JB's Soapbox

Infosecurity (UK) - Trusteer detects rapid spread of new polymorphic Zeus trojan

2010-04-24T11:18:00.000+12:00

Trusteer detects rapid spread of new polymorphic Zeus trojan

21 April 2010

Trusteer says it has detected a completely new version of the Zeus password stealing trojan that has been designed to steal online banking credentials.

The internet authentication, encryption and security specialist says that its Rapport browser security service, which is used by a number of major banks, has detected the Zeus trojan variant on around one in 3000 PCs monitored by the Rapport servers.

According to Trusteer, this is an unprecedented rate of distribution for new financial malware code.

The firm reports that Version 1.4 – also known as version 2 – of Zeus targets Firefox browsers and uses advanced polymorphic techniques to avoid anti-virus detection.

What bankers won’t tell you about owning a home | The Coming Economic Depression 2010

2010-04-18T10:49:00.000+12:00

Mortgage Definition: Death Grip
Note: the article below gives a slightly different definition, however, I prefer my translation -not that my school boy French has much going for it!
Mixed feelings on this article, after all, renting must be seen as a total loss, investment wise. Granted, borrowing is seldom a good idea, yet it is default thinking in most peoples minds.
Certainly, in business borrowing seems a no-brainer, you have to leverage with 'other-peoples-money' to get ahead. Nevertheless, one rule should be drummed into the mind, "Never borrow money to buy coal", where 'coal' is a metaphor for consumer items. If you eat it, burn it, use it (up), don't borrow to buy it. That's the rule. You can add to it, "Don't borrow on depreciating assets -ever". Sorry, but in my view, that includes a car. So, we come back to the home loan. In my view this is theoretically at least, arguable. On the face of it, I would like to say, 'Don't borrow to buy a home, either', but that seems a very hard ask, especially for folk without cash or other asset base adequate enough to liquidate and pay cash for the home. So, borrowing, at the best and most favorable rates seems the only option. Anyway, the article below is certainly food-for-thought.

What bankers won’t tell you about owning a home | The Coming Economic Depression 2010

BBC News - Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net

2010-04-18T10:13:00.000+12:00

Another nasty, straight from the Internet Criminal fraternity.
But again, the solution is simple: Don't visit doubtful sites, don't engage in degrading behaviour, don't give away personal information online... ever!
One way to avoid even the temptation is to set up OpenDNS from www.opendns.com and configure it to deny access from all machines on your IP address to offensive and insecure sites. That way, even if you or someone using your connection even accidentally finds themselves directing their browser towards a site in this category, it will be denied.

BBC News - Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net

When Exactly Was The Resurrection?

2010-04-05T18:32:00.002+12:00

The four Gospels make it clear that Jesus was crucified in conjunction with the Jewish Passover (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-15; John 18:28,39; 19:14). The four Gospels also make it clear that Jesus was raised from the dead three days later, on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19). Biblically speaking, then, Christ’s resurrection should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover meal. However, this is not the case. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This method of determining the date of Easter often results in Easter being before Passover and/or displaced far from Passover. Easter can potentially be observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25.

The Bible does not instruct Christians to set aside a day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. At the same time, the resurrection is most assuredly worth celebrating (1 Corinthians chapter 15). Celebration of Christ’s resurrection, then, is a matter of Christian freedom. Christians are free to celebrate the day of Christ’s resurrection and are free to refrain from celebrating. Since it is a matter of Christian freedom and not a biblical command, it would seem that there is also freedom as to precisely when the celebration of Christ’s resurrection is observed. Just as with Christmas, the exact date is not important. It is the fact that Christ was resurrected that is important. Christians are free to follow the traditional dating system for Easter, thereby observing Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. At the same time, the lack of conjunction with Passover and the questionable (at best) motives for the method of scheduling Easter make it highly doubtful that Christ’s resurrection is being celebrated according to the biblical calendar.

For my part, my issue with Easter is the word itself. Easter. This does need some explanation as it is a derivation of the name of a pagan goddess called Ishtar. This particular goddess was worshipped by various groups. Ishtar was in fact the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte. She was a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus". Mostly she was associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the "town of the sacred courtesans"; and she herself was the "courtesan of the gods". Not a very wholesome association for Christians, really. However, along with Christmas, we inherited these feasts or holydays (holy days). The ancient Catholic Church ‘converted’ these popular holydays to the Christian calendar and so they became part of the traditional Church calendar.

Should this worry us? Not necessarily. However, I do feel quite strongly that their origin ought to be common knowledge. That way we are not necessarily confused when all sorts of non Christian customs get mixed up in the things we do on these occasions. The egg, for example was and is still very much a symbol of fertility. Hence new birth, however, not the Biblical new birth of Christianity, but the cyclical new birth of the seasons, also often associated with reincarnation a totally non Christian belief system. The Bible teaches resurrection, something much more exciting then re incarnation. In Biblical resurrection we remain the same person, renewed and reborn into a much improved physical body. In reincarnation there is, at best, only a faint and fragmented memory of the past. In pure and early Buddhism, for example, reincarnation had no reflection of a past life at all. Later, the ‘science’ of reincarnation become very sophisticated and involved streams of ‘particles’ that have some very complicated relationships to the past lives of the life form reincarnated.

I have always liked to connect the Apostle Paul’s words with these sorts of things,
‘But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.’ Philippians 1: 18

As a result, many Christians simply exploit the opportunity these holydays give to preach the gospel as enthusiastically as possible and thereby ‘preach Christ’ and encourage all men everywhere to be saved. This we should do and that is the purpose of this article. The most important thing in the world is to know that you have eternal life. Eternal life is in Christ. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour and surrender your life to Him asking Him to forgive you for anything and everything you have done that is in any way contrary to His will and plan for your life, you will receive the gift of eternal life. From that point on you can know that you will live forever. Further, when this body goes into the grave and dies, your inner being, the real ‘you’ will consciously and with full awareness, go into the presence of the Lord and will one day be resurrected from the grave and all your constituent elements will be reunited back into a physical body that will be immortal. That is the promise of the Bible. That is the promise of the death and resurrection of Christ that we celebrate during the holyday we call Easter.

If you’ve never made certain of eternal life, do it now by praying that prayer sincerely and He will keep his promise to you and give you the gift of eternal life.

Hacked On Facebook! Has It Happened To YOU Yet?

2010-02-04T17:22:00.010+13:00

Have You Been Compromised on Facebook…Yet?

If you haven't yet, then you will be…unless you take action NOW!

Hacking attacks on Facebook are increasing with every tick of the clock, so here are some basic precautions you should be taking.

