[ukmicky]

quote:ANOTHER SOMEONE I can't see the problem being a software firewall, since software firewalls tend to be more concerned with inbound connections than with outbound connections.

A proper firewall like the one with Norton Internet security etc  deal with incoming and outgoing and can quite easierly prevent her from accessing website's.  Most allow you to quickly disable the firewall to check for problems  by right clicking on the program icon that should be placed on the far right of the taskbar.

also carolyn click on tools at the top of the explore page, scroll down to manage
add-ons in the window that appears,  there is a button that says  "show"  which give access to two windows make sure that everything is enabled in these windows. these add-ons deal with things like flash ,java etc

(carolyn did you try what i said in my earlier post)

ps always try to keep a note of any changes you make and if possible create a restore point in system restore


pps ive had the same problem in the past and the only way i could resolve it was to reload my firewall software (NIS) Just to let you know you not alone.

GOOD LUCK
 
Michael

[Carolyn (OP)]

quote:Originally posted by ukmicky
quote]

also carolyn click on tools at the top of the explore page, scroll down to manage
add-ons in the window that appears,  there is a button that says  "show"  which give access to two windows make sure that everything is enabled in these windows. these add-ons deal with things like flash ,java etc

(carolyn did you try what i said in my earlier post)

ps always try to keep a note of any changes you make and if possible create a restore point in system restore


pps ive had the same problem in the past and the only way i could resolve it was to reload my firewall software (NIS) Just to let you know you not alone.

GOOD LUCK
 
Michael

Hi Michael - I tried everything in this post and the earlier post. Nothing seems to work.  I did remember to make notes of the changes I made and I restored everything once I tried suggestions.  So do you think I should uninstall Norton and the reinstall?

I'm starting to think pc is now possessed, and it's giving me a headache and making me feel stupid.

quote:originally posted by another someone

quote:I would ask which ISP are you with – not by any chance AOL? Are you on broadband or dial-up?

Hi George - My ISP is my local phone company, which is a high speed connection.


Do you use the computer to connect up to some business network (over a virtual network)?

Nope, no networks.

Are there any other sites you have problems getting to? You can try and see if you can get to my web site (which is also on a shared server, and so will require HTTP 1.1). If yo manage to get through, note the time you got through, and I will see if anything peculiar turns up on the site logs at the time you log in.

This is the only site this has ever happened on.  I was able to access your site at 10:28 pm, EST.

This willowcsn site came highly recommended as a place that I could make an extra income, so I just can't understand why I'm the only one I know of that can't access it.  This is starting to make me use ugly words.

Are you guys losing patience with me yet?  Again, thanks for all your help.

Carolyn

[Carolyn (OP)]

quote:Originally posted by neilep

quote:Originally posted by Carolyn


LOL! First, I don't know any responsible adults, and second, expect an e-mail coming soon.[]

Carolyn,

I got your email......you dirty Minx !!...I've never seen such language !!...pphhwwooaarrr !! [][][]

Men are the same as women, just inside out !

You're making me blush[:I]
I believe you promised me some 'special pics'.[][][:0]

Carolyn

[another_someone]

OK, I've seen you coming in.

You're coming in from GT Com, who is your local phone company.

You are using something that claims to be Internet Explorer 6.0, but it is written or modified by FunWebProducts.

You are using HTTP 1.1, so that is no problem; but I have no idea what impact the modified version of Internet Explorer might have.

BTW, if you simply want to access the web site, you could always see if you can go through a proxy (there is a list of proxies you might try using at http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/cgi-proxy.htm).  It wont explain why you cannot get at the site directly, but it will provide another way of getting to it.

You could also try downloading Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ and using that in place of your modified Internet Explorer – although I suspect we both would rather find out why your existing configuration is not working.

George

[another_someone]

I have had a quick search on what information is available on the Internet about FunWebProducts.

