igotout

Thanks, guys. I'll look into that. Will it back up EVERYTHING? I hope so. That would be awesome. I have administrator rights on this site.

Our huge family has been posting on a site called MyFamily.com for a few years. Similar to Greasespot, there are posts, discussions, pictures, history, documents, etc. Each family has their own user names and log in passwords to access their own private site. I would like to back up this site and all its contents if possible. What software might I use to accomplish this task? Any suggestions or comments? I hope this is possible because I dread the prospect of copying and pasting. Thanks - John R.

Thank you Zixar. I sort of understand. I can not see myself (or our small business) ever needing DCOM. But in a corporate environment, of course, one should check with those in charge of the computer configurations. GRC's advice appears to be geared to home users and everyday users. I still know quite a few people who have no protection between their high speed internet connection and their home computer. They have no firewall of any kind. I'll bet this is prevalent across the country. Dcombobulator (and many other things) would appear to be sound advice for them. [This message was edited by igotout on October 08, 2003 at 10:35.]

Sorry, Zixar. Don't want anyboby to screw up at work. From what I understand, a computer at work belongs to the company. So, yes, check with the computer guru at work before doing anything out of the ordinary. A person needs administrative rights to be able to do this anyway. In a work environmnet there should be restrictions in place that prevent changing much. They make these bold statements: Since no typical Windows user has ever needed to have DCOM enabled, it should be shut down immediately and disabled it's of absolutely no practical use other than to adorn Microsoft's "We Have That Too" chart. There may be some custom corporate application developers who have managed to make some use of it, but mostly no one ever has. However, they have this disclaimer in tiny print as you suggest: Corporate users with network-aware custom applications should check with their corporate IT personnel to see whether DCOM is being used within their organization. If DCOM is ever needed after being shut down, the DCOMbobulator's "Enable DCOM" button will bring DCOM back to life. I don't claim to know any more anbout this that the scope of their web site discusses. I have had no problems so far. I used to get strange DCOM error messages in my Event Viewer on occasion such as: Event ID 10010 "The server did not register with DCOM within the required timeout." At least those will no longer appear. Do you know of any applications that rely on DCOM?

I really like this site GRC.COM. It has all you ever wanted to know about internet security. I found yet another of his invaluable little free utilities called "Dcombobulator" To skip through all the boring technicalities for those of you who could care less, download the file called DCOMbobulator 2.0 from his site and run it. You might want to read a little bit about it first. But basically it diables something called DCOM on your computer which can be a security breach. DCOM apparently is rarely needed or used. This utility enables you to easily turn it off (or on) to close the door to that security breach. It can be found here: DCOM utility

Interesting. Today I saw an external USB 2 floppy. Those are disappearaning anyway, kinda like Zip drives. Not sure why they would even bother.

Check out a little utility called Decombobulator by the guru at GRC.com. I'll post something about it on the tips thread. IT looks pretty cool and seems very useful

Steve! Correct me if I am wrong but AdAware also searches through the registry. One of its features is called "Deep scanning of local Registry" In fact most spyware imbeds itself deep into the registry (How dare they! ) Another good one and free one is called "Spybot Search and Destroy." They have intensive detailed features, almost too much to deal with. They claim to have invented the model that Ad Aware is founded upon and apparently there is a nasty lawsuit underway. BTW - Ad Aware has released build 181 for version 6. It is fast and easy to use, and best of all free. Do a google searc an you will find it. Install the latest version over the old is fine.

Spybot Search & Destroy is very technical and detailed, AdAware's success is in part due to its simplicty. Just click it and it scans. I have both yet I find myself using Adaware most of the time. Seems to do the trick.

Wrong thread, sorry.

