w7 for idiots

someone pls tell me the BARE MINIMUM i need to set/change to get w7 behaving even SLIGHTLY normally. pc is brand-spanking-new, i had a solid day yesterday at a library wifi where everything went like lightning, yet today it takes me 15-20 tries to get GOOGLE to come up. hotmail took about 50. netzero hasn't opened YET (2+ hrs trying now).

MG better than most, but there have been a few times i needed to refresh 8-9 times before i could see it. or before my posts wud take.

i have bounced between 3 wifi zones today, incl the one that worked so well yesterday. i have been at it 7-8 HOURS now, and have done maybe 10 mins worth of work, total.

oddly, downloads (orbit, etc) working fine (even via IE/FF if i get as far as loading them!). and windows downloads working great. just very little involving actual surfing, or involving the "update" routine for any app (MBAM/SpyBot/ASC/SAS/AdAware).

my gut says it's "firewall" etc related, but every other conflict i have says "turn it on", "turn it off", "turn if back on" etc. i don't know WHAT to do.

is "Window Defender" the firewall per se? THAT happens to be off. and i've disabled ZoneAlarm, AdAware, and various other "overlapping" things. it's also offerend me "free Norton" (came w pc), but i'm holding off on that since it's just one more potential conflict. of course, now i'm wondering whether my total LACK of protection is backfiring.

could it be something totally different, like JAVA issues or something? i am getting sick to DEATH of doing 30+ refreshes to shake off "IE cannot display website"....

*tired*

 

sorry, i meant javaSCRIPT, not java. most NZ links depend on this, and they are simply not responding.

can this get munged independently of windows? where do i go to get it restored/reset/fixed/upgraded?

i am now up to 200+ clicks on my NZ inbox. nary a reaction. and i can't think of a workaround.

 

sorry for the serial posts, but there is a MAJOR development: when i got home and connected via DIALUP (problematic in its own right, but not tonight!), MOST of these problems went away! no munged pages, no unresponsive links, no nothing. and MBAM, SpyBot, etc. UPDATING just fine!!

am i on candid camera?

does w7 have distinct security filters for dialup vs. wifi access? how else such a radical difference? (and whoda thunk DIALUP would be the easier of the two?!)

meanwhile, only ONE real problem persists -- that i cannot get a JAVA link to react. is there a way to translate the following into actual (HTTP) links?

javascript:clicked('7?folder=Inbox&block=1&'+fCached,'Inbox')
javascript:clicked('9?'+fCached)

i got FF to react to one of those ONCE (4 hrs ago, on wifi); IE not at all. not ONCE in 9+ hours!!

good god. i paid $500 for THIS?!

 

First, make sure you have the latest java available. :

http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

You should NOT turn off your firewall, Windows Defender and Ad Aware . These are very important especially if you are using wi-fi . Norton's is a resource hog and will slow your computer down, there are many VERY good FREE anti-virus suites available here at MG .
Where is this slow wifi network at ? It will be slow if there is a lot of traffic. If this wifi connect is at your home, you MUST password protect it, or you are at risk of nearby neighbors piggybacking, hogging your bandwidth and doing god-knows-what with YOUR IP address . I would NOT advise going on the net unprotected as you are .
I have used Zone Alarm firewall many times, this will not cause your computer to run slow, nor will the other programs you mentioned you turned off.
Here is the best advice anywhere on the internet about protecting your computer :
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525
At any rate, I think a traffic check on the slow router may be in order .
But first please go through that link and protect yourself, you are just ASKING for possibly MAJOR problems without protection online .

