Computers

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by andViolins
Well, I brought a laptop home and got on with the modem. It is definitely not a hardware problem. From what eMAchines support says, it is a firewall issue. THey cannot seem to solve the problem, even after hours of tech support conversations.

arg.

aV

Well, that's a productive development at least. Find a way to disable the firewall, which obviously is a software issue. It's probably a microsoft problem, in other words. Which means you're screwed.

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Well, that's a productive development at least. Find a way to disable the firewall, which obviously is a software issue. It's probably a microsoft problem, in other words. Which means you're screwed.

That makes sense. I bet he has McAfee and Microsoft firewalls. Need to disable one.

Emachines went so far as to tell me NOT to download the microsoft updates.

andV do yourself a favor. Go to the Apple store and buy me:

Then copy your data from the emachines POS before you lose your data.

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
All glibness aside, this type of fiasco that violins is having is why macs are balls. Microsoft designs software for machines with who-knows-what pieces-parts in them, and there are millions of different combinations of machines. So they create a patch, and inevitably it's going to fuck up someone's machine, and who knows why, and everyone will point at everyone else (Microsoft would say it's SBC's fault.) And it leave violins with a pretty new computer, with the most up-to-date software, and no internet. That just sucks.

Meanwhile, apple has a limited number of machines that its software works on, it can test all of them, and can send out patches with very few problems, and relatively curable ones.

I really believe the more complicated and advanced computers become, the more an OS like apple's will succeed.

Not to mention that the whole concept is buggered. All these little programs, dlls, floating around.

[andViolins]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Well, that's a productive development at least. Find a way to disable the firewall, which obviously is a software issue. It's probably a microsoft problem, in other words. Which means you're screwed.

I had my tech neighbor over for an hour. He can't figure it out. Here is the really weird part - I can't get onto the internet if I launch IE, Netscape or Firefox. However if I simply click on My Documents and then type in an internet address (like lawtalkers.com) the computer will get out onto the internet. THat one had my neighbor scratching his head.

fucking computer.

aV

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by andViolins
I had my tech neighbor over for an hour. He can't figure it out. Here is the really weird part - I can't get onto the internet if I launch IE, Netscape or Firefox. However if I simply click on My Documents and then type in an internet address (like lawtalkers.com) the computer will get out onto the internet. THat one had my neighbor scratching his head.

fucking computer.

aV

Maybe tools internet options? Is this thing by default looking for a dial up? Check under the Connection tab -- I bet something is wrong there.

[andViolins]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Maybe tools internet options? Is this thing by default looking for a dial up? Check under the Connection tab -- I bet something is wrong there.

OK, last night I removed Zone Alarm from the computer. Tried to install Norton Internet Security. It couldn't complete its installation because it couldn't get onto the internet and kept giving me an error (And telling me to remove and reload). I removed NOrton. Rebooted. Went to sleep. This morning my wife got onto the internet. No problem. Now, we have no anti-virus and just the microsoft firewall. I am tempted to try and reload Norton Security, but do I tempt fate again?

aV

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by andViolins
Now, we have no anti-virus and just the microsoft firewall. I am tempted to try and reload Norton Security, but do I tempt fate again?

aV

Well, that's worse than no firewall at all. I'd check norton for updates or info on whether this is a known problem. Get the latest norton update, and try installing that. At least you know the solution.

bTW, I'd get a hardware firewall. Your wireless router may do that already, if configured correctly. But, less hassle.

[Mister_Ruysbroeck]

Late to the party here. Glad you were able to pin it down as a firewall conflict.

The fact is, the native XP firewall doesn't like it when you have other firewalls installed. In fact, I had conflicts all the time when I was using ZoneAlarm Pro with Windows XP. I even had the XP firewall disabled and would still have issues getting certain programs to connect. Sounds like that's the problem you had.

For what it's worth, the XP firewall is fine to run on it's own. You don't need a third-party firewall unless you want to monitor (and to be able to block) outgoing acccess attempts. The XP firewall is really only good at blocking unauthorized in-bound traffic. So, if you manage to get a trojan on your PC, the XP firewall may not catch it sending outbound data. This isn't that much of a concern, though, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I do, however, recommend that you reinstall your virus scanner. If I recall correctly, Norton Security is a suite product that includes a firewall, among other things. I wouldn't install that part (in fact, I wouldn't install anything other than the virus scanner - none of that ghost drive shit and other stuff Norton bundles with the package). You can select only the components you want to install by selecting the "custom" installation option.

Norton AV + Windows XP firewall should be enough protection and shouldn't cause any conflicts that keep you from connecting to the internet. Good luck.

