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I haven't had my PC up and running for almost two years. Viruses shut dow my PC, so I do all my computer work on my phone or go to the library. I'm thinking about having my PC cleaned/fixed. In the last few years have you had less or more trouble with viruses/hackers? Just curious. Also, is the latest Windows 8 system worth buying?

fisherman bob wrote:I haven't had my PC up and running for almost two years. Viruses shut dow my PC, so I do all my computer work on my phone or go to the library. I'm thinking about having my PC cleaned/fixed. In the last few years have you had less or more trouble with viruses/hackers? Just curious. Also, is the latest Windows 8 system worth buying?

Re Windows - You don't have a choice. Each new version means that support wanes in previous versions.

McAfee or Norton will clean up and repair your PC. Subscriptions arent that expensive. UPidate them yearly... I have McAfee... Never had any troubles

No more trouble or less, just have to be careful. I had no trouble at all when I was using an older laptop with Windows 2000 and didn't have anti virus at all. Over 2 years online every day and no trouble at all. Then again I'm a computer tech and know what to look out for. I also made sure to stay away from lots of game or screensaver downloads and other problem sites. Downloaded games, screensavers are the biggest virus problems, and these days they've found out how to sneak code in so you're zapped just by opening a webpage. But that's not too common, and usually it's trojans and related backdoors instead of viruses. Someone figured out a few years ago it's fun to write a virus and trash people's computers, but much more profitable to write a spyware or trojan app and make money at it...so now those are bigger problems than viruses. And viruses are still around too...

Can't stand McAffee or Norton, I refuse to touch Norton after they started their "subscription" garbage with no warning. Nothing on the box, nothing I remember reading and one day a box pops up that says my subscription I know nothing about has expired. Norton and McAffee both became huge multi billion dollar corps providing free antivirus definitions for at least 7 years. When greed set in I bailed out. I use AVG now. Just as good and free. McAffee lost me when I paid for their software and they didn't bother to even acknowledge that I had a problem, much less try to fix it. After a half dozen emails with no response over 2 months I finally called them and let the guy who answered the phone listen to me break their CD into a hundred pieces.

Windows 8... Haven't seen it but if you go with win 8 you'll need the newest, fastest computer you can find if it's anything like 7 and XP. System requirements have seemed to go up dramatically with each new OS. When XP was released it ran like a dog on the newest hardware in the shop where I worked. I had to triple RAM and wait for a newer CPU to get really decent performance with XP. I always recommend waiting a year after it's released to let them work the bugs out, otherwise you're just another guinea pig. They don't want to pay for enough beta testing, so they put it on the shelves half baked, WE are the guinea pigs. That's why any new version of Windows hammers the update site constantly for the first few months. 6 months after release, XP already had nearly 100 updates sitting there. Senseless...would you keep an amp that stayed in the shop every week or two for the first 6 months???

Don't know a thing about windows 8 but I do know what to expect. Wait a while, don't grab it brand new soon as it hits the shelves. Also be ready to re learn, if it's anything like 7. They've moved lots of things around, renamed a few so it's like getting out of a car and getting into a log truck. I couldn't find anything I needed to tweak Windows 7, they renamed a lot of things in Control Panel, took me forever to find where to turn off all the resource hogging animations and graphics crap that I don't want bogging my machine down.

I've always believed if it works don't fix it. MS apparently never heard that one...Windows 2000 was about as good as it gets, soon as they got it right they changed it completely and dumped XP in our laps...it absolutely SUCKED...2000 would run on a P350 with 128MB RAM, and not bad. Give it 256MB RAM and it ran well. XP ran like crap on a PIII 700 and 256MB RAM...twice the machine, wouldn't touch the performance of the earlier OS. I refused to build an XP machine less than P III 1000 and 512 MB RAM. Same for Windows 7. Probably 8 as well, if they stay with their existing formula. Everything released since at least XP has required the latest, fastest and most RAM you can cram in it just to run decent. And they force you to buy it by removing the old OS from the shelves and dropping support after 5 years. I'd still run windows 2000 if I could find it...

stay off the porn sites and you won't have any trouble.

JCP61 wrote:stay off the porn sites and you won't have any trouble.

Damn!

fisherman bob wrote:I haven't had my PC up and running for almost two years. Viruses shut dow my PC, so I do all my computer work on my phone or go to the library. I'm thinking about having my PC cleaned/fixed. In the last few years have you had less or more trouble with viruses/hackers? Just curious. Also, is the latest Windows 8 system worth buying?

