I am everything you hate about people on the internet. I am here to help.

[Blacklight]

I am male, mid 20's and grew up with this technology.
Wondering what something means?
Wondering how to do something?
Wondering how your kids did something?
Wondering if you should let your kids do something?

Oh and how do I avoid all the malware that comes from torrent when I use it?

If it's proper malware get a good firewall and anti-virus.
If it's just annoying stuff, go to the Control Panel and then to the Install/Unistall facility. Uninstall all the crap that came with it (it will have the date when you installed something from Torrent.

I've got Spybot, malwarebytes and avg so probably too much!

Having to uninstall things is easy enough but some of the toolbars (incredibar?) goes under the radar and needs to be tracked down and rooted out through the system!

You have to watch out for that sneaky Java too! Think my pc basically is past it's sell by date.

I used to have problems with too many antiviruses. By accident.
And had to unistall one (forgot the name, but came with the computer) that didn't allow a perfectly good programme from running.

@Rjae

If all you're planning to do is edit the odd word doc or spreadsheet it will be just fine.

So far as protection goes, I use a small app called "windows 7 firewall control" by sphinx software. Brilliant little app, piggy backs off the windows firewall and makes it a thousand times better, even if you've got as far as installing something nasty this will do a great job of preventing it from contacting the outside world.

For av I use avast, more than anything as a throwback because it was the first free av that was native 64-bit. My faith was strengthened the other day when it picked up a trojan within a .js embedded within a webpage.

Avoiding malware from torrents is hit and miss. Is the file size the right size for what I'm looking for? Is it the right extension? When installing, can I get the installer from somewhere I know is verified; and additional add ons from a torrent? Which of the results has the most seeds? When installing always choose custom so you can uncheck components you don't need.

Cheers
Lweji. Pc world did say I've too many barriers on it which was slowing it down I think it's just a dinosaur

Blacklight. I've heard of avast somewhere in my trawling so will look more at that and 'windows 7 firewall control'. Will get the Lenovo I think.

Java isn't malware, java is script used by websites, often live IM chat type sites and some older games. Not so popular any more. It's annoying because it bugs you to update it all the time but it doesn't actually harm your computer. That said, you probably don't need it these days - and if you do need it, it will throw up a thing saying you need java. So prob OK to just take it off.

And yes - when you install something you always want to click on "custom", it will have the tricky bits filled in anyway, so you don't need to worry about doing anything wrong, and then harness all of those years of "Do you not not definitely a little bit even on Sundays dislike the wanting of the extra mailing list?" practice, decipher the double negatives and blinding "Yes! You definitely want this!" checkboxes and untick stuff like incredibar, yahoo search, extra emoticons, etc.

Win7 is not so much different from Vista, a machine built for Vista should handle it. Hooky copy not really an issue, except turn off updates, which does mean you can't rely on the windows firewall so much. But a licence for windows 8 is only about £30. Those three antivirus are fine together because they don't do the same thing. I use AVG and find it better than Avast, avast has annoying graphics and pop ups. But either one is fine. There's no need to change it I wouldn't have said.

Oh point, though - do you stream or watch high def stuff on the computer at all? We have got a lenovo laptop and it's pants at anything like that, just chokes up and makes me want to throw it across the room. Looking on forums etc, it seems it's a pretty common issue.

Answer from my friend re the encryption question OP (but it's already been answered by other posters in the meantime):

The short answer to the key length question is because t doesn't need to be any longer. If every atom on earth (all 1050 of them) was a computer capable of testing a one possible key every nanosecond then it would take slightly longer than the lifetime of the universe to try the average 2255 keys needed to guess the key for a 256 bit cipher. Making keys any longer won't make the cipher more secure because guessing the key is not the way that these things great attacked.

Thanks, I guess my next question is, why do we still use such a terrible method for creating random data?

No I don't stream high def things occasionally use iplayer and you tube but my TV does most things and ipad the rest!

Glad I don't have to get rid of Spybot and malwarebytes as they manage to clean most everything. The Lenovo I am looking at doesn't have a DVD or cd drive (can't see it anyhow) so how would I load up Microsoft office or photoshop? Don't want to buy a new photoshop as it's so expensive?

Now that is a thick as two short planks question but I rarely use the PC!

I've also uninstalled Java for the above reasona.

Yep that's common practice now. You have to buy an external DVD drive if you want to load programs from a DVD. Most software is available in online formats now, so the DVD/CD format is considered a bit unnecessary - like floppy drives disappeared from laptops before they stopped being included with desktops.

It's difficult to copy the install files over because of copy protection on the DVD. You could, legally, torrent or download a copy of the version that you own and use your own product key to install it. Bit of a faff, though. I'm not sure how much external DVD drives cost these days, if you use DVD a lot it might be worth it.

i think blacklights 's done a brilliant job of shining a favourable light on MN, revealing it at its best, humour, diversity, intelligence, tolerance and patience and a wealth of knowledge to the uninitiated it seems too

it took less than 24 hours did it for the tables to turn did it, there was a question yesterday from the 'young master who knows everything'.

With my Mrs Weasley size breasts i have been beating the crap out of my multi-function device, because it hasn't sync'd my periods with all the other devices yet. It did bring on a reboot, so i'm hopeful of some twinges soon or I fear an NC will be necessary!

Thanks . Will look at that. Don't mind faffing!

It says I can transfer my photos and documents so I'm not too worried about that.

External DVD drives are pretty cheap if you need one. I got a reasonable one a couple of years ago for about £35. They're probably cheaper now.

@Rjae

Tesco sell a USB DVD drive for £20, cheap and tacky but fit for purpose.

Just a heads up for any of you who want to help. Over In the teenage bit some one is looking for advice About hacking and companys.

backlight

You haven't helped me with my problem.

Now the Skylanders, have rebelled against the unicorn dictatorship, and have broken off into a small group in the laundry basket, they are demanding some sort of sacrifice? I fobbed them off with a bit of toast, but ....I think they want blood?

Binary, I find some ritual sacrifices will accept the condensations from down the back of my fridge in place of blood, have you tried this? It's not a permanent solution, but it might give you a bit of time to get some black pudding in. HTH.

001 you may borrow my ocelot from Minecraft if it will help....?

Now you see 'ender pearl' always sounds a bit rude to me smutty