Useful Info

Computer Viruse and Malware

2008-05-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Computer Viruses and Malicious Code

These days with the proliferation of computers and computer technology it is inevitable that when things go wrong they do so on a larger scale. People can sit at home and write programs that insidiously invade computer systems both public and private. The consequences of these attacks can range from benign to extremely severe and the consequences can be extreme depending upon the system attacked

The computer simply executes instructions given to it. As such it is an extremely useful tool for the criminally inclined. When passwords and security mechanisms that are put in place to protect a system are breached, access is gained and a host system can be altered, its contents modified or infected with a latent virus or malicious code that will execute at a later date. This means that a system can be compromised, and although seeming to run smoothly will cause havoc when least suspected.

A computer virus is a program for the computer that is destructive, or designed to gather un-authorized information, or somehow impair the computers integrity. Viruses are malicious in nature and intent. . A Computer virus is a piece of code that can duplicate itself and spread via Floppy Disks, Networks and of course the Internet to many computers. Some can format your hard drive, erase your computers BIOS and cause programs to crash. A virus can copy itself or reproduce itself and infect another computer system without permission or knowledge of the user. A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive or via an attachment in Email.

So what is the best advice to avoid viruses?

Don’t open an email from an unknown sender
Don’t click on hotlinks on websites unless it is from a trusted site
Don’t open email attachments
Don’t inset software into your computer without first scanning for viruses and malware
Don’t allow Active X controls to be installed on your system
Use caution when visiting questionable sites
Avoid clicking on a box just because it is blinking or flashing

If you know you have a virus or malware, the only sure way to be sure it is gone is to reformat your computer.

You should also make use of precautionary software like “Ad-Aware”, “Spybot Search and Destroy”.

Make sure you have a good anti-virus program installed on your system and update it regularly. Some recommendations include:

Xoftspyse
AVG Antivirus (they have a free version),
NOD 32 Antivirus
Bit Defender

Remember computer health and integrity is everyone’s responsibility. Keep you computer free from viruses, spyware and other malicious software. These helps maintain the integrity and privacy of all systems.

Computer Set-up. Simple is Best.

2008-05-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Computer Set-up
Sometimes Simple is Best

By Steven Milbrandt

There is a prevailing belief among some people that for something to be good it must be work. Somehow complex equates to better. The harder something is to come by or accomplish the greater the reward for sticking with something. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the “keep it simple” camp. The people in this group wish to minimize stress. These are the people who, in many cases are OK with a bit of clutter around the house, still unpacked boxes from a house move five years earlier, or even unkempt and rumpled clothing coving the bedroom floor. These are the people who believe that if they are fine with something why should it matter what other people think. They are their own person and no one can tell them what to do.

The “neat freaks” and retentive people justify their behaviours, as do the sloppy at the diametrically opposed end of the scale. In it is not the point of this article to suggest necessarily that either view is better or worse. Pluses and minuses can be found to argue either side. The question as it relates to computers must be which is most efficient. The non-sentient, unthinking machine that we call the computer does not care either way, but for the sake of personal satisfaction and personal sanity versus disappointment, frustration and ultimately mental hardship, you should care.

Yes, personal choice prevails, but simple has merit. The more complicated set-up has the potential to become a tangled, intertwined knotted group of cords and wires. Everything from power cords to Ethernet 10/100 cables, fire wire, USB cables, mouse cords and cables on keywords and monitors. These tangled wires can become knotted and jammed behind desks, tables, computer furniture and behind other furniture. This “mess” often only matters when something is pulled and becomes unplugged from an AC outlet or something. When things quit working, especially in our pressure filled world, we tend to notice. This realization is often followed by a choice set of four letter expletives ( @!*#)

The truth however is that it does not have to be that way. Computer furniture such as armoire (A large moveable cabinet with doors most often used for the storage of clothing or linens or to house entertainment equipment. Armoires may be fitted with drawers, shelves and/or hanging rods) hides away the clutter. There are also cable ties, alligator clips, removable hardware storage bays, collapsible furniture and hide-away nooks.

On a recent episode of “The Lab with Leo”, a nationally syndicated computer instruction program hosted by Leo Laporte, guest Kaylie Lewis demonstrated how a shoe rack with its individually divided shoe compartments could be used as an organizational storage space for smaller gadgets such as iPods, cameras, and other things when holes are drilled in the back to allow for the pass-through of wires.

