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I've been extremely happy with PIA across my desktop, server, laptops, and mobile devices on the same account. I've resubcribed for several years.
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Dec 7, 2021 23:51
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Medullah posted:What do people use for a VPN these days? I had ExpressVPN but it's a tiny bit pricey, I see a bunch of cheaper ones but don't really know which are recommended these days. https://github.com/trailofbits/algo
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Dec 8, 2021 01:52
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PrivadoVPN came free with my Usenet account and it seems fine. I've got nothing to compare it to, though.
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Dec 9, 2021 03:20
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I have a bunch of specific complaints about Nord VPN, and why I stopped using it. If that helps.
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Dec 9, 2021 03:49
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I've been using Nord for about a year now and it seems to work OK. What didn't you like about it? Besides that hack.
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Dec 9, 2021 04:11
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GreenNight posted:I've been using Nord for about a year now and it seems to work OK. What didn't you like about it? Besides that hack. It kept disconnecting me. In a super frustrating way too. My systray would say "connected but no internet". It would throttle me to a hilarious ~10kbps whioh is super frustrating. Just tell me I'm doing something wrong, or that I'm offline but that dribble means that I ended up disconnecting/turning off wifi/rebooting just to see what was going on. Was it Windows 11, or new ISP, my router. Turning Nord off altogether solves all of that. Fortunately my new ISP is cool with whatever so I can DL my Linux distros in peace without C&D notices from CBS. If I wasn't paid up from now until forever and needed a new VPN I would go with whatever is the new hot poo poo on wirecutter and not Nord. But YMMV. When it works normally it works. I just kept having this thing where it kept loving up my connection. I hate chasing a problem all over and then finding the source without knowing why.
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Dec 9, 2021 04:58
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Ah yeah I’ve had a bit of that. But my nix distros download super fast and I got tired of letters from my isp on behalf of some network. Also paid up for years and years.
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Dec 9, 2021 05:00
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Mullvad.
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Dec 9, 2021 11:29
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VelociBacon posted:I've been extremely happy with PIA across my desktop, server, laptops, and mobile devices on the same account. I've resubcribed for several years. This is what I use all the time on my desktop and as needed on my other machines. Mostly works fine. There's some fuckery with the nearest server, slow downs and drops and a lot of sites not working, so I'm going through one half a country away. Usually not a problem. Hasnt happened in a while, but Amazon used to load real slow when using it. And my power company's site stopped loading for a few months. A couple of streaming sites just don't work with it on. Not sure about Netflix, I recall having an issue with Prime, definitely have an issue with Peacock. Maybe there's a setting I'm missing? I mainly just play YouTube on the second monitor on that computer, so I don't worry about it much. For some reason, data would just stop coming through on my laptop on my home network. Works on my other computers, works on my laptop on other networks. Dunno, never figured it out.
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Dec 9, 2021 12:43
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I'm completely tech-illiterate and sorry if this has been asked multiple times before, but seeing that the OP hasn't been updated in 9 years, can I get by with just Windows Defender and uBlock Origin as my anti-virus/security programmes these days?
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Dec 14, 2021 00:57
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Blooming Brilliant posted:I'm completely tech-illiterate and sorry if this has been asked multiple times before, but seeing that the OP hasn't been updated in 9 years, Yup. As long as you don't browse stupid and download shady things you'll be fine.
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Dec 14, 2021 01:01
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Odd, I've been using Nord for years and always get max speeds 
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Dec 14, 2021 01:08
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I've been using Windscribe because they're not doing affiliate marketing and have a browser extension - meaning I can just have my browser window connect through the VPN instead of my whole PC.Blooming Brilliant posted:I'm completely tech-illiterate and sorry if this has been asked multiple times before, but seeing that the OP hasn't been updated in 9 years, Even stronger: Absolutely do not install third-party virus or malware scanners. They are snake oil you don't need, but might ruin your system after some update because they tend to hook into Windows deeply.
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Dec 14, 2021 03:26
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I use Windscribe because it just works on everything I’ve tried and I got a lifetime subscription for like $19.99 way back in the day. I’ve never had any issues with them.
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Dec 14, 2021 05:07
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Fame Douglas posted:
Wanting to convince my IT manager of this so we can stop paying for Bitdefender.
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Dec 14, 2021 06:36
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There's a lot of videos on YouTube that pit different AV programs against one another. Some seem better than others. What's the story there?
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Dec 14, 2021 20:09
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WattsvilleBlues posted:There's a lot of videos on YouTube that pit different AV programs against one another. Some seem better than others. What's the story there? They like making videos to make money. All AV is bad. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3723583
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Dec 14, 2021 20:15
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Probably sponsored advertising. The market for AV is dwindling.
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Dec 14, 2021 20:21
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Nobody Interesting posted:Wanting to convince my IT manager of this so we can stop paying for Bitdefender. I really wouldn't, when some idiot usb keys a ransomware program onto your network accidentally and they moved away from their dumb AV 5 years ago because you recommended it you're going to be the bad guy.
