten into the habit of backing up the entire drive weekly.



I've had a couple of machines which got so screwed up by
software-initiated device conflicts that I had to reformat & reinstall
from scratch. You've probably seen machines which simply freeze while
you're doing absolutely nothing to deserve it. If it's a home machine,
maybe it's not a big deal. But, I've had it happen twice with the machine
I run my business with. Not good. Now, I install nothing experimental on
that machine, ever.

Even it is a home machine it takes days to get it tweaked the way you like
it after a new and clean install of all your programs.

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 15:49:29 -0500, JohnH wrote:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 19:54:46 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

It used to be that when you called tech support about a software problem
(like your machine freezing up), the most popular advice given was to
hunt
down the latest video & audio drivers. Actually not bad advice, but it
was
usually the last resort of a frustrated technician. Now, they blame
ZoneAlarm for every damned thing. About a month ago, messages I was
posting
here weren't appearing for hours, if at all. Usually, it's a matter of
seconds. I called Frontier to report *their* problem. The guy told me to
try
shutting down ZoneAlarm. When I asked how it could be that I'd be having
this problem just now, when I'd been running ZA for years, he was at a
loss
to explain. Of course, it had nothing to do with ZA, but I gave up on the
guy, and the next day, "my problem" somehow was fixed.

The battery in my truck is getting a bit tired after 3 years, and my
first
thought was that it's about time. However, it turns out that the problem
lies with ZoneAlarm.

LOL!

Hey, I'm willing to try anything again, but my last experience with
ZA, it was virtually useless.

According to my brother, who works with managing this stuff all day,
told me that sometimes it's not the site, but the carrier that causes
the problem. I don't know, I don't care. All I know is that I had
problems with it and I didn't like the way it handled popups.

With my current configuration of Norton, Popup Blocker, Noadaware and
Adaware SE, I'm bullet proof and that's the way I want it.



Some good links:

http://castlecops.com/postlite7736-.html

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

http://www.lavasoft.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

http://www.a-2.org/en/software/free/

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 15:49:29 -0500, JohnH wrote:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 19:54:46 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

It used to be that when you called tech support about a software problem
(like your machine freezing up), the most popular advice given was to
hunt
down the latest video & audio drivers. Actually not bad advice, but it
was
usually the last resort of a frustrated technician. Now, they blame
ZoneAlarm for every damned thing. About a month ago, messages I was
posting
here weren't appearing for hours, if at all. Usually, it's a matter of
seconds. I called Frontier to report *their* problem. The guy told me to
try
shutting down ZoneAlarm. When I asked how it could be that I'd be having
this problem just now, when I'd been running ZA for years, he was at a
loss
to explain. Of course, it had nothing to do with ZA, but I gave up on the
guy, and the next day, "my problem" somehow was fixed.

The battery in my truck is getting a bit tired after 3 years, and my
first
thought was that it's about time. However, it turns out that the problem
lies with ZoneAlarm.

LOL!

Hey, I'm willing to try anything again, but my last experience with
ZA, it was virtually useless.

According to my brother, who works with managing this stuff all day,
told me that sometimes it's not the site, but the carrier that causes
the problem. I don't know, I don't care. All I know is that I had
problems with it and I didn't like the way it handled popups.

With my current configuration of Norton, Popup Blocker, Noadaware and
Adaware SE, I'm bullet proof and that's the way I want it.

As long as you're doing SOMETHING, and you like it, the means don't matter
much. I started using ZA when there was no other alternative, or at least
not one which was accessible and affordable for individual users. I never
really had issues with it, except when my company's tech guy was walking me
through the setup of our VPN, which presented some challenges to ZA. That's
when I had to delve deeply into those geek screens. I could never duplicate
the settings without his help, so I did a print screen for each one, stuck
them into a Word doc, and that's pegged to the bulletin board.