Kyro

Looking at the specs I'm wondering what your budget was. Considering a rough estimate on your motherboard would be around $50-70 USD depending where u got it from. Why you got 533Mhz ram when your motherboard can support.. quote: Memory: 2x 240pin DDR2-800/667/533 DIMMs, Max capacity 2GB I would of spent the extra $$ and gone at least for some 667Mhz ram. If your looking for an OS, and you don't want to run Windows you can give Ubuntu Linux a try. They will ship a CD or CD's to you for free. It normally takes around 4-5 weeks, but worth it considering its free. https://www.ubuntu.com/ for more information about Ubuntu along with Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu. https://blog.canonical.com/2011/04/05/shipit-comes-to-an-end/ to actually order the CD(s). Anyway looks nice, aslong as you dont consider it to be running your DVD, Quake 4 (full specs) and performing a Full System scan. But who does that anyway? Oh.. me.

Ah the topic did get started. I also pointed out that the average home user, is more often than not the easiest target to compromise security and gives greater potential profits. This is because like in everything that has experts and newbies the newbies do not fully understand the potential problems that can arise from running a computer system on the internet or on a home network. The newbies don't know that you can secure your system with more than just the stock standard "put a password on it". The expert does, he knows that he doesn't need that messenger service running, he knows he doesn't need his normal user to have admin rights and other little, but to the home user advanced options. Though as you say there are people who "hack" just for the hell of it. But typically these people are not the ones that you need to watch out for. These people are just following human nature and that is that we as humans want to know how something works. That is after all how the first 'hack' happened, people just wanted to know how the telephone system worked and as it grew more popular it became a security issue and wala, we have the first 'hackers'. For a 50minute documentary from the Discovery Channel on the history of hacking, The History of Hacking it provides information on the beginnings of hacking and also on the beginning of the PC. I actually don't see personal hacking (also known as White hat-hacking) as a problem. I do a bit of it myself, finding out how something works and how it doesn't work allows you to build more robust computer programs and to set up proper systems that will do the job you want them to do without failing. Its the black hat-hacking that is the problem. For more information on black hat-hacking refer to Wikipedia: Black-Hat hacker For more information on White hat-hacking refer to Wikipedia: White-hat hacker

Ohh i agree, it would be a rather interesting topic to start. The reason they target the average user is because that is where the least work is involved with the greatest chance of success aka profit. Only a very very small percentage of "attacks" are actually directed at Microsoft . Though ZoneAlarm or one of the many other firewalls out there (tiny, Astro, etc) do their job, and do them well i might add, hell i even use some of them. For the average home user to become, lets say "safe" (i use that very carefully) they will have to learn how it works, but then they wouldn't be average 'dumb' home users would they? They would become the average home user who knows why and how. Note: I do believe it would be a great topic to start, this "why do black hat hackers target the average home user?". Most of us already know why (money) but isn't it a greater achievement going for the bigger fish?

But you see your basing it on a Home Computer which is 'looked-after' by a person who knows (well we hope he does ) what needs to be done, services/limit user accounts/etc. However I'm talking about the average home user, who doesn't know how to lock down a computer and just thinks that purchasing *insert security package here* will solve all the problems and they can continue doing what they normally do without getting 'infected'.

Compared to Norton or McAfree i would take every single one of them.But compared to other free security solutions thats another story.AVG Free anti-virus does not have the best detection system, nor does it remove infections the best.I personally believe that for the average home user AVG is fine, just set it and forget it. But the problem is that its the home users we need to protect the most and by telling them to just go and download AVG free anti-virus is just making the problem worse. You can install all the security software/hardware you like, but no matter how easy you make it for an average home user to run security software they are still going to be misguided and think they are secure when in fact it could be the complete opposite.The best anti-virus/spy ware/malware isn't a software package, nor is it a piece of hardware, though these do improve your security, they do not form a protective 'bubble' for your computer. You need to teach the users, show them just how their computer gets infected, how data can be easily captured/delete. If you teach users how it happens they learn the ways to avoid it. Exactly what happened in one of my security seminars.I held this one seminar where after 3 lectures i found that they were all of the opinion that if they go out and get *insert security package here* then they are fine and they don't need to worry. But before my next lecture i setup a simple network, that simulated the internet, a home users PC a firewall and a printer. The PC was running Norton 2005 (this was in 2005), and also was set up behind a NAT router with inbuilt firewall. At the start of the lecture i asked everyone in the class if they thought the system was secure and if so, why.90% of the class said it was secure and their reasons were all the same, it had a firewall and anti virus software. I then asked one of the student to go start up the computer and print out a few copies of the class notes i had on a USB thumb drive.This was done, and then afterwards i asked the student why he did what i told him to do. He was rather confused, i then sat at the computer that was the Internet simulation computer and turned off the computer that was simulating being the home users PC completely bypassing the security systems that were implemented. See no matter how much you spend or don't spend on a software package, it can be compromised by users who are oblivious to what could happen, imagine what companies have to go through when they set up a Computer system.I suggest you research some of the techniques that these people who write virus/Trojans/worms/spy ware use. You cant protect yourself from something you know nothing or little about. After all, if you know how something works, you also know how it doesn't work and that is the key to security.