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Dec 14, 2021 21:32
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WattsvilleBlues posted:There's a lot of videos on YouTube that pit different AV programs against one another. Some seem better than others. What's the story there? They are different, and some are better than others. It's just that it's kind of like comparing third party bluetooth stacks - even if you can rank them relative to each other, you don't need to touch that category at all. I mean, it's theoretically possible that one of the paid ones performs better than defender; it's far from perfect. But it's also likely that none of them do, given the realities of budgets and internal knowledge and access of the Defender team vs the external antivirus companies. And even if one of them still, somehow, is a bit better; is it worth paying for?
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Dec 14, 2021 22:35
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Microsoft just has access to so, so much more data than anyone else. They finally figured that out about a decade ago and it has been paying off lately. Defender is one of the things that benefited.
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Dec 14, 2021 22:38
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Internet Explorer posted:Microsoft just has access to so, so much more data than anyone else. They finally figured that out about a decade ago and it has been paying off lately. Defender is one of the things that benefited. My only recent issue was with a Chrome extension that was doing Yahoo search redirects. After Defender and Chrome itself failed to find the culprit I went third-party and found some other troubling things. Specifically some .pdfs that contained trojans (I guess.) Except the .pdfs came from an old android phone I had from like 5 years ago along with some screenshots!? All tucked away in a folder called "microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe". The microsoft community answers I saw had some excuses for why this was so, did you use Exchange? Still unclear. But other than some real edgecases that aren't worth mentioning here I agree that Defender is pretty good.
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Dec 14, 2021 23:29
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VelociBacon posted:I really wouldn't, when some idiot usb keys a ransomware program onto your network accidentally and they moved away from their dumb AV 5 years ago because you recommended it you're going to be the bad guy. We're entirely remote so no network to speak of really, and hooked so far into Microsoft 365/Azure that ransomware would just be lost time... But I see your point. Even if Bitdefender is doing absolutely nothing, security theatre is the job keeper.
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Dec 14, 2021 23:50
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I appreciate the advice and also the discussion around the topic, thanks folks 
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Dec 15, 2021 00:01
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VelociBacon posted:I really wouldn't, when some idiot usb keys a ransomware program onto your network accidentally and they moved away from their dumb AV 5 years ago because you recommended it you're going to be the bad guy. Yeah, my BiL is head of IT in an international company and he usually passes me stuff that is good-but-no-longer SotA like his older hardware. He also said almost the same thing word-for-word…antivirus doesn’t really help when idiots are clicking links in email, and ransomware can encrypt your files anyway! He helps me with my firewall rules and network questions, and keeps my backups once a week on his homelab. The company pays tons for AV licenses every year, and like every computer toucher from CTO to the help desk folks know it’s a waste. It’s just a CYA from their insurance carrier, completely useless tech nobody ever acknowledges even as they update it. DerekSmartymans fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Dec 15, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2021 02:53
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I don't think it's useless. I've seen it catch an awful lot of poo poo in my travels.
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Dec 15, 2021 02:56
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Both can be true at the same time, if Defender would also have caught it.
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Dec 15, 2021 10:03
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My dad still insists on using antivirus and it uses like 16% of his bulldozer cores at all times and runs like poo poo. I used to tweak everything about windows growing up but each version of windows has had less of a need. I'm almost 100% stock now.
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Dec 15, 2021 16:56
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Computer viking posted:Both can be true at the same time, if Defender would also have caught it. I'm not 100% clear on what you mean, but what I was trying to say is that Defender is still antivirus and I have seen it stop quite a bit. I don't tell people they don't need AV these days, just that they don't need 3rd party AV.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:03
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Quaint Quail Quilt posted:My dad still insists on using antivirus and it uses like 16% of his bulldozer cores at all times and runs like poo poo. AMD for you When I was an intrepid kid I had XP booting in like 30 something seconds? Which was no small feat. My system now should boot near instantly but theres a little hang at the mobo logo and I just haven't been able to get myself to try and figure it out.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:15
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This is a weird one and I'm not even sure if this is the right thread for it but I couldn't think of anything else. I have a ThinkPad T25 Anniversary Edition laptop. The motherboard died somehow a few weeks ago and luckily I, for the only time in my life, had the extended warranty. I would have been completely screwed because this is a pretty obscure laptop so there's virtually no replacement parts on ebay. Anyway the on site tech who came to swap the motherboard out broke the Windows key on my keyboard, snapped the ribbon cable for the power button, and put screws in all the wrong places. Then a week after that the motherboard died again. I called Lenovo and they understood I'd rather just replace the motherboard myself because I don't really trust who they are sending. So I get the motherboard today (I'm actually surprised they sent it to me to install myself) but I totally forgot that there's some weird serial number bios crap the tech usually does. It's some USB stick that has some sort of software on it to "transfer" I guess the serial info from the old motherboard to the new one. Is there any place to get this USB stick image? I have no idea if it's something that is just floating around the net or if it's some super secret device that only the most trusted people are given or whatever. I'm kinda screwed on using my laptop for my kid's virtual piano lesson tonight so any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:29
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Wish I could help. I snagged a couple T590s on sale earlier this year with absolutely beautiful 4K screens, but one screen died so I contacted warranty. They said they would send a tech out (I knew they wouldn't, buttfuck nowhere), and the replacement screen came directly to me. Its just a screen, so I did it myself anyway, but instead of the usual outer bezel like was on it originally, it came with a stick on piece that was different. On the merit of the computers themselves I hold Lenovo fairly highly (lightyears, lightyears beyond the god drat HPs we used to have at my old job), but slightly concerned about their warranty services.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:37
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Internet Explorer posted:I'm not 100% clear on what you mean, but what I was trying to say is that Defender is still antivirus and I have seen it stop quite a bit. I don't tell people they don't need AV these days, just that they don't need 3rd party AV. I thought you were describing the merits of third party antivirus, if that clears it up.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:43
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codo27 posted:Wish I could help. I snagged a couple T590s on sale earlier this year with absolutely beautiful 4K screens, but one screen died so I contacted warranty. They said they would send a tech out (I knew they wouldn't, buttfuck nowhere), and the replacement screen came directly to me. Its just a screen, so I did it myself anyway, but instead of the usual outer bezel like was on it originally, it came with a stick on piece that was different. On the merit of the computers themselves I hold Lenovo fairly highly (lightyears, lightyears beyond the god drat HPs we used to have at my old job), but slightly concerned about their warranty services. I have a 490s from work ... But 100% of the work is remotely accessed, I can't even save a word document onto the SSD, so it is slow as hell to do basic things. I guess the build quality is nice.
