Maybe I'm just being silly and paranoid, but..................

[kestrel91316]

I got this new computer 4 months ago. I defragmented it early on, after I had installed Norton Systemworks, and at the time I thought it looked like an awful lot of my hard drive was already occupied. I just figured it was Windows XP taking up lots of space.

Fast-forward to this past week, when it became apparent my files were seriously corrupted (certain programs, including Norton, had quit running). So with the capable assistance of one nice young man named Todd in TN who works for Dell, I reformatted my hard drive. Per his instructions, I defragmented immediately after the drivers all got installed and Windows was up. To my astonishment, there is almost nothing on my hard drive. It's almost empty. Then I reinstalled Norton and a big chunk of blue appeared on the graphic, but it's only about half the size of the blue that was there before. And now that I have got all my programs reinstalled and files back in, it is OBVIOUS to me that there was something very big on my hard drive as it came from the factory, and it's gone now. The computer is running really well now, BTW.

Is it possible that software is being installed at the factory on the orders of our FASCIST government in order to monitor every single thing somebody like me does with their computer?????? Whatever was there, and is gone, was the size of Norton Systemworks. BIG program.

Anybody with any theories or input? Am I completely nuts? Now that I am up and running again, my Norton is alerting me to attempted intrusions by internet worms every few hours. It literally NEVER did so before all this. Was the big mystery program interfering with my security???? I am actually getting scared the more I think about this.

[RedCappedBandit]

1. probably spyware

lots of companies put spyware into their software to make money. annoying, yes.. but not really a security *threat* imo

then again i could be completely wrong

[kestrel91316]

2. Well, at any rate I am happy with the new improved computer I got!

[RedCappedBandit]

15. Congrats!

I am a computer nerd at heart.. I love building new computers . have fun :hi:

[onecent]

3. You are not being silly OR paranoid. This administration gives

US ALL THE HEEBIE JEEBIES...I know it does me.

[itsmesgd]

4. I think that they spy from the web, not individual computers

I read that "The Google" was developed with cia seed money and that would not surprise me. I also saw online at a trusted site that all traffic goes through one of a few g internet filters. It is at these posts that questionable traffic and searches could be caught and alerted on. After this, they could put a trap on anything that you seached for and anywhere that you went. Some might say that I have the tinfoil hat on a bit too tight, but I used to work for one of the trully evil groups out there that got off on this type of thing. Don't believe me, but be skeptical of everything and do your own research at knowledgeable, trusted sites.
Be Safe

[MonkeyFunk]

5. If the government were

interested in monitoring your computer usage, they could do so with a MUCH smaller program than Norton Systemworks.

Basically, you wiped out your hard drive and started over. It's not surprising that you have more space.

Your Temporary Internet Files folder could've been huge. Reformatting a hard drive will always give you more space than you had before.

[kestrel91316]

22. Nope. That big file was in there before I even HAD my internet hooked up.

And furthermore, Norton was good about frequently deleting old internet files.

[China_cat]

6. The last 2 computers we've bought

with XP on them have had a partition containing rescue files...which were pretty big. We didn't look at them but I'd bet that there was more than XP files there. We just deleted the whole thing after burning rescue disks and merged that partition with the main. Not only freed up a lot of space but things ran faster, too. Probably everything was being checked against the backups making nothing work the way you want.

[gordianot]

7. Think Microsoft

They sell out to totalitarian governments (China) with their proprietary software. No conspiracy just fact. Freedom on the internet is an illusion

[Pavulon]

8. Think firewall

no vast conspiracy. Download black ice, don't install stuff you download from the internet, and you machine will be happy. I 2 machines running xp happily for many years,

[WiseButAngrySara]

10. What is black ice? ....n/t

[windbreeze]

20. black ice is a free firewall...n/t

[Quakerfriend]

9. Well, I had a similar experience.

When my husband bought and set up a computer (icop) through which all of our incoming signals would have to run, we noticed that the DoD was 'visting' my computer on a daily basis.

Koinkydink, or not? I don't think so.

[havocmom]

13. Quakerfriend, you seem to be a good observer. A question about spam...

Have you (or any other DUers) noticed spam coming in with subject lines hitting on key words which immediately get the attention of those of us interested in real news and liberal concerns?

There was a time when Havocdad and I noticed the return names on most of the spam were clones of email addresses in of people in our area, or had names of many in our area with our server as part of the address. We are in a very sparsely populated large remote area, and many neighbors have unusual names. We wondered if our server (only one available in this area) was selling names to spammers.

Lately, like since the Nov election, I have noticed LOTS of spam with subject lines referring to news about electronic voting, civil rights, GITMO, environmental issues up the wahzoo, and several with names like Andy Stephenson!

So, is part of this push to spy on our internet habits just a means of commercially exploiting our concerns? Sure seems the spammers have customized the subject lines and/or cloned return email addressed to get our notice.

I am hoping it really IS just more of the consumer survey crap used to see what shiny things get our attention. Am convinced that the spying on our internet activities is partly just more data mining in hopes of finding ways to sell shit.

Just wondered if you or anybody else has noticed a change in the spam of late.

[mcscajun]

14. After joining DU and signing various Democratic-sponsored petitions,

I did notice (for a while anyway) a tremendous surge in spam with political buzzwords in the subject lines, but NOT in the content.

I can't put my finger on exactly when it started in relation to what I signed up for or registered at, though. So, it's difficult to say exactly what was happening, or why.

Hasn't happened in a while now, either.

