I'm not computer savvy, so please bear with me for any and all stupid explanations and questions.

My home computer has been running really slow since Friday night, the 26th. Not all the time slow, sometimes it has run it's normally quick speed. I have broadband service and phoned them last night to see if they could help.

From the tests they conducted where they're located, they couldn't detect a problem here. The fellow I spoke to told me a spyware might have attached itself and that could be slowing the PC speed down. He suggested that if the speed doesn't pick up to take my PC to a shop. Though he couldn't outright recommend it, he did send me to a site that offered Firefox. I suppose he means to download Firefox once the speed issue is resolved though he said he wasn't allowed to recommend one browser over another.

I have Internet Explorer now. Am I more likely to get spyware being on IE than on Firefox? If I download Firefox, is IE automatically disabled or am I still able to use it if need be? What, if any, features I'm used to on IE doesn't exist with Firefox?

Last night when checking the Norton Security, I noticed the personal firewall feature was turned off. I always have the firewall on, not sure how it was turned off. Anyway, it went back up and soon after I was notified of several intrusions which were blocked.

Could there have been some intrusion when the firewall was down leading to the PC slowness? Besides anti-virus scan and spybot scans, any other online methods of detecting and eliminating any such intrusion?

Thanks for any and all help.

Don't ever worry about asking stupid questions here.

Quote:

---

I have Internet Explorer now. Am I more likely to get spyware being on IE than on Firefox?

---

Because most computers still use IE to access the internet, most spyware programs are created to attack IE. It's too much trouble writing spyware for the minority. So you're less likely to get spyware on Firefox.

Quote:

---

If I download Firefox, is IE automatically disabled or am I still able to use it if need be?

---

The only way IE will be disabled is if you uninstall it. If you just install Firefox then you can still use IE whenever you want.

Quote:

---

What, if any, features I'm used to on IE doesn't exist with Firefox?

---

Most things that IE does, can be done in Firefox as well. For some of them you'll need to download an extra plugin though. I don't use Firefox myself, but I know quite a few of our members do and I'm sure they can tell you more about it.

Quote:

---

Could there have been some intrusion when the firewall was down leading to the PC slowness? Besides anti-virus scan and spybot scans, any other online methods of detecting and eliminating any such intrusion?

---

It's very possible that something got a hold of your PC. I find this site very helpful for PC check-ups.

Good luck!

After I posted this yesterday, I ran Norton Anti-virus and Adaware. Norton took 4 hours to complete and Adaware nearly an hour and a half to finish. I rebooted afterwards and once back online, I was surprised with very quick speed.

The only problem tonight was with a lyrics site that wouldn't respond after browsing it awhile. I don't often meet with this type problem but they have been more frequent since last Friday.

I ran the test at PC Pitstop. All the subsystems were rated "a winner" except for Disk and Internet with minor problems. They reported my C Drive as having some defragmented files and the IE cache needing sized down. Diskeeper was recommended to help with the Disk problems. Has anyone encounted problems with Diskeeper?

Is the MS AntiSpyware not part of the normal Windows package or it's updates? Or is this something different?

Another Firefox question- does it function the same with Windows and broadband providers as IE does? Does the kind of browser I have figure in if there are problems with Windows or the service provider?

Thanks again for the replies, they've been very much appreciated.

MS AntiSpyware is a program that needs installing in addition to the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from here.

Firefox does function the same within Windows and with whatever ISP (broadband provider) you use.

My first visit to the board tonight was a failed attempt in trying to ready your reply, tellywellies. This site froze up and went white once I clicked on my thread. Took awhile to shut the system down as well. Could this be from the fragmented files problem?

I downloaded the MS AntiSpyware. I noticed it allowed me to delete an adware that Norton would only advise to delete manually.

Thanks again for your help, tellywellies. I did defragment the disk, which seemed to help. But I still have slow loading and websites that respond very slowly or not at all. My service provider had me to download a IE patch, which didn't help for very long before the same problems reappeared. My broadband provider won't help me with problems if I'm not using IE. Now they tell me that they believe my computer has a lasting problem due to spyware, something that the anti-spyware programs can't fix. They recommend contacting the computer manufacturer (Dell) or Microsoft.

Even shutting down my computer is a slow process. Sometimes, as it begins to shut down, a quick message appears to not turn off the computer before "ccApp" and "ShellConHiddenWindow" programs fix themselves or retrieve their information. Are these programs spyware?

Also, what is the Winfixer 2005 Scanner program? I've been prompted to download this twice tonight. I did a quick Google on this but couldn't find a good word about it (except from the Winfixer site).

Emptying IE's Temporary Internet Files is something else that could be tried. Speaking personally, I wouldn't worry about my ISP not supporting Firefox. I'd install Firefox and any other browser I wanted to. I have six installed including IE. There's plenty of support available for whatever browser you choose. Each has its own site where information abounds either from articles or forums. It's always handy to be able to try a couple of browsers when trouble occurs. It can help you to decide where the difficulty lies.

ccApp can be either to do with Norton or it might be spyware. Put out a search for the file and make sure there is only one of this type located as shown in this information page. If you find an instance of it as described here (where it says 'Note'), then it is probably spyware.

You might be interested to read this about ShellConHiddenWindow.

Winfixer: Have you looked in Add/Remove Programs to see if it is listed there? It might be if you're lucky. Otherwise it can be difficult to remove. It seems that many resort to HijackThis to remove it but you'd have to get someone familiar with it's use to tell you how to proceed (I may decide to study this one day but I can't help with it at present).

I did find Winfixer in the Add/Remove programs. It was listed there quite a few times as Windows XP Hotfix (when I clicked on support information, the download Winfixer page popped up, so I'm assuming this is one and the same). When I clicked to remove the first Hotfix listing in Add/Remove programs, a message appeared telling me that to remove this might cause problems or interupt service with various Windows programs, such as Windows automatic updates and MS anti-spyware. I wasn't sure what to do at that point.

I'm pretty sure now that ccApp has to do with Norton and ShellConHiddenWindow with Music Match, my cd burner. I noticed these on the start-up page when I ran misconfig. Now, there are other programs from that start-up page popping up similiar messages whenever I shutdown.

I have been emptying the IE files almost daily since these problems began.

As for Firefox, I downloaded tonight. However, when I clicked on the Firefox icon, I recieved a message "start.mozilla.org cannot be found". I uninstalled and reinstalled but still recieved the same message. Could MS or Norton be blocking usage of Firefox?

It's beginning to take longer (a minute or two compared to instantly) for IE to appear once I click on it's icon on my desktop. Shutting down is taking longer as well. I phoned MS, their tech support wouldn't help as Windows came preinstalled. I suppose it's time to phone Dell's tech support, which I dread, they've never been very helpful in the past.

Firefox still isn't working for me, though that's the least of the PC problems. The comp is freezing up so often now, I'm taking it in to a PC fix it shop this Saturday.

Could there be a spyware so embedded that no online check can detect it? Maybe it's an entirely different problem.

Whatever the problem is, I again want to thank Telly and Leau for their help. Perhaps I'll be back online later this weekend or early next week with a healthier PC system- and a lighter wallet!

I took the computer to the shop Sunday and returned home with it awhile ago. They told me that IE had been corrupted. Winfixer had somehow been installed and was causing problems as well. It took them about an hour and a half to fix the troubles IE and Winfixer caused. They corrected the problem with opening Firefox, and now it works fine. Now to get accustomed to Firefox.

I'm glad you got things sorted.

Hey all - I had a similar problem and I found that AdAware found some problems that MS AntiSpyware didnt. McAfee also found some thing that neither of the above found. My PC finally got back to speed after running all of the above so my best advice is to have a number of anti virus, anti spyware and adware searchers on your PC.

I also have IE and Mozilla on my desktop and use both with no problems.