Much of it is not a wholehearted endorsement of the product.

http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/web/2003/1208web2.html

quote:
As Web application developers, we are in the unique position to see the impact that Web browsing technologies are having on all aspects of PC use. An interesting example of this happened around September 2003 when some Web masters started noticing a significant increase in server log entries of user agent strings from Internet Explorer Web browsers containing the text "FunWebProducts." For example: "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0; FunWebProducts)".
It turned out that FunWebProducts (see links below) is an operation of a company called IWon. Its software - a Web application - is essentially yet another piece of adware (often mistakenly called spyware although that is arguably a related subgenre).
FunWebProducts is notable because it acquired a large user population with remarkable speed. Iwon is responsible for a series of notorious adware products including IWon, iWon Co-Pilot, iWon Search Assistant, and MySearch/MyWeb.
The apparent reason for the surge in popularity is that the FunWebProducts code is built into a number of "free" products offered by the same company. These products include Smiley Central, PopSwatter, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stationery, My Mail Stamp, Cursor Mania - all but the last tool (which is a cursor chooser) are "enhancements" for e-mail. By dint of widespread advertising FunWebProducts has managed to sucker thousands of naïve end users into running its software.
According to the FunWebProducts End User Licensing agreement: "ALL OF OUR APPLICATIONS COME WITH THE MYWEBSEARCH(tm) BROWSER PLUGIN - A CUSTOMIZABLE BROWSER TOOLBAR WHICH PROVIDES END USERS WITH EASY ACCESS TO SEARCH RESULTS FROM THE BEST SEARCH ENGINES ON THE INTERNET IN JUST ONE CLICK AND ENHANCES YOUR BROWSER EXPERIENCE BY PROVIDING RELEVANT LINKS AND RESULTS IN RESPONSE TO MISSPELLED OR INCORRECTLY FORMATTED BROWSER ADDRESS REQUESTS.
"THE APPLICATION ALLOWS YOU TO EASILY ACCESS ALL OF ITS FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY DIRECTLY FROM YOUR BROWSER. IT IS ALSO HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE YOUR OWN BUTTONS AND LINKS."
What FunWebProducts actually does - as do a lot of other adware and spyware products - is to make it difficult to uninstall the software as well as hijack your browser by setting your home page to point to other sites. Worse still, FunWebProducts attempts to reset the browser home page should you dare to try to change it.
The consequences of adware and spyware in Windows systems are serious and the more desktops you have to manage the worse it gets. These programs can cause browsers to perform slowly, can degrade overall system performance, and can damage Windows configurations. They can also cause other applications to misbehave.
This kind of software is generally poorly designed and foisted on unsophisticated users through advertising and promotion that is effectively deceptive about the true nature of the product. In short, it is shameful and deceitful.
I strongly urge you to become familiar with these Web applications and watch out for their appearance within your organization - they are a support headache waiting to happen. You can find out more about removal methods and software to do it for you in the links below.

http://forum.powweb.com/archive/index.php/t-31159.html

quote:
Bloated access logs

I've been noticing alot of "FunWebProducts" (FWP) appearing in my access log - user agent strings lately. Like this: "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; FunWebProducts; .NET CLR 1.0.3705)"

Turns out FWP offer Smiley Central, PopSwatter, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stationery and My Mail Stamp, email "enhancers". All of these enhancers have inbuilt adware or hijackers. The unsuspecting user suffers slow IE speed, tags on all email and it takes over their browser. It can also damage the Windows enviroment.

Serves them right you say?.. wrong. Often they are simply unaware. And we as webmasters suffer to!. Bloated logs and repeated calls for help. In the above example my access logs alone jumped 300kb+ through one heavy user. If you spot FunWebProducts encourage the user to remove it.

For more info and removal:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/web/2003/1208web2.html

George

[Carolyn (OP)]

Hi George - This is all so confusing to me.  I have smiley central, cursor mania and pop swatter on one of my toolbars.  I believe they were downloaded by my kids.  I have been to the iwon website.  I'm having some problems with sluggishness.  Some programs seem to be running slower, and logging off is a real pain.  It takes about 7 minutes.