Check Your Password Strength…NOW! Your password is your first line of defense on Facebook. These are the rules: No pet names. By pet, I mean your pet cat, dog, budgerigar, hamster, spouse, boyfriend, next door neighbor, your worst enemy or any name at all. Make it loooooooooooooong and random: Better still, get yourself a password generator. There are excellent ones around. Here are a few. AnyPassword: www.anypassword.com, Steve Gibson’s Perfect Passwords can be harvested from https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm#top. These are generated each time the page loads which makes each one unique. Bookmark the page and return at random intervals to refresh your Router password and harvest any others you may need. Just be sure the utility your using them in can handle long passwords. Of course, you can shorten them if you wish, but that kind of limits their effectiveness. Steve Gibson advises that each ‘one is [a]completely random (maximum entropy) without any pattern, and the cryptographically-strong pseudo random number’. Further, the ‘page will only allow itself to be displayed over a snoop-proof and proxy-proof high-security SSL connection’. So, sorry guys ‘n’ gals, if your connection doesn’t qualify you need help fast to secure your router/connection to the Internet.
Secure your password: This means, keep your password itself secure! There’s no way you’re going to remember your specially created, super strong password, and type it in each time you need it when you log into Facebook etc. For that you’ll need a secure storage facility. Therefore, you need a vault, such as AnyPassword, I’ve already mentioned, which incidentally, has a built-in password generator that is great for most things. Or, another recommended one is Last Pass: http://tinyurl.com/yjz32ka. (This will download the file from Download.com.) Last Pass, like AnyPassword is freely available.
Guard Yourself Against ‘Youtube.xyx’: this site is a scam site. Note this in your memory now and check your browser address bar each time you type in the legitimate www.youtube.com address. What follows is an explanation of what happens when you accidentally access this site. It is usually initiated by a message from one of your friends saying that they found a video of you on Youtube or, they put one of you on Youtube, that features you, yourself, doing something crazy. Naturally you click on the link to see this video of you, yourself, and you see a page made up to look exactly like Youtube, only it isn’t. It’s a scam site. Next, you are assaulted by a pop-up advising you of a flash player error and that you need to click on the provided link to update your Flash player. Like a sheep to the slaughter you meekly, trustingly, mindlessly, click on the oh so readily available link and, “Whamo” you have just initiated the installation of some really nasty malicious software that begins to key log each key stroke you make from now on. Along with everything else it gathers, it will harvest your Facebook password and proceed to send the same fake message, you responded to, to a bunch of other poor suckers. So, be warned! If your reasonably sure you haven’t done anything to get yourself filmed on Facebook recently -then it is likely a phishing scam.
Those Pernicious Facebook Apps: You know the ones I mean. They are ubiquitous on Facebook nowadays. Everyone, it seems, is doing them. Wakey wakey, people. These apps are often the perfect way to harvest your Facebook password. All of them know so much about you already, and now they have access to all that other personal information available about you on your page. Some is hidden info, and includes access to your friends and all their details as well. The following demonstrates how they obtain your password. It will be either exactly like this, or in a manner very similar. You take a Pokemon quiz on Facebook to see what sort of person you are, or something similar. Then you finish the quiz and hit that submit button. Next, the instructions advise you that you must now log back in to Facebook, which you obligingly do. The only problem is, the log-in page is now not one belonging to the real Facebook and, just like that, they have your log-in and password. We must be fair to Facebook as they do try to purge these nasty apps but, by the law of averages, they can not protect you from them all. Some will get through and, the sad truth is that the legitimate ones make it easier for the illegitimate ones to bluff the unwary. That’s just the way it is, in this old naughty world.
The Moral -Don’t Share: Make it your golden rule, DON’T EVER, EVER SHARE YOUR PASSWORD WITH YOUR FRIENDS. EVER. Sorry, but that’s the rule. A Facebook friend may be a friend today, but you don’t know what tomorrow may bring. Also, when you share with one Facebook friend, they may share with another. You simply don’t know. Further, some ‘friends’ are not your friends. They are, in fact, your enemies and they will happily share all your secrets as ‘status updates’ on Facebook and then change the password so you are unable to get rid of it. The news is full of stories like these. I’ve read them, and maybe you have to. So, remember the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure”. Also, it’s sobering to realise that Facebook’s rules now do not allow for the removal of any site on Facebook –ever! That’s right. If you die, your Facebook site continues on and on and on. Granted, access is limited to certain people, like proven relatives etc, as a sort of obituary. But, the scary thought remains, it will remain in cyberspace until the Last Trumpet!

Be aware that these rules apply to all Social Networking sites. So, apply them now and practice them from now on, and my you enjoy your Facebook adventures without too many misadventures along the way.

The Most Important Thing in the World

2010-02-01T18:10:00.003+13:00

If I had only a few minutes of life left and I had the opportunity of sharing with you - this is what I would like to say. The most important thing in life is to know what will happen when you die. Somebody has said that the two most certain things in life are...death and taxes! Well, we know what happens after tax...more tax! But what happens when we draw that last breath - well that's something else again.

The only person who ever spoke with absolute authority about death and what we can expect to follow, was Jesus Christ. His words have fascinated thinkers and philosophers throughout the ages. For example, he called himself by this startling title, "I am the resurrection and the life". He said that at the tomb of a man called Lazarus who, in a few moments, he was to raise from the dead after he had laid in the tomb for four days! You can read the story in the Bible. You will find it in John's gospel chapter eleven.

Then, some time later, he demonstrated this authority over death and life when he rose from the dead after having been in the tomb himself for three days.

Faced with the claims and sayings of Jesus Christ one must decide whether he was who he said he was, and whether he spoke the truth. Somebody has put it this way, Jesus Christ was either a liar, a lunatic, or who he claimed to be, the Son of God.

For me, he is who he said he was, the Son of the Living God. Therefore, I accept his words as being truthful and trustworthy. I believe him. As many of his hearers said of him, "No man has ever spoken like this man". (John 7: 46)

Here are some more of his sayings.

"He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believeth in me shall never die." John 11: 25 - 26

"I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly." John 10: 10

"I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there you may be also." John 14: 3-4

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” John 14: 6.

There are many more of these wonderful statements. All of them give hope, encouragement, courage and faith. You can "bet your life" upon them. They are totally true and utterly trustworthy.

As you read on you will find out, in five clear steps, more about God and what kind of person he truly is and some of the good things he has planned for your life. Along the way you will discover why many people never come to enjoy these for themselves. You will then find, explained as simply and clearly as I can, how you can be sure of The Most Important Thing In The World - Eternal Life. Finally, there are some keys to living abundantly in the now of your life.

Please click to continue... Steps to be sure of eternal life...

Battleplan: PC Invasion

2009-12-26T14:00:00.003+13:00

Or, How all that Nastyware Invades Your Computer

Here 'tis –the shocking truth! Explained in a few simple steps:

In almost ALL cases –YOU are responsible!

You, knowingly or unknowingly, installed something you shouldn't have from an untrustworthy source. This can include screensavers, toolbars or torrents (downloaded music, video, etc). You failed to check the format (that little extension after the period or dot in the name of the item) before you downloaded. Or you also failed to scan for viruses after it was downloaded and before you opened and/or ran it on your machine. Note: the second you click the executable file, Pandora is out of the box and the trouble starts. Sometimes you may not notice it immediately, it may have a delayed action, but sooner or later, you will notice that things are not as they ought to be.
You failed to proceed cautiously when installing an otherwise very likely reputable application that bundles optional rubbish-ware along with the programme or application you want to install. (See 5 below for more on this one.)
As in 1 above it can be software you installed sometime in the past and has either already been infecting your machine, or it starts its malicious action after the lapse of a certain amount of time. Further, it may arrive with other programmes that install themselves alongside an existing piece of software and, like a time bomb, explodes its previously hidden payload of malware without notice.
You are not running an effective and legitimate Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware application and, you are not taking time to allow it to run periodic full and in-depth scans of your machine to allow it to do its full job of detection and prevention. Sadly, there are more fake and extremely malicious anti spy and antivirus ware programmes out there trying to con you into giving them access to your machine than you can shake the proverbial stick at! Typically they promise the world as far as their ability to clean and protect your machine, but always along with multiple and dire warnings of how badly your machine is infected. Then, when you respond by clicking what appears to be the, 'button of deliverance', your troubles increase until any activity on your machine is pretty much impossible. Removing them can be a challenge even to experienced technicians, and can necessitate a full reinstall of the Operating System and all your other important applications.
Otherwise Legitimate and Useful Software Manufactures 'Sell Out' to the Bad Guys: It seems hardly credible, but those who make good and useful software can be enticed into including these optional and often quite unwanted apps and making them difficult to notice and thereby easy to install along with their own. There is, of course, some sort of incentive. Remember, the price of liberty (freedom from infestation) is constant vigilance!
Pop Ups etc: These are particularly effective at trapping PC users. You slavishly and obediently, like a sheep to the slaughter, clicked on the one of the many enticing and attractive pop-ups that followed a previous infection and exacerbated an already compromised position.

