java
 

dear friends,
I have been trying to measure the speed of my local fiber internet connection.
I am supposed to be able to run a "speed test" to determine if it is running at 10 that is what level we bought. It seems to be running slower than normal. They said we had to have java on our computer to run the speed test.
What is java?
We use fox fire, got rid of internet explorer.
Is it ok if I just down load the java program?
Will it change the way our computer runs?
thanks for your input.
bizi

speedtest.net will give you a pretty good idea of the internet connection you are using.
Java is a 'language' used to create what you see in a browser.

If you are using Mozilla's Firefox then make sure Java is enabled and yes, its safe to install Java....

warning:
 

It is my understanding that all computers come with Java.

The problem lies in the updates. Older units do not remove the older versions, and these can be portals to viruses. It happened to US!

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post813614-9.html

If you go to the Java link in that post, it will scan your computer and tell you what you have and what to remove, and what to update.

I am a former software developer and have used Java extensively.

The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is the portion of Java installed by users, to run Java application. As developers, we needed to keep multiple JREs installed for performance and compatibility testing of our apps, which might be run by customers with older versions of the JRE.

The presence of multiple JREs is not exactly an inherent virus risk, especially if you have a good antivirus.

However, I would agree with MrsD's point that it is best to have only one, unless you are a developer, tester, etc.

I would go further and suggest that when you want to install a new JRE, you first uninstall any older one(s), and then install the new one.

------------------------------------------------------

A JRE, like any other program, can be infected by a virus. Similarly, it can have a specific kind of bug - a "security vulnerability" - that can be exploited by viruses to harm your system or gain unauthorized access to it, whenever that program runs.

Moreover, a JRE is a particularly powerful type of program, because it runs other programs.

Therefore, even with a single JRE installed, if that version has a security vulnerability, a virus could launch a Java application that exploits it - to gain unauthorized access or do other things - without even infecting the JRE itself. with multiple JRE's installed, a virus can still "look for" a specific JRE version known to have a vulnerability, and "choose" to use that specific one to launch a malicious application.

Similar "vulnerabilities" are found with Windows all the time... a good portion of the updates Microsoft releases are patches for these. However, while we do not need multiple versions of the same system component installed, that is not always true of a JRE (as in the case of developers.)

As such, when a new JRE is installed, it is a new installation in its own right, not a true "update."

~ waves ~

When we had our computer scanned by Java, they did not recommend removal of ALL old programs, only some.

And the computer that actually got the Exploit virus...was our newest!

But on Microsoft itself is the recommendation to go to Java, get scanned and fix what the site suggests. Just removing anything on your own, therefore, may be risky.

That Win 7 laptop (Dell) crashed right after a download update
for Adaware. We have removed this program from all 3 of our computers as a result.

LOL... TRUE, you DO have to know what to remove or you can end up removing system stuff/shared components - BAD idea. the scan will be a useful tool for most.

Btw, i had a terrible experience with Adaware... i had *ALL KINDS* of creepy crawlies get into my pc. spent a weekend removing them, one at a time manually... monitoring processes, picking through my entire disk and my registry *UGH!!!* that was several years ago - i don't know if it is any better now but i certainly won't go near it again.

i have used only AVG for several years now and it has been good to me.

~ waves ~

We scanned the computer for old versions of java and there were not any. Then we installed java which was easy after disabling the firewall.
I then ran the speed test and it says it is running at almost 10 which is what we pay for so that is right.
thank you for your assistance and patience with me. Fortunately it was easy to do and not hard at all.
bizi