[RoyGBiv]

11. The government is not after you ...

Without seeing the machine, I couldn't diagnose the problem you were having for certain, but you clearly had at least spyware infection, probably a trojan or two or ten, and possibly a virus. Some of the space was taken up by this, and a lot of the rest was probably taken up by all the pre-installed junk Dell puts on their machines. They also put stuff you might (or might not) need on those machines, and you'd never know it was there until you went looking for it. Don't assume it was "a" program taking up that space. It was probably thousands of little files, perhaps even the .cab files for Windows or other software.

Norton didn't pick it up because Norton is garbage. It'll work for awhile now, until it runs across something else specifically targeted at it to reduce its functionality. I once cleaned over a 100 different trojans and viruses from a machine running Norton that was properly updated. Norton never caught a one of 'em, probably because one of those little bugs disabled Norton's mechanism for doing so.

The "worm" hits Noton is detecting now are out there all the time, coming from other machines that are infected, and since your machine may have been one of the bots at one time, all those other infected machines may keep looking for you. Regardless, Internet "background noise" is ever-present. Script kiddies (and just people who have no idea what they're playing with) will port scan a range of IP addresses for no reason other than to find open ports. I get random port scan hits constantly, and my firewall simply and without noise drops them without a response, which is as it should be.

[WiseButAngrySara]

12. Anyone know about the new AOL free security system that

replaces Norten Systemworks?

[kestrel91316]

23. I am no longer using AOL for my ISP because I think they, and their

own security stuff, might have had something to do with my problem. I have learned IE and am now a much happier person.

[RoyGBiv]

25. You had AOL on this?

Well there's another relevant wrinkle.

AOL consumes enormous levels of system resources, including hard drive space. Every time you login, you're downloading stuff from AOL that "updates" your system. Even if you stop using AOL, completely removing the softare requires either an intimate understanding of where it puts things, and then deleting all that, or doing what you did, a complete disc wipe and reinstall.

And, yes, it mostly like did have something to do with the initial problem. AOL's software doesn't work and play well with others.

[kestrel91316]

27. AOL is probably part of the reason why my home computer is

such a POS, too (though the Pentium 3 processor, 15 GB hard drive, and Windows ME probably also has something to do with it, lol). I will replace it with a Dell and say goodbye to AOL once I can get cable (moving soon).

[quinnox]

16. its possible

The government could be spying on you through your computer or through more subtle methods. Ever see any men dressed in all black lately?

[seabeyond]

17. a lot of dell stuff comes with images of installation disks and other stuff

that you could have had on computer and then when formatted you took it off. but computer hubby who does this for a living says,.... nope.

[TankLV]

18. Same with me - I'm doing it on my other computer now...

...and when I finish that one I plan to do it on this one...

[windbreeze]

19. perhaps someone could tell me how

one morning...I booted up my computer after an electrical outage, and it ran fine for a while...then all of a sudden the screen went black...after fooling with it for awhile, I shut it off...and had it checked out...amazing enough, the entire hard drive had been wiped clean...no OS...not even formatted...all the techies I know, said, that they had never seen anything like this...and I had a firewall, a virus program, spy sweeper, and a battery backup to protect against serious surges...I had been doing some research into some uhhhh, sensitive things, but things that were out there for anyone to read, and I had bookmarked pages and pages of information..didn't have time to get them onto the jump drive I had bought..so I totally lost my computer...and had never heard of such a thing happening...any ideas, anyone?
windbreeze

[BlooInBloo]

21. Norton is known "bad-ware". Huge system resource hog, among other things.

[kestrel91316]

24. If I get too clogged up in the future (unlikely), I can always get a bigger

hard drive. Also, I am smart now. I am going to be backing up important files (business financial, employee, & vet med stuff) onto one of those nifty little flash drives from now on. And year-end stuff will be burned onto CD.

I have spent part of this weekend recreating templates and docs so I can file my quarterlies and do W-2s, and then do taxes in a timely manner (barring a repeat performance).

[NNN0LHI]

26. Might have been a return to Dell?

Someone might have started loading their music, photos, video and such and realized it wasn't going to be big, or fast enough for their applications and returned it to Dell in exchange for another machine?

Never know but they may have sold you a slightly used machine?

Just a thought.

Don

[Beelzebud]

28. It's not a conspiracy, Norton just SUCKS! Use AVG Free.

free.grisoft.com

Get it and don't look back. I've used it for years.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

31. Norton is the worst -- it's true

I use AVG and supplement with SpywareBlaster in background (to prevent browser-enabled malware). Regular sweeps with Ad-Aware SE Personal. All free. However, I suggest a top-rated personal firewall is worth a few dollars expense.

[Beelzebud]

32. AVG + Firefox = Smooth Web Browsing.

[demrabble]

29. I Had A Similar Experience

I got a new computer about a year ago. It worked fine for a week or so, and then all of a sudden, it began to act really weird.

I had not put many programs on it, but when I took it in to try to have someone fix it, I was told that it was "loaded" with some odd program.

I don't think you are being paranoid or nuts at all. I think * and those around him will stop at nothing.

They are all ready reading our bank statements and listening to our phone calls.

[kestrel91316]

34. That reminds me of something that happened from the start -

sometimes it would freeze and I would have to manually shut down. I am used to this with Windows ME at home, so I didn't think much, lol. But my assistant pointed out how there seemed to be A LOT of programs trying to run all at the same time (some process window when you hit CTRL+ALT+DEL). I bet I don't have THAT problem anymore............

There WAS something "extra" on this computer. And it's gone now. I'm sure of it.

[Rosemary2205]

30. Ya - probably the Norton. - sucks is being kind.

I've 3 different computer techs tell me that Norton F's up more computers............

[Beelzebud]

33. Honestly, Norton should be sued for how bad their program sucks.

I'm really surprised there hasn't been any class-action suits against them.

[sutz12]

35. I know a lot of computers come....

with a lot of pre-loaded trial software. Maybe some of it was that.