The Good News is, you have read this article and you are now armed with knowledge. You are forewarned and forearmed. You, from now on, will view with great skepticism:

The steps you are led through as you seek to download that enticing piece of software, music, move, file etc from the web. You will ponder the file and seek to find out a little bit more about its bona fides, its format, its origin and more.
The process of installing downloaded programmes and applications from the web. You will not simply click, 'OK', 'Next', 'Yes' etc without reading what you are saying 'Yes' and 'OK' to!
You will NOT click on Pop-ups at all, ever again, unless you know exactly what they are, what they will do, and where they may lead you. You will disable pop-ups so that your browser must ask you before allowing them to appear and distract you from what you are doing.
You will resolve to be less impulsive in your web activities and more reflective on where you point your browser and what sites you visit and say to yourself, "Do I really want some destructive nutter to have access to my expensive and so very useful computer that is so much fun in so many ways?" Do I want to have to pay my friendly computer tech all that money to fix what my own momentary lapse in concentration caused? (The answer to this is, of course, 'Yes', I do. I am only too glad to contribute to their retirement fund!' That being the case please ignore all you've just read and carry on regardless. My contact details are on my web site: www.jbc.gen.nz/pccare. Thank you very much.

Text Etiquette –Obey why don’t you!

2009-11-15T11:43:00.001+13:00

Sourced from a fellow blogger... and shamelessly pillaged and plagiarized! (Seriously, the source link is provided below J)

Put your phone on vibrate or silent mode when texting back and forth with someone. Everyone doesn't need to hear your favorite ringtone every time you get a text.
Check the recipient's number one last time BEFORE you hit "send." A slip of the finger could easily send a wrong person that intimate message intended for your significant other.
Take precautions to protect private or personal text messages since you never know who might be snooping. While a high percentage of people lower their voices when they talk on their cell phones in public, a few actually shield their cell phone when sending or receiving text messages.
Beware of texting when out with friends. It's disrespectful and can give the impression that you aren't paying attention to the conversation.
If you are expecting a text message let the people you're with know.
Don't get into the habit of marathon texting. if you need to use more than 150 characters to go back and forth more than two or three times send and email or call.
Avoid using text-message speak, abbreviations or emoticons since not everyone may know what you mean. Especially when texting work colleagues, use correct capitalization (And remember ALL CAPS EQUAL YELLING), punctuation, salutations and closings, and proofread for both spelling and grammar.

I'm sure there are a few more that others might have. So, please feel free to add more to this if you want.

Source: Dmitri

Heaven_and_Hell

2009-11-15T10:54:00.001+13:00

Heaven_and_Hell
Originally uploaded by oracle_from_beyond

Thank you, beyond.

Mysteries of WiFi Resolved!

2009-11-11T10:13:00.001+13:00

Here we go! Read on as we delve into the mysteries of WiFi, that wonderful set of wireless standards that lets us do so much online, both locally via LAN and widely via the Internet.

The full set of WiFi Wireless Standards is: 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n.

The Wonderful Wireless LAN (Local Area Network)

The WiFi enabled LAN has revolutionized the home and business network. In order to thread your way through the minefield it will help to realize that the accepted series of standards that have evolved over the years since Vic Hayes, and others, gave birth to WiFi in the early 90s the evolution was fast and furious. We now have four and with time we will undoubtedly see yet further enhancement. For greater and more in-depth discussion visit the Wiki article which I have read and is excellent. The generally accepted list of conforming WiFi technologies are the four listed above. There are other related forms of wireless such as Bluetooth which is an alternative wireless network technology that followed a different development path than the 802.11 family. Bluetooth supports a very short range (approximately 10 meters) and relatively low bandwidth (1-3 Mbps in practice). It is designed for low-power network devices like handhelds. The low manufacturing cost of Bluetooth hardware also appeals to industry vendors. You can usually find Bluetooth in the networking of PDAs or cell phones with PCs, but it is rarely used for general-purpose WLAN networking due to the range and speed considerations. Another alternative is WiMax, developed separately from Wi-Fi, WiMax is used for long-range networking (spanning miles or kilometers) as opposed to local area wireless networking.

802.11 –Where it started

In 1997, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created the first WLAN standard. They called it 802.11 after the name of the group formed to oversee its development. Unfortunately, 802.11 only supported a maximum network bandwidth of 2 Mbps - too slow for most applications. For this reason, ordinary 802.11 wireless products are no longer manufactured.

802.11b –WiFi becomes Useful

IEEE expanded on the original 802.11 standard in July 1999, creating the 802.11b specification. 802.11b supports bandwidth up to 11 Mbps, comparable to traditional Ethernet.

802.11b uses the same unregulated radio signaling frequency (2.4 GHz) as the original 802.11 standard. Vendors often prefer using these frequencies to lower their production costs. Being unregulated, 802.11b gear can incur interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones, and other appliances using the same 2.4 GHz range. However, by installing 802.11b gear a reasonable distance from other appliances, interference can easily be avoided.

In Summary:

Pro 802.11b - lowest cost; signal range is good and not easily obstructed
Con 802.11b - slowest maximum speed; home appliances may interfere on the unregulated frequency band

802.11a – The Confusing Standard

While 802.11b was in development, IEEE created a second extension to the original 802.11 standard called 802.11a. Because 802.11b gained in popularity much faster than did 802.11a, some folks believe that 802.11a was created after 802.11b. In fact, 802.11a was created at the same time. Due to its higher cost, 802.11a is usually found on business networks whereas 802.11b better serves the home market.

802.11a supports bandwidth up to 54 Mbps and signals in a regulated frequency spectrum around 5 GHz. This higher frequency compared to 802.11b shortens the range of 802.11a networks. The higher frequency also means 802.11a signals have more difficulty penetrating walls and other obstructions.

Together But No Unity: You've heard the truism,
'Two cats tied by their tails are together, but definitely NOT in unity!' Because 802.11a and 802.11b utilize different frequencies, the two technologies are incompatible with each other. Some vendors offer hybrid 802.11a/b network gear, but these products merely implement the two standards side by side (each connected devices must use one or the other).

In Summary:

Pro of 802.11a - fast maximum speed; regulated frequencies prevent signal interference from other devices
Con of 802.11a - highest cost; shorter range signal that is more easily obstructed

802.11g – We're getting somewhere now

In 2002 and 2003, WLAN products supporting a newer standard called 802.11g emerged on the market. 802.11g attempts to combine the best of both 802.11a and 802.11b. 802.11g supports bandwidth up to 54 Mbps, and it uses the 2.4 Ghz frequency for greater range. 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11b, meaning that 802.11g access points will work with 802.11b wireless network adapters and vice versa.

In Summary:

Pro of 802.11g - fast maximum speed; signal range is good and not easily obstructed
Con of 802.11g - costs more than 802.11b; appliances may interfere on the unregulated signal frequency

802.11n – In Search of Perfection

The newest IEEE standard in the Wi-Fi category is 802.11n. It was designed to improve on 802.11g in the amount of bandwidth supported by utilizing multiple wireless signals and antennas (called MIMO technology) instead of one.

When this standard is finalized, 802.11n connections should support data rates of over 100 Mbps. 802.11n also offers somewhat better range over earlier Wi-Fi standards due to its increased signal intensity. 802.11n equipment will be backward compatible with 802.11g gear.

In Summary:

Pro of 802.11n - fastest maximum speed and best signal range; more resistant to signal interference from outside sources
Con of 802.11n - standard is not yet finalized; costs more than 802.11g; the use of multiple signals may greatly interfere with nearby 802.11b/g based networks.

There are other IEEE 802.11 standards such as 802.11h and 802.11j. These are extensions or offshoots of Wi-Fi technology that serve specific purposes not generally used in normal work-a-day wireless networking situations.

For a full list of WiFi Standards and to read more click this link.

Sailing Christopher Cross (Tall Sailing Ships)

2009-11-01T12:58:00.001+13:00

Isn't the Internet wonderful? Here is something truly beautiful for all to enjoy. Thank you Christopher Cross.