[Buzzkill]

Assuming that I am not the only idiot who uses Musicmatch, has anyone had trouble with it hanging up the computer (repeatedly)? I mean like the "you have to unplug the computer to get it to respond to you" kind of hanging.

I have a Windows XP box that I built myself (long story--it started off with an upgraded video card and got out of hand) and Musicmatch used to work fine. Then *something* happened and now it only functions properly about 25% of the time. I can't tell from Task Manager exactly what the hold up is (it's something going on the background). I am thinking it has something to do with a conflict between Total Recorder (an excellent program, by the way, and a fabulous way to convert protected WMAs into MP3s or whatever), my sound card (a Turtle Beach Catalina), and some of the various drivers, DLLs, etc. that lurk in the background. I've heard that people have had trouble with the Catalina, so I may just need to ditch it and get something with better drivers, etc.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had had similar experiences with this *lovely* program.

Thanks!

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Buzzkill
Assuming that I am not the only idiot who uses Musicmatch. . .

We all know what happens when we ass u me . . .

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had had similar experiences with this *lovely* program.

No. Pre-itunes I tried it once or twice and promptly formatted my hard disk to ensure I deleted the shit. Then I suffered through Media Player, Real Player and a host of other suckas.

Then Itunes came out and slayed the rest.

[Buzzkill]

See, I really want to like iTunes. It looks cool, and I am generally somebody who likes Apple products (despite not owning any at the moment). But MM seems to have more of the music I want to own on it. Maybe I will use this as an opportunity to give iTunes another chance.

Or maybe I'll just write yet another dirty email to the MM customer support lackeys.

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Then Itunes came out and slayed the rest.

My iPod and my fiance's iPod mini and iTunes and my HP laptop are all miserable pieces of misery-inducing shite.

[Mister_Ruysbroeck]

Originally posted by Buzzkill
Assuming that I am not the only idiot who uses Musicmatch, has anyone had trouble with it hanging up the computer (repeatedly)? I mean like the "you have to unplug the computer to get it to respond to you" kind of hanging.

I have a Windows XP box that I built myself (long story--it started off with an upgraded video card and got out of hand) and Musicmatch used to work fine. Then *something* happened and now it only functions properly about 25% of the time. I can't tell from Task Manager exactly what the hold up is (it's something going on the background). I am thinking it has something to do with a conflict between Total Recorder (an excellent program, by the way, and a fabulous way to convert protected WMAs into MP3s or whatever), my sound card (a Turtle Beach Catalina), and some of the various drivers, DLLs, etc. that lurk in the background. I've heard that people have had trouble with the Catalina, so I may just need to ditch it and get something with better drivers, etc.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had had similar experiences with this *lovely* program.

Thanks!

I am a big fan of MusicMatch. Yeah, it's a fairly resource intesive program, but if you've got a good system, it should handle it.

You sound pretty tech savvy, but I'm going to ask you anyway - have you made sure all your software and drivers are current?

Have you tried uninstalling some of the applications you think may be conflicting with MM?

Are you having problems with any other media programs?

Since you're using XP, have you tried a system rollback to a time when you weren't having issues?

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Mister_Ruysbroeck
I am a big fan of MusicMatch. Yeah, it's a fairly resource intesive program, but if you've got a good system, it should handle it.

You sound pretty tech savvy, but I'm going to ask you anyway - have you made sure all your software and drivers are current?

Have you tried uninstalling some of the applications you think may be conflicting with MM?

Are you having problems with any other media programs?

Since you're using XP, have you tried a system rollback to a time when you weren't having issues?

Ahhh, the joys of being a switcher.

[Buzzkill]

[Mods help me out here--hit the wrong damn button again and started a new thread. Crap.]

I do think that it has something to do with drivers and DLLs, but what I can't figure out exactly. I un & reinstalled MM to see if that did the trick, and it worked for a while. Thing is, if MM hangs up, Media Player won't work either (hangs) and neither will Nero, so there is some common resource all the programs use that MM is hogging for some reason. I updated my sound board drivers but that hasn't solved the problem. I went through the alert logs on the system and see that things are amiss, but the information provided in the alerts is a bit too obscure for me to figure out. I think I am just going to have to take stuff off and start adding it back until I can isolate the problem.

I haven't tried reverting to the prior XP state (not sure if I could do that anyway since I did a clean XP install on a new drive when I got the computer together). I'll give that a shot though.

I have generally been happy with MM (when it works), although don't get me started on the DRM scheme. That one really chaps my ass.