There are a number of ways to fix this problem.If you have not emptied your recycling bin then you can restore the delete items.Go to your Recycling Bin> and click on "restore all Files"This will restore all files in the recycling bin to where they were.Alternatively you can restore only the files you want to by clicking the file then clicking on the left side bar, "restore this item".If you have emptied your recycling bin you can Uninstall/Reinstall Nero6Go to Start> Control Panel> Add Remove ProgramsScroll down till you find Nero 6 and then click the button that says "Change/Remove" Follow the wizard to uninstall Nero 6.Then Place the CD for Nero back into the computer and reinstall it.If you don't want to do that then you can:Go to Start>Run copy and paste the followingC:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\ProgramsRight Click and Select "New Folder"Then name that folder Nero 6 and double click it.Now right click and select New shortcutsBrowse for Nero 6 using the wizard. By default it is locatedC:\Program Files\Ahead\Neroonce that is done, you can then close the window and click on Start>All Programs and you will see Nero 6 there.(note: this will not restore all the other shortcuts Nero creates.)

I've never heard of digg.com causing problems for Adsense accounts. But there is a massive impact on the servers your website is hosted on, if you get on the front page of digg. Known as the Digg Effect to people who use digg.com, to many connections in such a small amount of time, really tests the efficiency of your code, but normally websites go down because they run out of bandwidth.But just think, more visitors means a greater number of 'clicks' and thats what you want when you run a website with Adsense.

torrest1287 i suggest you take another look at your "defense/repair" setup. Norton Anti-virus does not detect, block or remove infections anywhere near the standard that you should be expecting from a package that costs that much. Try uninstalling Norton and moving to a more comprehensive software package. For example, NOD32, Avast or even BitDefender. Each of these out perform Norton, system resource wise and virus treatment wise. Not to mention the added bonus that each of them cost a lot less than Norton does. Windows Firewall is not a true firewall. It will stop basic TCP requests, but can be easily bypassed. It also doesn't have the ability to block Outgoing connections. I would suggest you take a look at some of the stronger firewalls, ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonealarm.com/), Tiny (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/). ZoneAlarm has been one of the industry leaders in personal firewalls. Ranging from their Free version to their Security Suite. Tiny is a very light (1.28MB) firewall but provides extremely strong protection from Incoming and Outgoing. Registry Mechanic, Spybot - Search & Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal and Windows Antispyware are only required if you have poor restrictions on what you do and do not allow on your system. If you are constantly needing to use these software packages then you should take a look at your own policies and try and make changes, for example migrating to a more secure Browser (or locking down the one you already have), creating for the users on your system a Limit account in which they will do most of their work, and if they need to install something or change a system file then they will have to do it under the admin account, resulting in another level of security for your system. For myself personally my setup is as follows: N.A.T Firewall (hardware) --> DHCP Linux Server with software firewall --> Personal Computer(s) Personal Computer(s) setup: Limit-access user accounts. ZoneAlarm Security Suite NOD32 Anti-virus Note: On my systems all programs that can access the internet are being logged on the Server Firewall, or the Personal System Firewall.I do not allow any programs apart from NOD32 and ZoneAlarm to run on startup, I tend to be rather annoyed when a program sets itself to run on startup when i didn't tell it to, and it normally ends up being removed. I have a stripped down version of Windows XP Pro (no games, message programs, etc) and i keep a regular System Image so if by some will-of-god my system becomes damaged, i can re-image it to exactly how it was before. On top of this my data is kept secure in a Encrypted Volume, I use TrueCrypt to do this. Quote Direct from http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/. I highly recommend TrueCrypt to anyone who is interested in Encryption or wants to keep sensitive data extremely secure. Anyway that is what i use and recommend.

