Cookies
Has your computer seen a lot of mileage,and behaving like a cranky child? Did someone palm you off with pirated software, or did you knowingly choose to use someone else program, and run into all kinds of trouble because you couldn't download the updates to keep your machine healthy?
Well I can sympathize with you, because that is my dilemma lately. On top of that my Norton protection expired during my sabbatical from the net, and I can't afford to buy anything to resolve the problem until mid June, when I'll get some extra cash for my birthday.
In the meantime, while I research what's on the market to find out what suits my needs, I've taken up the challange to find out which cookies are feeding all those pesky ads onto my desktop while I'm trying to work.
Through some trial and error I'm learning how to take advantage of the tools (those on the bar between Favorites & Help). It never ceases to amaze me how much there is that I don't know about this machine I've taken for granted.
Anyway I was getting messages that my browser was full. Now I've got enough memory to choke a horse and was surprised to discover that most of my last 25% has been gobbled up by cookies, and unwanted links since I got back on the net a month ago. Google is actually blocking spam, but it seems to be geared only to stop it getting into my gmail.
While trouble shooting to discover how to empty my browser, I find out there is an option to delete one's net history, but I'm a bit leary of dumping that just yet, but you can see your list of cookies and it is staggering.
After figuring out how to open each one (double clicking on them, then clicking open)you can see where it came from and what flavor it is; however, at first glance it's just a lot of 'gobble de goop' but if you look at it like this: gobbledegoop, enough of it makes sense to get an idea of whether one needs to keep it to function with one of your servers.
For instance: jLogRandCookie....reviews.cnet. randomads, stands out after playing wordgames to come up with handles for sites, and passwords. Sometimes you'll see a name you recognize, which often helps in making the choice whether to keep it. They incorporate the word ad a lot; such as adjuggler, adcentriconline, adengage, admaniaserver. It also comes up before the company name; as in, ad.outerinfoads...... 21winningbaccaratsystem.
I hate the gambling ads, but they are easy to spot; somewhere near the bottom is a clear word associated with gambling, or the name of the site; such as casino, or something Palace. I usually try to ignore the content of the ads, but it does help to look at the address bar at the top when they get in your face, as you prepare to defeat the cookie monster. Some text files don't make any sense at all; I've decided to leave them alone for awhile.
Whoever loads them into our computers is really sneaky too. The cookies are hooked to the names of the people who have accounts on the computer (when you have Windows Professional), and hide them in innocent sounding files like, Pat & dad. I'm so pleased I managed to get rid of one porn file.
I sat at it for about two hours, and only got about 10% of the way down the scroll bar, so it's going to be an ongoing process. Only time will tell if I'm crushing cookies of those third parties we have to grant the right to put ads on our space to use a service, but what the heck they have no right to steal all our memory and make us run the gauntlet to access our e-mail; or to invade our space when we are trying to compose a blog. I've had so many pile up behind the page that it freezes up. I must say though that there aren't quite as many tonight.
The reason I'm blogging about this, is for the benefit of those who are in the same boat as me, and not sure where to start; and even worrying if there is anything they can do. I'll start a troubleshooting tag, for any interesting updates for those who may be interested. If you are reading this, and can add a little sage advice, please leave a response; it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Well I can sympathize with you, because that is my dilemma lately. On top of that my Norton protection expired during my sabbatical from the net, and I can't afford to buy anything to resolve the problem until mid June, when I'll get some extra cash for my birthday.
In the meantime, while I research what's on the market to find out what suits my needs, I've taken up the challange to find out which cookies are feeding all those pesky ads onto my desktop while I'm trying to work.
Through some trial and error I'm learning how to take advantage of the tools (those on the bar between Favorites & Help). It never ceases to amaze me how much there is that I don't know about this machine I've taken for granted.
Anyway I was getting messages that my browser was full. Now I've got enough memory to choke a horse and was surprised to discover that most of my last 25% has been gobbled up by cookies, and unwanted links since I got back on the net a month ago. Google is actually blocking spam, but it seems to be geared only to stop it getting into my gmail.
While trouble shooting to discover how to empty my browser, I find out there is an option to delete one's net history, but I'm a bit leary of dumping that just yet, but you can see your list of cookies and it is staggering.
After figuring out how to open each one (double clicking on them, then clicking open)you can see where it came from and what flavor it is; however, at first glance it's just a lot of 'gobble de goop' but if you look at it like this: gobbledegoop, enough of it makes sense to get an idea of whether one needs to keep it to function with one of your servers.
For instance: jLogRandCookie....reviews.cnet. randomads, stands out after playing wordgames to come up with handles for sites, and passwords. Sometimes you'll see a name you recognize, which often helps in making the choice whether to keep it. They incorporate the word ad a lot; such as adjuggler, adcentriconline, adengage, admaniaserver. It also comes up before the company name; as in, ad.outerinfoads...... 21winningbaccaratsystem.
I hate the gambling ads, but they are easy to spot; somewhere near the bottom is a clear word associated with gambling, or the name of the site; such as casino, or something Palace. I usually try to ignore the content of the ads, but it does help to look at the address bar at the top when they get in your face, as you prepare to defeat the cookie monster. Some text files don't make any sense at all; I've decided to leave them alone for awhile.
Whoever loads them into our computers is really sneaky too. The cookies are hooked to the names of the people who have accounts on the computer (when you have Windows Professional), and hide them in innocent sounding files like, Pat & dad. I'm so pleased I managed to get rid of one porn file.
I sat at it for about two hours, and only got about 10% of the way down the scroll bar, so it's going to be an ongoing process. Only time will tell if I'm crushing cookies of those third parties we have to grant the right to put ads on our space to use a service, but what the heck they have no right to steal all our memory and make us run the gauntlet to access our e-mail; or to invade our space when we are trying to compose a blog. I've had so many pile up behind the page that it freezes up. I must say though that there aren't quite as many tonight.
The reason I'm blogging about this, is for the benefit of those who are in the same boat as me, and not sure where to start; and even worrying if there is anything they can do. I'll start a troubleshooting tag, for any interesting updates for those who may be interested. If you are reading this, and can add a little sage advice, please leave a response; it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.