A Big Tick for Microsoft

2009-07-23T18:23:00.005+12:00

I'm talking hybrid computing here. Definition of Hybrid Computing: Apps and utilities that work locally AND in the Cloud.

Quoting from one of my fav columnists, "Microsoft currently is the only company that gets this right while everybody else fails miserably at it." I agree.

He cites a case in point: 'You want to use a service that provides reliable email, instant messaging, contact, file and calendar management. You want it all to work no matter what computer you're on. You want something that is accessible on the web, as a local client and on your mobile device.'

'And', as he says so correctly 'you want it all for free'. Too right.

So, where do you go? The answer: to Microsoft and their Windows Live service. It does it all, and it does if for free. More, it works, it works and it works fantastically well. Here they are. These are the apps, utilities and service you get all in a package, or standalone.

Hotmail: for email
Windows Live Messenger: for instant messaging.
Hotmail again: for contact management.
Skydrive: for files (25 GIGS WORTH!)
Calendar management: with, you guessed it, Hotmail again.

All of the above work on the web, sync seamlessly with the Windows Live Mail client and, if you prefer to stay with Outlook, syncs smoothly with Outlook's Calendar via Outlook Connector. And wait, there's more! All this PLUS 100% accessible via your smartphone/Windows Mobile equipped PDA/Phone as well (I use Palm's Treo 700wx and have full access with Windows Mobile Pocket MSN.

As my columnist asks, in words to the same effect, 'who else does it with anything like the same smooth efficiency?'

Google? Not even close.
With Google you must stay in the browser completely –Gmail is browser based. You can download and send email via Outlook Connector (Microsoft to the rescue please note!), bu NOT your contacts. Further, there is no way to make use of Gmail "labels" using any other client. I must add, I am a fan of many things Google, not least of which is Blogger, on which this is being published (!), yet even more so, I, as a consumer, love competition even more. This blog will hopefully serve to stimulate the folks at the big 'G' to turn up the heat yet again for you and me. After all, in the end, in a democratically and enterprise based society (the Net), we vote with our feet! (or is fingers as we type?)
Apple? Nah. You have to pay. MobileMe cost ya. How much? US$99 yearly just to have it.
Yahoo? No again. Yahoo offers no local client access and POP cost again. Microsoft wins again because Hotmail's POP access is now free since March 2009. Can't beat that FREE! Then again, just like Google you must stay in the browser to achieve full functionality.

So, as Dave states, 'In the end, Microsoft's Windows Live is the only sensible choice for true hybrid computing. You've got your local and your cloud within easy reach.' And, he adds, 'it's also stupidly easy to backup your mail and contacts using freely available software.

So, let's hear it for Microsoft, so often the recipient of boos and brickbats, on this occasion they definitely earn the laurel wreath of victory in this age when the aerial battle for web dominance is being fought way up in cloud-sphere.

More bad news for the other combatants: Microsoft Office will be integrated into Windows Live in 2010. Wow!

Is that laughter in Redmond I hear?

Ref: Dave Risley, PCMec.com

How to Ensure I Will Read Your Email

2009-05-22T17:47:00.010+12:00

Recently I read a very pertinent and apropos blog which I have taken the liberty of plagiarizing –at least, to some extent.

If you want your e-mail ignored do these things:

Leave the subject line blank
Put your entire message into one, long, 300-word sentence
Use cutesy, curlicued font styles that cannot be deciphered
Make sure you use lavender backgrounds and neon green type (or other ghastly combos)
Add in-line photos of such huge dimensions that they take forever to download even on fast connections
Use super bad grammar and never ever bother with spell checks apostrophes full stops and other archaic helps to comprehension that might actually allow the long suffering recipient to understand what on earth you are talking about
Treat emails like examples of speed texting on mobile phones with high priced plans and low end technology …and so on. I'm sure you can think of other offenses against the good will of fellow netizens.

So, how can you contribute towards a more calm and courteous communication between us all?

State, as explicitly and simply as you can what your message is about in the "Subject" line. That's that line with the label 'Subject' up in the 'Header' section of the email. Messages with vague subjects such 'Hi, Hello, How are you?' and, even worse, left glaringly blank, invite instant deletion by those of us who do not get paid on word counts of emails read each morning.

Remember that many of us are savvy enough to have set our spam deletion rules to filter emails that use all capital letters, an excess of exclamation points, and words typically seen in spam. I'd give examples, but my spam filter would trap them and refuse to send the email. I don't use these kinds of expletives myself, I do not treat my recipients to samples of what used to be called the 'gutter press' so please don't do it to me.

Messages that are one long paragraph with complicated details (rather like this one) will often not get read either. Do yourself and your longsuffering recipient a favour and break up your message into three or four small paragraphs. Unless you are sending a draft copy of the annual 'Address to the Nation' a reasonable limit, it seems to me, is three or four paragraphs. After that I think it likely that most of us will start dozing. If your email has to be lengthy consider providing a one or two sentence overview. Even a quick bulleted list of topics to be covered introduced with an explanatory, "I have a complicated issue, which will take a bit of explaining. Here is the gist and below is the lengthier explanation." Or, "I need help with xyz. If you have time to help, I've provided details below." If you need answers to a series of questions and/or you need to make several points, why not number them? This will make replying easier as the answers can be numbered accordingly thus saving the need to restate each issue or question.

If you want to share a link, please don't just stick the URL in the e-mail, particularly if it's a long one as is often the case. Most email utilities, such as Outlook and others will allow you to use html and code it into the source so that you can create a clickable link and all the gobbledygook is hidden. Another courteous trick (read technique) is to use TinyUrl. This will allow you to enter the long URL and convert it into a shorter version. It's quite free and you can add a toolbar shortcut for frequent use.

Now for photos: This can be a real issue, especially for those longsuffering souls among us who still labour with dial-up and other slow connections. If you need to share a bunch of photos don't just attach them by the dozen. If there are more than three or four courtesy demands they be zipped or posted to a site such as Flicr (the link to my public photos on Flickr). You can then email the link and the burden of a huge download is not laid uninvited upon your recipient. An excellent free compression utility is 7-Zip.

More on Photos: Further, when sending images please reduce them in size. A dozen 4-megabyte photos of your last picnic will not win your friends and allow you to influence people towards your latest favourite thing! Learn to use an image resize for reducing the size of images for exactly this purpose. Microsoft has a free one for XP as part of its Power Toys collection. There's one for Vista too, if you're afflicted with that particular OS.

Videos: While I'm on topic let me discuss sending 10-megabyte videos of birds using tools. Now vides are fun, but attaching a video in e-mail is so passé. If you look I'll bet you'll find it on YouTube. Here's a way to send big files when needs must. There are several places on the web where you can upload large files for free as well as paid services. Try LargeFilesASAP, or Huddle. Provided it's not something super private these are good options to crashing your friend's machine!

Turn of Your Antivirus Blurb: Most people who have any sense today do have their own Antivirus programmes running and scanning their incoming and outgoing emails. This means they do not need to see your AV program's blurb at the bottom of your e-mail telling them it has scanned the email before sending. Take a moment to check out your AV programmes Options and just turn it off please. Thank you.

OK. That's about it, for me. I think I've made my contribution towards world peace and goodwill with this little blurb. My appreciation to my muse -you will recognize some of it, but not a whole heap I'm thinking.

Happy emailing my fellow netizens.

The Serious Sickness of PC Rage!

2009-05-08T16:34:00.003+12:00

Hi! Folks,
It's winter time here in Kiwiland (That's New Zealand for the uninitiated!), and with all those lurgy's floating around I thought I should weigh in with some advice against one particularly common affliction: PC Rage! Here we go…

Save yoursef from "PC Rage"!

Symptoms: This affliction is often evidenced by strange noises coming from those you know for normally being of a calm and peaceful disposition. The early symptoms are often a low mumble, which can progress into loud yelling, even screaming. This may well be followed by loud bangs, thumps and explosive sounds, even breaking glass as windows are shattered and large objects are sent hurtling into outer space!