Ultimately, messy or neat, organization or disorder – it’s all a matter of personal choice. However the simpler something is, the less can go wrong, the less can get lost, and the less stress you will feel. Isn’t that the ultimate goal anyway? --One less thing to worry about in an already stress-filled world.

Mom was right all along – simple is best. (The ‘KISS Principle’ applies to computers too. Who know?)

Computer...Gadget, Gizmo, 'Personal Confuser' or Cultural Necessity?

2008-05-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Computer…Gadget, Gizmo, ‘Personal Confuser’ or Cultural Necessity
By Steven Milbrandt

The computer, once only a curiosity accessible to the privileged few – the elite who not only had access to the giant rooms that held the behemoths of the dawn of the ‘computer age’ but also had the specialized knowledge to make them work, has now become an essential part of society. The computer, once regarded by some as a “passing fad”, has pervaded our culture in ways no one could have imagined twenty-five years ago. Early adopters saw its potential and made history. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others in those early years helped shape the microcomputer that we know today.

The first computers were large. Indeed, they were housed in huge rooms, had very small memory capacities by today’s standards, and were very expensive to operate. “Univac 1”. The first commercially available computer in the United States was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau on March 31, 1951. It consisted of 5200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29000 pounds, ran on 125 kW of electricity on took up 35.5 square meters of floor space

By comparison, the personal computers of today occupy only a small area of desk space and have much larger memory capacities and functions due to technological innovations, vastly improved manufacturing processes and perhaps more importantly, the invention of the microchip. Printed circuit boards and microchip technologies have given way to the computers of today.

Computers have become such a mainstay in our “modern” society that businesses cannot even transact commerce of the computer goes down. A computer down means more than lost revenue. Productivity suffers and those things dependant on computers for their operation, cease to function. Traffic systems, urban infrastructure of all sorts and vehicles for transportation on the ground and in the air all now require a computer to properly operate, and, in most cases, operate at all.

Our desire for convenience comes at the price of technology. With all these interconnected dependencies, it is virtually impossible to break free now. Some would say, “Why would you want to?” while others ask, “What have we created for ourselves and where will it end?”

Whatever computers are and are not, it seems clear that for better or worse, they have become a cultural necessity by our own design therefore society must assume responsibility for where the computers takes us in terms of benefit and consequence. Let’s hope that is something we are prepared to live with.

A Technology Primer

2008-05-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

A Technology Primer by Steven Milbrandt

A buzzword in the lexicon or vernacular of today, “Modern Technology” is bandied about like the perverbial “awe-inspiring magic “must have of our generation. In our “want-it-now” and get it quick mentality, the rush to buy is often accompanied later by a need to fix, learn or improve. Modern tech because of its inherent complexities breaks down more often than the providers of it would like to admit. Here, lets briefly talk about some of this tech and common solutions and fixes.

Ripped from the pages of a tech spy novel, high tech is more common, less expensive and much easier to use than most people think. One such technology, “Ventrillo” is basically voice communication software that people use for gaming, business and a variety of other tasks. New products arrive on store shelves everyday, and it is all one can do to keep in the “know”. CES, The Consumer Electronics Show is held every year in Los Vegas and showcases the new, different, “the in” and the exceptional. But what to do when technology goes wrong? With computers a series of steps will keep them running smoothly and keep them from freezing.

Download and run a top registry cleaner like Registry Easy
Download a high quality anti-spyware, adware, malware and anti-virus program such as the top-selling Xoftspyse
Do a broadband and wireless modem test
Clean the History and Temporary Files off Your Browser (Settings > Internet Options).
Step Five: Use Free System Resources to Make Room on Hard Drive. (Start > Accessories > System Tools > then run Disk Cleanup, Disk Defrag, and create a restore point on system
Step Six: Remove Any Unneeded Programs off Your Computer. (Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > then choose programs to remove that you don’t plan on using soon).

