Having browser trouble (Firefox), need help
- Thread starter darkwing_duck1
- Start date
I second sojourner's recommendation. Your system is probably being slow because of the crappy AV program you're using. I use MSE, particularly on low-end systems, and the performance hit is surprisingly minimal.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
^So AVG is no good? I've had three different people I know with computer/IT experience tell me that AVG Free was the best way to go. I was using MacAfee, which I thought gave good service, but was too RAM intensive.
Right now, things are working pretty smoothly. Will making a big system change like changing anti-virus knock everything out of kilter again?
Right now, things are working pretty smoothly. Will making a big system change like changing anti-virus knock everything out of kilter again?
I used to have AVG and while it was effective, it was also a resource hog. I have had no issues with MSE. You should first uninstall AVG, then download Microsoft Security Essentials. It should not hurt anything as long as you use the default configuration.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
How is it on "ease of use" issues? Decent GUI? Anything bother you about it that doesn't rise to the level of an "issue"?
Nah, I've really never had trouble with it. It's pretty much install-and-go. It's Microsoft, so the GUI is as dumbed-down as possible.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
I'm reading the Cnet review page for it now
http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Security-Essentials/3000-2239_4-10969260.html
They seem to be pleased overall, but one user notes problems with "anti virus suite" malware attacks and a trojan called Aleuron (sp?).
Others have noted that a full system scan takes FOREVER. It also doesn't have some of the "system backup" features other programs have.
Does this square with your experience? And what level of improvement in resource handling would you think I could expect?
http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Security-Essentials/3000-2239_4-10969260.html
They seem to be pleased overall, but one user notes problems with "anti virus suite" malware attacks and a trojan called Aleuron (sp?).
Others have noted that a full system scan takes FOREVER. It also doesn't have some of the "system backup" features other programs have.
Does this square with your experience? And what level of improvement in resource handling would you think I could expect?
Those "anti-virus suite" malware things typically only hit IE users, or users of other browsers who are dumb enough to be fooled by fake "virus scan" popups. Recognizing malware is not something AV software is usually good at--it is best for identifying bona fide trojans, rootkits, worms, and the like. Malware is sort of a gray area that is only gradually being recognized by AV software.
I did find a full system scan to take a while, but that's my experience with just about any AV program. You do one full scan right off the bat, then leave active scanning turned on to catch anything new.
Resource-wise, I just noticed a more responsive system with less memory usage. It would be hard to quantify although it looked like MSE used maybe 2/3 the RAM of AVG, which seemed reasonable to me.
I did find a full system scan to take a while, but that's my experience with just about any AV program. You do one full scan right off the bat, then leave active scanning turned on to catch anything new.
Resource-wise, I just noticed a more responsive system with less memory usage. It would be hard to quantify although it looked like MSE used maybe 2/3 the RAM of AVG, which seemed reasonable to me.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Well, I took your advice and switched. So far so good. There is an increase in performance, enough to be noticeable. We'll see how it works in the long term.
Great! Glad you're seeing a performance improvement. I know I was reluctant to willingly install a Microsoft utility on my system, but it actually turned out to work pretty well. 
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
What I'm hoping (and this is based on a completely uneducated theory) is that the "simpler" the connection, the less likely it is that things somehow get confused and "clogged up" in the server/router, as well as in active memory.
I'm convinced that sometimes RAM heavy programs just lock up, esp if you've been on line awhile, just because they get stuffed with data fragments from various programs and usages.
I'm convinced that sometimes RAM heavy programs just lock up, esp if you've been on line awhile, just because they get stuffed with data fragments from various programs and usages.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
^Tried it, didn't really tell me much except my connection was slow (0.07Mps download, 0.01 Mps upload). Guess that'll have to do.
By the way, I hate it when they "give" you a scanner/cleaner that only SCANS for free...if you want to fix what it finds then THAT costs...if they'd told me that up front I wouldn't've wasted my time with dl-ing the stupid registry checker/cleaner...
