How to keep your computer clean and safe from problems?

Another common problem that can affect PC performance and stability, is that the Windows OS will get full of junk applications or temporary files, lots of fragmented files if is not cleaned periodically. These things can cause operating system to run very slow in time. Learn to clean your Windows OS, periodically, especially that there are free software that can do the cleaning automatically in just few seconds.

  • Use Ccleaner free software to clean your temporary files and other junk files, once at every 2-3 days
  • You can also use Ccleaner to uninstall any program that you don’t use anymore and to disable the startup programs that you don’t need to run automatically when windows is starting.
  • Use Defraggler for defragmentation of your hard disk once a month
  • Use a good Antivirus software to make sure you are protected from viruses and other malware, AVG free edition or Avast free version are good choices. There are many other good antiviruses software, but try to research a bit if you choose something else, some will take too much resources and it can also affect your internet bandwidth speed. If your antivirus use a lot of PC resources you won’t be able to work in optimal conditions, there won’t be enough resources left for Xlovecam software.
  • Even the best Antivirus can’t protect you from various dangerous things, unknown viruses, or malware that aren’t viruses, but it still can cause lot of damage on your computer performance or functionality, therefore is important to avoid visiting potential dangerous websites. Also don’t press on email or messenger links that looks spammy, even if it those links are sent by people you know. To investigate if a link or file is potentially dangerous, use websites like VIRUSTOTAL (https://www.virustotal.com/) to analyze a file or to scan a url before opening it. Also AVG anti-virus (and other antivirus software) have a component that will scan search engine results and will warn if you try to access a dangerous website.
  • To scan your computer for adware, keyloggers and other types of malware, things that an antivirus alone might not detect, use MalwareBytes free edition (consider buying the pro edition if you like it)
  • Keep your browser as clean as possible from Toolbars, some will cause problems on browser functionality, disable and unninstall any toolbar or plugin that you don’t need. If you don’t know how, simply search on google and youtube, there are many text or video tutorials that will show you the steps to follow.
  • Make sure your FLASH PLAYER is always up to date, not updating the flash player can cause problems while broadcasting.
  • Learn to restore your PC to an earlier date when it was ok, as a fast solution to various problems (System Restore). You can find tutorials on google and youtube on how to use the restore feature that is present in all Windows OS starting with XP.
  • Don’t reinstall your Windows OS at each small problem you have, because that problem can come back and you loose a lot of time reinstalling Windows, normally if an operating system is clean and optimized properly it can hold YEARS before needing a re-installation. Reinstalling windows should be last solution in case other things like restore, cleaning etc.. failed.
  • Don’t install junk software that you don’t really need, especially things that can make your computer and browser run slower, like browser toolbars for example. Keep your browser clean, the more plugins/toolbars you install, the higher are the chances to have problems with it.
  • Keep your Windows operating system UP TO DATE, install their important updates as soon as possible. Take a look also to optional updates as may contain important driver updates.
  • Check for hardware drivers updates at least once at 2 months, especially drivers for your video card, mainboard, webcam etc
  • Uninstall all programs that you don’t use anymore. Don’t uninstall any windows component, if you are uncertain about a software or another, search on google about it, to see what is used for. Some third party applications are used by the cam sites model software, like .Net Framework, Visual Studio etc.. don’t uninstall these. Clean Registry with Ccleaner after you uninstall the programs that you don’t need anymore.

Ensure that your internet speed and stability doesn’t affect your job

As primary advice, as we know in many countries, especially in Europe, high internet speeds are available at affordable prices and as for many video chat models, video chat activity is their main occupation, is important not to loose any working day because of the internet connection. Every model that respect her job should have 2 internet lines (where is possible), one primary and one to be used in the case the primary line is down, this way you avoid loosing time and money because of your internet provider. In several countries across Europe, you can get more than 5mbs upload bandwidth with less than 20Euro per month. A medium model can generate in average more than 50Euro daily, only 2 days per month if you loose because of internet problems, you loose 100euro, while second internet line for backup won’t cost more than 20Euro in most countries. In areas where there are no cheap solutions, is understandable, but on areas where there are lots of options, many different providers etc.. is definitely recommended to have a second internet provider as well, as backup.

How to check your internet speed in relation with Xlovecam (or any other website)

It is very important to know that if your Internet Provider promise you for example a speed of 10mbs download/upload, it doesn’t mean you will have that speed all over the world, you need to learn to check your internet speed directly on cam sites servers, or a near by locations if the cam site doesn’t provide tools to test your bandwidth. This way you will have a clear idea on the optimal settings that you can use to stream in High Quality. For our case – Xlovecam – you can use our Network Tools and also third-party speed test tool like SpeedTest.net, to have a better idea. When testing for Xlovecam with SpeedTest.net use Amsterdam servers (there are 2 or 3 available). Beside the internet speed is also important to determine at anytime if your internet connection is stable with a particular server (host, website, camsite etc) – to make sure there aren’t losses on the way, because these data losses can easily affect your video stream (your live cam can freeze, delays will occur etc). These losses are easy to determine using Ping command, we offer a ping utility in our Network Tools page, also you can run ping command directly from your Windows OS. For example in Windows XP press Start >> Run >> Type in the text field >> CMD >> Click OK >> CMD window will open and type in there: ping -n 50 xlovecam.com >> press Enter >> After 50 pings the test will show you how many % pockets were lost on the way, if you have more than 10% losses, there can be problems with the connection, these problems can be either from your side, Xlovecam side or a server on the way.
Similar procedure is also on Windows 7 – press the Start button, type cmd in the search form, click on cmd.exe, from here follow the same steps as in XP case.
Now if you see there are ping losses, you have to find out which server (computer) on the way is causing these losses. For this particular test you can use WinMTR, simply download&install and type the address of the website you want to test and click start, wait for the tool to send 50-100 pings and check on which server there are losses. If the losses starts from your ip or your router ip, there are problems on your side (either internet provider or your router has problems). If the losses are on the way, somewhere in the middle, there is nothing you or we can do, just to wait because it will usually get fixed fast, your provider see these problems and they will fix… if the problem persist for days, you will need to contact your provider.. and even change the provider if no other option. Finally if you see the losses on our side, last ip in the winmtr list (or last hostname), it means that either we have temporary closed the PING for security reasons, or there are some temporary problems on our side. To make sure, go and ask the support team if things are fine on our side. Just keep in mind that when we have problems, it is fixed very fast, few minutes, max 1 hours usually, so if you see that the problem persist too much (days), you can be 100% sure that the problem isn’t from our side.

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