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Dec 15, 2021 18:00
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Computer viking posted:I thought you were describing the merits of third party antivirus, if that clears it up. We're on the same page. 
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Dec 15, 2021 18:27
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I called Lenovo and they understood I'd rather just replace the motherboard myself because I don't really trust who they are sending. So I get the motherboard today (I'm actually surprised they sent it to me to install myself) but I totally forgot that there's some weird serial number bios crap the tech usually does. It's some USB stick that has some sort of software on it to "transfer" I guess the serial info from the old motherboard to the new one. Poking around the internet, it doesn't seem like the BIOS SN/UUID is really critical to have? Like, if the replacement BIOS has 0000000 it doesn't prevent the PC from functioning. The lenovo support utilities stop working, but on a 5 year old laptop I doubt you're getting hot fresh driver updates anymore, whether the auto-update utility works or not. I dunno, I wouldn't care myself because I remove all the OEM bloatware & "support" software and just manage that stuff manually. But I bet windows update would also do just as good job as the lenovo one. Just make sure you have all the SN info written down somewhere, so if you need to call them for support you still have the proof that this laptop has a warranty.
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Dec 15, 2021 18:46
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I think this is a Windows question but not sure exactly where to put it: I bought a new monitor and so I have two monitors now, one hooked up through displayport and one through DVI. My new monitor is my primary PC monitor but I also have my PS5 hooked up to it through HDMI. I want to know if it's possible for windows/the monitor to automatically recognize when the monitor has switched to another input and temporarily disable the monitor and shove all my windows onto the other one for me without me having to do it manually. It sort of does this evenutally, if I switch it to HDMI after 15-20 mins or so it will switch everything over sometimes (although I don't think every time?) but I wanted to see if there's a quick way to do it every time, either through keyboard shortcut or automatically or whatever. I've enabled HDMI-CEC on PS5 and there doesn't seem to be a way to make it grab the input from the monitor when I turn it on which isn't a huge deal, I guess the monitor just doesn't support that, but yeah I just wanted to ask if Windows has any settings for this that I couldn't find regarding what to do when the monitor doesn't have its input focused on the PC output Oh yeah the new one in question is a Viewsonic XG270 if that matters Stefan Prodan fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Dec 15, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2021 19:00
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Stefan Prodan posted:I think this is a Windows question but not sure exactly where to put it: Swap monitors with me? Mine drops the DisplayPort connection instantly and shoves windows over onto my secondary display, at the drop of a hat. Not even switching inputs, just from power save or sleep. It's all hardware unfortunately, there's not really any windows settings for what you want. DisplayPort is an active connection and how quickly the monitor is disconnecting its side of the signal is up to the monitor. So yours is keeping the connection active for that 15-20 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if new monitors were intentionally leaving the DP connection active longer, because most people hate it when all their windows get re-arranged. What might work: switch to HDMI, then turn the monitor off for 10 seconds and back on. That would probably cut the DP connection. (Or if you want to do this with software, a script in autohotkey can easily do "move windows to monitor 2" with a hotkey or whatnot. I should know, I wrote an autohotkey script to grab windows and put them back on monitor 1 every time my DP connection drops.)
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Dec 15, 2021 19:20
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Internet Explorer posted:I don't tell people they don't need AV these days, just that they don't need 3rd party AV. I should amend my earlier post to say this, too: it’s more inline with what I meant! WD is all you need and it’s free, integrated well, and updated often. 3rd party AV just seems to drag down a well-optimized rig for no real benefit, no matter whose 3rd party it is!
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Dec 15, 2021 19:59
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codo27 posted:AMD for you There should be an option under fast boot/boot catagory in the BIOS. I have a three second delay in case I need to boot into the BIOS not related to a crash/outage for tweaking.
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Dec 15, 2021 20:01
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