 

i doubt it was any of the junk/bloat which CAME with the PC, since my first foray into wifi (public library) was FLAWLESS. it is only since i DLed a lot of stuff and dialed up a few times that things have gone haywire. apps installed w very few glitches:

1) avira said "conflict w windows defender, pls disable" so i bagged it for now. i misspoke previously -- afaik WD is still active; avira not even installed.
2) SOMETHING had error "Windows ActiveX is disabled/missing/out of date -- correct/install?" alas, i cannot recall which app it was, or how exactly i responded.
3) zonealarm bailed on some added feature b/c i wasn't online when the installer ran. i am not sure if it added this as part of the online update i performed later on.

contunued surfing via dialup; no problem.

then when i go BACK to public library all hell breaks loose. STRONG CONNECTION but little yellow "no internet" icon. actually, i AM on the internet, but very little works. pack it up and go to bookstore where i get full-on connection w/o said icon. things much better, but still seeing page misloads, munged HTML, and java turning flaky. typically, it stuggles to display a page, giving me either munged data or that "IE cannot display..." tag until i refresh 8 or 9 times. while i never see the term "buffer overflow", this is the term in my head for these symptoms.

switch to firefox; SLIGHT improvement, but not much (only need 5 or 6 refreshes per page!). it is at this point that i notice that anything JAVA-related is simply not accessible. likewise MBAM, SpyBot etc update routines give me error msgs.

again, OTHER APPS and PURE DOWNLOADS (orbit say) working flawlessly! getting to a DL page on cnet or tucows, etc., can take over an hour, but once i get there, DL goes off w/o a hitch.

but then i try dialup only to find *MOST* of those problems gone! still can't click a java link (namely netzero INBOX!), but most other pages from google to MG to hotmail work reasonably. and MBAM etc update just fine.

so back to the library again. page load situation even WORSE. simply cannot view much of anything, and google not at ALL. refresh, refresh, refresh, still getting me nowhere. i must say, tho, i noticed something for the first time -- most pages (including MG) actually display in full BRIEFLY, *THEN* switch over to that "IE cannot display..." page. is that a classic hijack? WD? AdAware? ZoneAlarm?

for the sake of completeness, i tried updating MBAM etc. again, total nogo.

if ur seeing this posted, i clearly did it at home (dialup).


-----
re: startup & program logs (attached)

not much there besides the HP stuff and my antivir/antimal stuff. uTorrent can be a problem, i know, but i haven't actually used it yet.

i dunno what snapfish or blio are. i'd be more concerned about removing HP's junk/bloatware if i hadn't had such great experience straight out of the box. and i don't have a "general sluggishness"; i have an all-out BREAKDOWN in browser usage. again, it must be SOMETHING i did/installed/tweaked back around wednesday...including, perhaps, the installation of NETZERO itself?

in the meantime, any chance Opera or one of the other browsers fares any better? again, rly not many problems here outside of BROWSING....

btw, that link states my java is up to date. and i went thru the "security" and "privacy" settings of both browsers. there's no specific "enable/disable java" setting jumping out at me but i see a lot of "ActiveX" and "scripting" lines, some of which disabled. do any of THOSE affect java use?

 

ok, i uninstalled those 4 AV apps (AdAware, ASC, SAS, ZoneAlarm), and well as the "Bing bar". few more things in there could go, but I'm still not sure this is on the right track. (nothing improved so far...)

i have not done a followup pass with WinWash or CCleaner b/c frankly, i'm not sure if i should be uninstalling THOSE as well. (ASCTray apparently one of those "fragments" the uninstaller missed, btw)

in any case, here's the 2 new logs. more importantly, i'm attaching a HijackThis log, which i'm sure you'll understand far more than i. anything glaring in there?

i shud note that HijackThis repeatedly choked on trying to write to the "Hosts" folder. only when i ran it as "XP Compatible" did it go to completion. (not sure if important!)

btw, i have noticed that the links to get IN to my netzero mail are also "java". so perhaps i'm putting the blame in the wrong place. it's just the links once INSIDE (i.e. for "inbox", "sent", "check mail", etc.) which are totally unresponsive.

thanks again!

 

For problem file removal, try FILE ASSASSIN which is located within MBAM (you shouldnt be deleting MBAM). You can rest assured, that if you are following the instructions of DavidGP, you are indeed on the right track. He has helped me with many issues in the past and has never steered me wrong. Just stay tuned and do what he asks-don't give up before you are done .