If you have ever been tempted to enquire into these events you may find yourself in George Bush like situations, dodging that infamous shoe. Only this time it could be keyboards and other low flying objects of a technological nature.

Further enquiry will often reveal a very sick and tired computer user frustrated by their machine taking forever to start up and load programs, crashing randomly and performing other forms of unsolicited behaviour.

Prescription: I am happy to be able to prescribe cures for this affliction. Follow these steps at routine intervals and all should be well. Sadly, this is not a 'once only' cure, as the bug circulates and always returns.
Here is my prescription for curing 'PC Rage' when the symptoms become apparent.

1. Delete Temporary Internet Files. When you visit a new website as its content is stored on your PC and takes up hard drive space. Go to "Tools", then "Options" – as each browser is a bit different, click through tabs to find an option for deleting temporary files and cookies. (A cookie is a small piece of code, usually innocent, but not always, that performs certain tasks of, usually, but not always, a benign nature.)

2. Use a registry cleaner such as Registry Mechanic, or one of the excellent free versions that PC Care can install for you. Windows® registry can be a common cause of crashes, slow performance and error messages. Registry cleaners will stabilise your system and help improve its performance.

3. Ensure automatic Windows® Updates is turned on. You can turn this feature on via the Control Panel and then click on Automatic Updates to configure the settings. My recommended setting is to set Windows to download updates but for you, the user, to decide when to install. This way you will be sure of getting the updates.

4. Eliminate unused files & desktop shortcuts. Every file and application that sits on your desktop takes up extra space, delete them to free up your hard disk space. This is called 'good housekeeping' and PCs really benefit from systematic and routine cleaning.

5. Uninstall unused programs. The more programs you have installed the slower your system will become. You need to use the "Uninstall" command in the Add/Remove program feature in the Control Panel. Caution: You can't remove a program just by deleting its folder and files. Full un-installation may require the use of the registry cleaner to clean up stray references left in the Windows Registry after un-installation. Again, caution: You should consider carefully all the files your cleaner offers to remove and backup the Registry beforehand.

6. Empty the Recycle Bin. Files that you delete from your computer are still stored in your recycle bin and will continue to take up a valuable hard drive space.

7. Schedule regular anti-virus & anti-spyware scans with your antivirus programme. You do have an antivirus programme running and up to date on your machine, don't you? A quick daily scan followed by a full weekly scan is what this doctor orders. Computer viruses and spyware can take over your computer's memory and slow down performance.

8. "Defrag" your computer regularly. Each time you work with a file your computer stores changes in a different place on the hard disk. A good defragmentation tool is Desktop Maestro, or you can check with PC care for recommended free versions. Warning! Don't just download and install the first Registry Cleaner you come across (or any other programme for that matter) there are con jobs out there that masquerade as legitimate software but are, in fact, wolves in sheep's clothing! They will hijack your machine and prevent you doing any work until you pay large amounts of your hard earned dosh -and even then you won't get free of it. Alternatively, you can use the free defrag utility packaged in Windows. However, you may have to stop all running apps to prevent them writing to disc and stopping the defrag process. The Windows defrag utility can be tricky, but if you want to give this a whirl you should find it in XP under 'Accessories' from 'Start' and then 'Programmes'. For Vista it will be elsewhere.

Current Threats: For your interest here is the Current Crop of Top Threats identified by Malware Research:

• Backdoor.Emogen • Backdoor.Turkojan • RogueAntiSpyware.VirusMelt • Trojan-Downloader.Agent.VB • Trojan-DDoS.VFI • Trojan.Adclicker

Best regards,
John

Confidence in the Face of Conficker

2009-04-16T15:18:00.002+12:00

Conficker is a worm. That is to say it is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network, any network, including the biggest one of all, the Internet, to send copies of itself to other computers on the network and it may do so without any outside help -I.e. without you or I clicking on anything, intentionally or unintentionally. It is different to a virus in that it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Are they dangerous? Yes and no. They almost always cause at least some harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer. The Conficker worm is also known as win32 Conficker, Win32 Downup, ConfickerA, Net Worm Kido and possibly by other names as well. It appears to do a variety of things that are most often of nuisance value. However, its early days yet, and the bad news is that there could be more surprises down the line.

We do know these things:

SpywareProtect2009: Reports are identifying SpywareProtect2009 as being another of the specific scareware tactics being used after Conficker's latest update. The victim receives a warning and is prompted to purchase the removal tool @$49.99. When you do the download streams in from the Ukraine and compounds the problem. Do not under any circumstances follow instructions from one of these prompts.
Microsoft has purportedly put a bounty on the head of its creator, to the tune of $250,000.00.
The Department of Homeland Security has also, I believe, issued a removal tool for its federal, local, and state governments and commercial vendors.
High Infection Rate Already: I have also read that this worm has already infected between 9 million and 15 million systems.
Known Actions: It saves a copy of its .dll (dynamic link library) files randomly in the Windows System folder and then load each time you boot Windows.
Potential Harm: Once entrenched it can potentially disable system devices, reset and remove restore points, and stop automatic updates. This is in addition to stopping Windows security, Windows Defender (Microsoft's antispyware utility) and Error Reporting. This worm possesses the latest technology to help spread its destruction and avoid detection and removal.

Systems that are affected are: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 (beta thru RC), Windows 7 beta and all the beta versions.

Steps To Avoid Harm

Update all Definitions: Ensure all your antivirus and antispyware programmes are kept updated
Windows Updates: Ensure Windows is up-to-date with the latest patches. If unsure visit www.microsoft.com.
Configure Windows Auto-Update: Make sure Windows is configured to automatically download and install all updates.
Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool: Download, install and run Microsofts Malicious Software Removal Tool, keep it updated and run at random intervals.
Strong Passwords: Use strong Password Protection. I'll post an article on strong password shortly.

Tip of the Month

2009-03-31T10:20:00.002+13:00

I get so many requests about avoiding net nasties that I thought I would try to come up with an occasional Tip of the Month that would help save you from potential infection. So, here's my first thought:

Avoid the Habitations of Lions.

You cannot go to sites such as Bearshare, Limewire or other questionable sites and seriously expect to stay malware free. Music download sites in particular carry great inherent risk. Music files are large provide huge opportunities for programmers to hide malware of all sorts in amongst the code. But they are not the only sources of potential infection. Many sites use what has come to be called 'Drive by Attacks'. With the web page is executable code that launches an action that can harm your PC without your knowledge. If you employ anti-pop up software this can save you much of the time, but hackers can get past those forms of security by cloaking their code and/or using a delayed execution method. Ultimately your only protection is your own self discipline and net savvy. Make it your business to learn the kind of sites to avoid and then avoid them like the plague. You have been warned! Don't act all hurt, innocent and surprised when you find you've been infected by a virus, worm, Trojan or other net nasty when you were directly responsible for your own foolish actions on the net. After all, if you go walking in the jungle at night where the big cats are known to prowl, who is really to blame when the inevitable eventually happens –the wild animal or you?

This should be obvious too, but downloading illegal music or visiting questionable sites will cause you grief sooner or later. Blokes, you need to know that if you download pictures and movies of alluring ladies you are high on the risk scale. Finally, NEVER click a popup that says "Your Infected…Click here to remove this threat", because that will guarantee that you become infected, as surely as night follows day.

