Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A good website to know



Everyone knows that you have to be careful online. There are viruses and hackers lurking everywhere. And that's just two bad things that can happen on the net.

I've always kept spyware programs, anti-virus programs and anti-malware programs on my computer. They haven't always saved me however. 

What makes me the angriest is when I pay for a program and the nasties still get through. I've had McAfee for several years. Paid for it. I still got viruses. I even got a trojan virus not so long back that crashed my entire hard drive. 

Which brings me around to what I want to share with you today.

There is a website called FileHippo. You can click here to visit it. Go ahead, click it and check it out, I'll still be here.

Back? Cool. I like that site because the software on it is free. I've gotten some good programs off it and some of them have been better than the programs I've paid for. Actually, most of them have been better.

I guess my only point today is to share that with you. When I find things that work for me and don't cost me an arm and a leg I like to tell other people about them. Have a good one...I'll see you soon.



post signature

Sunday, December 13, 2009

AIRG and your pc



I get asked all the time how to get to AIRG from your computer. I decided today to just tell you here that way there is always a place you can go back to and find out.

First of all, let me tell those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about that AIRG is a chat site. It's a ton of chat rooms that are supposed to be accessed through cell phones but I've always been able to get there from my computer.

You used to be able to go through the Opera browser, put in the address and be there, but AIRG has taken that option away. Now it's a little more complicated but not impossible. I'm going to show you step by step...

1. Download Mozilla Firefox browser 3.0 or earlier. You can update later but if you go with the newest version this won't work. It has to be 3.0 or earlier to use the add-ons that you'll need. You can copy and paste the following address to get there...

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

2. Now you need your add-ons. You are going to need the XHTML Mobile Profile 0.5.3 add-on. Just follow the instructions that they give you...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1345

3. You also need the Quick Preference Button 0.1.8.1 add-on....

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1851

4. Once you've done all of the above, there is a 'button' on your toolbar that says Prefs. Click it. Choose Spoof then Keep Out.

5. Now simply put airg.com in the address bar and you're there!*


*Do not put www. or http:// in front of the address. Just airg.com

So I hope this helps those of you that are trying to get there. Let me know if it did or if you have any questions. I'll do my best to help you! Have a great day and have fun chatting!!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Don't let your computer catch a virus this winter



Photobucket

The newest virus circulating is
The UPS/FedEx/DHL Delivery Failure...

You will receive an email from UPS/Fed Ex Service along with a packet number.
It will say that they were unable to deliver
A package sent to you on such-and-such a date.

It then asks you to print out
The invoice copy attached..

DON'T TRY TO PRINT THIS.
IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS!

Pass this warning on to all your PC operators
At work and home.

This virus has caused Millions of dollars
In damage in the past few days.

Snopes confirms that it is real.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Don't call Dell for help



A couple of weeks ago our hard drive crashed on our computer. It was a huge loss for us; pictures, music, programs...all gone. I cried a lot. Luckily we were still under warranty with Dell. We contacted them and they sent a technician out to replace our hard drive. That's where our real trouble began.

First, the hard drive they brought to replace our old one is smaller than the one we had. Second, the programs, including Microsoft Works (which I used often), were not on any of the disks that they sent to "bring us back to original status".

I could have lived without a few of them; the movie maker, Power DVD, some games. But I wanted my MS Works back. Like I said, I used it often. Daily. That's when the phone game began...

We called Dell at least 30 times. We left voice messages to please return our call. Do you think we got even one phone call in return? No.

When we did actually get a live person on the phone, all we got was transferred to another computer or connected to someone in the Philippines that had no idea how to help us. We finally got a hold of one woman who told us we didn't have MS Works on our computer originally. We did. We bought the computer brand new. No one had it before us. We didn't add any software. She was quite rude and said "I'll send you a copy of the invoice so that you can see it wasn't on there."

We are not stupid people. We did not add anything to our computer. It came with MS Works on it. I repeat, we did not add it ourselves.

So I ended up going to the Dell website, again, and looked up our original computer configuration. What do you think I found? Yep, MS Works. So I called them again. Still no help. I was told they would NOT replace the software and that I was wrong, we did not originally have it on our PC, even though it was right in front of me that we did. Needless to say, I'm disgusted with Dell.

