Tech support, anyone?

[KoNeko]

I'm starting this thread because tehre are probably people out there who could also do with some assistance, and there are also some of you who could probably lend assistance (without my having to resort to the computer repair guy or something IRL).

I am having some issues with my computer and I was wondering if any computer savvy people could give me some help!

Basically, my IE is taking AGES to load up any pages (and I'm running on an ADSL connection) and just recently, I can't see any of the smilies or any pictures or anything on this site. Like, they show up as those white boxes with the red X through them, if they even load. Also, It will load the TD2 page and the ads up the top and the "home", "members", "inbox" etc. things but then it'll say it's done when it isn't.

I don't know what the deal is with my computer, because to my knowledge I haven't downloaded anything recently and I haven't changed any of my computer settings. I don't know why it's just decided to play up. I ran a virus scan and no viruses were detected. So, presuming I can access this page again, what should I do?

[Fantasia]

eh? No idea. but, while we're at it, my computer refuses to load the page in our secret commons with the spell difficulties for the QuadWiz Tournament. I got it up once, but I can't go back. Page 4, I believe it is.

[hermoine]

The thing about pictures not showing happens to me sometimes, not frequently though Thank God.
Neko, maybe you should try running a virus scan in the hidden files too. Some viruses penetrate to other many times.

[hogleg]

Anytime I've seen this it's a network problem; either your connection is a little flakey or the page is goofy. If you're sure your connection is good, try downloading firefox (because it's really small and doesn't install much of anything) and see how the page looks there. If it looks okay in FF, you may have a cacheing issue with your browser. There's a few different ways to resolve that. One is to right click on your hard drive in "My Computers" and go to properties. Then click on "Disk Cleanup" and let it check to see how much space it will save you, then go ahead and check everything except compression. This will delete all your old temp files, temporary internet files, and cache. There are about ten different ways to do this, so if you know a different way and are more comfortable with it, then use your way.

You'll lose your cookies too, which is how sites like this track you and automatically log you in, so you may see some things asking you to log in or not recognizing you.

You can get FireFox here:
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

You can learn more about your browser cache here:
www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/customizing/clearcache.asp

If that doesn't work, you may have some kind of malicious spyware/adware that's causing problems. It's not unusual for your computers browsers to be "Hijacked". This sometimes causes problems with Winsock, which is a componant your computer needs to get its network access. If you think that sounds familiar, this a good tool and procedure to help you get that straightened out:
s89223352.onlinehome.us/mirror/hjt/ <-- program download
www.smack-factory.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1477 <-- some questions and examples.

Here is a process that's a little more involved, so try the other things first:
cexx.org/lspfix.htm

1. Run LSPfix.
2. Delete all Dial-up adapters and network protcols from your network controp panel (right click on my network places and choose properties. Right click on your network card and choose properties.)
3. Delete all Winsock and Winsock2 registry keys. If you aren't comfortable digging through the registry, better have someone who is help you. Screwing up the registry is an express ticket to causing problems that are hard to fix.
4. Under Add/Remove programs go to Add/Remove windows componants, and then uncheck all of the listings under Communications.
5. Reboot and then even thought it's not neccisary, I like to reboot again before I re-add things.
re-add the communications items. Even if you don't use dialup (although your connection is technically a Dial on Demand connection) you still need to add the Dial-up adapter.
6. Reinstall network protocol settings.

[KoNeko]

Thanks, Hogleg. I'm sort of technically un-savvy so... I'll give you a yell if I stuff something up along the way.

Also, Priscilla had this to say:

Priscilla said:

;D Hello Koneko, you may have accidentally downloadd some small programs known as diallers. They are unrecognised by virus programs because they are not harmful, just a nuisance.

You need to download a free program called ad-aware.com www.ad-aware.com, this will pick up the diallers and remove them.

Diallers dont harm your computer but they do slow down the connection as they are fighting to dial different pages to the ones you are currently using ;D

Hope this will help with your problem.

[hogleg]

Priscilla has very good advice. I'd give that a shot first, since it's the easiest.

Make sure up update AdAware before you scan for problems, just click on the "Check for updates" link and then let it look for and download the new definitions.

Then just run the smart scan. Don't be freaked out if you see 20 or 30 things there, that's not too bad. If you see over 100 or so, well, then you may want to be just a TAD more careful about dl'ing things or answering yes to things.

[KoNeko]

Cool. Running scan now...


*splutters* "101 New items found"?! And it's still going?! *coughs* That's not cool. Uh, what can I do to like, not get all these spyware thingies and stuff? I mean, I know my sister also uses the computer and, without spying on her usage and stuff, is there any way I can see what the spyware is being attached to or anything?

[hogleg]

It will tell you the name of the spyware and even what it does. Your best defense is to be careful with what you click "yes" to, never install anything until you know exactly what it is and you've read user opinions about it, and avoid sites that have a lot of "grey" material (porn and/or music sites are the big one, but also crack/hack sites). You could also change your computer's security leve in the "Internet Options" in IE. You'd just change the internet zone to a higher security level and see if that helps. WinXP SP2 is supposed to fix a lot of this stuff, and it should be out within a month or so. There's a beta now, but I wouldn't mess with it until it goes gold.

www.avantbrowser.com is a pretty cool program that acts as a front end for internet explorer. IT does popup blocking, it can to Flash blocking, and all kinds of other stuff.

[Natz]

I have a problem how do you reinstall scanner and scan pictures into the computor?

I'm not very good with technical stuff

[Sphi]

Hm, I'm not an expert at this either, but try this. This should work if you're using Windows XP.

First make sure the scanner is on and plugged into your computer. Then put the scanner setup CD, if there is one, in your CD drive. Go to the Control Panel. There should be an icon called Scanners and Cameras. If you double click that, your scanner should be in there. If not, go to the left panel and click Add an imaging device. Then you can probably just follow their instructions.

The setup CD probably includes some kind of imaging program that will allow you to scan images, so after you run through the CD, see if you can scan your picture.

I hope that makes sense.

[Will]

Ah! html! The horror!

If you have yet to figure out my problem, here’s the thing. I’ve been happily creating a layout for my website with Photoshop 7.0. That went very well… but now I have to write the html coding! I have very limited knowledge of html so I really need some help… or maybe advice?

[hermoine]

When you say you have to use html coding, do you mean for the whole page, or just to put in the background or something? I'm not very good with html I'm afraid, Dan would know.

[Will]

Hmmm... I would think it's the whole page. Yup. It can't be just the background.

[RainFrost]

Willow, I'm not sure exacly what your problem is with the HTML coding but I looked up some sites that may help you, they have tutorials and stuff. This one site:
www.htmlcodetutorial.com/
Looks pretty good. I hope that helps.

[KoNeko]

Um, I'm REALLY bad with webpage stuff, but I was wondering, is there like, a REALLY basic place I can go to set up my own webpage so I can link pics and stuff like that to here? It kind of sucks how we can't just upload stuff directly to the site...