I use two computers down stairs in the Digital Audio Workstation Room. One of them is a cheap Windows 7 unit with Threat fire Anti-Virus software. This machine has been on the internet for the past five years everyday and Threat fire has stopped any and all viruses.

The other computer “my Digital Audio Workstation” has never, ever seen the internet and it never will. If I need to transfer files from the Internet Computer to the DAW, I burn them to a CDR after they are checked by the Anti-Virus software.

Here is a solution for the Internet computer;
Every four months, repartition and format the Internet computer and reload the Windows 7 software.

And

Never transfer files from the Internet Computer to the DAW using a Flash Drive or any type of SD card.

Hope this helps.

RGMixProject wrote:

fisherman bob wrote:I haven't had my PC up and running for almost two years. Viruses shut dow my PC, so I do all my computer work on my phone or go to the library. I'm thinking about having my PC cleaned/fixed. In the last few years have you had less or more trouble with viruses/hackers? Just curious. Also, is the latest Windows 8 system worth buying?

I use two computers down stairs in the Digital Audio Workstation Room. One of them is a cheap Windows 7 unit with Threat fire Anti-Virus software. This machine has been on the internet for the past five years everyday and Threat fire has stopped any and all viruses.

The other computer “my Digital Audio Workstation” has never, ever seen the internet and it never will. If I need to transfer files from the Internet Computer to the DAW, I burn them to a CDR after they are checked by the Anti-Virus software.

Here is a solution for the Internet computer;
Every four months, repartition and format the Internet computer and reload the Windows 7 software.

And

Never transfer files from the Internet Computer to the DAW using a Flash Drive or any type of SD card.

Hope this helps.

Both computers in our little makeshift studio are daily used for online gaming and web surfing.

Mac!

mac is more powerful for music and graphics
overall better for production

but I learned this too late and I'm not changing over now.
maybe when this dell goes bust.

Porn sites aren't the huge problem they have been made out to be, you just have to be careful. "Free" game downloads and screensavers have a really bad reputation too, and of course warez sites.

The biggest problem with porn sites is the often sites they link to and not the primary site. If you are careful, it's not a huge problem. Without antivirus at all, I had no problems with my previous laptop. AVG wouldn't install on windows 2000 so I just ran without it and tried to be wary.

That doesn't mean you can run through porn sites all day without concern, just be careful about it. Find a few sites that are reliable and stick to those, and avoid the link share sites, the ones that are nothing but links to ads luring you to pay sites or extreme stuff. Same as anything else, if you do it with a little common sense, you can surf porn and not have any trouble. You just can't go click around to every link you see...

I just remembered one that was a real problem. Years ago, probably 1998 or so, I clicked a link by mistake, intended the one above or below. It opened, and a pop up window opened. Pop ups were new and much hated...So I closed the pop up. It opened two more...one of those opened two more...in about 10 seconds I had over 50 windows open, and they open two faster than you can close one. I had to pull the phone line from the modem, and just shut the damn thing down.

As a computer tech I've seen plenty of the results of careless web surfing, and it's not always porn sites. I've gotten machines in that had serious problems, go through the internet history and not a porn site to be found. Then I'd look in add/remove programs and find things like downloaded screensavers and file sharing programs, Kazaa being the worst.

And the antivirus companies are actually making matters worse. People buy a new computer and it already has a trial version installed. It expires in 3 or 6 months, they don't want to pay for it and let it sit there, or don't realize what kind of problems are lurking around the corner, next thing you know the computer is sitting in front of me and I'm looking at a reinstall...probably 90% of the computers I've worked on in the past 5 years or more have been like this. People say they have anti virus, but when I look I find out it's a trial version that expired over a year ago. So they have nothing and don't realize it, or have ignored it. Mostly because they don't want to pay for it.

First thing I did when this one ran out was uninstall it and get AVG. I knew it and had already downloaded the installer. Kapersky came with the machine, it seemed to be pretty good, but when they wanted money I uninstalled. AVG has done quite well for a long time, still does.

JCP61 wrote:mac is more powerful for music and graphics
overall better for production

True.
But, I had already decided on the system I was able to afford, that could also do what I want it to do.
So, I built it up around that.
One of our computers was a mistake that we could not return for a refund.

Both computers in our little makeshift studio are daily used for online gaming and web surfing.

It's not PLAYING games online that's the problem, it's downloading free games from dubious sources. That and NOT reading the EULA when installing.

Lots of shareware games and such can be found from reputable sites, and with shareware it's always best to check the EULA thoroughly. Quite often they will also install other software you never know about unless you read it closely.