By the way, I hate it when they "give" you a scanner/cleaner that only SCANS for free...if you want to fix what it finds then THAT costs...if they'd told me that up front I wouldn't've wasted my time with dl-ing the stupid registry checker/cleaner...
0.07Mbps download?? Yeesh. That's insanely slow. With throughput like that you're probably dropping packets like crazy. No wonder you're having connection issues.
Registry cleaners are all but useless in my experience.
Registry cleaners are all but useless in my experience.
Where did you get your wireless card? I've seen cases where certain cards and hubs will not work well together.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
^^I've got a cleaner/checker (a truly FREE one) from Piriform that I routinely run once a week, and I've noticed the difference. If I forget for a week or two my system bogs down quite a bit.
And, when it's working, that speed is pretty good for the general surfing and such I do (when I can get it, that was at a moment everything was working really well).
^I don't have a card, I have a plug in model. Got it at Wal-Mart. I know it's part of the problem, but the Maint IT guy was having trouble with HIS connection too, and he's got a good setup so it's NOT all on my end.
And, when it's working, that speed is pretty good for the general surfing and such I do (when I can get it, that was at a moment everything was working really well).
^I don't have a card, I have a plug in model. Got it at Wal-Mart. I know it's part of the problem, but the Maint IT guy was having trouble with HIS connection too, and he's got a good setup so it's NOT all on my end.
darkwing_duck1: Hi, I'm Keoni Chavez, Junior Community Manager at AVG. I'm sorry to hear about your recent problems. Was this AVG Internet Security 9 or AVG Free that you were using?
You might also try switching from Firefox to Chrome. I've been using it a while now and I find it feels noticeably quicker than IE or Firefox.
I was going to suggest looking into getting a better antenna for your wireless adapter, but if it's a USB unit, as it seems it is based on your last response, you probably won't be able to change the antenna at all. The results from speedtest suggest that there's something seriously wrong, though. When the maintenance guy came, did he say anything about what speeds others in the building are getting? If others aren't having any trouble, then there's probably a problem somewhere between your computer and the access point. It's also possible that your complex doesn't have enough bandwidth for all of the residents, so that paltry 70kbps you got at speedtest.net is just your share. Maybe some of you neighbors are doing a lot of file sharing, or maybe their computers are infected by some trojan and are part of a bot-net or something.
I was going to suggest looking into getting a better antenna for your wireless adapter, but if it's a USB unit, as it seems it is based on your last response, you probably won't be able to change the antenna at all. The results from speedtest suggest that there's something seriously wrong, though. When the maintenance guy came, did he say anything about what speeds others in the building are getting? If others aren't having any trouble, then there's probably a problem somewhere between your computer and the access point. It's also possible that your complex doesn't have enough bandwidth for all of the residents, so that paltry 70kbps you got at speedtest.net is just your share. Maybe some of you neighbors are doing a lot of file sharing, or maybe their computers are infected by some trojan and are part of a bot-net or something.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
AVG Free.
I'd like to point out that, in a perfect world where I didn't have connectivity issues and plenty of RAM on my system that I probably would not have switched. I liked AVG Free; it was a good piece of software that was easy to use.
My problem was simply (as near as I can tell) that it took up too much RAM (I only have 512 resident RAM), and the active use processes (like Link Scanner) bogged down my already slow connection to the wi-fi router, making the connection unstable.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
As much trouble as I've had with Google (esp Gmail) lately I don't want to use a broswer based on their software.
No, but he did seem surprised to be having trouble logging in. He suggested a big part of the problem was likely my distance to the physical router (I want to say about 70' or so), but that it should be better than it is. The physical router is in another building entirely.
That could be. A friend of mine suggested just that based on the fact that the speed seems to change from day to day and sometimes hour to hour. Right now I'm dling a file and the speed is ~3Kbytes/sec. On a good day, my dl speed runs between 30-50Kps.
This was a VAST improvement over-all over my old dial-up, just nowhere near as much as I was expecting based on what I'd heard about hi-speed connections.
The landlord has been considering switching to a wired service, but that's down the road, if ever.
