What programs makes my computer at its best?

Can I ask what programs makes my computer at its best?

 

This link offers some of the best Freeware Majorgeeks (and thus any site) can offer for keeping your system clean, lean and a top surfing machine:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

From this list the must haves are:

Ad-Aware: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_SE_Personal_d506.html
Spybot: http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Search_&_Destroy_d2471.html

SpywareBlaster: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2859

CCleaner: http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_d4191.html

Many of the others are excellent as well. As far as defrag apps go I would recommend this one:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

Start with this lot and have a good look at the link at top.

What OS do you have? Do you have a Firewall and Anti-Virus (make sure you only ever have 1 AV) yet?

Any further ques dont hesitate.

 

AV
AVG free edition

Firewall
Zonlabs ZA

 

Operating System: Windows Vista
Anti Virus: AVG Free Edition
Spyware: Ad-Aware SE Personal
Firewall: Windows Firewall

 

Okay AVG is very good get Spybot as well as Ad-Aware plus Spyware Blaster (blocks known bad websites from your system).

CCleaner is excellent to run 1-2 times a week to remove unnessary crud and keep the system moving.

Don't know anything about the Vista Firewall but XP certainly had it's flaws and most recommeneded disabling and using a 3rd party. I would definately reccomend you go to this link and conduct a "leaktest" to assess the quality and search his site for info on the Vista Firewall (you'd hope they fixed it by now!).

http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

http://www.grc.com/stevegibson.htm#projects

Steve Gibson finds many security flaws for all the big software Co. and points them out even when the try to deny them.

Defrag once again I don't know what Vista has and thus if you can open the defrag app and click on "About" and tell me make and version I maybe able to recommend something (once again I'd hope they had sorted this out as XP's is shocking).

 

What is the best firewall that cannot interrupt my dial up connection?

 

when i was on msn dialup i was using zonealarm and it never kicked me off.

 

>> What is the best firewall that cannot interrupt my dial up connection? << ebrahim cacapit

I agree w/ languy99 - If you must use dial-up ZoneAlarm Free shouldn’t bother your internet connection as long as you have it configured properly. If you really want to have a faster internet connection; I would strongly suggest getting rid of dial-up and trying DSL or cable.

Believe it or not; if you investigate the availability of ISP providers in your neighborhood, you will discover that having a cable or DSL connection is fairly cheap these days – especially considering the time you'll save no longer waiting for the slow dial-up webpages to load. I used to pay about 24 bucks for dial-up. I currently pay 35 bucks a month for cable (bundled with cable TV and phone service).

I just tested now my download speed (using Test My Net) and it was clocked at 9896 Kbps or 9.9 Mbps. That comes to about 173 times faster than 56K; the "top" speed of dial-up. So for $11 measly bucks more per month I have practically an "instant" connection to any website I choose.

I know, I know you're probably used to having dial-up; but I guarantee you this: If you try DSL or cable for three months you'll never go back to dial-up. Just a thought!

Good Luck!

 

Your better of with broadband cable, It's way faster then dsl or 56k dialup, Just make sure it's available in you area.

 

I agree with both ZoneAlarm Free is excellent. Believe it or not Compuable some people still have difficulties getting ADSL/CABLE etc. I live in Aust but my area only had ADSL avail about 6 months ago but less than 50m away on another street they have had it for at least a year, frustrating

ebrahim cacapit I'm sure your aware that Vista is still in the beta stage and will be quite "buggy" so unless you are quite experienced I would seriously consider XP, it may seem a bit of a step backwards but unless you do very frequent back-ups and are quite confident with the "Recovery Console" you must be prepared to potentially lose data or at very least suffer OS complications from times to times, just some advice.

 

>> Believe it or not Compuable some people still have difficulties getting ADSL/CABLE etc. I live in Aust but my area only had ADSL avail about 6 months ago but less than 50m away on another street they have had it for at least a year, frustrating << Bold Eagle

This is quite true (in the US as well) especially in more remote areas. Cable companies are naturally hesitant to spend millions wiring a community if they are only going to get a few dozen customers out of it. In remote or mountainous areas, wireless broadband and satellite access may be available, but these are often far more expensive than other methods. DSL access isn't available everywhere; users have to call either check with their ISP or local phone company.

In my experience in various 'computer-related' forums that I attend; those who still have dial-up (and are "used" to using it) may not be aware of how easy it is to switch to cable/DSL, that is; if it is actually available in their neighborhood. For example: I have a neighbor who I recently met who has lived here for about 6 months. A few weeks ago he was telling me how frustrating it was because he was always having trouble connecting to his dial-up company’s available access numbers. He was entirely unaware of the fact that his building is actually wired for two competing cable companies in our area.