Later that same night I received a call from 'Private Caller'. I usually ignore those calls but something made me answer it. The lady told me I could get a free word processing program online and because I need a word processing program I got it. It's actually not bad. It's called Open Office. You can click here to check it out. It's definitely not as good as MS Works but it's an OK replacement. Most of the templates have to be downloaded and there aren't nearly as many as MS Works has, but like I said, it's OK.

I will never call Dell for help again. I will also never recommend Dell to anyone that I know. The computer is good but the service sucks. They are no help whatsoever.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Conficker worm on it's way



I was reading a story this morning from Yahoo about the Conficker worm that comes out every year on April 1st. The first Conficker worm was sent out in 2008 and infected over 9 million computers. Now it's on its third version, Conficker C, and is "incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent".

Microsoft has offered a quarter million dollar bounty on the writer of the worm and are trying to find a solution before April 1st gets here. They say:

"What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions."

And from the Windows Live OneCare website:

How do I know if my computer is infected?

System Changes
The following system changes may indicate the presence of this malware:

  • The following services are disabled or fail to run:
  • Windows Update Service
    Background Intelligent Transfer Service
    Windows Defender
    Windows Error Reporting Services
  • Some accounts may be locked out due to the following registry modification, which may flood the network with connections:
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
    "TcpNumConnections" = "0x00FFFFFE"
  • Users may not be able to connect to websites or online services that contain the following strings:
  • virus
    spyware
    malware
    rootkit
    defender
    microsoft
    symantec
    norton
    mcafee
    trendmicro
    sophos
    panda
    etrust
    networkassociates
    computerassociates
    f-secure
    kaspersky
    jotti
    f-prot
    nod32
    eset
    grisoft
    drweb
    centralcommand
    ahnlab
    esafe
    avast
    avira
    quickheal
    comodo
    clamav
    ewido
    fortinet
    gdata
    hacksoft
    hauri
    ikarus
    k7computing
    norman
    pctools
    prevx
    rising
    securecomputing
    sunbelt
    emsisoft
    arcabit
    cpsecure
    spamhaus
    castlecops
    threatexpert
    wilderssecurity
    windowsupdate

So I thought, well, I'm safe, I have McAfee...I have Spyzooka...I automatically update and have my firewall and Windows Defender set up to run automatically...I'm good right?

Then I looked in my system tray and NOTHING WAS THERE! Windows Defender had been turned off; McAfee off; Spyzooka off. Ack! I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran every kind of scan I have. I found several viruses.

I'm glad I came across the story and checked into my own PC. I hope y'all check yours too. This could be bad, bad, bad.


Saturday, March 7, 2009

Oh Facebook, why?



Let me first start out by saying I obviously can't read a calendar. TODAY is the Saturday to change your clocks, not the 14th like I told you in yesterday's post, Change. I changed it though. :)

Now on to Facebook. The social networking program has seen five different security threats in the past week.

These hoax applications attempt to trick Facebook members into divulging their usernames and passwords. And there is a worm running rampant on the site, installing malware on the computers of victims who click on a link to a fake YouTube video. It's called the Koobface worm.

According to a Yahoo news story, the Koobface worm searches for cookies on your computer, then makes a DNS query to check IP addresses that correspond to remote domains. They can then send and receive information about the affected machine. Once connected, they can remotely perform commands on the victim's machine.

Then the Koobface worm composes a message and sends it to the user's friends. The message contains a link to a website where a copy of the worm can be downloaded by unsuspecting friends. And the cycle repeats itself.

How crazy is that? Some people just have too much time on their hands. Combine that with a malicious attitude and you have trouble. Trouble for you. And trouble for your PC. My advice? Don't play on Facebook... No. I'm just kidding. Just be careful about how you play and pay attention. If something doesn't look right, get out of there. Never enter your password unless it's the normal log in screen. There is no place, no application, no "extra" on Facebook that requires you to reenter your username and password. I promise. I'm there all the time.

As far as the fake YouTube video link, don't click on any links unless you are 100% positive about where they originated. My PC is loaded down with anti-spyware programs that won't allow me to visit links until they've been scanned and approved. It definitely slows my computer down but, to me, it's better to be safe than sorry. Today's news reaffirmed that.