A thread for boring computer questions.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (2397 of them)

Windows SP2 and/or Norton AntiVirus has disabled the ability to FTP into anything for no fucking reason. Why? Manually telling the firewall stuff to allow SmartFTP to work hasn't done jack. It's like the port was closed off permanently. Anyone else experience this?

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 6 January 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if it's your problem, but diable, uninstall and delete Norton AntiVirus. It's a processor-eating, unreliable monster with security problems.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 6 January 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)

I'd guess it's the Windows Firewall that SP2 turns on. FTP probably works through IE, but not through custom programs. You can tell it to open ports explicitly but I can't help here; this computer I'm on's firewall is broken and I can't see the dialogs. To allow FTP, you need to open ports 23 and 22.

I think it's on one of the advanced tabs on Control Panel->Windows Firewall.

― KeithW (kmw), Thursday, 6 January 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Increasingly, people are disallowing FTP access to their servers. I'm using WinSCP3, which works just like the FTP app you're probably using but is supposedly more secure.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 6 January 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Pears, Cygwin could be your your friend, you can run apache 1.3 (not 2) in a linux like environment.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 7 January 2005 06:41 (twenty years ago)

under windows that is.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 7 January 2005 06:42 (twenty years ago)

This is gonna sound like a really stoopid and obvious question, but how the hell do I clear my msn search box? I've cleared my history, cookies etc, but that hasn't helped.

― Rumpington Lane, Friday, 7 January 2005 07:53 (twenty years ago)

Charlie, you need to run adaware, spybot search and destroy and an updated virus checker, AVG is free, CWShredder may help.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html

Right. So I downloaded all of the above. The only one that would even run was AVG, but that froze after 10 minutes. The others wouldn't run at all, as the PC did its usual "not enough active memory, please close some applications and try again" trick - EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE OPEN AT ALL.

What I'd really dearly like to do, is reformat my hard drive and start the whole thing from scratch. But I don't have a Windows disc. Any free alternatives to Windows? I've been considering Firefox, but that's just for tinternet, right? How does Linux work?

Ug.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 January 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

If you want to *try* Linux to see if it's worth using instead, get hold of a copy of Knoppix - it's a version of Linux that runs from a CD without installing anything on your computer. It's free, if you can find someone to download it and burn it onto a disc for you.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

OK this is no doubt an utterly lame question - I need to create shedloads of PDFs from Word docs, right? I have Acrobat Pro 6 and Acrobat Distiller. Before my office move, Distiller was set up as a printer so I could just do "print to distiller" and HOORAY there it was. This got lost in the move and now I can't fecking figure out how to put it back. It doesn't appear anywhere in my "big giant list of printers available to me", and I can't seem to add the damned thing anywhere either.

If this sort of fannydangle is anyone's bread and butter - any help gratefully taken.

― Starry (hello chickens), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

The easiest way to fix that is probably to reinstall Distiller.

(people here have had the same problem)

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

lovely idea...but it's a 700mg download! i'm on 56k...that would take several lifetimes.

so, you're right, i'd have to get someone else to d/l it for me, but i couldn't actually *use* it, could i? it's just a demo, right? hmmm.

with every passing day, i realise how little i actually know about computers is in inverse proportion to how much my family thinks i know. gah.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

It's not a demo; it's a full version of Linux, just one that doesn't install anything onto your own disk. You should be able to use it for as much as you could use similar (ie, consumer-oriented) versions of Linux for.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

Charlie sounds like you need to bite the bullet and take your PC to a geek who can fix it for you, problems like the ones you are describing are difficult to troubleshoot on internet forums.

I usually hate reccomending people do this due to the amount of unscrupulous PC shops there are out there taking advantage of people lack of knowledge.

A knoppix CD would get you up and running for most things but in the long term having your PC back with an installed OS is reccomended.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 7 January 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Can no-one help me with my piddling little question?

― Rumpington Lane, Friday, 7 January 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

Charlie:

Boot your PC in Safe mode

Run the aforementioned programs.

Now make sure you have some kind of software firewall that starts up when windows does and restart your machine.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

you may also want to check out the list of programs that are marked to run on startup by running msconfig (then go to 'startup' tab) and uncheck those that don't look vital. There's probably a lot of things running on startup hogging your memory.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 January 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

oh, and rumpy, I don't know what you mean by 'clear my MSN search box'...do you have autocomplete or something?

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 January 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

gnoppix is better than knoppix bcause it has the gnome (please say that out loud pronounching everything Guh-no... an Kuh-no...)

― Ed (dali), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

aha! now that sounds more than plausible. it seems to be trying to run various things on start-up, then not being able to find the executable files, and thus getting confused and crotchety (or is that me?).

Now, how do I run msconfig? Where/what is it?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

Yeah Teeny...

― Rumpington Lane, Friday, 7 January 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

Go to the start menu, select "Run...", and type msconfig in the box.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

but I would do tombot's thing first, restart in safe mode and run all your antivirus and antispyware stuff, that'll get rid of a lot of the bad executables that run on startup.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

rumpy - Tools/ Internet Options/ Content/ Autocomplete

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

then pick 'clear forms' and uncheck the 'forms' box, I think that'll do it.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

so i'm trying to rip ghostface's "supreme clientele" for my ipod on my powerbook g4, but the computer won't even recognize the cd when i put it in--it doesn't even mount! any tips?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 9 January 2005 17:13 (twenty years ago)

Charlie, you need to run adaware, spybot search and destroy and an updated virus checker, AVG is free, CWShredder may help.