Here it is: Cloud Backup for SMBs

2009-03-19T13:57:00.001+13:00

The name is Zmanda, and trust me on this, it is the solution you have been waiting for. The Cloud, what all savvy PC users in the 21st Century know is the new buzzword for cyberspace is where it happens. Out there where we all roam free as the birds there's a new land to occupy. For SMBs (that's another dreaded acronym for Small to Medium Sized Business), and individuals, this equates to generous slabs of cheap storage space available external to your business premises. The mantra for all wise business managers is, and always will be, backup, backup, backup…and again, backup. The best backup is done off-site and away from your business premises. A fire or other disaster can destroy onsite storage never to be seen again. You should backup locally, but off-site is vital. No backup is suicidal. Of course, off-site has the same risk, but a reputable third party will also backup their servers and anyway, life's a lottery, the secret to work the odds in your favour. Enter Zmanda Enterprise 3.0. To quote their own blurb, this Windows based little beauty offers a fully-supported solution for backing up Windows files, applications, databases and networked devices to the cloud. Of course it is fully automated for regular backup and easy to use. Further, it costs the massive amount of US$50 one-time fee for the software and storage fees with the all new Amazon S3 is the unbelievable US$0.20 per Gigabyte per month. For SMBs and private individuals with manageable amounts of data that is very low cost. You can read more about Zamanda at the Zmanda Home site. You can download Zmanda here: Download Zmanda.

Safe Social Networking

2009-02-05T12:31:00.001+13:00

Scams, traps, cons and swindles abound on the Internet. Here’s some tips to keep you socially safe online.

Social networking has come of age. If you’re not socially networking life may be passing you by –maybe! The fact is, millions are and sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live Spaces are services people can use to connect with others to share information like photos, videos, and personal messages.

With the rising incidence in popularity of these social sites, so do the risks of using them. Identity thieves, crims, hackers, spammers, virus writers along with other weird practitioners of arcane cyber wizardry follow the traffic on these sites with the intention of catching the unwary.

Avoid being fleeced, ripped-off and otherwise taken advantage of –read these tips.

Unsafe Clicking: Count ten before you click links that you receive in messages from your friends on your social Web site. Treat links in messages on these sites exactly the same as you would links in e-mail messages.
Practice Healthy Suspicion: Never trust that a message is really from who it says it's from. Hackers can and do break into accounts and send messages that look like they're from your friends, but aren't. A suspicious message is best treated as fraudulent and the use of an alternate method employed to contact your friend and check they did in fact, contact you. This most definitely includes invitations to join new social networks. (I.e. SN sites new to the web.
Protect your friends: Never allow social networking services to scan your e-mail address book. When you join a new social network, you typically receive offers to enter your e-mail address and password to find out whom else is on the network. They will likely offer to use this information to send e-mail messages to everyone in your contact list or even everyone you've ever sent an e-mail message to with that e-mail address. Many responsible social networking sites explain that they're going to do this, but some do not.
Lazy Clicking: Here’s a tip you should be already aware of. Type the address of your social networking site directly into the ‘Open’ command of I.E. or the address bar if you use Firefox, or use your personal bookmarks that you know you can trust. If you click a link to your site through e-mail or another Web site, you might be entering your account name and password into a fake site where your personal information could be stolen. Further, links in emails and on web pages can hide the real link and be masquerading as the legitimate link. This is similar to what we call ‘phishing’ and I’m sure you’ve read the stories bout the ever growing incidence of phishing emails arriving in mail boxes.
Choose Your Friends Carefully: Be selective about who you accept as a friend on a social network. Identity thieves do create fake profiles in order to get information from you. This is known as social engineering and is more prevalent than many realise.
Haunt the House: Choose your social network carefully. Evaluate the site that you plan to use and make sure you understand the privacy policy. Find out if the site monitors content that people post. Read the information that is immediately available and do a Google search of the site. You never know what you might discover about it. Don’t immediately believe negative reports, but, the old adage, ‘no smoke without fire’ is worth remembering. After all, you will be providing personal information to this site, so, here’s a thought: use the same criteria that you would to select a site where you enter your credit card details!
Your Footprint On the Web Is Long Lasting: Did you know that what you write on a social networking site is long lasting and almost permanent? Even if you can delete your account, anyone on the Internet can easily print the information or save it to a computer.
Think Before You Act/Download: Installing extras on your site is chancy. Frequently social networking sites invite or make available software and third party apps for you to download that allow you to do more with your personal page. Cyber criminals may use some of these applications to steal your personal information –and more. Again, Google the app you’re interested in first and find out what others are saying about it. An excellent site for information on software in general is www.cnet.com. Check out their reviews and read the views of others besides the publishers themselves and/or the editors. Get a balanced picture and then make up your mind whether you want to add that app to your list of installed programmes on your computer.
Mixing Work & Socialising on the Net: Some employs accept/allow responsible extra curricula activity while you’re on their clock. Others don’t –for obvious reasons. If you value your weekly pay-check think about whether this is what you should do or not.
Parents: Kids Social Network a lot. Your children probably know far more about it than you! Talk to them about social networking. Be wise, maybe you can find out what they know and whether they are being safe online by asking for help and advice yourself! They may be keen to demonstrate their sites and show off their knowledge. Then you can adroitly (there’s a good word) suggest safety tips. Don’t, whatever you do, show shock or anger. All you will do is wreck any chance you have of monitoring their activities and fostering safe socialising on the net. That would not be smart.

There you have it. Have fun, make friends, enjoy the web –and be safe while your at it. John

Summer Freeze

2009-02-02T18:39:00.001+13:00

Here in Kiwiland we are enjoying warm beautiful, even hot, weather. Summer is here and great to be alive –until your PC freezes, that is.

Yep, that’s right. The dreaded freeze. You know what I mean. That machine in front of you just stops working and refuses to respond. No matter what you do –or say(!) – nothing will make it do what it’s supposed to do. Not for you anyway.

Well, good news and bad news. It happens to all of us. Even PhDs in computer science face the dreaded catharsis of PC Freeze from time to time. So, don’t feel so bad. You’ve come to the right place The bad news: well, sometimes it can be quite serious, but, more good news, most of the time it’s easily fixed.

Here we go…

Just a wee commercial right here though –If you live in Hamilton, New Zealand, if this doesn’t solve your troubles right away, give me, Hamilton Office & Home PC Care, a bell on +64274412623 and you can drop it off and we are sure to be able to get it going for you. :-)

Please note that these words of wisdom (I hope) are primarily for XP users. Vista will be able to do similar things but you will have different paths and terms for the same tasks. Sorry about that.

Back up now! The golden, and I do mean golden, rule of PC Care is BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK, BEFORE the freeze and before any sort of trouble strikes. Scroll through these blog articles for more on PC Maintenance to help you with this.

Access Task Manager: Press the Control (Ctrl) + Alt + Delete keys now, commonly called the ‘three-fingered salute’. This will open the Task Manager and then look under the ‘Applications’ tab, usually the one that opens first by default, and look to see if any running apps have stopped responding. You will be able to see if this is so because the offending app will say, ‘Not responding’ right beside it. If so, click on and select then click the ‘End task’ button at the bottom of the Task Manager window. Chances are, this will fix the problem immediately by closing the faulty app and you will find you’ve regained control of your PC.

Re-launch the Application: Re-launch the app that failed responding and start back over. Hopefully, you won’t have lost too much data in the process. Of course, you can avoid losing too much work by saving your work as you go along. Every sentence or so you should develop the habit of pressing ‘Alt+F+S’ in Windows which is the speed key to save your work without lifting your hands off the keyboard. I’m doing it all the time as I type now. In fact, I just accidentally closed my Windows Live Writer window and, if I hadn’t been saving as I go along, I would have lost it all!

Further Checks:

Caps Lock & Number Lock: You might have accidentally presseed the Caps Lock or NumLk keys on your keyboard. If you have take a look and see if the indicator lights for those keys have changed. Usually they are located at the top RHS of your key board, but they many be elsewhere. You can check that they are working OK by pressing the ‘Function (fn) button + Caps Lk’ and see if the Number Lock button lights up. Then do the same with the ‘CapsLk + Num Lk’ buttons and check that as well. It may be just a matter of having accidentally switched on or off these controls.

Led Lights: Look and see if your Hard Drive activity light is flashing? If it is, windows is working hard for you performing some necessary task and you need to pause and let it get on with it. As soon as it has done whatever pressing job it must do, it will yield control back to you. So, be a little merciful and allow your (sometimes) faithful machine to do it’s work. Go and make a cup of coffee! You wouldn’t believe the amount of work your machine has to do to serve your every wish! ;-) It may be the hard disk is working too hard and you should be merciful and add more RAM.

