Bogged Down...

[Abu Dahn]

I run a small 18 machine network running win2000 and xp. I have all the machines on a router sharing a broad band internet service. Early on it was unique how well and stable the net ran no matter what the tasking involved was..and sometimes it was heavy. Taking I-net orders, doing tech support, ftping, and local area communications...all cool. Slowly things started degrading. I have worked as an admin for years and am not without experience. Still I was a little lax on this one and had to much faith in my users. After looking into it the way I should have from the start, I found 5 of the machines stuffed full of incredulous i-net trash. Things I didnt expect from my fellows. I didnt find it rite away because they had used removal software that did an OKay job... but left enough to effectively ruin my net speed... I looked for a definitive removal software and found one at www.hfkinc.com (http://www.hfkinc.com) Its called Clean Machine Plus. Its a great product for keeping an eye on things and proper removal of anything undesirable. I upped a blurp about them here that was more like an ad. It was properly removed. Sorry, I didnt mean to break forum rules. I should have simply stated the context in which I found it to be so helpful. After running it on all the machines and rebooting the net... the original speed and stability of the net returned, making me a happy enough fellow to break charachter and turn BillBoard. Hope this clarifies things. I called tech support and chatted awhile about them releasing a network version... thats how I learned they were new and why I am just trying to spread the word a little to help out.

[Greenstead]

Deep cleaning your PC will not improve network or internet stability or response. It might improve individual PC performance. If a company PC causes serious problems it is best to wipe it and re-image. Company usage should have clear rules against personal misuse and discipline for abuse or the abuse will continue. A company firewall and restricting untrusted users to no install rights can help against the inveitable abuse that goes on.

There are many cleaning tools available, all claiming to be the best, many of them risk damaging the PC installations. Even worse are registry cleaners. None of them provide any lasting benefit. They are only worth considering for specific problems.

Of far more use is on-going use of security updates, anti-virus, personal firewall and spyware removal. Such tools use on-going updates to protect against the latest tricks. Prevention is far better than allowing intrusion and cleaning up after.

[Abu Dahn]

I had firewalls is place but had no install restrictions till after the problem. It appeared to me there were calls to executables and html's whose addresses were stored in hidden files on the effected mahcines, maybe from the registry? It may have been nothing more than a counter scheme ( to increase the illusion of page hits by illegitamate companies selling that service)...or adware or spyware. Of course stability and response are defineable. From a school room point of view they are not manipulated either way by deep cleaning. From a practicle point of view if you are loading a page initiated by spyware 1,2, 3 or 4 times before initiating your own requests and you make 1,2, or 3 hundred requests a day, response time for what you are doing is slower...Can I twist stability into that argument? Of course that supports what you said about prevention. I mentioned, in hopes of helping other admins remain completely professional, that I was lax in trusting my users. I was not lax in security updates, anti-virus, personal firewall and spyware. Running Norton Internet Security, SpyBot, and Adaware. PREVENTION< PREVENTION: PREVENTION{for those reading.

Updates are done after offenders are found. Before that, a quick cleaning of pertinent areas can help. I'm not opposed to being wrong, but it seemed to do the trick on this LAN. I've been told just because I'm paranoid doesnt mean I'm not being followed :-0 LOL !!! I typed in *.dat in the manage data files software provided by Clean Machine Plus and went through a binary look at each one that appeared... I found page addresses in places I have never read about...(*I read industry rags everyday)...and they were not in index.dat files either...and they were highly imoral and viral spreding pages! I will gather and post that data. Thanks for the reply Greenstead..oh, also I did wipe and reimage a few of the more problamatic machines using the Wipe software provided in Clean Machine Plus.