Looking After a Network

[meld51]

You know, In our house we have 3 computers, and all the bits and bobs that go to make a useful wireless network. My family constantly need me to do things to the computers such as run spyware checks, install stuff, make things work smothly etc etc.

Is there any software or anything that will help a dad do this sort of thing without spending so much time?

Help....I'm sinking!

---------- Post added at 12:20 ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 ----------

In particular is there anything that will scan all the background tasks and tell me what they all are and which ones we can do without?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Ah the joys of being a system admin

All sorts of tools are available, but they generally rely on a level of sophistication and control not available to home networks. For example with Windows XP Pro (or 2000) on each workstation, coupled to a Windows 2003 (or 2000) server controlled active domain you can have all sorts of power over the PCs and users.

For the home network, presumably using windows XP the best you can do is assign restricted user rights to anyone you can't trust - but that then relies on you installing any programs. If you have a decent router connection to your internet the firewall on that will prevent most security intrusion attempts. Then there is just antivirus, make sure you have one that automatically updates and you shuould have most of the basics covered.

I tend not to worry about spyware, unless I start to see unexpected behaviour such as pop ups or misdirected internet home pages. You can get too paranoid over this stuff

[meld51]

The problem I am faced with at this moment is that Word will not start very quickly in my wife's profile. Don't know why, but while checking the PC I noticed that the paging file was very full. Looking a bit deeper, I see that the Page file size is fixed rather that OS controlled.
So I set it to be controlled by the OS.

Next I started her profile and it just took forever to load.....very strange because it is the simplest profile on the machine. I've been waiting 10 minutes now and the CPU is still at 98% and the HD is clicking like crazy.

What on earth can be happening?

Originally Posted by meld51

The problem I am faced with at this moment is that Word will not start very quickly in my wife's profile. Don't know why, but while checking the PC I noticed that the paging file was very full. Looking a bit deeper, I see that the Page file size is fixed rather that OS controlled.
So I set it to be controlled by the OS.

Next I started her profile and it just took forever to load.....very strange because it is the simplest profile on the machine. I've been waiting 10 minutes now and the CPU is still at 98% and the HD is clicking like crazy.

What on earth can be happening?

What process is hogging all the cpu?

[toom]

Originally Posted by Rob C

Ah the joys of being a system admin

All sorts of tools are available, but they generally rely on a level of sophistication and control not available to home networks. For example with Windows XP Pro (or 2000) on each workstation, coupled to a Windows 2003 (or 2000) server controlled active domain you can have all sorts of power over the PCs and users.

For the home network, presumably using windows XP the best you can do is assign restricted user rights to anyone you can't trust - but that then relies on you installing any programs. If you have a decent router connection to your internet the firewall on that will prevent most security intrusion attempts. Then there is just antivirus, make sure you have one that automatically updates and you shuould have most of the basics covered.

I tend not to worry about spyware, unless I start to see unexpected behaviour such as pop ups or misdirected internet home pages. You can get too paranoid over this stuff

The best spyware removals are spybot and adaware by lavasoft, both are free and I have never had problems with these to. Do not go near spyfalcon as that IS spyware.