m8E

you're not employed by ZoneAlarm are you prathapml?! Just kidding! I've paid for my Norton Firewall and SystemWorks recently but I don't know how to fully utilise them so for now and until the year's subscription is up I will be trying to work out how to do so before buying something different like ZoneAlarm, although I will be keeping my eye on that one. In the meantime I'm still looking how to get those four ports closed off! I've been to the Microsoft website and found http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/s...re/default.mspx which is Antispyware from microsoft and it found things which Spybot S&D didn't and I'm thinking of converting! But still my four ports are open.... I did full virus scans, spyware scans, disk cleans and even a defrag all in safe mode but even though some threats were found and consequently removed, my four ports are still open!! Do I have to configure my firewall so that everything is blocked and all ports are closed, and then re-open all the ports one by one to see which are the offenders? (if I can figure out how to do that!)

I have found so far that the extra things to help keep my computer clear are not slowing down my computer, it is only the Norton products which have a noticable slowing effect, but Norton have always been like that no-matter which computer I've installed their products on. The ZoneAlarm products I am new to, have they been going for long? It seems that you are really quite enthusiastic about what they have to offer prathapml. WinXPSP2 I have installed which I think has helped to keep my computer running better and have not had as yet any problems with it (unless it has something to do with keeping the four ports open).

I found a website which along with other things says it can scan a computer for Trojan Horses: http://www.windowsecurity.com/ In order to conduct it's scan it first wants to install 'TrojanScan' on your computer. I've never seen this website before, does anyone know if this is a good and trusted website and scanning facility?

So TeaTimer is good, thanks guys and thanks Tarun for that description you provided B)

I've tried downloading and using ZoneAlarm firewall but somewhere in the process my Norton Firewall showed up and I blocked access to and from the ZoneAlarm website and now I don't know how to undo that because my Norton Firewall doesn't want to let me! So assuming the ZoneAlarm choice is not available in the short term until I can find a way to sort out my little mistake is there another option? I don't know if I have a Trojan in my computer but if I did have a Trojan in my computer would this open the four ports mentioned to others even through my Norton Firewall? I'm using Spybot S&D which isn't showing anything bad there, and I'm also using Norton Internet Security and Norton SystemWorks which is not showing up any Trojans in any scans. prathapml do you think that Symantec/Norton are not as good as others when it comes to internet security and keeping a PC in good running order?

I was recently updating Spybot S&D that I've got installed in my computer and in the process I came across the phrase 'TeaTimer'. What does TeaTimer mean?

Thanks again prathapml I'm not running any kind of server just an ordinary PC. Does what you've said mean that I should be looking to close all of the 4 ports mentioned as soon as possible? If so could you let me know how to do this? If I close off the mentioned ports is the closing off process reversable and can I still use the internet as usual i.e browsing, downloading, sending and receiving emails, registering with and logging onto websites?

I do have a firewall but the Symantec Security checker still manages to find those four ports I mentioned all open Also I can see now how port 80 would need to be open in order to actually use the internet so I'm less worried about that particular port being open now, although is port 80 used for anything else other than being connected with the internet?

Thanks prathapml, and are these ports being open like they are worth worrying about?

Also, when the checker says ports, does it mean actual ports that I can see at the back of my computer or does it mean other ports which I, not being particularly computer knowledgeable, would not know existed unless I opened up my computer to look inside?

I have just used the Symantec Security checker to find out if my computer had any Hacker Exposure and Trojan Horse Vulnerabilities. The check went okay and most of the results came back as good but a few came up which worried me: TROJAN HORSE VULNERABILITY RESULTS: 1025 Unused Windows Services Block HACKER EXPOSURE RESULTS: ICMP Ping 23 Telnet 80 HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Each of these results had at the end of them a red circle with a tick in it which Symantec indicated that these were open ports in my computer and vulnerable to attacks. Firstly can someone tell me if Symantec's Security Checker is reliable, and secondly, can someone let me know if the seemingly worrying results which the symantec security checker found are actually anything to be worried about and if so how can I deal with them? Thanx m8E

thanks jaclaz thanks ninnox I'll try formatting from Administrator. Is there a way of using DOS to format the hard drive? If so would doing something like that wipe the hard drive so clean that it would be as though it were like new with no OS on it at all?

Thanks ninnox there are no partitions on my hard drive so I tried doing a right-click on the hard drive icon but it wouldn't format because after right-clicking and after choosing format and confirming I wanted to format a message box came up saying: "Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure tht no window is displaying hte contents of the drive. Then try formatting again." Should this message box have appeared? If not what does it mean and should I try to do anything so that it doesn't come up again? There were no other windows open and I wasn't aware of any utilities being in use at the time, mainly because I have completely un-installed absolutely everything off the computer and there is now only the Windows XP Pro OS on it. I will run the xp cd if I have to, but I would really like to know why I had this message box appear! Thanx

I am using Windows XP Pro OS on an ordinary internal hard drive, how do I do a simple format on my hard drive? B)

My scrolling is still jumping like mad. Anyone got any new ideas?

