Re: Computer problem, need help

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:42:57 -0700, Sordo?<sordo?@privacy.net> wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:51:26 -0600, Jim E <nothere@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:01:45 -0400, emily2@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:01:18 -0600, Jim E <nothere@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:29:10 -0400, emily2@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:39:06 GMT, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have a Visioneer scanner, and one really annoying thing
it does is write little "ppthumbs" dot-something files in any
folder where it finds any picture files on your disk. I don't
remember what the dot-something is because I just used
my scanner yesterday and then did a search for all the
ppthumbs files on my disk and erased them all. They're
supposed to speed up visioneer's access, I suppose, but
they're completely useless and very annoying. I also wish
they'd make scanners without manual buttons. I never
ever want to use the manual buttons, but I'm always
setting them off by accident when I'm positioning whatever
I want to scan on the scanner.

You just reminded me that things could be worse -- I could still have
that aggravating Visioneer scanner that I bought years ago when $150
seemed like a bargain for a full flat bed scanner. I hated that
thing, but I really can't remember now what was so irritating about
it. I think it had something to do with not generating .jpg's or
anything else anyone had ever heard of.

I haven't completely solved my problem, but this is what I've done so
far:

I thought I had a Zone Alarm update that I'd downloaded but hadn't
installed, so I looked and found one dated in April and installed it.
After I rebooted, the red square with the yellow X became
intermittent, with Zone Alarm telling me one minute it was hitting on
all cylinders and the next that it was time to reboot again.

So I tried System Restore, picking a date about a week before the
problem started. The computer churned through the process for a while
and then informed me that it couldn't restore because nothing had
changed. Shows how much System Restore knows.

But of course it insisted on another reboot and this time Zone Alarm
had simply disappeared. I haven't looked for it. I just turned on
the Windows Firewall and everything seems to be working fine now.

I'm sort of soured on Zone Alarm after this experience so I'll
probably take El's advice and try the one he suggested. I also took
his advice and let Windows download all those updates it had been
begging to download.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice and encouragement.

Emily

What version of ZA are you using? I was using ZA Security Suite
70.483.00 when Microsoft put out a security update and everything went
to pot. I guess it mostly affected people use ZA. ZA finally came
out with an upgrade and emailed me to up grad to the fix for it. Ver
80.020.00 and everything work fine after that. My license is about up
so I'M changing to the free version of CA. It is a high rated free
program and it is still rated over ZA. ZA used to be a top notch
firewall, but since Checkpoint took over it went downhill. In all
leak test it is not recommended anymore.

Since Zone Alarm has disappeared from my starting line-up, I don't
want to try to awaken it. The upgrade version I installed
half-successfully was v. 7.0.470.0.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'll be going back to Zone Alarm.
What is CA?
Here is a web site that talks about firewalls, does testing has leak
test results and general things about firewalls. You can read some of
the links there.
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php#firewalls-ratings


Get a hardware router, they're cheap insurance along with FREE AGV
antivirus and you're completely covered, email, anti-virus,

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

* Easy to download, install and use
* Protection against all Internet threats, not just viruses
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* Hacker attacks prevention
* Safe web surfing, downloading and instant messaging
* Phishing and e-mail scam blocking
* Free technical support
* Compatible with Windows Vista and XP

Did I mention FREE?
AVG is a top rated virus protector.
A router is good but you need a software firewall to supplement the
router for you outbound protection.
.