From what you posted, it sounds like I could potentially have some serious problems going on here.  Well, it's gone beyond feeling stupid - I feel down right ignorant.

Carolyn

[ukmicky]

carolyn if your pc is running slow and is taking 7 minutes (thats a life time )to log off and you havnt got a virus then your best option is to reload your pc.  My pc gets like that occasionally due to my kids filling it up with crap.

 Did you get a instalation disc with your pc which automatically reformats and copys all the programs which came with your pc back on to your hard drive. if you did then its easy just save your passwords and all that needs saving to a spare cdrom . place  the instalation disk in the cd drive and restart your pc. i reload my pc every six months.

Michael

[another_someone]

Carolyn,

Sorry for throwing you in at the deep end.

Michael's suggestion of reformatting the entire hard disk and reloading everything from scratch is certainly one solutions, but it may be a complex one if you have a lot of software that you need to reload onto your system, and a lot of things to reconfigure.  On the other hand, chasing down all the bits and pieces to need to do to properly remove all the garbage that might have accumulated over the years (including the FunWebProducts stuff) can also be time consuming, and at least a reinstallation sets you back to a guaranteed known point.  If you want to take that route, that has to be up to you (although you must make sure you back up everything that you might want to hold on to – once the disk is reformatted, it is lost).

FunWebProducts themselves have a site that explains how to remove their product.  This is at <http://www.funwebproducts.com/uninstall.html>.

From what I can see, you are using Windows XP.  One question I would ask (with regard to future security) is what authority do you usually log on with, and allow your children to log on with.  The majority of people still set up their default log on as having administrator authority – this means they can do everything they might conceivably want to do from the one single log on, but it also makes it very easy for malicious programs to change parts of the system you don't want them to be changing.  If you are set up like this, it would be better for you to set up users (both for yourself, and especially for your children) with restricted authority, and to use those on a day to day basis (that way, if any software tries to install itself in the background, and wants to alter core parts of the operating system, it will be blocked by the security).  You would still need a user set up with administrator authority, but you would only use that logon account when you know you really do want to make a change to the operating system, or do something a little bit more risky than your everyday work.

With regard to the toolbars from FunWebProducts, I generally take a very cautious view of any of these downloadable toolebars, or other ways of adding fancy bits to the browser, since they all require some sort of hack to the browser, so unless I really am confident that I know what the product is and is not going to effect, I generally stay away from them (not just FubWebProducts, but anyone's go-faster stripes for my browser).

George

[Carolyn (OP)]

quote:Originally posted by ukmicky

carolyn if your pc is running slow and is taking 7 minutes (thats a life time )to log off and you havnt got a virus then your best option is to reload your pc.  My pc gets like that occasionally due to my kids filling it up with crap.

 Did you get a instalation disc with your pc which automatically reformats and copys all the programs which came with your pc back on to your hard drive. if you did then its easy just save your passwords and all that needs saving to a spare cdrom . place  the instalation disk in the cd drive and restart your pc. i reload my pc every six months.

Michael

I'm not 100% sure I don't have a virus.  My daughters friend told me today that she used pc about 1.5 weeks ago and when she logged on, a Norton box opened that said I had a virus, she clicked ok.  I don't know how accurate this is, she's a bit of a ding bat.  So tomorrow I will try to figure out how to check for viruses.  Otherwise I guess I'll have to reload as you suggested.  Gosh, I hope I can find that blasted installation disk.  I'm not the most organized person.  I'll be sure to save everything before hand.


Hi George - don't worry about the deep end.  I swim pretty well.  Worst case, I'll have to bite the bullet and pay someone to come out and fix problem.  But, I am trying to learn the fine art of frugality(if that's not a word, it is now), so I will exhaust every available avenue.

I only have one account set up now, but I will definately follow your advice on this.  

Thank you both for helping me so much.  I am getting quite the education.

Carolyn