mikie: can't say I understand the ghack... site well. It says to determine if my IE settings are already safely set in 'advanced' security mode by going thru Tools, Options, Advanced, and then down somewhere in the Security area to look or do something that is not clearly defined. I see that there is a check box for Allowing some 64 bit security setting that is checked in the ghack picture. It is not further described and it is not the highlighted item in that list. In my IE 11, that box is not checked, but by going more directly thru Tools, Security, I can see that 'advanced security' is selected. I suppose that 64 bit box might need to be checked, but it appears to be allowing more rather than less access and that seems like a weakness rather than an improvement. So, I don't know what I am supposed to do here. And it seems odd that a supposed huge hole that requires massive Microsoft scrambling can be fixed by checking a box or not!!! The ghack site then goes on about something called Enhanced Mitigated Experience Toolkit. It doesn't tell how to get it safely and also implies it is not needed if my security is set appropriately. Gee Thanks. Finally, it comments on Flash. I have already upgraded but I would like to point out that the Adobe terminology and others as well tend to suggest that it is an update rather than a newly named version. It seems odd that what seems like a patch, is a new version; but whatever, I guess.

Honestly the best advice I feel I can give you is to hit some of the forums dedicated to the type of work you will be doing and ask them for advice since they are using the type of equipment and computer programs you will be needing, they will have much more experience in that field. Same as I would tell someone wanting a killer gaming pc to go frequent some of the gaming boards and ask for advice there. I can give you some generals, I personally much prefer AMD to Intel just from personal use and experience. The more Ram the better no matter what applications you will be running. Dual or Quad processors will be able to do much more than single and with these type apps that would probably be very helpful. You will definitely want a very large hard drive and probably a good size backup USB hard drive to store files on. Your sound card would be something I would be asking about for sure. cakewalkForums Sonar and Cakewalk Users Forum KVR Forum this one has a section on the forum specific to computers and setup. You probably know some others and you can of course google for more. others here may know more specifics.

Before you go spending money, let's try a few things. When you took your router to default, everything worked fine. When you use a pass phrase, you get to the internet but web sites don't load. I have a copy of your router manual in front of me so let's try a few steps. 1------Log onto your router 2------Under the wireless setup make sure the SSID reads NETGEAR 3------Make sure the operating channel for the wireless mode.is Auto. 4------ Leave the wireless mode set to the default setting of Up to 145Mbps for 2.4GHz. 5------ Select security options for the 2.4GHz wireless network.The wireless Security Options are set to None by default. 6-----use WPA2-PSK as your security option. 7----- enter the following as your passphrase wndr3400 make all letters lower case. Select APPLY at the bottom of the screen. Under DIAGNOSTICS, select the REBOOT option. Once the router reboots, close out all your screens and reboot you computer. When prompted for a passphrase enter wndr3400 all letters must be lower case. Please post back and let us know if that did the trick.

IE8 beta is a much improved browser over IE7. The reason new users don't like it is because of the change in appearance, new locations of certain features and the tabbed browsing. If you do try IE8, it can always be uninstalled and will revert back to IE7. But, if a person doesn't like Avant, they most likely won't like IE8. I've used IE8 beta since the first day on XP, Vista, and now on Windows 7 with no problems. I would suggest Firefox 2.0.0.20 now available for download. Dec. 18