Best way forward.....

Dunkyboy_2

not sure where to start but well here goes......
My main problem is my PC runs so slowly, and i just can't see why ?.
I have been told to ditch aol, as this really clogs up the PC, but i can't ditch them because i have 6 months left to run with them yet. I have aol gold but don't use the wireless modem because i'm worried about making it secure, and setting it up properly.(i tried following a few threads on this site but it never was the same, so i couldn't do it).
I have Zone alarm, plus AVG, plus spam pal?,spy doctor,ad-aware,spybot, and run them all at least twice a week, and update every time i go on-line , and have never had any known problems virus wise.
I feel it must be aol causing the problems, as the pc runs ok before i start it up, but after that it's soooo slooowww.
Finally i now get an error shutting down the PC 'AOLDial.exe' won't respond, i have googled this and some say it's ok and others say delete it as you don't need it, what should i do with it?
The PC has pentium 4 processer ,700MB ram memory, i have moved all photos onto an external hard drive thinking this might speed things up a bit (but no),disk fragmenting shows i have 30%free space on the PC hard drive, what else can i do, i am well fed up..

espresso

Firstly you should start to use the wireless router. Even if you don't switch on the wireless part of the router, the router is a far better way to connect to the net and give you the added protection of a hardware firewall. If you use the router to connect to your ISP (AOL) it establishes and maintains the connection for you 24/7.

If you operate in this way, it is not necessary to use (or have any AOL software on your machine) so don't use it. You can simply use the browser of your choice.

If you have disconnected the old dial-up modem lead, you don't have to worry about the AOLdial.exe You could remove this but you may want to keep it as a back-up if you have problems with BB.

Setting up your router really is quite easy, and you will get help on here if you get stuck.

j_davies

I found this on here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=155841

albertross_2

Go into task manager, processes, and identify the tasks that are using the most processor time when it goes slow.

Dunkyboy_2

thanks for the quick replies..
task manager tells me these are the big hitters, (i don't know what they mean)
svchost.exe 10.920
vsmon.exe 10.262
swdoctor.exe 48.064
waol.exe 64.720
all the others are much much smaller.
i need the internet for work, and i would be in big trouble if i couldn't get back on line after messing with the modem , this is what worries me.

albertross_2

Are you looking at the processor utilisation column, or the memory column?

espresso

Dunkyboy wrote:

i need the internet for work, and i would be in big trouble if i couldn't get back on line after messing with the modem , this is what worries me.

I assume that you are using a USB modem at present, so why not simply connect up your router to your PC using the Ethernet cable and configure it with your screen name/password etc. so that you could try it. Assuming that you have a Netgear router, the set-up details are given here.

Doing this would not affect your current USB modem set-up.

Dunkyboy_2

i was looking at the proccess page..
I have been looking at the thread from j davies and i may try it this evening when i have more time.

espresso

Dunkyboy wrote:

i was looking at the proccess page..
I have been looking at the thread from j davies and i may try it this evening when i have more time.

You would be much better using the router that they have supplied you with! I think that you would struggle to remove all of the AOL software from your machine.

That method could be useful if someone wanted to use AOL without installing the AOL bloatware but as you have it installed already you would be better just not using it and connecting via the router.

Dunkyboy_2

will all the anti virus stuff that i have etc, work on this new router, will it still be protecting the PC and any other laptop that i have.
Is the aoldial.exe thing something to worry about.

espresso

Dunkyboy wrote:

will all the anti virus stuff that i have etc, work on this new router, will it still be protecting the PC and any other laptop that i have.
Is the aoldial.exe thing something to worry about.

Using the router will not affect your anti-virus and it would give added protection due to the built-in hardware firewall.

The aoldial.exe is nothing to worry about if you have disconnected the old dial-up modem lead from the phone socket.

Using a router is a much better way to connect to the internet.