And lastly, today people are not only concerned about getting the latest and getting it fixed when it breaks down, many times people want the biggest and best. They want to be the first on the block to own the latest and greatest tech, Such is the case with plasma and LCD televisions. Everyone is mindful of a televisions quality. Technology in LCD and Plasma has now reached the place where it is superior to the traditional CRT and prices continue to fall as manufacturing improves and component costs drop. LCD’s take up much less floor space than a CRT television. Often, LCD’s can be wall mounted freeing up significant floor space too. Typically LCD televisions start at 15” but a common size in todays homes is 40” to 45”

It is hoped you can see here that new has its share of problems, but early adopters pay the price for bragging rights. For more information on this and other articles, please visit http://www.usefulinfo.110mb.com

How to Reformat Your Computer

2008-05-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

How To Reformat Your ComputerBy Dario Borghino

Dario BorghinoLevel: Basic PLUSMy name is Dario Borghino and I'm currently graduating in telecom and software engineering in Turin's Polytechnic, Italy. Since I was a kid, I've always ...
In some occasions, be it because you have reasons to suspect that the virus you caught has permanently damaged your system, because your PC is getting way slower than it used to be, or even just as a scheduled maintenance practice, reformatting your computer can be an useful way of 'cleaning up the mess' and regain all the computational speed your PC used to have when you turned it on for the first time. This article provides you with an easy step-by-step guide to make sure a smooth reformatting process.

As the first step, make sure you have a copy of the operating system you want to install, and all the installation files of the programs you need most, or at least make sure you know where to get them. You'll need to backup all the important data in your hard disk(s). Save all important files (a 'safe' choice is to backup the entire C:\Documents and Settings\ on Windows, and the /home folder on Linux) to an optical drive or an external USB drive -- in this last case, remember to correctly unmount and remove the disk before restarting the system. Consider including into the backup also the most important application files and an archive containing your e-mails. If this is the first time reformatting your computer, it's always best to take at least a day or two to make sure you don't forget any important file into the backup.

When you're sure you're good to go on to the next step, insert the CD/DVD of the operating system of your choice and restart. If nothing happens (e.g., the computer restarts normally), that means there is one little more step to go: when you restart, check the initial messages and press the right button to enter the boot devices setup screen (the button is usually F7, but it depends on the underlying system) and select the CD-ROM drive as the first device from which to boot -- you might want to roll back this setting once you're done reformatting).
At this point, your system will boot up from the CD-ROM. Follow the instructions carefully, particularly when you're asked to format your hard drive and delete all files on it -- if you're sure all the data is safe and backed up, go on with the OS installation. This will typically take one to two hours and requires little amount of configuration by the user (including assigning keyboard layout, system language, time, user names and passwords...).

Once the system is installed, you can remove the installation CD-ROM. If you wish, you can restart to change a setting so that even if you forget a CD-ROM in the drive, your PC won't do fancy things -- to do that, see the simple instructions above. Now, all you have to do is simply to take your backup unit and copy all the data back into the new system. Install all the programs you need, either from installers of from the Internet, and finally restart one more time (most program installations require restarting). If you're running on Windows, it might be a good idea to install an anti virus as soon as possible.

If you followed these steps carefully, your new system should be up and running as good as new!
Check out the author's website here: http://wysinnwyg.altervista.org

How to Permanently Delete Files

2008-05-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

How To Permanently Delete Files - The Quick, Dirty, And Correct WayBy John Cao

You may or may not know that when you drag items to the trash on your computer, they aren't permanently deleted. Just watch an episode of your favorite CSI show, and you'll see that its possible to recover files that haven't been deleted properly. And while I'm sure you're not guilty of any CSI type crimes (or are you???), I'm sure you want to figure out how to permanently delete your files and keep your private things private -- after all everyone has to have some secrets!

Why emptying your recycling bin doesn't permanently delete your files

When you tell your computer to empty its recycling bin, your operating system only deletes the records it has of the files you want to delete. Yet the files still remain on the hard drive memory.
Here's an analogy: If you think of your files as books in a library and you decide you no longer have use for a certain book. Emptying the trash is equivalent to removing the entry in the library's card catalog. The book is still there but not easily found by everyday visitors. But if someone really wanted to find it, and had a clue where to look, they quite possibly do so since it is still physically there.

