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There are plenty of AOL 'issues', but I would dump anything Norton/Symantec, download Zonealarm and use that having turned off the windows firewall.
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Just to add a bit - my friend recently got a Dell 3000 and luckily I got to use it first.
It was also pre-infested with AOL & Norton and I removed both after getting ZA up & running. It also wanted to 'phone home' to Dell support all the time, and I stopped that. It has never run IE or OE because I put Firefox & Thunderbird on, and those are the only desktop 'net icons.
That may seem a bit presumptious to some, but my friend knows/wants to know very little about computers, I even labelled the FF & TB icons 'internet' & 'mail' for him!
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Appreciate the info. You've reminded me when I bought my Dell new a year ago I had to stop it (and Real Player!) phoning home... forget quite how at the moment.
Does AOL have its own reliable anti-virus software?
I use Norton AV 2003 and Zonealarm, they are very stable with XP service pack 2. I run Adaware as reqd.
Was thinking of setting up this friend's PC in a similar way but the AOL factor may change that??
M.M
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As you seem to appreciate, AOL is best avoided and beyond that I don't have any knowledge.
I would use the Windows beta AV software instead of Norton and also run Adware + Spybot S&D on a regular basis. Forgot about Real - how nice of Dell to put all these 'goodies' on the HD, especially for new users!
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That's great thanks. Last thought. Could I strip out the AOL browser/software then manually configure their Broadband connection but still on AOL?
M.M
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Could I strip out the AOL browser/software then manually configure their Broadband connection but still on AOL?
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my personal views - please do ignore if that suits your circumstances:
haven't tried aol for a while - they may have gone over to the netscape/firefox route, but in the old days you could run ie6 as your browser after connecting to dial-up aol.
re the other issues.
realplayer - diasble phone home setting from realplayer.
microsoft beta - i think frostie may have meant ms-spyware-beta and not ms-av-beta. agreed, ms-antispy-beta thoroughly recommned it myself.
as for av, the free avast (from avast.com) is my personal choice. others may suggest free avg as an alternative.
firewall - latest zonealarm v60 is causing some problems according to their forum. they have links to older versions on thier history page. suggest you use the older v55 until bugs on v60 are sorted. also, set up your friend's pc to report minimum of alerts.
set every program on auto updates etc. as far as possible to minimise constant callouts to help him/her.
remember that current versions of firefox require uninstall then install when security fixes are released. if he/she can handle that, certainly go for firefox - otherwise i would personally wait until promised version of auto-updatable firefox comes outbefore installing it on any of my pc-iliterate friends computers.
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"Does AOL have its own reliable anti-virus software?"
I believe AOL currently has a deal with McAfee, so you can download their firewall, at least, for free. I learned the hard way that AOL and Kerio (a good free-for-personal-use firewall) do not get on!
None of this has any connection with the fact that AOL's telephone support is no longer free, of course...
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My son, an IT support specialist, once told me that if I ever installed AOL (not that I ever would) on my system then I would be entirely and utterly on my own....:-)
RealPlayer has to be configured to do exactly as YOU want and not Real.com.
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PS
Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird have ensured that I spend 98 per cent of my time on the Internet and not constantly seeking OE and IE updates, security patches, critical updates etc.
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have ensured that I spend 98 per cent of my time on the Internet and not constantly seeking OE and IE updates, security patches, critical updates etc.
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if you ditch mozilla products, then latest microsft software allows unattended autoupdates. that will let you spend 100% of the time on the internet, rather than wasting 2% of your time uninstalling and re-instaling mozilla patches ;-)
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>>if you ditch mozilla products,>>
I'll stick with Firefox and Thunderbird, thanks all the same...:-)
I've never felt so free for years.
Meanwhile I've spent hours and hours trying to sort out a friend's IE and OE + Windows 98 system over the past fortnight - thought I'd left all that behind with the superbly stable XP Pro.
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Windows 98 system over the past fortnight - thought I'd left all that behind with the superbly stable XP Pro.
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if you use windows - be it 98, me, or xp or whatever - you are stuck with having to use ms internet browser for updates to windows. that is regardless of whether you use mozilla products.
so, stuatli, you need to move to linux if you really want to escape the drudgery of windows updates.
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Could you live with the incomptibility of half your software though? ;-)
--
Adam
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Just a thought on what I discovered with mate's 3000.
They very kindly don't supply you with any windoze backup/rescue cd any more - must save them all of 10p!
There is a facility to make your own - provided of course that you have a cd writer. Look at the piece of mock cd paper that came with the machine and it tells you the location of the file, which disappears after you've made a copy.
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>>so, stuatli, you need to move to Linux if you really want to escape the drudgery of windows updates.>>
Contrary to general belief, I'm not mad...:-)
Windows updates are now normally made available on the second Tuesday of the month through the Security Bulletin (and I get there via Firefox) - in addition I have BigFix with which to do a quick check every so often for unexpected/important updates, just in case I do need to use IE or OE (rare).
Hardly drudgery....
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