Tarun

Due to the numerous issues that ZoneAlarm has been causing in the past and still continues to cause, I have recommended that people avoid it completely. One of the worst things it does is slow down the speed of your Internet browsing/downloading.

[ Moved per request ]

Symantec is horrific and takes a toll on the resources. Some of the best ones are actually free. Panda doesn't do a very good job at all, though Microsoft's AV is substancially better (better than even Norton and McAfee).

Welcome to the forums Arne. To speed up your chances of replies and to better the results, I've moved your topic to our Windows Vista forum. You may wish to check your Mouse settings in the Control Panel in case that is a pre-set animated cursor. [ Moved ]

The problem with a lot of these review websites is that they get paid off to put Product X at the highest spot.

The original was far better and had absolutely nothing to do with Mario. He was having issues with an FPS game, I just cannot recall exactly which one. I believe it was Unreal Tournament.

I just experienced this issue. Had to remove my cookies and then it let me in. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4 - Build ID: 2007051502

This version went downhill. It's far too restrictive. If you want to do a custom scan that you could do in the previous Ad-Aware you need Plus/Pro.

It would probably be a good idea to post the browsers that are used and the operating systems as well. From what this sounds like though, it's a VirtuaNews bug.

The sources I provided clearly stated that "This preference does not exist by default.". Now, what that means is that you have to manually add the values listed in order to enable these settings. Just because they're in the source code does not mean that they are enabled by default. Unfortunately, IRC is not a solid place of proof either; any fanboy could easily pose as a developer and make false claims. Remember, Firefox is open-source, anyone can look at the source code and act like they know something. As far as Opera is concerned, just saying that "Opera rechecks resolved DNS addresses every 10 minutes." doesn't say that it caches DNS entries at all. It says that it checks them. That could very well mean that Opera is making a call to the Windows API and checking with the Windows DNS cache. ----- Thunderbolt 2864, Glad to hear that your problem was resolved. As this topic has gotten quite off-topic, I'm going to close this thread. However if you (Thunderbolt) need this re-opened; please PM me and I will re-open it should your problem still exist or if you prefer to make a new thread, please feel free. [ Closed ]

Are you logged in on the frontpage?

There are sites mentioning DNS caching in IE and Firefox. I also asked a moderator in the Opera IRC chatroom and he confirmed that Opera does cache DNS entries. I'm also in the process of getting a written confirmation for the same. Let's take Firefox for example. By default there are only these two entries: network.dns.disableIPv6 network.dns.ipv4OnlyDomains Yes, the browser can support others; however by default it does not. I can verify it by referring you to this page for about:config. DNS Cache is supported, but it is not present, nor is it active by default. You have to manually add the values in order for it to be supported. Here are the links for network.dnsCacheEntries and network.dnsCacheExpiration. It's hard to say that something supports DNS caching when it's not in there and active by default. Apparently, IE7 is not listed as supporting DNS caching either. Source. The DNS caching that the other IE browsers make use of, is based off the DNS Client service which resolves the IP. For Opera, I'll ask Zxian. What are your sources for that? Or if it's your own reasoning, could you please clarify it further? Thanks. Well, since you left out a key part of the quote, I'll add it back in for you. Now, to answer your question. My sources are common sense, studying computers for over ten years and experimenting with many things. It makes sense that if your Hosts file contains say, ten thousand entries, that you would experience a slowdown as your computer has to check each line in the Hosts file for a match. Oh, and referring to Microsoft's website. After all, they created Windows, the services, and more. I would definitely say they know best. Malware can still alter and even replace your Hosts file. Malware is an executable file, just like everything else you use. It sends a command line parameter to change the state of the Hosts file from a read-only state to writable. After that it replaces it with whatever it wants. All it does is send the ATTRIB command along with -R. See this link on DOS Command: ATTRIB for more information. That's not very secure if it's that simple to disable the read-only attribute, is it? ----- Just in case you missed it before, I'll repeat this. Note The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. The DNS Client service optimizes the performance of DNS name resolution by storing previously resolved names in memory. If the DNS Client service is turned off, the computer can still resolve DNS names by using the network's DNS servers. ----- Considering Microsoft made the service, I would say that they know best. This would be why they have the DNS Client service set to Automatic.

I do wonder if there may be a rogue application that might be causing that page to load or some other method.

Browsers cache the DNS? What are your sources for that? A web browser caches images, pages, cookies, etc. There's nothing about DNS cache in Firefox or IE7. The Windows DNS Cache services works as it is intended. It's not broken, nor does it function poorly. It does exactly what it is designed to do. You shouldn't need any third party applications or have any need to use the Hosts file for blocking malware. It just won't work well. Since we're talking about the Hosts file, let's clarify some things. What is the Hosts file? The Hosts file is used to look up the Internet Protocol address of a device connected to a computer network. The Hosts file describes a many-to-one mapping of device names to IP addresses. When accessing a device by name, the networking system will attempt to locate the name within the Hosts file if it exists. Typically, this is used as a first means of locating the address of a system, before accessing the Internet domain name system. The reason for this is that the Hosts file is stored on the computer itself and does not require any network access to be used, whereas DNS requires access to an external system, which is typically slower. What do you not use the Hosts file for? Under no circumstance should you ever use your Hosts file to block malware or advertisements. It is not designed to be used in this manner despite what many websites falsely report. Coincidently those sites also offer their own malware and ad-blocking Hosts files. Some websites will also recommend disabling the DNS Client service or setting it to Manual. By default it is set to Automatic and should not be changed. I hope that clears things up.

It's a great idea to update, as you will help secure your system against exploits that Microsoft has patched. Should you feel your system is slowing down, I would recommend defragging your system. You can use the built-in Windows defragger or even a freeware defrag utility. AusLogics Disk Defrag is a nice freeware defrag utility, and you should also use PageDefrag to defragment your pagefile.

Upload it to VirusTotal and Jotti. It's the safest way to check if it's a false positive. Though it does sound like it is indeed a false positive.

Thunderbolt, where exactly are you getting the popup from? I've seen System Doctor in several forms, from Internet browser popups to a balloon tooltip in the system tray. If it's from something in the system tray, you definitely want to scan with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. Should it be browser related, clear your cache and cookies; and also do a malware scan. Avoid HOSTS file blocking at all costs and whatever you do; do not disable your DNS Client service. Your Internet will slow down moreso as it will have to resolve the names of websites you are visiting every time. MVPS should do better research before advertising their HOSTS file. False claims can really slow a user down. There are far better methods to block malicious ads and websites.

For an AV, I recommend Avast to many people. As far as firewalls, I would never recommend ZoneAlarm due to the numerous bugs and issues it is plagued with.

I personally prefer Avast for anti-virus and Spybot for anti-malware.

Call the game manufacturers and tell them of the lost key. They may ask you to scan in the cd and some other information and they should provide you with a new key.

Firefox is an award winning preview of next generation browsing technology from mozilla.org. Firefox empowers you to accomplish your online activities faster, more safely and efficiently than any other browser, period. Built with Tab browsing, popup blocking and a number of other seamless innovations, Firefox stands out ahead. Download: Firefox v2.0.0.4 | All builds (5.73MB, *.exe) Release Notes: Release Notes Source: Lunarsoft.net

Try a fresh copy, and also see if it works on any other machines you or a friend can access.

What sort of error accompanies the Initialize failed error?

Please don't bump threads. It is a lot better to simply post a useful comment or question, rather than to simply post bump.

It's from post count. The title also changes if you're not using a custom title.