arg. please help.

[soul alive]

*pulls hair in frustration*

the computer at my family's house is (and has been) on the fritz. it runs incredibly slow, and while it may be partly from our rural ISP (the current internet speed is 21.6 Kbps), the computer itself is still slow, and it shouldn't be since we've only had it for a little over a year. it's a dell dimension 2400, i can get more specs if they are needed.

my big problem right now is that everytime i try to click an attached pic or link or to attach one of my own on CAA, the window i am on freezes up. i have tried lessening the security and privacy levels, but nothing i have done so far has helped.

any ideas on getting this fixed, short of blowing up the computer ^^? i am not really very computer literate, but i do have access to some friends who are and who can help, but if anyone has suggestions about how i could do it myself, at least for a temporary fix, that would be absolutely great.

and if anyone could give a recommendation for a good ISP that has coverage in rural wyoming, that would also be great.

thanks.

[ShiroiHikari]

do you have spyware/adware checkers?

[soul alive]

yeah, but they don't seem to be helping any. my parents purchased 'spyware stormer.'

[LorentzForce]

I still use dialup myself, so I know how it feels. So slow, no?

But as for spyware checking, I don't think "Spyware Stormer" is good enough. Try Adaware. It's free, but it might take some time to download and the latest definitions, so be ready to take your time. SpyBot: Search and Destroy will work well too.

As for your problems, it might as well be blamed entirely on spyware problems, but so is reducing the privacy and security levels. The best way to keep your computer safest and fastest is to keep it secure enough not to cause problems from outside but doesn't restrict the users too much. Default values should be fine for people who doesn't like tweaking...

Good luck

[Mr. SmartyPants]

what OS are you running? windows xp?

im definately guessing major spyware or some trojans

[soul alive]

the spyware stormer keeps showing that there are spyware and trojans, but when i go to delete them, it cant, so yes, it is not strong enough. i did figure out that the attachments problem can be detoured by right-clicking on the link and opening it in a new window, but that is a pain. the privacy levels are at medium, right now, when i was home over the summer, and they were higher, it was still doing the same stuff as it is now...
i'm thinking blowing it up sounds like a viable option, jk. ^^

[Kaori]

Have you defragmented your hard drive recently? Sometimes defragmenting can help your computer run a bit faster. I also have a Dell dimension 2400, by the way.

[soul alive]

yeah, we defrag quite frequently. it helps some, but not as much as we would like.

[soul alive]

i had my little sister download adaware - the spyware problem is a little less. and yes, my folks really, really need to get a different ISP, but "this one works fine for what they need to do..." *sigh* ah well. i shall be back at school in a few days, around more operational computers...

[agasfas]

A bit random but there are some free programs that prevent spyware/adware from being installed in the first place. Check out: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com

Under the download tab, there are two programs:
1) SpywareBlaster 3.2
2) SpywareGuard 2.2 (this is more for preventing internet hi-jackings)

These programs will detect any changes made to your registry. Anytime a change are attempted (in the registry or attempted installation of spyware), this program will pop up a screen to either accept or deny the changes. It's quite a nifty program. Spyblaster is better and more up to date. The definitions get updated regularly. Although it wont stop 100% of the ad/spyware, it does do a good job in stopping most of them. But yeah, ad-aware is a good program. Free and does the same as Spysweeper, sometimes better.
And like someone else suggested, try FireFox. Internet Explorer is notorious for their lack of security and their secuity holes. Firefox will actually stop most installations of adware/spyware. More security. With internet explorer i would continually/regularly get zapped with both ad/spyware and trojans. Since firefox, none yet. Also firewalls also help prevent things like this, if you don't already have one, try the free one that Zone Alarm provides. It's actually better then most commerical ones (norton and mcafee).