What it means to permanently delete a file

To permanently delete a file, you need to not only delete its record, but also overwrite the physical portion of the hard drive where it lives. A low level format is equivalent to replacing your private file with random bits (1's and 0's). Continuing with the library analogy you need to remove remove the book, shred it, light up in flames and possibly replace it with a different book
A simple way to permanently delete?

According to Microsoft, there is a keyboard shortcut in Windows to, quote, "permanently delete files". You do this by selecting your file and hitting SHIFT+DEL. Convinced? Neither am I. What they're really explaining is a shortcut from having to move the item to the trash and then emptying the trash.

Take it a step further

Here's a poor man's version of permanent deletion. Delete your files, empty your recycle bin, and run Disk Defragmenter located in the Start menu under Accessories/System Tools. What this will do is optimize your hard drive by rearranging (most) of your files, and in doing so will most likely overwrite the files you want permanently deleted. Nice!

Do it right and do it better

While performing a defragmentation will probably do the trick, it's really not a viable solution. Waiting for disk defragmentation is not something I'd do every time I wanted to do a permanent deletion. The defragmentation process is waaaaay too long. The right way to how to permanently and quickly delete files is to use a program specifically designed for that purpose. You're in luck too because most Windows operating systems have a command line tool called CIPHER to do the trick!

Here's how to use CIPHER:

1. After closing all windows, open up a command window.

2. Type the following: cipher /w:driveletter:\foldername where driveletter and foldername correspond to the drive a location of where your deleted file used to live.

3. Sit back and enjoy your freedom and privacy while your file is truly permanently deleted!
Here's an example:

I have a picture I want permanently deleted which stored on my computer at the following location:

C:\images\scandalous_picture.jpg

After deleting this picture and emptying the recycle bin, I would type the following (in a command prompt) to ensure that I can still run for senator (as long as they don't catch me in the airport bathroom):

C:>cipher /w:C:\images

I can then move on to my life of privacy and carefree surfing!

You can do better!

Although I'm comfortable working with the command prompt, you may not be. No worries, there are plenty of other graphical based software tools that perform true permanent file deletion. This article gives even more compelling reasons to delete personal files and refers a graphical based deletion tool called Evidence Nuke.

John Cao is a full-time software engineer that specializes in high performance computing. While spending most of his waking hours in front of a computer, John helps others enhance their computer experience by recommending the latest software, hacks, and shortcuts.

Common Problems in Home Computing

2008-05-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Common Problems in Home ComputingBy Omar Mahmood

Home Computing is a completely different type of computing, where a PC is used extensively by all kind of users including geeks, experts, and novice users. In such cases the problems caused in home computing are also typical example of technical problems. Troubleshooting of such problems is not as easy as people think.

Home Users
In case of home computing there are three types of users having different choices and reasons of using computer. A Home PC has to bear work load of earning person at home, who take help of computers in their daily work or business, and they need Internet and some office packages for normal day to day work. Second segment of home pc users are kids, they use PC's to play several online and offline games, for them PC is not an electronic device to be handled carefully. They treat Home PC as another set of toys. Third segment of home pc users are housewives who use computers for browsing for new recipes or new ways of decorating homes as well as for being in touch with friends and family in leisure time. Most of these Home PC users are either novice or having less knowledge of computers, Internet and its functioning.

Common Problems: Common problems in home computing are:

1. Problem with Internet Connection - Sometimes due to some reasons Internet Connection can stop working. It can be due to weak strength of internet connection or some cable fault or simply due to a problem with your network interface card.

2. Problem with Sound - Due to incorrect sound setting or bad placement of speakers the output quality of sound may reduce, to modify those settings is not that much tough, you can learn through a little effort

3. Normal working problems - Home users also face normal working problems at the time of work that is due to lack of knowledge in computing.

4. Computer Problems due to mishandling - Mishandling of PC's can cause hardware related issues, and which can affect overall PC functioning.

Among all the above said problems the worst thing is problems caused by mishandling, because that results expensive solutions otherwise rest category of problems are very simple and less time and money consuming. To avoid all these problems caused in Home Computing, you should consult an IT troubleshooting service provider for regular checkup of your computer, just like your regular health checkups. That'll ensure smooth functioning of your PC.

BT Geeks is provider of 24 hours dedicated computer support for businesses as well as residential clients in Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland. For more information, visit: http://www.btgeeks.com/btgeeks