Re: Slowdown of downloads

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance

From: Ben Stevenson (casiopie963_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 01:05:30 +0800

Thanks for your complete write up of possibilities for the purpose. Quite
alot to do, and here are some I have looked into as at now.

I have had Ad-aware and Spybot for for quite long and use them quite
regularly. Same with AVG anti-virus. They are all up to date.I did a virus
scan two days back. All OK.

Hardly do I have attachments on the type of emails I get. The few that do
come in, are from my well known and trusted sources, mostly in replies to my
emails.

Background compaction has always been turned off in my system.I did a manual
compaction two days ago.

Windows Update have ALL been done except SP2. I will wait out a bit longer
as it has some issues, and people are reporting problems when installed it.

I wouldn't mind deleting Folders.dbx. Will I lose any files? Do I have to
save any files first?

I have cleared all Temporary Internet files, Disk Cleanup, and Defrag.

Regarding your advise where to send SPAM complaints to, what about Phishing?
I had one the other day. Couldn't find where to complain to, I ended up
sending it to the FBI. If thats one for laughs pls keep it private. They
haven't replied to me, which figures.

No improvement on downloads speed seen yet.

"Steve Cochran" <scochran@oehelp.com> wrote in message
news:uyOC%23JxmEHA.3756@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Also check for various sorts of malware that could be influencing this.
See
> point 13 below.
>
> You might also try going to Start | Run and type msconfig and disable all
> startup items and non-MS services and reboot and then see if the problem
> persists.
>
> For OE do also points 2 and 3 below and see point 8.
>
> steve
>
> "Ben Stevenson" <casiopie963@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:ObQnA9vmEHA.1716@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > I have XP Home and am on cable for internet.
> > Of late there has been a definite slowdown of downloads of web pages and
> > emails into my Inbox. There is a noticable sluggishness/reluctance to
> start
> > the download. Have to wait a while. It used to start almost immediate
> > before. Inbox downloads now take about three to four times longer.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> 1. Don't open attachments.
>
> Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
> attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan
that
> infects the system when it is opened.
>
> Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set
OE
> to block all attachments. See
> these articles for explanations:
>
> Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570
>
> OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/3/87.ASP
>
> Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
> article:
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/news/patch_hoax.asp
>
> If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
> attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.
>
> The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
> educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
> and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.
>
>
>
> 2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
> is already disabled.)
>
> When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
> (dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must be
> compacted to remove that wasted space.
>
> By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
> "background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
> message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
> and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
> is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become corrupt.
>
> To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
> Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
> and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
> stable.
>
>
> 3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.
>
>
> Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
> (incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain virus.
>
> The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
> the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
> when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.
>
> To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
> scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
> infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
> potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your are
> attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
> best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and then
> scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
> themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
> will not infect your system -- only attachments.
>
> You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
> continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
> prevent destruction of your message store.
>
> From a post by Frank Saunders:
>
> From
>
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/df0a595864594c86852567ac0063608c/65434372961d321d8825687f000003f8?OpenDocument&src=tr&Highlight=0,email,protection
>
> Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
> malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
> addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files, including
> email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
> definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
> set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
> protected.
>
>
> 4. Recovering lost messages.
>
>
> The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in points
2
> and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.
>
> If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
> attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
> Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/
>
> Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more accurate
> than DBXtract,
> and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
> bypassing the file system.
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/
>
> If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and all
> your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
> the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
> title):
>
> OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After
You
> Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313055
>
> If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, which
> is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get
your
> messages back:
> a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
> and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
> Messages again.
> b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this
page
> for how to do that:
> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
> c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/
>
> See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
>
>
> 5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?
>
> This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:
>
> How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q318378
>
> See point 11 below first.
>
>
> 6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:
>
> See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
>
> Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
> OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)
>
>
>
> 7. Links in email don't work:
>
> see the links on this page
>
> http://www.oehelp.com/
>
>
> 8. Outlook Express is slow.
>
> See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm
>
>
> 9. Outlook Express won't start.
>
> This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the registry
> and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
> deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
> files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
> these articles and also point 4 above:
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm#nostart
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q245/4/19.asp
>
>
> 10. Address book information:
>
> see The Windows Address Book
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm
>
>
> 11. Installation issues:
>
> Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
> running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
> files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
> interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
> and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
> Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be re-enabled.
>
> For additional info see:
>
> Win98:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281965&Product=w98
> WinXP:
>
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&Product=winxp
>
> Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
> registry key:
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
>
> You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then disable
> all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
> Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into the
> registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.
>
>
> 12. Screening unwanted email and Spam
>
> Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
> trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
> infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?
>
> a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
> scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make
sure
> your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment is
> from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
> it. See also point 1 above.
>
> b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
> toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable
most
> of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
> obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
> select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
> perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
> they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
> messages you might wish to keep.
>
> c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
> Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
> (available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
> text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
> cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed
or
> malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
> viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
> the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view
it
> as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
> (www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
> details without having to open the message. You can also use the "Compact
> Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.
>
> d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can set
> up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file
in
> OE and also
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm
>
> and
>
> http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.
>
>
> e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
> go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to uce@ftc.gov .
>
> The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive
> and offensive spam. Visit their site at www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.
>
>
> 13. Messages appear blank
>
> From a post by Frank Saunders:
>
> Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
> 1. Go to Start | Run and type
> regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
> and press <Enter>
> 2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
> default.
> 3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
> 4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
> 5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
> article fixed the problem:
> How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
> XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
> Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
> 6. Eliminate any scumware.
> See
> Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
> http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
> especially
> http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch
>
> Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
> won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
> downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
> CWShredder is also available here:
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
> **Post your HijackThis log to
> http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
> http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
> Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
> may be found on this page:
> http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
> If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post
back
> in the same thread.
>
> 14. Issues with WinXP SP2.
>
> For general information on WinXP SP2 see:
>
> Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/winxpsp2.mspx
>
> For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:
>
>
> Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
> Enhanced Browsing Security
>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2brows.mspx
>
> 883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service
Pack
> 2
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;883256
>
> For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:
>
>
> Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/web/sp2_oe.mspx
>
> Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
> Part 4: Email Handling
>
>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2email.mspx
>
>
> Also:
>
> 835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835935
>
> Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
> Introduction
>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2chngs.mspx
>
> 842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
> Service Pack 2
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842242
>
> 884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130
>
>
>
>
>
> I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
> common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check
the
> websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
> here:
>
>
> Tom Koch:
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/
>
> David Guess
> http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/
>
> Jim Pickering
> http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/
>
> Frank Saunders
> http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm
>
> and my site at http://www.oehelp.com
>
>
> If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
> in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt
to
> help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
> as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
> newsgroup.
>
>

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