Haha I ran AVG on Friday. It found 1,002 - that's ONE THOUSAND AND TWO, folks - viruses on my PC! Mainly trojan horses, but a handful of dialers too.

I've deleted the lot, natch, and done the msconfig thing, and still there are pop-ups on start-up, and problems finding applications (especially the defrag button), and now I've just installed my digicam picture viewer and suddenly AOL won't connect to the interweb anymore! Argh!

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:09 (twenty years ago)

CWShredder did wonders for my filthy hard drive.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 10 January 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

Charlie, it sounds like your computer is totally messed up and I suspect you're not going to be able to do yourself all the necessary things to clean it - all you need to do is delete one thing wrongly or not delete one other thing and you're fucked. I second the "take it to an expert" option.

Or - can you justify buying a new one?

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 10 January 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

Or - can u find someone w/Windows install disks? I did a "format c:" on my parents' hard drive, reinstalled their applications, put their documents back on and it's like night and day. Took about a week to do, mind.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Ta Teeny, tried that but I'm still getting all my searches showing. I've cleared my history and all temporary files, but still... sigh. It's pissing me off, some of my old searches were pretty embarrassing such as 'Dennis from Eastenders' which appears as soon as I put a D in the box.

*Blushes*

― Rumpington Lane, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Could somebody tell this Layman the main differences/pros & cons between Airport EXTREME and Aiport EXPRESS?

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Extreme is a normal wireless transmitter for the Internet, that also includes a little port to plug a network printer into. It's capable of very fast connection speeds.

Express is a smaller and slightly slower wireless transmitter, but it does something Extreme doesn't do, it allows you to play music wirelessly into any old stereo (and it plugs right into the electrical socket in your wall).

I think this is right.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

Thanks, Tracer!

What is the difference in speed between the two?

A little backstory-I currently have my Powerbook anchored to cable modem in the corner of my house, but considering long-term costs I am thinking of getting Airport (our only phone jack is in the kitchen) and switching to DSL. I just worry about everything slowing down.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

I don't know adam, what is the difference in these numbers from Apple's website?

http://images.apple.com/airportexpress/images/index_speed12162002.gif

― TOMBOT, Monday, 10 January 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

Jesus, this is like going to the optometrist.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

DSL will slow you down appreciably I would think. Stick with cable and get airport express. Or better yet just get a Linksys 802.11g router and learn to play with MAC spoofing from the web GUI.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 10 January 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

Maybe I wasn't clear - Cable is $60 a month, DSL is $20...so I was thinking that buying a abse station to stick in the kitchen would actually save me money in the long term. My house is a tiny bungalow so being wireless for the sake of it isn't that important to me.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

charlie have you also run spybot? just AVG won't do the trick, that's just for virii, spybot is for spyware. D/L spybot, (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html), do the first run-through (being sure to download any updates, it'll guide you through it the first time) THEN DISCONNECT YOUR COMPUTER FROM THE INTERNET, reboot, and run both AVG and Spybot again.

You might also find this useful: http://scribbling.net/how-to-fix-moms-computer

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

Ah aha, now I understand better.
Well with DSL it seems unlikely you'd need 802.11g 54Mbps.
You could probably get by just fine with an 802.11b router, which Ally has in her place and I find to be plenty quick actually.

try HERE maybe you can find out what kind of speed difference to expect for the privilege of saving a paltry $40 a month

― TOMBOT, Monday, 10 January 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

Dude, do you know how many burritos that buys?

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

I'm talking about the ones with the gourmet tortillas, too.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

all non-Chipotle burritos have been banned in Washington DC
you can make them at home, but like if you want to take one to work to eat for lunch you have to tell people it's a "wrap."

― TOMBOT, Monday, 10 January 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

I upgraded from b to g and it's an improvement but not a huge one for the way I use the internet; the b equipment is cheaper.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

Ooh Tom it's the same speed? Then why in the world would anyone get Extreme? Just to use a network printer??

I've actually got a Linksys that I'm about to hook up in a week or two, to a home network of two (2) macs. Do I actually need to mess about with MAC spoofing? I actually have zero idea abbout setting it up, all I know is that I can point my browser to the router's address and there's some web-based admin form.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 January 2005 17:47 (twenty years ago)

My boring question: telnet or some equivalent, how do you do it from a Mac?

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 13 January 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

open up terminal.app (/Applications/utilities)

type: telnet hostname/IP

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

On a Mac? That looks suspiciously like instructions for the PC.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

Tracer: I'll walk you through it, you have to mess about with it if you don't want to call TimeWarner and tell them you purchased your own router and have them lay into you about how they would prefer it if you rented their router and had their technician come set it up blah blah blah blah blah blah blah that will be $300 please.

Ken L: yeah but you can also just go to your web broswer and type in telnet://your.address.here and it'll work too, launch the program for you if you don't want to remember to find terminal.

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Thursday, 13 January 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

OH JESUS Tracer, a warning in advance: I'd recommend the Linksys router, it's fast and it's cheap, a lot cheaper than a fucking airport that's for sure, but they do NOT tell you this on their website (and there's virtually no instructions in the box besides the basic "how you set up the first time" pictorial):

A) If you are doing the MAC cloning you have to have your computer physically linked to the router, do not do it over wireless.

B) If you are updating the software for the hardware you also cannot do this over wireless.

C) You cannot do B anyway using a Mac.

Not paying attention to these three steps will result in your router being completely fried. The upshot is that they send you a replacement immediately, for free, because their website DOES NOT TELL YOU THAT YOU CANNOT UPDATE SOFTWARE USING A MAC.

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Thursday, 13 January 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 2297 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.