Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed some things going on with my new PC but have been too busy at uni to worry about it. The main three things that have f***ed up:

Messenger has stopped connecting to the internet
Google Chrome won't load at all
iTunes 8 won't connect to the iTunes store, download podcasts, or download iPod updates


Messenger hasn't worked in a couple of weeks. Chrome stopped working about a day or two after it came out. iTunes stopped working in the past couple of days when I updated both iTunes AND Vista.

I've spent countless hours scouring the internet for solutions, but everything listed is either the basic "check your firewall settings" or other stuff that is way too complicated for me.

As a brief aside, I quite enjoy the features of Vista, but f*** me if something doesn't work the way it's meant to there's no chance a novice like me can get it working easily.

It's really frustrating since I bought this computer brand new just a couple of months ago to make life easier while I'm working my arse off at uni, and it just keeps giving me the s***s >.< Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

If you've got AVG 8.0 installed, it's been known to f*** around with IM clients, it did for me for ages, Messenger would connect, then disconnect instantly, non stop. Turn off the IM Client protection module, worked for me.

Apart from that, it either sounds like spy/ad ware has gotten you or some bizzare software conflict.

Are you running as an administrator with UAC turned off ?

If not try running things as administrator. (Or turn off UAC)

We are just starting to make a Vista SOE, its all so very very painful, from the licencing mechanisms on up.

If you've got AVG 8.0 installed, it's been known to f*** around with IM clients, it did for me for ages, Messenger would connect, then disconnect instantly, non stop. Turn off the IM Client protection module, worked for me.

Interesting... I did do a complete reinstall of AVG a couple of weeks ago. I'll try that when I get home. That might explain MSN, but why would it cause the latest update of iTunes to stop working?

Are you running as an administrator with UAC turned off ?

If not try running things as administrator. (Or turn off UAC)

We are just starting to make a Vista SOE, its all so very very painful, from the licencing mechanisms on up.

Thanks Obes - I've tried running as Admin with UAC OFF, ON, and as a guest. Still nothing is working.

I should have mentioned, iTunes gives me the error "you are running iTunes in compatibility mode" when I load it... although I'm clearly NOT running it in compatibility mode. Again, I tried a bunch of a different combinations of settings, every time with compatibility mode switched off in itunes properties, and nothing worked. I googled the problem and it seems to be pretty common, except every other person seems to have been able to fix it... whereas none of the work-arounds/fixes on the net worked for me.

I could have a few separate issues going on that coincidentally have happened at the same time... but I'm kinda hoping they're related so that I can just do one fix of the whole thing. I do have the uber-Dell warranty, so I might try calling them or even Apple Support.

I hate to say it, but I wish I spent my money on a Mac instead. Vista is just too much hassle for a basic user like myself.

Vista is too much hassle for anyone.

I use it on 2 of my machines, and they are fine as long as I keep them single task and very clean.

two issues I've noticed here at work when we got a bunch of new pc's with vista:

- we hand out several dns suffixes, and vista wouldn't join the windows domain when the first dhcp-supplied suffix didn't match the fully qualified name of the domain controller. bit annoying but a quick reshuffle of dhcpd.conf and ipconfig /renew sorted that

- by default, vista won't append a domain suffix to a 'multi-label' host. (eg: a (+domain.suffix) works but a.b (+domain.suffix) doesn't) pretty annoying, but configurable via local or domain policy so once you know about it it's easy to resolve

haven't heard any other complaints or had any other connectivity issues. we run avg8 sbs edition as well.

actually I think dan noticed some issue with his line out or something, dunno if that was vista's fault or what

I'm guessing IE or FF works Billy? If you goto http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test does it pop up saying you are behind a proxy or a direct connection?

Can you do ping's to www.google.com.au and it resolves ok?

You have tried uninstalling/reinstalling the apps I presume?

To eliminate the firewall its not that hard, just disable the service from starting.

Throw "services.msc" in the run/search box

scroll down to the bottom and find "windows firewall..."

right click > stop
right click > properties > change the drop down box to disabled.

Want it back on? change it back the way it was.

Sorry guys only just got to check QGL again.

If you've got AVG 8.0 installed, it's been known to f*** around with IM clients, it did for me for ages, Messenger would connect, then disconnect instantly, non stop. Turn off the IM Client protection module, worked for me.

I couldn't find the "IM client protection module"... but I added messenger and iTunes to the list of allowed programs. iTunes now loads without saying it's in compatibility mode, but still doesn't connect to the iTunes store (nor download podcasts or updates). Messenger still won't connect to the internet.

I'm guessing IE or FF works Billy? If you goto http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test does it pop up saying you are behind a proxy or a direct connection?

IE and FF work fine. That site says "This request appears NOT to have come via a proxy."





omg... worked it out!#!#!!# When I was using Chrome, I tried to use a proxy to connect to some Uni stuff... but it seems that changing chrome internet settings actually changes the whole Vista internet settings... f***ING FINALLY. So far everything seems to be working as normal.

actually I think dan noticed some issue with his line out or something, dunno if that was vista's fault or what

Nah, that's not so much Vista's fault but more Dell's s***ty driver support for one of their particular on-board sound cards.

