Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[giraffe]

Does anyone know how to stop google guessing for me? I think instants has turned itself back on and I can't remember how to turn it off.

[giraffe]

It's ok I found it. It's under the little cog thing. I'm sure i asked that last time I cleared my history etc. It is so annoying and slows everything down.

[MBH]

If you mean when you're typing in search words - I thought that was just a 'feature' of Google. Never thought about trying to find a way of switching it off.

I just type in exactly what I want to search for and hit the Enter button - but the guesses are handy at work when people don't know what they want to search for.

To a woman on my bus:-

"So Google is for searching for websites when you don't know the website address. What would you like to search for? What do YOU like?"

"Shoes"...

"OK - so what are you going to key into the Google screen?"

"Shoes?"

"That's a start - but remember this is the world-wide web. What else might help narrow the search down?"

"Good shoes!"

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[giraffe]

When it is on it comes up with things while I'm typing, so you type a couple of letters and then it seizes up while it processes it and invariably comes up with what you don't want. REALLY annoying! Much quicker to find things without it on.

[Scurra]

It's a classic example of Google thinking it knows best. It works brilliantly if you are running on a very fast connection that reliably works. It is deeply annoying when you are not.

(Don't get me started on what has become known as the "filter bubble" - the fact that nowadays if you search for "shoes" on Google you may actually end up with an entirely different set of pages than I would, simply because their search algorithm takes into account your previous searches and tries to guess why you are looking for "shoes"...)

[clvrlad]

i like google spelling for me :-p

[Laura]

Right, this is a computery one.

Some time last night, my computer (I'm fairly sure it didn't do it on it's own, but I don't know what/who is to blame) sent an email from me to everyone in my address book, advertising viagra. I might add that my address book includes the headteacher of my school, the minister of my church, the choir director, and various older gentlemen who may well be offended by this!!!

Why did this happen?
What should I do now?
How do I stop it happening again?
Do I now need to change all my passwords for stuff like banks, amazon account, etc, etc?

[MBH]

I'll be interested in the answer to this one as I've been the recipient of such 'junk mail'. One of the drawbacks of having an email address - but I treat it like the rest of the junk.

[SparkOut]

Right, this is a computery one.

Some time last night, my computer (I'm fairly sure it didn't do it on it's own, but I don't know what/who is to blame) sent an email from me to everyone in my address book, advertising viagra. I might add that my address book includes the headteacher of my school, the minister of my church, the choir director, and various older gentlemen who may well be offended by this!!!

What exactly happpened - do you have the said emails in your email sent items folder? Or have you been notified by everyone that an email seemed to come from you? It's very tricky to give a clue without knowing some of the technicals involved. Do you know for a fact that it is "everyone in your address book" who has received an email "apparently" from you?

Why did this happen?

It is impossible to say for sure, but there is a distinct suspicion that your computer has been compromised with malware of some sort. Virus, trojan, call it what you will. It could be though, that your address book has been harvested - or even someone else's address book which happens to have your email address in. Just because it says your name as the sender, doesn't mean it necessarily has ever been anywhere near your computer. (Not saying it hasn't but... we can't tell just now.)

What should I do now?

Get your computer checked over to see if there is any malware onboard. See if anyone still has a copy of the email that appeared to be sent from you. If so, then try and get the "header" information. If they have the email still I can help with how to obtain header details. The headers will give information about the source and what servers the email has passed through on the way to the recipient.

How do I stop it happening again?

Maybe, you can't, if your email address is in the hands of spammers, they can forge whatever they want. Chances are it won't IF any malware is cleared up. But the only real thing you can do is make sure there is no malware and be careful about antivirus protection. Don't download/install anything you are not 100% sure about, and that means being distrustful of what the suppliers say... Smiley icon sites are notorious for innocuous seeming things that turn out to be either a malware itself or a weakness leveraged by other malware.

Do I now need to change all my passwords for stuff like banks, amazon account, etc, etc?

Yes but NOT by using your computer, at least until AFTER it has been verified clean of any malware. If it currently has a keylogger on it, then changing the passwords using your computer will be like changing the locks on your house but leaving the key outside on the doorstep.