Thanks Jono for looking for me, you're the second person able to view that website whilst I still cannot, and thanks Datalore, this is how it went... I've been using Spybot S+D for a short while already and it has cleared out pretty much everything like that already, so then I put in notepad.exe C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\HOSTS into the run window and a notepad window came up with 127.0.0.1 localhost being the only one there already. I didn't change anything there. Then I tried the links you gave and did get a different page than I had been able to find previously, but it didn't show much at all, there was a 'categories' button on the left near the top which didn't click, a 'back to homepage' button on the bottom left corner which did click and worked, and a simple message on the page saying: Please choose a category from the list opposite... and there were no categories anywhere to be seen This same page came up for both of the links you provided. If you guys can see everything on that http://www.smartads.co.uk website without any trouble I don't think it is my computer or it's installed software causing this problem because I first went to that website when I had a previous computer and I had the same things happen then, mind you I'm no expert on these things and it's just an amateur's guess ...and that's how it went

Hi Datalore, this is getting odder this is what your first post showed: from this I assumed you only saw two buttons to click on when you visited that website and didn't realise you'd seen four buttons. Each time I've visited that website I've not seen a 'view items for sale' button, I've always just seen the two 'Place a new ad' and 'Remove an old ad' buttons and not much else. The 'Remove an old ad' button I agree would remove the ad which was placed but not I think the actual registration to the website which is something I would like to find how to do if possible. I don't see any links in your first post which is strange as you say you gave me links to the top two buttons which you saw there but you obviously can see more than me on that website when you visit it, could you revisit the website and copy/paste here direct links to their 'view items for sale' page and the other one which I cannot see either. I realise you say you already gave links for the two top buttons but there wasn't anything for me to click on in your first post. ~Thanx~

Hi Datalore. You see no links or buttons to click on which might take you to view adverts, no? and no links or buttons to click on which might take you to a page where a person could un-register from this website, no?

Hi everyone, I have a small proplem with a website which I would like you all to visit and tell me if you get the same result from the home page as I do. It's a UK website called: http://www.smartads.co.uk and it claims you can advertise your car, or anything else on the website, however, whenever I've brought up the home page it has always only ever shown a 'Place a new ad, go' button or 'Remove an old ad, go' button to click on. Previously I'd thought I'd placed an advert on this website and had to give email address details etc to register, however I can't see anywhere on this website where any adverts whatsoever can be viewed Under the 2 main buttons to click on are the QPresenter logo links to click on to take you to the QPresenter website, which I don't want, and the 4 links to click on: About us | Copyright | Contact us | Links all of which don't take me to view my advert. Also all attempts to make contact the people at smartads via email simply fail. This smartads website is connected with another website/company called http://www.digitalimage.co.uk which I have also tried to contact via email but once again all email attempts have failed Does anyone else get any different results showing on the smartads homepage? Is all this just happening to me only? Please tell me if you get any different buttons to click on on this home page because I'm beginning to think this website isn't what it claims to be! ~Thanx~

Could it be when Windows XP was istalled on the computer that the smooth scrolling option wasn't chosen, and so now smooth scrolling is hard to achieve? Just a far flung thought

Thanks XtremeMaC, I've just looked in the registry and it's all the same as you've shown above. I'm not sure what to do now any ideas anyone?

Thanks for your suggestion CECSmoky21, I've not tried that yet. I will have to disable the firewall etc to do that though I think, which can be a bit of a slow drag. upon better inspection I've found the smooth scrolling, it was the 7th box down under 'Explorer', however it was already checked, so I un-checked it to see if it made any difference and it hasn't!

Thanks XtremeMaC Two files were found in that folder, one with binary numbers which is DefaultApplied which I right clicked and then clicked on 'Modify Binary Data' which brought up the 'Edit Binary Value' box which had the value 01 00 00 00 already in it. At the moment I've not actually changed anything there. I didn't actually know what TweakUI was until I read it here so initially I was looking for it on my computer which is why it wasn't found, however I have now downloaded and installed it.... one small problem I can't find any smooth scrolling tweaks!

Hi Sie Tjin Kian, thanks for your suggestions. I'm having trouble finding TweakUI, how do I find it? Also because I couldn't find TweakUI I've checked out the registry way to change scrolling and HKEY_USERS was easily found, however, "Your User Profile" was nowhere to be found at all. \Control Panel\Desktop\ was found at this location: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\ but even there SmoothScroll was not found, but in the location HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\ there were some binery type numbers but no SmoothScroll. Does this make any sense

I'm using XP and whenever I scroll up or down using the mouse or scroll bar I get like a jumping effect on the screen which really does my eyes in! How do I get smooth scrolling? ~Thanx~