Line-out input monitoring works just dandy under vista with the onboard sound on this PC here at home.

omg... worked it out!#!#!!# When I was using Chrome, I tried to use a proxy to connect to some Uni stuff... but it seems that changing chrome internet settings actually changes the whole Vista internet settings... f***ING FINALLY. So far everything seems to be working as normal.

It must still be Vista's fault somehow. Surely.

fault score

user 1
vista 0

omg... worked it out!#!#!!# When I was using Chrome, I tried to use a proxy to connect to some Uni stuff... but it seems that changing chrome internet settings actually changes the whole Vista internet settings... f***ING FINALLY. So far everything seems to be working as normal.

If I remember correctly When you change google chrome proxy settings, it just opens up the IE/vista internet settings, so changes would be system wide, for all programs that use those settings too. Strange that you said IE still worked, but makes sense that FF still worked as it uses it own settings. MSN uses the system wide settings for proxy etc, so thats why that wouldnt work.

fault score

user 1
vista 0

haha true. BUT, Vista does some really stupidly frustrating things for to people like me who are novice users.

eg. If Windows defender or whatever it's called detects a virus, it'll come up with an option like "let Windows defender take care of this problem". You click on that, and it takes you to a webpage where you can BUY virus removal software. If a program crashes, or Vista crashes, it'll pop up with a Window saying "do you want to check for a solution". Click that and NOTHING happens no matter how long you leave it. I still haven't worked out how to share folders yet to other computers on the network... it certainly isn't as clicking on them and saying "share".

I still haven't worked out how to share folders yet to other computers on the network... it certainly isn't as clicking on them and saying "share".

Errr...

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7272/33433985ys7.jpg

?

it certainly isn't as clicking on them and saying "share"

Umm, yeah, it is :D

What version of Vista do you have?

I've got two machines at home, one with Vista and the other with XP. And f***ed if I can get them networked.

LOL

doh, beaten!

you need to create a guest account on the vista machine for sharing to work

completely false dude!

i had to on mine

dont need to login or nothing

but i couldnt access any shared vista drives until i did

yeah you're doing it wrong hey. and now you're doing it even wronger by having the guest account enabled :(

there's a couple of network settings in vista which you need to toggle so that it'll send and receive netbios broadcasts, and enable various interface options that would be pointless without netbios. these options are right in the network control panel applet too, not hidden away or in the registry. when you see them, you'll probably slap your forehead cos their text labels are extremely obvious as to their purpose such as 'enable network discovery' and 'enable file and print sharing' or something along those lines. I'm still on xp here and am too lazy to walk 6 feet out my door and look at one of the machines with vista so I can't remember the exact names. I even did it just last night on my son's laptop so I could copy warhammer to his machine for him.

it's funny cos for years everyone dissed windows for being insecure because they made it relatively easy for nubs to do stuff and now they've finally started making things secure by default, most people are bitching about default settings and how it's now too hard for nubs to do stuff.

u sure jimbo?

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/126910-simple-file-sharing-enable.html

yep in fact I can say I've never, ever used the guest account for sharing on any windows box.
and even that page seems to be saying that you only need to use the guest account under certain conditions yeah?

with netbios shares, aside from a couple of things added to recent versions of xp and to vista like 'simple file sharing', 'public folders' etc you basically have to understand these basic issues:

- shared resources can have permissions applied at the share level
- the underlying file system also has permissions applied to the things you are sharing which can prevent people from accessing files/dirs in a share
- unless you're in a domain, you are generally accessing those resources via a local account on the machine that is offering them


things like simple file sharing and public folders etc, typically hide these things in an attempt to make it easier for people to share stuff and in my opinion, introduce all sorts of confusion (and security issues) in the process especially when it comes to do anything more than trivial stuff.

fairnuff, maybe different ways of going about it:

ive personally never used a guest account either until vista

none of my shares would work, which i found frustrating, until i activated it, and then all good

ive always only ever run 1 account (me) on my pcs, i dont like logging in or storing other users or anyhting like that;

If password protected sharing is turned off (STEP ONE step 7 below), computers on a network that do not have a user account with a password on your computer will need to use the Guest account. The Guest account must be turned on for them and allowed to share the file or folder. See STEP THREE step 10 below, and: How to Turn the Guest Account On or Off in Vista

Turning on Guest account is bad. I got 3 Vista machines and 1 XP machine at home, they are all networked, mapped drives and all. To enable the sharing in Vista do like Jim said to enable file sharing, make sure your network is set as a "Home" network as that enables discovery, then make sure you have a password set to a user account that the machines can use. Upon first connection to a network drive you have give it username and password, once thats done should be smooth sailing.

yeah there are a few ways of going about it and there seems to be quite a number of settings/configurations that can affect the behaviour and requirements which confuses things a bit

Spook: you need to create a guest account on the vista machine for sharing to work

fault score

user 1 2
vista 0

well, actually its correct opec, so no points awarded anywhere

as i said, i dont use other accounts and dont plan to, so i need to use the guest account, as per the instructions above

My shares have always worked, no guest account.