Just another wee commercial right here though –If you live in Hamilton, New Zealand, give me, Hamilton Office & Home PC Care, a bell on +64274412623 and you can drop it off and we will add more RAM for you in flash –or maybe two flashes! :-)

Mouse Worries: Mice do need a bit of care and attention now and again. They actually benefit from a careful cleaning once-in-a-while. To do this examine your mouse carefully and see if you can open it up and then use some compressed air and/or a soft bristled brush and clean the parts that provide the contacts in the vicinity of the ball. If unsure, you can check with us or simply buy a new one. PS2 mice are very cheap to replace these days. If it’s wireless mouse the batteries may be simply flat –they don’t last forever you know!

Chick All Your Peripheral Devices: You may need to unplug them all one by one systematically and check to see if one of them is malfunctioning and causing a conflict or other problem. Sometimes your machine may be performing a security scan of your devices (USB storage devices etc) and you may need to allow it to finish. Or, it may have stalled in the process and run into a glitch of some sort. Remember to stop all USB devised properly using the facility provided by Windows. If you are unsure about this consult your hardware/PC manuals. I’ll do a Blog on USB devises shortly to help with this. Unplug all unnecessary USB devices such as printers, scanners, iPods and USB drives. None of these wonderful and immensely useful gadgets do not last for ever, sadly. So, one of them may have simply stopped and you will need to replace it.

If none of the above steps helps and/or solves the problem, you may well have a major on your hands. This could range from overheating issues, other major hardware failure, serious software failure, driver conflicts and more.

Hardware Failure: Hardware failure can be anything from an improperly seated or bad memory module to a failed hard drive or system board. The very first thing to do is to run a hardware diagnostic test. To do this it may be best to ask a PC tech to help such as Hamilton Office & Home PC Care on +64274412623 if you live in Hamilton, New Zealand.

I hope the freeze is of short duration and the long happy days of summer return. John

The Options: Vista Now or Windows 7 Later

2009-01-18T19:08:00.004+13:00

One of the HOT topics right now is, do we upgrade to Vista or wait for the all new Windows 7.
Here is s consensus of what I've gleaned so far. The options appear to be four-fold:

1 - Buy Now! If you haven't already done so, Buy a vista PC now
2 - Wait until July: then buy a vista PC and benefit from the promised free upgrade to W7
3 - Stay with XP: If you're buying now look for an XP based machine and stay with that until MS cease support in 2014
4 - Abandon Windows: Buy an alternative -a Mac or one of the many free flavours of Linux

Whatever you choose, this check list is a good starting point:
Do I need a New PC Checklist:

What do you use your PC for? If all your apps still function well and you know your way around your machine do you really need to replace it?
Running Slow: If it has slowed down, you may just need to give it an overhaul. Check out my previous Blogs or get it in to Hamilton Office & Home PC Care, or if you can't get it to us seek out a good tech and as him/her to clean up your machine and advise you on the options -apart from replacement.
Gamers: If you are a gamer then you may well need a new machine with more grunt -that's another ball game and this Blog is really not for you.
Age of your machine: If your machine is older than, say 4 years, you may have an argument for replacement, however, unless money is not an issue (for most of us among the great unwashed it is -especially with recession-itis setting in!) Again, seek some advise, because component or peripheral upgrades may do the trick for hundreds less than even an entry level new PC.
The Learning Curve: Are you comfortable with a new learning curve right now? A new OS comes with the hidden cost of learning lots of new things that you are probably doing reflexively right now. You will probably need a book as well to read while you watch TV to bring you up to speed. Vista is fun to learn if that's what you like doing. If, on the other hand, you find your masochist tendencies can be gratified satisfactorily in some other way -my advice, do the other! Hence, my suggestion that, even if you decide to replace your machine, think about staying with XP until 2014, or just put if off until later...
The Bugs Issue:
Any new OS will have bugs, and it is wiser to wait at least until the first service pack (SP1) has been released. Vista has now passed that milestone, so it is an option for now. As a result, a lot of the compatibility issues are being sorted.

The Jones Syndrome: Of course, there are those who have the 'J' syndrome and just have to have the newest and shiniest model available as soon as it hits the showroom floor. If that's you, and you don't give a toss about the money, then go for it. Buy the "biggest and the best" you can afford with lots of Ram, disc storage etc and keep doing it every six months or so. This, will help the economy and my dividend check and that's fine. You can also ask me to provide it for you and I will do so with real pleasure. After all, that's why I'm in business. I'm very serious, by the way. I love customers with lot's of money. You are the very best kind. Call me now.

My Pick of the Options:

Buy an external hard disc & Back Up: If you haven't already, right now buy one of the many excellent USB external drives with back up or sync software included and do regular back-ups. This will protect your data, which is always consideration number one -and stay with XP (upgrade to Pro if you can do so easily), or Vista if you already have it. Check your RAM to see you are running the maximum your machine will allow as, if you are running an early version of Vista chances are you are under powered in this department.
Stay with Your XP Based Machine: Here's a couple of applicable cliché's: 'The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know', and 'If it ain't broke why mend it?' My argument for not abandoning Windows here and going with Mac or Linux, is simply because of the 'Learning Curve' issue I dealt with earlier.
Wait Until July 2010 and Buy a mid range 64 bit machine with Windows 7 and SP1 installed. However, the variable here is my 'Age of Your Machine' comment above.

Final Words: Technology is always evolving. Unless you are a techno nut, as I am, your only interest is in how it works for you and makes life better or easier. If it doesn't do that what's the point? So, if your XP based machine is working well, you can do all the things you want to do on it, stay with that for at least the next four or five years. Upgrade as cheaply and effectively as you can along the way and only buy a new machine when you absolutely must.

Message Cente r

More Scamming

2009-01-07T11:25:00.003+13:00

As you know, I have written about this ongoing issue before. However, others do to and we need it. Scams morph and multiply fast and staying informed is a task. Here's a top article by a David Risley who owns and runs PC Mech. A great source of information from a full-time blogger, who, as he says, makes his entire income from the great art of blogging for a living.
Read on at: PC Mech Blog

In the meant time, Season's Greetings and all the very best for 2009.
John

IE Bleeps...again!

2008-12-18T12:01:00.002+13:00

18 Dec 2008
A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer which is being rapidly exploited by some web site and about which you need to be aware. To read more: Microsoft's Advisory Service, and a simpler explanation can be read here: Secunia.

Identity Theft: What it is & How To Avoid It

2008-12-15T16:22:00.003+13:00

We can define roughly two levels of Identity Theft.
First, Social Theft: This is your online identity. If someone steals your online identity it enables them to pretend they are you in online activities in the area of what has become known as Social Networking. A 'social network' is an association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby. The term was first coined by professor J. A. Barnes in the 1950s, who defined the size of a social network as a group of about 100 to 150 people. However, since the advent of the World Wide Web, social networking sites have evolved online and provide networks numbering millions of members. These are now virtual communities of people interested in a particular subject or just as a 'place' to "hang out" together. On these sites, members create their own online "profile" with biographical data, pictures, likes, dislikes and any other information they choose to post. They communicate with each other by voice, chat, instant message, videoconference and blogs. It is easy to see how these can become zones of danger for the unwary. Indeed, there have been plenty of news stories covering some of the pitfalls the unwary can fall into while networking on these sites. These unfortunate events can range from just nuisance level through to the more distasteful and criminal activities of pedophiles etc.

