Personal Computing Demystified.
Archive for October, 2009
You're gonna get an infection..
Oct 30th
When I get a call from a friend or client to come take a look at their computer I have a laundry list of things that I check, not necessarily in order. I mentioned operating system (OS) updates in a previous post.. the second most common thing that I find is the lack of antivirus (AV) updates. In these cases I rarely find that there isn’t any AV software installed.. what I find is that when the 1-year trial period for the
AV software has ended and new updates aren’t being applied. Let me tell you now.. if you haven’t re-upped your AV subscription your computer is at high risk for getting infected, if you aren’t already. Even if you don’t do much on the internet, just clicking a link to one person’s MySpace page is enough to cause you trouble. Case in point.. my wife clicked on a MySpace link on Tuesday to do some research for a project. She was instantly bombarded by messages from her AV program notifying her it had blocked several viruses.. they were apparently embedded in content on that page. One of the viruses in question was first seen only three months ago! Your two-year old virus definition set that you haven’t been updating wouldn’t have gotten this bug.
So, what can you do now?
Update your AV subscription NOW. It is absolutely worth the $30 to get that done now versus the potential loss of time and money you’ll experience getting viruses removed later. It doesn’t matter much whose AV program you use as much as it matters that you use one. Some are indeed better than others, and with some you get what you pay for. For example, my giant-mega-cable company gives away a pretty well-known AV program for free with your paid cable bill.. and it is absolutely horrible. That particular program will bring well-built computers and laptops to their knees while they perform a scan. In a corporate setting I use a enterprise-type package that gives me incredible reporting tools for machines in the office.. for remote business and personal use I highly recommend AVG Anti-Virus for its speed and ease of use.
If you suspect you’re having a problem with viruses I can help.. drop me a line.
photo credit: I woz ere
One of those things you may not have thought of..
Oct 28th
For my readers in Georgia you know that our years-long drought that sent lake levels to record lows was permanently erased with our recent rainfall.. in a near-biblical manner, I might add. I hope and pray that none of you were adversely affected by the flooding, and if you were I hope you are well on your way to normalcy.
You have seen the pictures of homes in Georgia inundated by floodwaters that the owners never saw coming.. floodwaters swallowing basements, first and in some cases the second floor of some homes. Think about that for a second.. and think about this – where are you sitting right now? Your spare room in the basement? Your home office on the main floor of your home? I’ll bet you are.
Floods are just one sort of natural disaster that those of us in the IT industry have to be concerned about. The level of paranoia I have to plan for in day-to-day operations of a business would blow your mind. Since my company’s main line of business is providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) I have to be prepared for nearly anything that could possibly happen or we’re not doing business at all. Not Good.
The cornerstone of my company’s disaster recovery plan is our backup strategy. We certify to our customers that we keep multiple copies of our data backed up in multiple locations and we also certify that those backups are secure. Keeping our customer data protected is one thing.. but for you, the home user – is data backup as important for you? I can’t answer that for you, so think to yourself about the data that might be on your computer right now.. photos, emails, financial data, documents.. can you reproduce those if your hard drive dies? Many people can’t.. myself included. The sad thing for those that have experienced this sort of data loss is that it is completely preventable, and the cost is far lower than you think. You’ll need two things:
- I recommend and use disk imaging software. This sort of software takes a complete snapshot of your computer’s filesystem and can be easily restored just as it was when that “snapshot” was taken, even to different computer hardware.
- Creating a backup to the same system that it came from is no backup strategy at all.. you’ll lose the backup with the rest of the system if something bad happens. You need an external hard drive or a internet-based backup storage system to get your data away from your system.
On the software side I use and highly recommend Acronis True Image. I have backed up AND successfully recovered many systems with this software. It is simple and efficient to use, and at a list price of $50 it is really inexpensive. The newest version of this software also allows you to store your backup online with the manufacturer.. so you can restore your data anywhere in the world that is necessary.
If online backup just isn’t for you I recommend an external usb hard drive. I currently use a Seagate FreeAgent Go external drive. It is really small and is usb-powered.. you can easily move the drive to your safe deposit box at your bank, to a relative’s house, or anywhere else you deem safe. At around $80 this purchase is also very much worth it.
If you would like to share your strategy or discuss this topic in greater depth I invite you to leave a comment below. I look forward to reading your responses!
One of the most common mistakes..
Oct 27th
Welcome to the Everyday IT blog! My sincere hope is that I can bring some pretty considerable experience to bear to help you, Joe User with your everyday computing needs, issues, questions and problems. If you have specific computer-related questions or concerns you would like me to answer or investigate please feel free to leave a comment here.. I’ll respond to you as quickly as possible. Who knows.. I might even blog about your question!
Besides being the IT manager for a suburban Atlanta technology firm I find myself frequently playing the role of “computer guy” for my family, friends and a few small businesses around town. I really enjoy doing this sort of work.. I take great pleasure in turning those frustrating situations around, especially when I can save someone real money. Unfortunately, many regular computer users forget that once the problem has been solved they need to learn from the mistake that got them in the weeds in the first place and change their computing habits. Over the next few articles I’m going to outline a few of these very common mistakes.. so off to lesson 1!
I’m going to focus on Windows users for this lesson. One of the most common mistakes I see when I initially diagnose a computer issue is the lack of attention paid to Windows Updates. Everyone loves to beat on Microsoft for one reason or another and in many circumstances they have brought this criticism upon themselves. In my 17 years in the IT field I have seen many Microsoft programs released to the world that should have never made it past their corporate bug-checkers. That said, Microsoft is pretty decent about releasing bugfixes and patches for those products when a flaw or security hole shows up. In many cases these updates that wait patiently for your attention behind the Windows Update shield could be the very solution for those strange issues your computer is having. Take the time to notice and apply those updates.. while they may be time-consuming from time to time to run I have rarely seen the application of a patch make a problem worse. Better yet.. schedule those updates to run while you’re not using the system.. your computer will be better off for it!
