Madmanmcp

LOL, try again Bruce. I'm sure that Elves program which has been here for a long time was written just to change the TCH forums on April 1, 2005 to an ad. I have not been a blonde since I was 16 and I do know a thing or two about a virus.

Ok, got it again...but have a little more info and a screen shot Its Bill or Alan or someone at TCH, *Quiznos Subs!*! I've attached the screen shot with a "view source". Who else would make the Title "TCH Sub Shops"

I am leaning that way also. I see him on the list watching this thread and not speaking up...so lets all wave at Bill.

Thats east coast... and I am heading your way tomorrow morning for a Cruise

If it was a worm then I would still be getting the ad and not having this conversation The link I use to get here is http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php and each time I used it for about a 30 minute timeframe I ended up with the little Quizno's ad and the URL for the picture link was on MSN somewhere. Now I have used that same link several times now and its working perfectly. I would suspect a DNS issue somewhere or some routing issue on a local router. I am on the East Coast, between Washington and Baltimore. If the other 2 people are in my area then that would help explain why we got it and Bruce did not.

I also have been on and off the forums all day. It was only for a short time frame this afternoon. If more than one person saw it (count is 3 at this point) then something was amiss and it was not on our end. Somehow there was a temporary redirect when accessing these boards. Its *Quiznos Subs!* as most know so that was my original guess.

I'm pretty well protected. McAfee Security Center has been up, and I know updates were downloaded last night. Firewall is fine, I ran Spybot and Adaware 2 days ago. As I mentioned above Its not here and has to be something on the forums server. I used my New laptop and it got the Quiznos ad from MSN and my wife's PC also got it. And I have not used hers to come to the forums before. The home page worked, sortof, but I did stall with the whole page not loading. There was a problem with the top banner not loading. I had to leave the house and pick up my son from Lacrosse practice and now that I am back its working.

looks like they had a problem. (I also got the Quiznos ad) and went to three different computers to see if it was host file problem or a browser hijacking...got the same on all three. Looks fine now

That depends, I don't know what you have with your system. Some come with just a XP FULL install CD, others with a "Recovery" CD, and each of these have different options. If you have the Recovery CD you will need the option to restore back to factory default. This will format and repartition the drive and copy the OS and all the preloaded programs back onto the hard drive. You will end up with a PC that looks exactly as it did when you first got it. Then you will reload all the other programs and data you need.

I agree with Raul, just to be safe, first be sure you backup important files by using a CD or floppy boot disk. If you don't have one look here h_tp://bootdisk.com. once you have that you can try and reinstall but I am not sure if this will work. What happens in a reinstall is all the important "operating system" files are replaced on your hard drive. The program executables, .exe and .com for instance, and the libraries, .dll's and so on. All the configuration files which make up Windows "look and feel" are not replaced. So once the install is done, all your programs and desktop look and act the way they did before. BUT, this is where you are having problems. The registry is where the "look and feel" part of windows come from, and that is where you have a problem. What will probably need to be done is a FULL install where you will need to clean out the bad windows and replace with a new one. You will need to reinstall all your programs and all your data to get the registry working correctly.

See if this will help with the admin password. h_tp://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsXP/AdminTips/Security/RecoverLostWindowsNTAdministratorPassword.html

Hi Mike, try booting into safe mode. If you can get into safe mode you will be able to save all your files. Once you have a backup of important files then you can reinstall Windows. With a corrupted registry and no recovery consol you are probably stuck with a full reinstall.

Don't forget the ethernet cables

You don't need a print server. With the Network setup with everything going thru the Router, alls that is needed is to install file and print sharing and then share the printer. And why a wireless access point? The router should come with a WAN port. Minimum needed is a router, two cards and an ethernet cable or two.

What this gives you is "Internet Access" ONLY. If you want true Network access with file and print sharing this is not the way to go. This allows you to connect your current USB Cable connection and share it once you have made the other PC's wireless. If you are going wireless go all the way. Replace your current USB cable on the Cable modem and get an ethernet cable. Then get a wireless router and two wireless cards for the PC's and your whole network is a real network now. You can share Internet, share files and share printers.

oops, There are probably several ways to accomplish what you want to do, some are more involved than others and some will involve more expense. At this point I don't have enough information to lead you down the correct path. I think what you need is someone who knows how to setup a network and be there at the equipment to get you connected. From what I have read so far your problem stems from the USB "ONLY" cable modem and the inability to connect to a router which will allow you access to the internet on multiple computers. To accomplish this you can setup one of the PC's as an internet "gateway" and get proxy software to share the connection across the network. Or you can configure ICS on the computers to share it. Or get a cable modem which uses ethernet instead of USB. Bottom line I believe is to get a tech to come in and set you up.

This tells me its something you installed and its not the ISP. If it were the ISP then it wouldn't have worked at all. I would check each program you installed after the clean install to find the culprit.

I checked the website and found your router here: http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/WGR614v2.asp Did you install ICS on BOTH computers? Sharing dialup will be painfully slow but it "should" work.

Check out the Practically Networked link that Bruce gave above. If its a newer Wireless router it should have "WAN" port and you would just connect the internet cable modem to that port...BUT if that is a USB only modem you have a problem. If you don't have the ability to connect the modem to the router you will need to install ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) on the two computers to be able to share the internet across the network. There are instruction for that on the Practically Networked site also.

Hi oops, wireless networking has gotten very easy and very cheap and as far as I am concerned there are no clear winners or "best products" out there. Look around, fine the best price you can and get it. Basically what you need is a Wireless Router and a wireless card for each computer you want to connect to the Network. The latest is Wireless "G", or 802.11G and this is what I would suggest you get. You could go for 802.11A or B but these are older protocols, but they will work and may be cheaper if money is an issue. Good luck.

Hi Russell, the calculation for determining space has always been a confusing issue and I would not worry about it. First off is the "overhead" that is used on drives to "format" and reserve the locations for files or data to be stored. Next is the actual numbers used... you would think that "1k" would equal 1000 but actually it is 1024 and these 24 bytes add up when you get into MB anf GB. There are also other factors such as bad sectors that are deducted from the total that are not reported. I would not worry about it.

Submit a Help Desk ticket, link is above, and they will explain whats involved.

Hi Kelvin, the problem could be several things either software or hardware. I would start with the software. XP comes with a "System Restore" feature and I would use this to try restoring the computer back to a time before the problem started. If this does not help I would look at the hardware, check the disk for errors as Andy suggested and then possibly the memory. If the system is still under warranty check with the manufacturer. As for loading XP Pro, yes you can do that but for what reason. The Home and Pro versions are almost identical and if this is a hardware issue changing the OS will not do anything. If its a software issue it may be corrected by just reinstalling the Home version.

I enjoyed his keyboard.

Wow, I had to ask didn't I I browsed around and got dizzy and fell to the floor screaming for mercy! I'm a computer tech, not a lawyer Last night in my search I found a web site that talked about a New Hampshire (I believe) bill that is being worked on that will change the law and make it the responsibility of the individual user of a wireless network to secure it. If its not secure its fair game. So now I guess I beleive a law is out there somewhere but as Steve pointed out, prosecuting the "small fish" is not going to happen. I browsed around the Cybercrime website and specifically looked for a case and could not find one. So it appears that this part of the law has not been tested in court... Love the disclaimer Steve and thanks for starting this thread. Bet you didn't think it would evolve into to this.