Zix - yeah, in fact my main computer appears to have USB1, USB2 (that I added) and a couple of firewire ports including the one as you informed me me is on my Soundblaster card. I think firewire is the best for Digital video cams, while everything else (printers, mice, keyboards, pocket drives, and such) is leaning towards USB2 for some reason. Yesterday I saw for the dfirst time a HP USB2 scanner for only $99. Didn't scanners used to be firewire mostly? What do you think of that article about Firewire 800?? (Hi Goey.... did you finish your boat? Looked awesome! )

Well, I am not sure why Ad Aware would conflict. All you can do is try it. Unistall it if there is a problem. Not sure why you would need WinCleaner. What does that do? Not sure what it is. The main thing herbie, is to try to keep so many things from running in the background. A clue is that little section there by the clock. Another place to look, of course is the Startup menu, A third place to look is under MSCONFIG, a 4th place to look is at all the Services you have running. Don't let anyone tell you that computers are simple. It is for those who are lucky enough to have an IT person on their staff or a computer geek in the family. But the average person out there still has an abundance of things to deal with, some of which are a bit complex. Thank god TV's aren't so bad or automobiles. But on the positive side, when you get that "bad boy" tuned up to the max it can be a a lot of fun and very productive. John R. HEy, is this a Pentium 3 or a Pentium 4?

No bad Vickles. I just do not know the answer. Couldn't hurt for you to also download ALL the latest windows updates. It is easy to do. Do you know how? Mine is under Start / Windows Updates. Just follow the prompts.

We may need a designated walker, Tom, for the Greasespots Past Midnight.

Thanks Steve. I sort of understand. But it is not my internal ip address... I am certain it is 192.168.?.??? as shown in Command Prompt, IPconfig. (Can't give out the last digits, thank you.) How do these differ?

Ex, one other thing you should do which might help prevent intrusions is to down load this little file and click on it to turn off the Upnp Service. See the thread on this forum called Universal Plug N Pray Here is the file: http://grc.com/files/UnPnP.exe

Hi, that is interesting. I think those instructions were pretty specific. Glad it worked. I am not sure exactly what that host file is all about but it is a windows system file. My host file only has one entry in it as follows: 127.0.0.1 localhost I am not sure what that means.

Did you do a clean install or install XP over the top opf Windows 98? I always recommend a complete reformat of the hard drive and start with a fresh install of XP. Definitely better than upgrading over another OS. And while you are at it, buy a newer, larger hard drive. Todays drives are cheap and just made better all the way around. If you are using one from an old system you might want to ditch it and start fresh. The new one, of course, will have less chance of failure as well. If you are using a high speed internet connection, remove your modem. You will never use it anyway. Install a new graphics card, 64 mB or above. (Same concept and reasons as hard drive.)

:D--> :D--> Perfect!

Did it come with XP factory installed or did you install XP as an upgrade over Windows 98? How much RAM is in this machine? What speed processor? Right click on My Computer and go to Properties. It should show you there.

Ex I will gladly stay out all night with you again. That is a way of life at Vegas. It is a requirement almost. But since we are now married we will need chaperones as to avoid all appearance of evil. Plus your husband and my wife would beat the crap out of me. Therefore we will need to form a "Rat Pack" of sorts. Please come up with a name for the entourage. I will start on an itenerary of Casinos and hotels for our witnessing night. Tom, it's a fuzzy memory but I think I was saying FFUUUUCCCCCxx !!!!!!

2life, You don't have to sneak on these oepn forums. I wanted to do a higher one but you have to go to other countries or find some illegal means to do a really really good one. I would do it! 40 or 50 stories would suit me fine! I think I must be part American Indian and part fool. The one in Vegas is only 17 stories but was surprisingly scary for a macho guy like I am supposed to be. I had 2nd thoughts but did not show it. An 80 year old woman did this and a 350 pound guy! They have pictures. Thousands of jumps, no incidents ever. This is very, very safe.

Spittle - it might be a WOW mobile by next April if I don't take care of it. "I'd rather read a sermon than see one any day." Doesn't Simonzelotes live near Vegas? And Rocky...doesn't he live out there too. I want to live there. Why didn't we ever have a Word in Business there excathedra?? Then we could have stayed out all night.

[This message was edited by igotout on September 23, 2003 at 0:15.] [This message was edited by igotout on November 09, 2003 at 2:39.]

Remote is Windows 2000, I am at XP Pro at home. I have a user account, same usere name at each location. I did not configure a user at the host computer for remote access. But I thought with VPN you did not need to do that. With my router they instruct you to make settings in the router configuration under VPN with a user name and password at each end. They make no mention of configuring the computer itself to receive remote access.