The easiest way to tell if you’re eligible for cable/DSL service is to visit various cable/DSL provider websites. Websites like EarthLink or DSLavailability.com can usually tell you if cable is available if you type in your address, phone number and/or zip code.

Good Luck!

 

you might also be available for at&t DSL or comcast cable internet, personally I'm DSL fan yeah it might be a little slow but the speed is more constant, it doe4s not slow down when the whole neighborhood is online.

 

COMPUABLE have to say I'm envious of your speeds. Next week I'll be moving to a new house and have ordered ADSL @512/128 from an ISP (the local excahnge tops at 1.5Mbps) but we have ADSL2 or 2+ going through the adjacent exchange @24Mbps so it will only be a few months before we can put our order in for this faster one from our local exchange. Although on a slower speed (512) I have suffered w dial-up for the last 18 months and it will be a ~10 x faster. Sadly as Aust. populations is only about 1/10 of America our consumer base is relatively small thus there are fewer "providers" and overall competition is lower. For my 512/128 plan it costs $49.95 for 20Gb then "Shaped" down to 64Kbps (no excess) but my particular choice has numerous peers and mirrors (MG is 1) from which I can obtain "unmetered" data. I'm sure you could achieve a lot better deal in the US if you lived within 20kms of a capital city as I do.

Still a fossil in comparison to your impressive speeds but will suit for the time. I do want to soar like an eagle.

P.s. for Australians possibly our greatest resource for ISP's is; whirlpool.net.au Can check avail, compare ISP,etc etc. I have written a summary of my research on what is important if any are interested.

 

>> COMPUABLE have to say I'm envious of your speeds. I have suffered w dial-up for the last 18 months and it will be a ~10 x faster. Sadly as Aust. populations is only about 1/10 of America our consumer base is relatively small thus there are fewer "providers" and overall competition is lower. Bold Eagle <<

Bold Eagle, I know how you feel regarding dial-up; very annoying indeed.

It can also be frustrating when you have only one or few providers to choose from, as well. Our area was wired for Comcast cable when I first moved here. Their service was lousy and very expensive and if you wanted cable/DSL you had no choice but to choose them because nothing else was available.

To be fair; in some other computer related forums that I attend, I have heard many people report that some parts of the country (USA, that is) get better service from Comcast than others. However I had nothing but problems with their service. I would often wait for over an hour for someone to even pick up the phone whenever I had to (quite frequently) call for tech service. Also, even though the service was very expensive and you had to pay top-dollar; they would charge additional fees for home based service calls – even if it was their fault that the service wasn’t working (faulty modem, bad wiring, etc)!

Then in late ‘99/early 2000 a new cable company named RCN wired all of the buildings and homes in our town. Their service is fantastic! They offered a ‘package’ deal with phone, cable TV (all channels including premium) and cable Internet service for about 120-130 dollars. I was paying about 170-190 prior to that when I used separate providers for phone, internet and cable TV. Another cool thing is that (1) they actually answer their phone almost immediately the few times I called with a question/problem or for service and (2) they never charge for "home-based" service calls (unless the problem is your own fault, i.e. you smashed your modem or something like that)

In six years of using RCN I have had almost zero problems with only about two outages during thunderstorms and the service was back up in about an hour or so each time. Additionally, about every six to eight months they will send me an e-mail announcing that they are “upping” the modem speeds (at no extra charge). Currently I generally get around 10 Mbps (download speed) and sometimes even faster whenever I check the speeds using Test My Net.

Good Luck!

 

To all the people saying he or she would be better off with broadband, are you going to pay for it?

Off course he or she would, but availability and price need to be take into account.

Just because it's cheap and available where you are, doesn't mean it's like that everywhere.


*Sorry for the rant, but it annoys me sometimes.

 

i agree with you
because here in our place, to have a DSL 384kbps (minimum dl'd 40kbps) you must pay US$20/month (thats minimum), plus service charge for installation, plus 2 months advance
and of course you must have telephone (US$18/month) line plus service charge for installation, plus 2 months advance
thats why internet cafe here is very populAR

but few months ago, they only just starting the "wireless"
but you must be near in the city to be in network coverage

thats why having dial-up, your already lucky here

 

I'm sure COMPUABLE or myself never meant to inflame others by our comments and if you read either of our posts within many, many threads you would realise we are both sincere and non-antogonist so don't take it personally!