File sharing programs are a HUGE problem...At one time every music downloading program you can think of installed spyware. Kazaa, Limewire, Bearshare, and so forth. Every one of them...and even if you manage to clean all that out, every time you go look for music, games or whatever you're connecting through a network to someone else's computer. If their computer has a virus or trojan they don't know about, guess what...YOU now have it too. And these days the first thing most malicious software does is shut down the anti virus.

That's the thing people don't understand about that type of software. When you look through the files someone else is sharing, you're actually connecting, through a network, directly to their hard drive. All it takes is opening the wrong folder...or in many cases just connecting to the computer itself, since many of these malicious programs actively look for network connections and that's all it takes. Connect and you're pegged.

Mac - Good option, from what I've heard also more expensive and software support is not as comprehensive. Same for Linux, and I like Linux really well, I just wish it were more user friendly and had better software support. Then again I haven't tried any of the newer versions of Linux in several years. You can also get Live CD versions, pop in the CD, reboot and it boots into Linux without installing anything. Shut down, remove the CD and you're back into Windows, untouched. Great way to try out Linux and see if you like it without actually installing it.

Transferring to another computer - USB drives are great, but subject to the same issues as a stand alone computer. If the source computer is infected, the malware is transferred. If you have a decent anti virus don't worry about it. Anything you transfer is checked at the time it is copied, and you can use your anti virus to scan the USB drive or SD card as well. I use them constantly, even to transfer data to and from customers' machines, but I scan my USB drive before and after doing so.

JCP61 wrote:mac is more powerful for music and graphics
overall better for production

but I learned this too late and I'm not changing over now.
maybe when this dell goes bust.

Man I went through the PC thing 14 years ago. It was more frustrating than a virgin.

Logic Pro does not have some of the tools Cubase or Pro tools does, but if you just want to record it is AWSOME.

that's what I read from instrumentation companies.

the more powerful the software the more ass your computer is going to need.

from what I read mac uses all the processing power for a given application.
no partitions or reserves or what ever they use to multi task

Paleopete wrote:Porn sites aren't the huge problem they have been made out to be, you just have to be careful. "Free" game downloads and screensavers have a really bad reputation too, and of course warez sites.

The biggest problem with porn sites is the often sites they link to and not the primary site. If you are careful, it's not a huge problem. Without antivirus at all, I had no problems with my previous laptop. AVG wouldn't install on windows 2000 so I just ran without it and tried to be wary.

That doesn't mean you can run through porn sites all day without concern, just be careful about it. Find a few sites that are reliable and stick to those, and avoid the link share sites, the ones that are nothing but links to ads luring you to pay sites or extreme stuff. Same as anything else, if you do it with a little common sense, you can surf porn and not have any trouble. You just can't go click around to every link you see...

I just remembered one that was a real problem. Years ago, probably 1998 or so, I clicked a link by mistake, intended the one above or below. It opened, and a pop up window opened. Pop ups were new and much hated...So I closed the pop up. It opened two more...one of those opened two more...in about 10 seconds I had over 50 windows open, and they open two faster than you can close one. I had to pull the phone line from the modem, and just shut the damn thing down.

As a computer tech I've seen plenty of the results of careless web surfing, and it's not always porn sites. I've gotten machines in that had serious problems, go through the internet history and not a porn site to be found. Then I'd look in add/remove programs and find things like downloaded screensavers and file sharing programs, Kazaa being the worst.

And the antivirus companies are actually making matters worse. People buy a new computer and it already has a trial version installed. It expires in 3 or 6 months, they don't want to pay for it and let it sit there, or don't realize what kind of problems are lurking around the corner, next thing you know the computer is sitting in front of me and I'm looking at a reinstall...probably 90% of the computers I've worked on in the past 5 years or more have been like this. People say they have anti virus, but when I look I find out it's a trial version that expired over a year ago. So they have nothing and don't realize it, or have ignored it. Mostly because they don't want to pay for it.

First thing I did when this one ran out was uninstall it and get AVG. I knew it and had already downloaded the installer. Kapersky came with the machine, it seemed to be pretty good, but when they wanted money I uninstalled. AVG has done quite well for a long time, still does.

I have never had any issues with McAfee. Yeah, it sucks that they charge for their service...(Its the marketing methods I cant stand) But as an App developer, I can relate. (Sort of like songs, Nobody wants to pay for them).

BTW AVG is okay, but remember that adage .."You get what you pay for". They have to pay their bills somehow... SO maybe they slip in a few cookies to watch how you spend...