Dirtman's rant on PC boo-boo's, Email & spam
NOTE: This is not only for Obi's benefit, but for all those who visit this forum.
These are universal principals that can be used by everyone.
...I have gotten in the habit of totally wiping my system and rebuilding a couple times a year....takes time but keeps the old box running smoothly..
I've got a better plan for ya Obi. Got Rami doing this too with excellent results. As all 3 of our PC's are "brothers"
(all built by the "Summertime Santa") ... I have applied the lessons learned on my old Dell P3 ... it was the only way to keep it running fast enough to remain useful.
On the 1st Sunday of every month:
Turn "System Restore" off
Clean out and delete all garbage files
Run "CCleaner"
Run "CCleaner - Registry Cleaner"
Run "Free Registry Cleaner"
De-fragment "C" drive with a quality De-frag app.
(the Windows defrag is OK but better freeware ones are available)
OVERWRITE (erase) the
"free space" on "C" drive with
"ERASER"
- set it to overwrite 3 times, also engage:
"erase cluster tips" &
"erase alternate data streams"
- this will take a varying length of time depending upon the speed of your CPU & the size of your h/d.
- I let the system do this overnight to reduce "down-time".
When finished, Turn "System Restore" back on.
DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS!
- DONE ...
go have a beer for breakfast.
Rami will attest to the fact that his PC now runs
significantly faster.
This saves the aprx. 8 - 10 hrs. it takes to reload the o/s, update it from MS, reload all your apps, update them; plus reload all your saved browser info, passwords & bookmarked / Favorite web pages. Not to mention the "down time".
Simple, quick & easy - with excellent results ... Just like ME!
An alternate method
(for advanced users) would be to "Ghost" a disk image of the freshly installed and fully updated o/s.
(with all your apps installed) Then at any time you could reinstall an exact copy quickly & easily.
This incredibility fast method was brought to my attention by our close friend -
"The Summertime Santa" VERY NICE!!!
for some reason after the build I could not install Antimalware....kept looking for some installer that wasn't there...probably because I dumped all that EZ Internet crap before I started installing my utilities and programs.
My monthly cleaning method completely eliminates these problems.
I am definitely done with yahoo.
Not 100% Yahoo's fault - blame the hackers. Almost all email boxes are vulnerable.
It must be Yahoo's turn ... I've seen 4 other friends in the last few weeks have exactly the same trouble with Yahoo.
(3 .com & 1 .ca)
This is not cool at all. I don't mind the hours and hours that I will spend rebuilding my system to make sure it is totally clean...was planning on doing it anyhow, but not this week.....
This is not necessary.
The problem is isolated at your Yahoo box. Even if you are using "
Outlook", "
Outlook Express" or another aftermarket "in PC" email app. like "
Thunderbird".
What is vital here is to remove all contact info from the hacked box & abandon it.
Also delete all folders and any stored emails. - you can always send any emails you wish to keep to the new email box before cleaning it out.
Don't forget to delete the contents of "sent items" & "drafts" ...
BE COMPLETE IN CLEANING IT !!
but I do mind that all the people who trusted me with their e-mail addys were put in harms way because of a security breach at yahoo. Not cool at all. Mess with me all you want, but don't mess with my family and friends! That will pi$$ me off something terrible.
Relax Brother, I feel your pain ... not your fault ... sh*t happens.
- Go have 2 beers & a weasel burger!
The best way to protect the people you care about is to use an "in PC" email app.
Outlook Express comes with most versions of Windows. ALL my email addys as safe, right here in my PC.
I also create a back-up each month. I once printed them, but now I know where they are stored so I just copy the files to an external h/d ... you could also burn them to CD. This is great if you want to transfer them to another or new PC too.
This procedure also saves
ALL EMAILS STORED IN OUTLOOK EXPRESS
NICE-NICE-NICE!!!! ....
Oh YEAH BABY!!!!
There are no contacts or info stored at any of my 6 email boxes ...therefore the hackers can
"KISS MY A$$" ... hack yer butts off ... yer ain't gonna git nuthin' !!!
Also be aware that most A/V apps have a function that scans emails as they are downloaded.
(to Outlook Express etc.) This affords a
second layer of protection as they are primarily scanned at the email box. Using this method, one app might find something the other missed.
The last time I checked (quite a while ago)
Hotmail uses
Trend Micro,
Yahoo uses
Norton and
Gmail uses
McAfee.
This is all free & applies to every email sent or received at these boxes. The user does or pays nothing. It's all automatic and has nothing to do with your PC. It is all web-based.
I promise that I will drop back into The Basement from time to time.
Tim
Thanx for the warning ...
- Bruther Durt
Basic EMAIL Safety:
NEVER give your primary email info to
ANY WEBSITE ... this is just asking for trouble.
A better practice is to open a "dummy" box. Give this one out instead. If spammed too much - close it & open another. Trusted websites like SOH should be exempted from this.
Blocking Spam Effectively:
If you should begin getting unwanted emails from say: "
Joe_Idiot @ spam.com" don't just block or create a filter for him specifically ... it's more efficient block or filter
spam.com as this will stop ALL spam from him AND his associates.
DO NOT USE THIS METHOD WITH: Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail as you may never receive any emails at all. In this instance, block or filter: "Joe Spam" only. Not a perfect solution but better than nothing.
Past this; try & find the website that they are trying to promote (in the spam) Create a specific filter (as in Gmail) to look for: "all email containing the words" : Cheap_Penis_Pills @ limp.com
This works extremely well as I have seen many spammers sending the same email under many different addys and names.
Also filter for specific names like Viagra etc. (there are also variants in spelling - spammers are becoming more effective too)
Hotmail is probably best because you can BLOCK emails from selected individuals. I think the number is unlimited - not sure
Yahoo allows 500 (I think) blocks but I've reached that limit before.
Gmail does not allow blocking, but has the best multiple filtering options I know of.
I really like Gmail because it will carry the largest attachments of any email carrier I have found. I have personally sent a 27MB attachment with no problem. (even though it's MAX capacity is rated far below this size by Gmail)
I hope this info helps all of you ... that are still awake.
?
:ernae: