Computer got SLOOOOW - don't know where to start

I'm no computer guru but have started to consider getting a Mac for my next computer. They claim to be almost immune to viruses & malware. Anybody have any thoughts on PC vs Mac in terms of speed, reliability & defense against viruses?

Mac is less likely to get virus because everyone is too busy writing them for Windows.

Try linux? About as safe as it gets unless it's server in which case it gets hammered 24/7/365...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Haven't used any PC versions except the one below but that one seems popular. Best part is you can try it out..

They have versions you can boot right from CD. I have copy floating around here somewhere in case windows decides to take a dump.

http://www.knoppix.net/

Download Fedora. Free. You can also find free Apps everywhere for this.

http://fedoraproject.org/

Thanks. As I said, I'm no computer guru but the idea of never even needing a virus protection program (& all the updates) is very appealing to me. I have never owned anything but Windows & DOS based PC's before due to software availability issues, but now find I'm usually online most of the time & can download anything I need.
Problem with Apple is their price! Even the mini mac costs about twice as much as a similar PC, but I do like the idea of being able to call somewhere besides New Delhi for tech assistance!

Buy a Dell from small business, get US support.
Compare the iMac or MacBook processors to a Windows machine they are slower.
Mac is great at creating an image, they are also very profitable.
Yes the high end Mac towers do perform well but you are at $3000+
Properly built a Windows box at $1100 will blow the doors off an $1100 iMac.
Image your Windows machine on a regular basis and you have your a** covered.
You can clean the crap out of your Windows and make it like new; it just takes some time and knowledge.

CapeCoaler wrote:Buy a Dell from small business, get US support.

Good idea.... I stick with Business Lenovo's (IBMs). Never had a problem that wasn't related to my incompetence.

CapeCoaler wrote:Buy a Dell from small business, get US support.
snip ..
Image your Windows machine on a regular basis and you have your a** covered.
You can clean the crap out of your Windows and make it like new; it just takes some time and knowledge.

The advantage of buying a business class computer from Dell and some others is it does not have the trial junk software pre-installed. Business's want a plain jane machine, so should you. I've got several Dell business computers and I've been happy. I'd also recommend a "wired" router not a wireless one. More difficult to install because of the wiring but not subject to eavesdropping. Yes there is encryption but that slows networking speed. If you need a wireless connection to a roaming laptop install the connection as an "access point" so you can easily turn it off when you are not using the laptop. Learn how to re-install your operating system from scratch. Practice doing it while the computer hardware and software is still under warranty. Dell will send you a new (refurbished) drive with a clean OS free while under warranty if you have virus issues you can't get rid of. They even pay for return shipping of the drive.

DVC500 at last wrote:Good idea.... I stick with Business Lenovo's (IBMs). Never had a problem that wasn't related to my incompetence.

IIRC, IBM PCs are built by DELL to IBM's spec, they found it cheaper than making their own.

I'm not impressed with the Apple stuff, lots of problems with reliability from what I've seen.

ceccil wrote:I used Firefox at one time and could not do updates using it either. Could never figure out why. I just went back to using IE after that.

Jeff

"Believe it or not, we really ran Windows Update from Mozilla/Firefox."

http://ietab.mozdev.org/

I needed it when most of the banking websites didn't support non-IE browsers, but still use it on occasion.

Just an idea for the future problems. Most linux OS's offer a "Live CD" what this is is an operating system on a cd you boot directly to it an your on the net. You need to download the "ISO Image" and burn it directly to a cd. Any free cd/dvd burner will do this for you such as "Totally free burner". It does sound like the conficker worm,but only certain software's will remove it completely. I'll look around to see if I can find it for you. Found It http://www.mediafire.com/?sdmxcn1zxw0 download it and run it. Good Luck.

Bill S

Thanks Bill. I just ran that, & it didn't find anything -- that's good!

I finally got my DSL to acknowledge the USB cable, & my connection has improved about 85% -- isn't what it was, but MUCH better. I unplugged the CAT-5 cable & just plugged in the USB. So there is definitely something screwing with that port, as was mentioned earlier. Gotta keep digging whenever I get some time..........

SMITTY wrote:I unplugged the CAT-5 cable & just plugged in the USB.

You're using USB to connect what? USB is not very good for sustained data transfer especially if it's USB1. There's a reason DV cams come with firewire which technically has lower transfer rate but is superior for real time video transfer.

The USB is going from the DSL modem to the computer ( it was going thru the CAT-5, up until I started having problems ). The CAT-5 was always faster, but with this bug I have, the USB connection is super-fast.

Smitty,
Just curious can u update anything now?

Bill S.

I'm probably full of horse hockey but if you network appliances/pcs then doesn't the network work at the speed of the slowest appliance/pcs. Just tossing this out.