Tech: Can't access Mudcat threads or e-mail

Subject: Tech: Can't access Mudcat threads or e-mail
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 10:23 AM

I'm sending this message from work. Yesterday I noticed my home computer was running very slow. I got into Mudchat a couple of times but was immediately doored, and although I could load Mudcat I couldn't open any threads - looked like it was so slow that it timed out. I can load Yahoo, but I can't get into my e-mails. I have run Spybot and Ad-Aware, defragged and cleaned the disk, gotten rid of cookies and temp files but it hasn't helped. My anti-virus has expired and I will have to sort that out when I get home. Anybody have any ideas as to what this could be? I was thinking spyware slowing everything down but Spybot didn't help. Yahoo Messenger does seem to work fine - no slowdown there!

Subject: RE: Tech: Can't access Mudcat threads or e-mail
From: artbrooks
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 12:38 PM

Mary, do a control-alt-delete and open the Windows Task Manager. look at the processes tab to see if something is running in the background that is eating up all of your resources.

Subject: RE: Tech: Can't access Mudcat threads or e-mail
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 03:58 PM

If you can get to Yahoo but not to your emails, it suggests that you've lost a "login cookie" that you may have used to send a password automatically. You may just need to log in manually.

That should NOT affect getting to everything at mudcat. You may need to reset the "permissions" in your browser to accept (and keep) cookies from mudcat to get full use, but just reading doesn't require any permissions with common browser setups.

If your computer is running a lot slower, and you've done Disk Cleanup, Defrag, etc, it suggests that something is running on your machine that shouldn't be there. If your AV has expired that's also a good indication that you may be a victim.

You can look in task manager for clues, but unless you're familiar with what's supposed to be running it may be hard to spot anything wrong.

Most AV publishers offer a free on-line check. You don't usually have to be a user of their product to run one, although some require you to have a current version before it will fix what gets found. Your own AV program's site would be first choice, but I've found Norton Security Check to be among the good ones if you can't get to another that you prefer.

John