[lewie]

Hello!

All is well and I'll try to limit it to twenty questions. Just kidding. BTW, feel free to refer me to articles, etc. as needed.

1. Does Sygate firewall monitor traffic into and out of my system?

2. Can you recommend a maintenance schedule? I've seen one recommendation: daily - back up data; weekly - extra scan for virus, trojans, spyware and adware, monthly - scan and defrag. And were do updates to windows anti-v, anti-spy, anti-stuff in general fit into such a schedule?

3. Do you have to update IE seperately from Windows?

4. Is it safe to leave the computer on (w/DSL) 24/7? I'm thinking not the best because its like locking your house and leaving. The house is still there sitting on the street for burglers to case the joint. But if I shut down, then the house vanishes off the internet. I think. . .

5. If my Vaio goes into hibernate, the "computer is on" green light on my DSL modem goes out. The modem is powered and the DSL connection is live as indicated by their green lights. Does this mean that my computer does not show up on the internet at that point in time? (The house burgler thing again.)

6. Is there any point in installing/reinstalling windows or SP2 where you've aged your hard drive such that you should be concerned about hard drive failure? In other words, does that make it more likely that the hard drive will fail? I'm wondering because the SP2 install was a toughy. I must have tried downloading and installing 5 or 6 times. And once it fails, the only choice you get is to back it out completely. So, my question really is "Have I aged my hard drive like in dog years (X 7)?"

7. My Vaio is supposed to have a partition from which I can rescue the computer. When I tried that last month, the application could not find the partition. Would my reinstall w/OEM disks automatically have created such a partition or would I have had to do something to create it?

8. Part two of that, is there a way to tell if the partition is there now?

Whew. That's what inquiring minds want to know today. No rush, just following through with some of the issues that have come up over the last month. And, I didn't even get half way to twenty questions!

Thanks.

Sandy

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Glad to hear "All is well"!

Twenty answers time...

• Yes, the Sygate firewall monitors traffic in both directions. And to answer question #4 at the same time, you can block all traffic in and out by right clicking the Sygate icon in the system tray and selecting "Block All". This effectively renders your machine "invisible" from the outside.
• The maintenance schedule you list is very good. As for the updates, update the scanners just prior to running the scans or set them to auto-update...the same goes for Windows. You can (and should) set Windows to auto-update...it may be set this way already.
• Internet Explorer will update at the same time Windows does.
• Refer to #1.
• This will depend on the router's firewall if it has one. I would not depend on it as much as I would blocking traffic with Sygate.
• Yes, it should be installed. SP2 contains many security updates, hotfixes, and driver updates (particularly USB 2 support upgrades). The reason for the glitchy install you experienced is probably because of files from a previous install that was not completely removed or references to these files in the registry. After a format and fresh install, these files and references will not be there and the installation should go more smoothly. Installing SP2 should not have any detrimental effects on the HDD.
• Which application do you reference here? The recovery partition is a "super hidden" partition. There may or may not be a reference to this patition in the boot.ini file, but generally the only way to access it is by using a function key which is specified by the manufacturer. HP uses F10...I'm not sure what Sony uses, but it should be in your machines documentation or would be available on the Sony website's support page for your machine.
• Refer to #7.

Did that cover them all?

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 09 April 2006 - 03:14 PM.

[wannabe1]

Glad to hear "All is well"!

Twenty answers time...

• Yes, the Sygate firewall monitors traffic in both directions. And to answer question #4 at the same time, you can block all traffic in and out by right clicking the Sygate icon in the system tray and selecting "Block All". This effectively renders your machine "invisible" from the outside.
• The maintenance schedule you list is very good. As for the updates, update the scanners just prior to running the scans or set them to auto-update...the same goes for Windows. You can (and should) set Windows to auto-update...it may be set this way already.
• Internet Explorer will update at the same time Windows does.
• Refer to #1.
• This will depend on the router's firewall if it has one. I would not depend on it as much as I would blocking traffic with Sygate.
• Yes, it should be installed. SP2 contains many security updates, hotfixes, and driver updates (particularly USB 2 support upgrades). The reason for the glitchy install you experienced is probably because of files from a previous install that was not completely removed or references to these files in the registry. After a format and fresh install, these files and references will not be there and the installation should go more smoothly. Installing SP2 should not have any detrimental effects on the HDD.
• Which application do you reference here? The recovery partition is a "super hidden" partition. There may or may not be a reference to this patition in the boot.ini file, but generally the only way to access it is by using a function key which is specified by the manufacturer. HP uses F10...I'm not sure what Sony uses, but it should be in your machines documentation or would be available on the Sony website's support page for your machine.
• Refer to #7.

Did that cover them all?

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 09 April 2006 - 03:14 PM.

[lewie]

Many thanks! You got all eight (and some were compound)!

You've been a very big help. And I am very grateful to you and to the staff at Geeks to Go.

I'll digest this stuff.

If I have questions in the near future, should I post them in this thread or start a new line of 20 questions?

Again, thank you.

Sandy

[wannabe1]

Sandy...

This thread will remain open indefinitely and I will be subscribed to it for 14 days of no activity in the thread...but it will slowly fade away to the place of resolved issues... It may be best to just start a fresh topic.

I'm glad we were able to resolve your problems...do take care.

wannabe1

[Sunde]

Hi

I've got exactly the same problem as Sandy had originally (i.e. needing to edit the same seemingly non-existant registry key to instal SP2). As Sandy used a disc, rather than a download, to load SP2, I can't see that this bit was answered (apologies if I missed it!).

Can anyone help please?

Thanks

Sunde

[wannabe1]

Hi Sunde...

It's always best to start your own topic as no two problems are exactly the same...

This turned out to be a ZoneAlarm Firewall issue rather than a registry issue. If you have ZoneAlarm installed, disable it and try to update.

If this does not resolve the issue, please start another topic...one of us will be glad to help you solve the mystery.

wannabe1

[Sunde]

Hi wannabe1

Thanks. Sorry, but I thought I was doing the right thing in NOT starting a new topic, as my problem seems to be similar!

I don't have ZoneAlarm installed, so I'll start a new topic soon.

Thanks again

Sunde