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Times Staff WriterReturned mail messages mean spammers present
Q: America Online has been touting McAfee, and last year it was hassle free. This year, they are inundating me with promos for advanced this and that at about $50 a pop. When I cancel the popups, my system freezes. I am sick of dealing with McAfee and want to cancel it. What can I substitute in its place? I am an average user. I don't go anywhere risque and basically shop or e-mail friends.
A: Ah, the joys of the free marketplace. To which McAfee product were you referring to? (And did you know that AOL just made McAfee free as part of its new software version that emphasizes security?) Of course, Norton provides antivirus, firewall and Internet security products also, and is a popular option. Antivirus is a must-have. If you replace your current antivirus, you will need to have a new one ready to take over immediately. For firewall and Internet security software, the built-in Windows XP with SP2 offers some very acceptable (and free) alternatives.
Returned mail messages mean spammers present
Q. I am on dialup with AOL. I have been having mail returned as undeliverable, because of a wrong address. But I never sent the mail in the first place and have never heard of the addresses. I have used McAfee Virus Hunter, Spybot, etc., to no avail. Do you know what could be causing this?
A. You're probably okay. This is usually the result of spammers using your e-mail address as the "from" address. Just delete the e-mails.
Computer doesn't know hard drive is partitionedQ. I have a Sony laptop and run Windows Home Edition. I have 15 gigabytes in the hard drive on C and D drives. I keep getting a message that I have low disk space on C drive. Yet, D has not been used at all. Doesn't the computer automatically switch over to D drive when C is full? Or do I have to let the computer know to start sending information to D drive?
A. Great question. The computer doesn't know. Most likely you have just one hard disk, but at some point, probably when it was loaded by the original vendor, it was partitioned into two logical drives. This is confusing for most PC users, who just want to use the space on their PC and have no real reason to use logical partitions. For you to combine these two logical partitions back into one C drive would require an FDISK and reformat, which of course would mean you would need to reload your entire PC. It's not an attractive option at this point. Try to get used to installing future programs on your D drive. Most programs will default to your C drive but give you an option during installation to change this. Just change from C to D. Your existing programs cannot just be moved to the D drive. They would need to be uninstalled and then reinstalled to a different drive.
Delete spyware by running pair of programsQ. Spybot has detected CoolWWWSearch.Googlems. However, it is unable to delete it from the system. Spybot just goes in circles, requesting restarts and detecting it without deleting it. CoolWWWSearch also has rendered Ad-aware useless by destroying the reference file and preventing the downloading of updates. This also happened after downloading Windows XP Service Pack 2. How do I delete CoolWWWSearch.Googlems?
A. Go to www.computercops.biz and download CWSHREDDER and HIJACKTHIS do searches for them at the site. Run each of these programs. Also make sure you have Ad-aware with the latest updates. I recommend using Spybot, as well as Ad-aware. Next, from Internet Explorer, click Tools, then Manage Add-ons. Disable any add-ons that you do not recognize. These steps should take care of your problem.