 

oh, i'm not questioning davidgp, it's just that uninstalling "everything" i loaded up here includes things like MBAM and CCleaner, which i am later asked to call upon.

and thanks for the assassin tip. i have used that (and "unlocker" at a basic level) to get rid of stubborn items in the past.

btw, miracle of miracles, opera DID indeed work where the others fail! gets into my NZ box and EVERY LINK responds as normal!!!! small mercies!

so...recap of major probs:

1) links inside NZ (only?!) simply do not click in IE or FF [bypassed for now]. ones in hotmail sluggish but functional. ones everywhere else seem 100% fine...as long as i'm on dialup.
2) library unuseable semi-connected state
3) all hell breaking loose when on WIFI elsewhere. browsers can't handle a SINGLE PAGE -- sites like google or MG flash on for half a second, then change to either goggledy gook (like opening a JPG in notepad) or "IE cannot display..." screen.

waiting to see whether AV uninstalls had any effect on #2 and #3. or for david's analysis of my CC/HJT logs.

 

i am happy (and surprised!) to report that FIREFOX can also now handle NZ links following today's update! which leads me to think that maybe a reinstall of the OLD version would have fixed it as well (if IE had not also been choking on the links, that's the first thing i wud have tried).

well, then, how long until the next IE comes out?! i keep hoping that some windows update (today's "defender" one, for example) will solve the problem, but so far, no go. i guess it's fresh browser or nothing.

can i reinstall the CURRENT version? unlike 3d party apps like FF and Opera, IE strikes me as part and parcel of windows, and i'm always afraid to muck around with it. and is it even FREE? i see 9.0.1 up on CNET and Tucows, but my own copy reads 9.0.8. is that the price u pay for getting it free, or will it autoupdate to 9.0.8 aniwes?

have not been out wifiing since last post, btw. so i cannot say whether new FF or even Opera solves prob 2 or 3 as well. but for now, 1 looks to be getting close!

:cool

 

Honestly, I didn't read everything above, but if you're on NetZero, that means to me that you're on dial-up. Dial-up is so painfully slow that you CANNOT compare it to ANY wifi connection... even mobile broadband is leagues faster than the best dial-up. In my area, the cheapest DSL (and slowest) is only $19.99 a month, but it's 20 times faster than NZ on a good day. Switch your service.

Yeah - not a lot of help, but I doubt that Java or Flash Player or any ActiveX has anything to do with this since you said that on wifi "everything went like lightning". This tells me that it's not a software problem, it a slow ISP problem.

 

ok, u need not read "everything", but u shud read SOME of it -- my dialup is working 80-90% atm; my wifi less than 5%. fast may be fast, but when i can't get ONE GOOGLE PAGE to load after 3+ hours of wifi, it's time to go home and dial up!

i only said wifi was lightning fast the FIRST day. then the "software problems" began.

in any case, dialup is free. if i'm gonna blow $20/month, i cud find better things to do it on than DSL!

 

what is involved in reinstalling/upgrading IE9? as i said, FF started working after a reinstall, so i'd like to do likewise for IE. but isn't it so integrated into windows that removing it will muck up all sorts of other things?

no matter, i have to do it one way or another. but when i look in the "remove programs" list, it's not even IN there! what thu...?!

[EDIT: hmmm...have to click on "installed updates" first. i dunno why it's considered an "update" since it came with the PC, but, well, ok.]

and then what? just click "setup" on that copy of IE9 i downloaded, like it was some normal program?

various how-to guides online state that the PC will "revert" to IE8 upon reboot, but since the PC had IE9 from the gitgo, is there even an IE8 to revert to? and if i'm ultimately trying to install IE9, shouldn't I preempt any such attempts at IE8 getting installed aniwes?

 

:-o Sorry I didn't read everything, my bad :-o

I'll stay out of this one

 

LOL. no need to apologize.

and as suddenly as all the problems BEGAN, today they all ENDED!

well, most of them, aniwes. expect a lengthy post in this space (oh, joy!) as soon as i get a breather.

:major