physical mem

Hi,
Just wondering which security suit to keep running as my memory seems to run short. Router firewall,Comodo f/w, Spybot S&D, Avir Anti-virus. Spyware Dr.
XP Pro which one to keep and which one to toss? My PC is slowing down to much. Any help is appreciated.

 

What about buying more memory ?

 

Hi Sicher

Check this:

Slow Computer? Check here first; it may not be malware

 

Thanks LoneWolf,
are sending me to the supermarket? I do not need a new Puter and there should be no need to put in new parts.

 

Climenole,
I ran CCleaner, emptied cache's etc. and trimmed the start up menu to a bare minimum of four. just want to know which of the defend programs to choose for good security.

 

Are you running Spyware Doctor realtime? If so, dont. That should free up some resources.

And if you dont care about outbound protection get rid of Comodo. A router is excellent for inbound only.

 

How much memory do you have? I was running XP home 512MB and 128MB was for video. At the time I ran Comodo, Avast and Windows Defender and had no problems. A few months ago, I added another 512MB and it was one of the best things I've done. It was only $37 U.S. for the RAM.

Cheers

 

Thanks for this bonza advice WS Fuser. Can the router firewall be disabled as Comodo seems to do a fine job?

Do you mean disabling Spyware `Doctor which protects from rootkits?

 

Hi innerpeace,
I read a number of your posts and admire your know how and experience. I will ask my Techy if he can put that extra mem into my Toshy laptop.
Sounds cheap as well.

Month ago when I downloaded Cyberhawk, my PC expanded memory by itself. I do have 512MB already double or stepped up.

The other day I tried Returnil and that really blew it. I got the dreaded blue screen, but managed to restart and delete it

 

Sorry, just tring to help.
My pc did the same so I added RAM (memory) and all was well after that.
Good luck with your problem.

 

You could open task-mgr to find your biggest mem-drain and start from there....

 

Router Firewall + firefox may be enough. Remove everything else and if it makes you feel better run an on demand scan every so often.

Even better - do a clean install and then load Returnil. Even if something bad did get on it would be toast at the next reboot.

 

Yes it can be disabled but why do so? Routers do an excellent job of filtering incoming traffic and it wont affect your computers resources.

I mean disable it entirely so its not running in the background.

 

biggest drain is M/S Outlook 42,700K
then FF 35,332K
IE6 uses 20,704K
Snagit 22,892K
SpywareDr. 24,612K
etc. I took a screenshot,but could not get it in here. 42 applications are running in task-mgr and many are so abbreviated that I cannot recognize them. Maybe I should get rid of a lot of programs I seldom use.

 

Thanks Long View
Router & FF will not stop adware and rootkits, keyloggers etc unless I am mistaken.

 

Thanks WSFuser,

what's the use of having it if I disable it? Please enlighten me, maybe I am missing something here. How much can we depend on routers alone?

 

WSFuser
Thanks for helping. What are you suggesting running Spyware Dr. in unreal time? Does this mean disabling the software?

 

Hi LoneWolf

Sorry i did not mean to hurt your feelings!!! I apologize cause you were right after all in sugesting I get more memory. just wondering if it can be done with a laptop as easy as on a desktop PC

 

Yes or you can also replace them with lighter programs like use Thunderbird instead of Outlook and FastStone Capture instead of SnagIt.

You only need one firewall (either hardware or software) to protect you from inbound attacks. If you decide to use a firewall for outbound filtering that is your choice.

Just disable it from running at startup and use it for ondemand scans only.

It relatively easy; what laptop is it?

 

No harm done here.
Was just tring to suggest the obvious.
Glad you have it sorted out.
Desktop is easy to add RAM.(at least on my dell it is) not sure bout a laptop.

 

Sorry I wouldn't know - I don't download such things

 

My Laptop is a Toshiba M30, 4yrs old, O/S=XP Pro 40 GB hd and recently replaced the cooling fan whilst on holidays.
I never use the Toshiba controls and like to know what if I could delete them.
25.3 GB free space so there is plenty of room now that I deleted Snagit v.8 and a lot of other programs. Yet taskmgr. tells me that there are 39 still processing/running.

Any idea on Toshiba Config free?

 

This page and this one too can help you disable some services.

 

Thanks WSFuser

I did this years ago and just spend time to see if it is still the way I configured it. It is running better now and will have to find out which are the least and best one to keep.

 

I haven't used some of the programs listed, but I think that Spyware Doctor and the firewall would be more of a "memory hog" than the other programs. There are more lighter firewalls and antispyware programs that might reduce your memory load. Since the MOBO determines the maximum amount of RAM that you can use, you either have to install another MOBO or juggle your software. You can sometimes add "virtual" RAM to your PC by using some utility programs, but "virtual" RAM is slower than actual RAM so it may not be useful.
You also listed MS Outlook which takes up a lot of memory. Not sure if you can remove different parts of the program from core and never heard of anyone trying that out.