As to being on the receiving end of spam MBH, you know there is not really anything you can do besides using spam filtering software or an email service such as gmail with spam filters built in. Best practice would say to have multiple free email addresses with such services (eg gmail) and use one of those addresses when you sign up with any online site. If you start getting spam on one address in particular soon after you signed up with any website or service then it can help to narrow down who is a nasty id seller, but you can just stop using the "throwaway" address and keep your main personal email address more private and only for use by people who know it because you have trusted them with it.

[Laura]

Thanks. I ran the computer cleaner program the nice repair guy installed when my laptop did have a virus, and that has cleared my sentbox, so I can't find a copy of the email. And I think everyone else that I know well enough to ask will have deleted it by now.

I don't download smileys or cursers or anything like that, so I'm not sure where it's come from, but I'll avoid the bank websites until I've got this laptop checked.

Thanks for the advice!

[MBH]

On a connected note of 'safety', I was asked a question at the bar tonight as the resident "computer expert" [I hate that phrase ]

He had been looking on the internet at boating holidays - a few different sites but there are not many of them. He did not fill in any online forms or give any sort of personal details. A few days later he recieved a brochure through the post addressed to him from a boat holiday company.

How much is 'information exchange' a two way street? It seems a lot of faith is put in 'programmers' to do things right - but there are bad people out there too.

With the advent of wi-fi hotspots in coffee houses, and internet cafes where you can pay for computer use, it did occurr to me that there is a lot of trust in other people. You may be using your laptop at a coffee shop, but the internet link is on their machine. Key logging is the obvious worry, but is your disk drive accessible in a 'networked' sense as well?

I had actually thought of this on my own, and then reading a Karen Rose crime novel she uses exactly that idea for a blackmailer o collect information on his 'clients' at the coffee shop he runs.

[giraffe]

I have a really irritating problem with my laptop.

I have tried reading up online about it and I can find lots of people with the same problem, but I haven't a clue what they are taalking about to fix it.

Every few minutes my screen goes completely black, then after nearly a minute it comes back and a second later it goes again. It can do this five or six times and then is fine for a few minutes and then does it all over again.

When it comes back on it says "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered"

It has happened 44 times since 25th August and has happened 11 times in the past hour.

Any suggestions?

[Bunnylump]

Buy a new laptop?

[giraffe]

I was just about to type that it hadn't done it since I typed the above, when it blacked out 3 more times.

I read somewhere that it might be dust in the graphics card. I'm very tempted to take the bottom off and attack it with the Hoover! Might suck the whole inside out though.

[Bunnylump]

I do know that computers need to be cleaned out once a year. But probably best to leave that to someone who knows what they are doing...

[SparkOut]

Where are you using the laptop? If the surface is not clear of the base of the laptop then insufficient airflow may be getting to the vents underneath and overheating. Lifting the laptop higher off the surface with some blocks or a 99p Store plastic laptop rack may help. Don't use the laptop on a cushion on your lap, for instance.
The vents themselves may be blocked with dust. Vacuuming and scraping away any crusted dust may help.
You may find a newer version of the display adapter driver software will help. This will depend on the exact make and model of the graphics adapter.

[Laura]

My old one overheated. I used to balance it on rolls of sellotape.

[Scurra]

The best investment I made in my old laptop was to buy one of those new "fan pads". They have a fan (or two) built into a lightweight plastic support stand and get their power from the laptop USB port. The result is that my old machine which used to overheat within minutes can now run for long enough to be actually usable!

Giraffe's problem does look like one of those horrible unique ones though - lots of people get the same problem but there seem to be a wide variety of different causes which makes it hard to diagnose exactly what is going wrong in this case.

[giraffe]

Sometimes it gets hot (If I'm wearing a skirt! It helps if I push the skirt down between my legs, so that it isn't on a flat surface, and the air can circulate) but it barely feels warm when the problems occur, so I don't think it is overheating. It may well be dust.

You may find a newer version of the display adapter driver software will help. This will depend on the exact make and model of the graphics adapter

That is the sort of thing people were saying when I looked it up online. How do I know what version I have?

[giraffe]

I think the problem may be dust related as it comes back much quicker if I tip it up.