Norton Anti-virus has one of the worst infection detection rates out of the top Paid and Free anti-virus products out there. I seriously suggest you reconsider purchasing Norton Antivirus 2006, because there are Free Anti-virus software packages that out perform Norton in Detection, Removal, Prevention and Performance. Norton is like a vine; it will burrow deep into your system, slowing all processes down and 'lock' onto all controls. Resulting in very slow boot times, your system can hang while Norton checks a large file/folder/Mounted Disk and overall high levels of system usage. Just because a software package is deep in your system and 'locks' processes does not mean it is doing the job at hand well. Nortons detection system is flawed and a number or older virus/Trojans/worms are still able to infect a system running Norton with latest 'updates' undetected. I would recommend you switch to one of the less resource hungry Anti-virus packages out there. NOD32 (extremely good detection, prevention and removal rating), Avast (although its detection rate is not the best) even AVG's Free version out performs Norton Anti-Virus 2005. Please do not waste your money on a product that does not do its job properly, and only uses system resources.

Though it is good to spread the word of FireFox, FireFox 2 is still not released to the public as "final" yet, as of the time of this posting, FireFox 2 is still at RC3 stage. Yes it is up on the FTP mirrors and main FTP server but it is still in RC3 and final stop build issues can arise and cause the release date to be changed. You will know when FireFox is released to the public as Final by going to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ it is best to not download FireFox 2 from FTP mirrors and outlined in the article below. You can read Preeds Mozilla Blog posting on "pre release issues" here http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ You will find current Release Issues, Meeting notes and Release Check lists at Mozila's wiki page https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox2

If you are not confident with the command prompt or Linux, then you can try using GiPo@Utilities. http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/index.htm GiPo@Utilities has a number of small programes within it. These include: * GiPo@MoveOnBoot - copying/moving/renaming/deleting files and folders on the next system boot. * GiPo@DirMonitor - monitoring changes in the file system. * GiPo@Mount - local folders substitution and local/remote drives mounting. * GiPo@Hardlink - UNIX-like (POSIX) hardlinks for NTFS creation. * GiPo@ReadTest - checking files and folders for read errors.

So first up i believe it would be best to explain a little about my history and what i have done in the past. This should give you some idea of who i am.I started working with computers when that good old C64 was the mainstream, long time ago for some, but for me it really was the foundation of my interest with computers as it was my first computer. Though the C64 was not the only influence, i had seen and admired the large room size servers that my father’s friend worked with.Over the years my interest with computers changed from an amazement of 'how did it work' to 'how could it work?'. This led to me questioning the security and the possible problems involved with running at the time fairly small networks (<10 nodes). Turned out I was not alone on this question and a number of people had already started to figure out just what would happen when you send that particular command.And so my fascination with the single computer was shifted to a fascination with networks of computers.This fascination with networks led me into a number of fields of the community where a network/computer was needed and consequently I have learnt a lot about a number of fields of expertise, (just to name a few: aerodynamics, quantum mechanics, graphics and construction)Though of course there is still much to learn in the time I have on this planet. My expertise are on soft-system security, hard-system security, software development (design through to implementation), system support and mechanics. Currently my focus is on software development where i hope to further utilize my expertise in hard-system security to produce much more dynamic security systems for the home users who do not want to know how something works, they just want it to work. At the moment nearly every computer security system designed for the home user has been 'dumbed' down so that its functionality has been limited, resulting in the home user getting frustrated when they cannot get something to work. Normally ending in that user to for-go the security in place of the functionality of having nothing stopping them. Resulting in large security issues arising.I don’t see myself to be a large count poster on forums, but what I do contribute will be quality and hopefully helpful to those who seek or need it.So that’s me, Kyro. Hope you learnt something, maybe got inspired?