Down & Out

My laptop has been out of commission since the morning of Thanksgiving. I was using Comodo Internet Security as my firewall/anti-virus program. The problem is that there were things that is wasn’t catching (I really need to stay off torrent sites) so I decided to change to ZoneAlarm. I always liked Zone Alarm, but it caused things to run really slow. So I installed ZoneAlarm and then uninstalled Comodo. That apparently was a mistake somehow, because all of a sudden I could not connect to my wireless router. Luckily both PCs still worked, but after three days of googling my situation, I was unable to find a fix. I reset all kinds of settings, deleted files, etc. but nothing worked. So finally, on Sunday, I started copying files using a flash drive and putting them on Kris’s PC, and then wiped out the hard drive of the laptop and reinstalled Windows. After an hour or so I was back up and running. The problem was trying to remember all the settings I had on Vista and where all the menus were/are for customizing things.

I will still be reinstalling my software for the next few days, slowly but surely. But at least I am able to post blog entries and get my email again.

I still wonder though about my firewall & anti-virus programs. Right now I am using the Windows firewall and the MS Internet Security, whatever it is called. But I how good is it? I mean, viruses are written for Windows and MS programs, so how safe and effective can they be? If anyone knows of a good FW and anti-virus program, email me and let me know.