msu,(Memphis State?) I worked on a Tiger Direct machine not long ago and it was a Win98. Tiger had no records of the guys configuration, but that is the only negative to say about it. With Gateway you go to there site and put the serial number and they can tell you everything, and then you can scan it for changes. Dell is very competitive right now. Did you compare with them? (Bias--my latest is a Dell).

tc, Do you have any links to what should be backed up for an XP user?

gottfried, I spent a couple of hours with it this morning and I am so far very pleased. You can save all the set ups, schedule automated backup, and save to different destinations. There is a 30 day trial with the full version, but I'll probably pay the $30 before then as it seems worth it. It uses some terms that are not what you normally hear like "configuration/ export" instead of "save settings". That slowed down my learning a little, but it wasn't to bad. Downloads.com has it with 28,539 downloads since 9/8/03 when they listed it, so it is doing pretty well. There were no user ratings yet bad or good.

I just got the trial version of Handy Backup 4.1. It looks like it would have everything I need. We'll see.

tc, I have the home edition and tried the backup yesterday. It doesn't seem to be able to use multiple media or save your set up for the next time you use it. That is probably why Microsoft didn't have it in the default installation.

Backup? Anybody have a backup program for XP they can recommend that is free or close to it. I want to do mostly data files to CD-RW, and be able to save the set up for the next run.

Matt, Here is a link to the company that my ISP is using to filter on their server. http://www.postini.com/ They have been catching all the Sobig virus before they can get to my Norton. The Spam is filtered and you can log in and check it when you want. The ISP added $1.00 per month to dial-up subscribers when the Spam filter was rolled out. I tried it and it worked great except I would still log on and eyeball the list to see if it was filtering out something needed. It's percentage seemed real good, but the subject line showed more than Mailwasher and I hate reading that graphic crap. For now I'll just stick with Mailwasher.

lc, I have already tried that, and when I clicked on the new shortcut in her account I got the error message. Startman was never designed for XP and I'm probably going to have to find one that is.

StartMan? I love this little utility by PCForrest, but I have a small problem using it in XP. It was installed in my user account and works fine, but if I go to my wife's account it gives an error "Run-time error 429 ActiveX component can't create object". Their web site has been down and the free download is getting hard to find. It may not be compatible for but one user in XP. Any help would be appreciated.

I have it now after re-downloading the set-up file.

Myst, I think I need to defrag my brain. I'm looking at the 3 day rule example and it looks like one would have bought a little sooner if he were following the rule exactly. The last sell was at 18.20 on 4/25 and by 5/5 it had closed above 3 times, and yet your buy is on 5/15. Can you clarify when you get time?

I am up to 9 now on the W32.Sobig count and all from different sources.

W32.Sobig.F@mm I have had 6 different emails try to give me this virus since yesterday.
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.html

Zone Alarm Pro users? There is a new version that just came out and I am having a problem installing it. My machine is XP, and when I try to open the set-up file I get this error.


Has anybody successful installed the new version yet. It is a 4.0.123.12 version.

Rom, That made my day!:)

You might also want to try Startman. It is getting harder to find, but here you go. http://www.pt.lu/comnet/desc/startman.html

msolft, OK if you have different ISP then on the weekend when the market is closed you could substitute your computer for hers and rule out the Comcast factor. You could go to Microsoft Download Center (Not WindowsUpdate), and before you move pick up IE6 SP1 at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1e1550cb-5e5d-48f5-b02b-20b602228de6&di... I would just save it to my desktop using Netscape if you have to, and then move, install IE6, and set up your new connection with her ISP. That might,(I say MIGHT), tell you something.

mlsoft, Just curious! Is your daughter's computer on the same ISP?

mlsoft, Under the "Security" tab is "Active Scripting". In going through FAQs at comcast.net I see a reference to having "Active Scripting" turned on to download Windows Updates. http://online.comcast.net/help/faq-detail.asp?intFaqID=213&intSubCategoryID=148 I am thinking that since you can't do this that Comcast has some how hijacked the 2 missing tabs in IE Internet Options. A Google search seems to find a lot of problems with Comcast but not this one. Comcast and their version of IE 6 are the root of your problem (my guess). The fact that their tech support can't solve the problem, could mean they are just using script readers. The real test would be to bring your machine to a friends house and play with it eliminating the ISP factor. I brought 3 machines here lately that the parents had put hidden parental controls and forgotten about them. They all had effects similar to your experience. None could use Windows Update. I probably didn't help, but being and old Vol from Knoxville forced me to try.

Scrooge, If you run SpyBot every day I'm thinking that is mostly cookies that your are finding. I use AdSubtract to keep the undesired cookies from coming in, and it is way easier than running SpyBot daily. Just a thought.

That might not have been clear the way I said that about Yahoo and Hotmail. What I meant is that tons of spam come to me from Yahoo and Hotmail accounts of others. I have never had either. Sorry:)

Excel, Try your ISP and see if they give more than one account. The second one could be dumped if ever the spamers start loading it. I was getting so much spam from yahoo email that I blacklisted their entire domain along with hotmail.

Zone Alarm is asking to let Indexing Service filter daemon access the internet. CIDAEMON.EXE is the application name and it is with XP. Anybody know if this needs to be allowed?

Rick, That would be fine with me.

Excel,
Thanks for the links. I stuck them on my desktop so I'll be sure to them a good look. We need all the help we can get here.

Doug--Thanks for the well thought out ideas and suggestions. They seem in-line with the comments people are putting in the questionnaire. You have tremendous food for thought there, and I'll print your response and later on sit down with the questionnaire results and try to get a focused approach.

Aquarium Screen saver for XP? Google gives tons of possibilities, but I would like one that somebody recommends? Free of course!
Thanks,

Rick, I am exploring a small business idea that is based on some of the problems that are listed in your post. I have a web site that is testing the waters. Please tell me what you think? http://www.pchousekeeping.com

Norton has it now. http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.b@mm.html

Rick, I may have gotten that this morning. It was from support@microsoft.com The message says only"All information is in the attached file." and the Subject says Re: Music.

Norten didn't catch it but Zone Alarm quarintined it. The file was doc_details.pif

Anybody ever heard any thing good or bad about Computer Troubleshooters?
http://www.comptroub.com/usindex.htm

Mike, I just got a message from Lou yesterday and he is fine but loaded with work. He has been in "Read Only" mode. I was concerned too.

Myst, I see that IHUB has bought SI. I hope that dosen't affect the data feed for X_DEV.
#reply-18951914

Rick I'm confused. Why was Feb. alert just now showing up on your computer? What am I missing here?

et--That Henry Hub is about 10 miles south of here. Henry is a country crossroads with no town, just a big natural gas facility.

Hey Jimbob, Do you feel that Dreamweaver is worth the premium over FrontPage?

EC thanks for the help. I'm using Cacheman and it is showing 130M out of an available 256RAM in the Paging file. I think that is what you were indicating. The Disk cache is set at 30M. I was getting all this scrambled in my mind with Browser Cache and Temporary Internet files which I had set to 80 and moved down to 10 after people here recomending it could be lowered.

Hey LC, I have been killing time looking over that link you gave me and these guys are using astrology as a TA tool and charging $50 a month for their full web site access. See what you think of this.
http://www.astrikos.com/public/siderograph.html

Thanks for that LC. I looked around awhile last night and couldn't find it. You are a better bloodhound than me. :)

Myst, You wouldn't happen to have a link to that board? I wasn't able to find it.