First Comp:

Specs:
P4 2.0Ghz
512 mb (Sdram i believe)
WinXP Home SP1

No FW/AV installed (i really dont give a crap about it, except that it's slowing down so that i'm unable to really use it for a good 30mins - 1hr!

Problem: Basically the problem is this, the computer get's super super sluggish, like its a Celeron 20mhz comp...that's really how horrible it gets. I did however waiting patiently, seen 'weird' activity with the system process "cidaemon.exe", it randomly on it's own uses 400-500mb of ram (which i believe is the only problem). I think i remeber this program being the windows indexer or cacher or something...maybe a rootkit server?

Solution: ???


Second comp:

Specs:
P4 2.4Ghz
1Gb Rdram
WinXP Pro SP2 (All Latest Hotfixes installed)
FW - Outpost Firewall Pro 2.6.451

Problem:
I have comcast internet with this one (it's my main comp, 10+ miles away)
At first i had a network setup with a linksys router, but one day I awoken, took a piss, went to my computer to find my internet wasn't working...i checked the modem, blinking properly, router, same. I hook it back up to the cable modem directly, lights blink properly. I ipconfig/all i have an ipaddress, dns server, the works. So i open up firefox (and after fox, IE to test) and it trys to load my homepage (yahoo) it timesout. i type in a different url, google.com, and it takes me to the comcast.net website...after hours of working with it I give up. 6 Hours later, i hoped the the problem magically resolved, it wasn't. I ipconfig /all again, i have 3 dns servers?? (is this normal?) I doubt i've been rooted, i keep the rule's wizard on my firewall on (allow's me to decide what connections get through for which application).

Possible Solution: I looked in my firewall connection area when i opened up firefox, and it shows svchost.exe, now my firewall ALLOWs the connection but, it blocks it anyways, i disable, test, still not working... i even reinstalled the firewall which still was a no go.

Solution: any??

for both computers i would:


1) install spybot and run a spyware scan

2) use a quick rootkitdetector (search this site for loads)

3) do a trend online virus scan at housecall.trendmicro.com

4) check the hosts file for strange address's

cidaemon.exe is microsoft's indexing service, used to index files on your hdd's for faster searching.

can be turned of by right-click your logical volume (c, d, ...) > properties > turn of 'use indexing..'

It's probably Comcast.

When I first got Comcast cable, the only place I could go to was Comcast's homepage. I had to call them and give them the MAC address for my cable modem.

A few days later, I had the same problem you are having.
I had an IP, I could see the DNS servers, and I could ping yahoo.com but both of my browsers(FireFox and IE) took me to comcast.net.

I had this problem for about two days. I called Comcast and they said they were having problems. The help desk person could not go into any details because I don't think they new what was going on.

She did say that most of Dallas/Ft. Worth area was having internet connection problems.

Things went back to normal after two days.

Seems that the indexing process is a problem for many people, taking up lots of ram until crash.

I believe someone else said to disable this and gave brief instructions, well this is what I found on the net.

Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Component Services>Services>Indexing Services, right click>Properties and under Startup Type choose Disabled.

You might also want to check outbound connections (netstat -ano) and make sure that something isn't connecting somewhere and scanning and taking up your memory.

Personally I think your askin for trouble without a AV or Firewall but thats your decision and my opinion so whateva...

peace

thx for the replies, i got internet back on my own computer easily after i discovered something interesting you can lock the topic now