WorldB

As this is the latest thread concerning Firefox I thought I would add my own Firefox problem here and hope that someone has had the same problem and could advise me as to how to fix it.

I cannot open Firefox by double clicking the short cut on the desktop nor does right clicking and hitting "run" help and cannot get it to open using the actual program file. The only way I can use it is by reinstalling it everytime I wish to get onto the net. I am so converted to Firefox that I do this everytime I connect but would prefer to not have to. When I reinstall after trying to doubleclick the desktop shortcut it tells me that the program is running a couple of times and I have to click ok and it starts installing again.

Any ideas anyone?

It sounds as if Firefox might not be shutting down properly when the 'X' is clicked. It is not unknown for this to happen. You can see if this is the case by bringing up the Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del) when you close Firefox. Have a careful look through the running tasks to see if there are any instances of FF listed. If so, highlight them (or it) and choose to 'End Process'. Or reboot the computer, this will have the same effect. FF should start OK using the shortcut once there is no entry in Task Manager. Rebooting won't help if you have the Firefox Pre-loader (an add-on) installed for FF. If you do have this, try disabling or uninstalling it. The pre-loader can be a cause of FF not completely shutting down when it appears to have done. Another thing to try as a matter of course is emptying the cache. That shouldn't make a difference to things but you never know.

If you continue to get the trouble, try starting up in Firefox's 'Safe Mode' (not to be confused with Windows Safe Mode). There should be a shortcut in the Start Menu for this. Once FF is started this way, close it again and check the Task Manager (there should be no instance of FF listed). If running in Safe Mode makes FF open and close as it should, the fault could be caused by an extension. Running in 'normal' mode,try disabling them one by one to see when (or if) the problem goes away.

If your Firefox 'Profile' hasn't been renewed in ages, it might be worth creating a completely new one to see if that cures the difficulty. Files within the Profiles folder can become corrupt and cause various problems. More FF problems are probably caused by a faulty Profile than anything else. Uninstalling/reinstalling FF doesn't affect the Profiles folder. Troubles in this area have to be sorted out separately.

Tip: Make a backup of the Profiles folder (after emptying the cache) or, at the very least, keep an up-to-date copy of Bookmarks.html. Especially do this if you are about to start working on the Profiles folder.

In case the above is not relevant to the problem (I can't see your computer can I? ) I've included some useful links regarding the Profiles folder and other start-up problems:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1590202#1590202

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_%28Firefox%29

Thanks for the help Tellywellies. I ended up dumping half my extentions as one of the links you posted said to and all my themes just because I felt like it and things are starting up fine. Thanks again.

There is one less since a recent format and re-installation of the system. The present ones are:

Firefox 1.0.7 - Firefox 1.5 beta 2 - Opera 8 - Maxthon - Netscape 8.0 - IE (did have K-Meleon before the format).

The main one I use is Firefox 1.5 beta 2. I keep the others because I like to find out how they differ/work and sometimes have a stab at answering questions about them on various forums.

Is anyone else having problems getting onto the Firefox extensions and themes pages? Is Firefox under attack yet again? Or is it the recently released fact that they just reached their 100 millionth download and people are flooding their pages?

I'm not experiencing any trouble. Is the difficulty present all the time?

Yes it is Tellywellies. Another problem I`m having is accessing bank sites. Perhaps I should adjust something in my browser.

Are the SSL settings all ticked? (Tools > Options > Advanced > Security)

Try starting the browser in Firefox's Safe Mode. Does that make any difference?

Yes they are all ticked Tellywellies and safe mode doesn`t help.
I`m thinking perhaps it`s Zone alarm or Norton. Norton I will have to uninstall manually as I forgot the password.

"The connection was refused when attempting to contact addons.Mozilla.org" is the pop up I`m getting at the moment.

And Opera isn`t connecting either!

Could just try emptying the cache. This sometimes helps (almost unexpectedly). Are you using two firewalls?