Genealogy Chat

just thought i would tell everyone what happened to me on sunday i coulnt access my tree it showed how many people were in but thats it .well i sent 2 messages to genes reunited beliving it was them at fault i didnt get any replys from them .my brother inlaw came to have a look as he very techical and also to add some anti virus protection i alreadly have some which i thought was enough how wrong can anyone be my computer started to fail i had to ring philips for advice they gave instuctions over the phone this rebooted it but anything i had on my computer was lost thats why i coulnt access my tree because of the viruses that had attacked my computer i just thought i would tell you all as a warning to make sure you have enough anti virus protection and also any stuff on your computer have a back up thanks for reading kerry suden

Sorry to hear of your problems, I hope you had at least part backed up. I had a problem last year, installed service pack 2, pc went haywire and I lost everything. I had backed up a couple of months previous, but there are always bits and pieces you can't remember until later. I have broadband now and a firewall, anti virus, spyware thingy the lot. But I couldn't have foreseen the SP2 problem. I will not be installing it again!! Good luck with it. Diane

hi diane no i didnt have anything even part backed up which is silly of me it has now taught me a lesson which wont happen again i will back up everything i have from now on thankyou for telling me what happened to you and for also reading kerry suden

I had a similar thing happen about 2/3 years ago and I thought I had sufficient protection. This virus disabled my Mcafee anit virus first and then completely knackered my system - I thought my Hard Drive had given up the ghost and got a new one - I put the old drive on as a slave in order to salvage some information and that's when a scan picked up a virus on it! I now have an up to date version of Mcafee anti virus and firewall and regularly run scans. I also regularly scan for spyware and also have a registry scan which picks up problems within the registry. I now have a lap top partly so I have a back up in case it happens again. I would advise anyone to make sure they download the windows updates as they are there to protect your computer and add extra security. Kaye x

hi kay you so right what you said you dont realise until it happens to you that this is very important to have this protection which i now have and also will run regular updates to scan for virues this as you said is important to protect your computer thanks kerry suden

diane, hi. Can I say to you please, if you are using XP and you must be then you certainly shouldnt be without SP2, no matter what the problems you had installing it. Its an extension of SPI and it has added extra security setting, FIREWALL etc to your XP. use whatever programmes you have now INTERNET SECURITY, SPYBOT, ADAWARE etc by all means, but anyone with a bit of knowledge about XP will tell you SP2 is a must. Problems always occur whatever you load on to your pc, and in time they usually geet sorted one way or another, and it might have not been SP2 that was giving you trouble at the time, it could hve been something that was getting onto your pc while you were downloading SP2. I lost a heck of a lot of files, pictures etc when I downloaded, but that was my fault, Ishould have backed them up before then. I DONT THINK THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO WOULD TELL YOU NOT TO DOWNLOAD SP2. Just thought I reply when I read your message. You can smack my wrist if you think Im out of line.TED XXX

I must admit that I had problems with SP2. The latest difficulty was that it stopped recognising my old Printer. Eventually I had to get a new one. Apparently SP2 doesn't recognise hardware with small capacity (e.g. 16bit)

Hi Kerry, Sorry to hear about your problems but it might not be as bad as it sounds. If you are only having trouble accessing a tree which you have built on the Genesreunited website, your tree will still be there! You should be able to access it from any computer using your login and password. General warning - If you use a public computer (eg-library or internet cafe) remember to log out afterwards as otherwise the next user would be able to access your tree and do horrible things to it if they are that sort of person!

Hi Ted, I don't mind what you have posted at all!! Unfortunately I had the same as a previous post, my printer and scanner would no longer work either. I have downloaded service pack 1a and lots of other updates. I have mcafee firewall and self updating anti virus via AOL and the microsoft spyware real time programme too. For now I'm not upsetting the applecart. Diane

Just thought I would add my little bit. I have service pack 2 as it is a must for XP as the engineer who fixed my PC last year told me, and so far no problems. The reason he was fixing my PC was because of a trojan virus which had come through MSN and it is a right little b!!!!r. It's called 'com warrior' and once it is in, there is nothing you can do but sit and watch it corrupt your hard drive and then kill it. I have several virus detectors etc but the best one at the moment is called Kaspersky. It was developed in Russia and is still maintained there, it is only ever 2 hours behind every new virus/worm and automatically updates every day. However, you do have to pay a subscription, which mine has now run out. The engineer installed it for me but I think you can find it on the net. Also if you use your PC to send txt to mobile phones that have web access, be careful as these viruses and worms can get into them as well and they can tansmit them back to your PC. Happy surfing. Wendy