The area of concern in this column to the wider community is when someone assumes your identity to the degree they can start buying things in your name, running up huge credit card debt, phone bills and relieving you of large sums of money directly from your bank account, etc.
Sadly, identify hijackers very frequently get clean away and continue to perpetrate their crimes again and again. Statistically, the police have few prosecutions and are usually without any clue as to who the thieves may be.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!
There is only one defense -extreme caution. The old adage, ‘vigilance is the price of liberty’, is again a truism. In this case, constant vigilance is required to stay free from all the various ways in which someone can steal your electronic identity and use it to steal from you. Sometimes, not just once, but again and again. Added to the pain and loss of this is the downstream difficulties associated with identity theft. Your ability to obtain credit is compromised, there are ongoing difficulties with the police, the hassle of proving you are not the person responsible for the credit card purchases made in your name and with your card and so on and so on.

In the End, It's All Very Easy For the Thief
Authorities do agree on one thing, it is very easy to hijack someone's online identity. For example, to do a credit card transaction in someone else's name, the perpetrator often only needs the following information:

Your credit card number
The expiration date of your card
The billing address zip (or post) code
The CVC number (that 3 digit number on the back of your card)
Your name

If the thief already has your credit card in their hand, they already have four out of these five pieces of information. They are only missing the PIN (Personal Identification Number) and they can use your card whenever they wish. This they may well harvest off your machine or by some other method when your actually using your card at an ATM. Harvesting PINs from ATMs while people are accessing their accounts is becoming very common indeed.

Second: Harvesting Your Identity From Your PC
Because It's Likely All There On Your Computer
In this connected age, the scary fact is that all this information is likely stored in your computer waiting for a hijacker to get his or her hands on it. Further, you don’t need any fancy technology to dig it out. Unless your already practicing safe computing you can find it just by following these simple steps:

Go to an online form, you can use my Contact Centre form for the purpose if you like. But any form where you fill in information about yourself will do. By the way, I don’t harvest any information from my form. It is a simple email form and I haven’t even taken steps to guard against abuse on it. As a result I often get junk email off it when online nutters fill it in with gobbledygook and I have to waste my bandwidth and time and delete it from my inbox. So, use if freely, although, if I get an increase in misuse as a result of this invitation, I will certainly get busy and put some simple checks in place.

If, as you complete this form using Internet Explorer, Firefox or any other browser, and the information you enter, such as your name, phone number, bank account number, IRD/Social Security number etc and the details are automatically completed for you as you begin to enter them, you know your compromised.

This is because the information is stored on your computer and it is available to be harvested by an identity thief quite easily. If you’ve been using computers and the net for a while, you should know this by now. If not, consider yourself educated. Turn off auto-complete this instant and be many times safer as a result. If you’re running Firefox, my preferred browser, go to the Menu Bar and click ‘Tools’ and then the ‘Private’ tab. Check as many boxes as you can to make yourself comfortable about what information remains on your PC. You can also choose to have Firefox clear all your Private Data when you shut Firefox down. Click the ‘Settings’ button on the LHS of the Private Data section and check as many or all the boxes you feel comfortable with as well. In Internet Explorer go the Menu Bar and click ‘Tools’ and click the ‘Delete Browsing History’ option right now. Then go back to ‘Tools’ and choose ‘Internet Options’. Next, choose the ‘Privacy’ tab and move the slider you will see as high as you feel comfortable with. If you are now paranoid, you can click the ‘Advanced’ tab and check ‘Override cookie handling’ and check everything in sight –or whatever! While you’re there, if you wish, you can check the ‘Turn on pop-up blocker’ as well. You can have a look around at the other tabs while you’re in Internet Options and read all the information available.

Caution!
Be aware, that actions you take here will affect your browsing and you may wish to return and fine tune your settings. However, keep in mind that the point of the exercise is safeguarding your online security and privacy. To do this some of the fancy gizmos you find on the net and some of the easy options, such as having your browser remember passwords, may have to be missed out on. It’s up to you.

The Telephone
Now for the telephone! I mention this because it's amazing how trusting we can be. You can be asked a series of questions all related to your security and your identity by someone on the other end of the line and pass it all over without a second thought.

For example:

IRD or Social security number (or last 4 digits)
Mother's maiden name
Email address
Telephone number

All of this information is commonly given away to complete strangers whose first name you may have only heard once and already forgotten, or, in today’s world, you probably couldn’t understand it or pronounce it! So, be very careful who you give information to over the phone. Make as sure as you can that you are talking to a bona fide representative of a trust worthy organisation. If you have any doubts, say, “I’m sorry, I’ve decided not to proceed”, and hang up. Don’t let them talk you into proceeding. If they are genuine they will understand your concern and make some alternative arrangement for you that will give you more confidence.
Remember, if a thief can establish they are you, also over the phone, to another bank or financial organisation or business etc, they could ruin your life for a very long time. It’s worth taking precautions and, at the very least, being aware of the dangers.

This sort of information could allow a thief to transfer money out of your bank account, cancel your mobile phone, change all of your passwords, and access your email (probably via web mail) and much more.

How to Begin to Safeguard Yourself
Use Your Own Machine: Never do online transactions on any computer other than your own. Never at work, never on your friend's computer and NEVER NEVER at a public terminal.
Perform the simple check I outlined earlier and try it with your bank account number, IRD or Social security number, your phone number as well. Only start to do it with, say the first four or so numbers and see if your machine starts to complete it. If you know you’ve used another computer previously to do online transactions of any sort, and you can go back to that machine, use the steps I’ve outlined below to do the best you can to erase all stored information and hopefully you’ll wipe out any traces you may have left.
Remove All Personal Traces: Perform a system wide sweep of your own and any other machine you use, have used, to remove any traces of your online identity from them. If you would like help with this we, at Hamilton Office & Home PC Care are happy to assist. That’s what we do! Bear in mind that this means that you will have to type in your credit card number each time you need to use it. This might take a small amount of extra time, but to have your important numbers in your head, not in your computer, or any other, is better than leaving them lying around for someone to pick up. You can use encrypted software that you carry with you on a USB stick and have only one master password to remember. This is what I do and I use a little programme called Any Password for this purpose. This also has the facility to generate passwords that are reasonably secure. However, if you are a gazillionaire, then likely you are a target already and remember that sophisticated decrypting techniques and software are available that could possible crack any utility such as this. However, for most of us among the great unwashed, we aren’t that big a target and not likely to attract that amount of dedicated evil. At the end of the day, even your head is not totally secure. If a sufficiently large and well organised criminal organisation wants what’s in your head, I guess they can get it. “They have ways…!”
Scan Often: Scan your machine(s) for malware on a regular basis. Say, once every five or six days. Under the heading of malware we include, spam bots, denial of service attacks, and all sorts of other nasties. Malware dedicated to capturing your online identity is becoming steadily more common and you need to guard against it. So, install the best quality and the most highly recommended antivirus, antispyware and firewall you possibly can. More than one anti-spyware app is good. You can only run one antivirus programme on your computer, so make it the best you can find. These don’t have to cost the earth either. There are excellent free one’s available. Check out Hamilton Office & Home PC Care and go to my Tech links/Info page to check out my recommendations.
Secure Login: Set up a reasonably secure login password on your PC. Don’t use the obvious such as your wife’s or girlfriend’s name, your birth date, your street address, your phone number and so on. Work out something that you have to remember and don’t leave it written on a piece of paper stuck on or near your PC! If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen that…
Log off: Log off from your PC when you are not in front of it. Even when going away for a moment or two. That’s all it takes for someone who knows what they’re doing to harvest personal information. An ounce of precaution is always worth a ton of cure. Trust me on this. On an XP based machine click, ‘Start’ then ‘Logoff’. On a Vista machine click, ‘Start’, then the little right arrow and ‘Logout’. If you’re using a laptop or notebook or netbook (see my blog about Notebooks v Netbooks) you might just have to close the lid. You can set this up by going to your Power Options in Control Panel.
Happy and safe computing,
John

Buying a New PC & the Internet

2008-12-06T18:18:00.003+13:00

Buying a New PC & the Internet
CERT/CC has composed this Tech Tip concerning the growing risk to Internet users accessing the Internet without any knowledge about how to secure their nice new machine from the growing number of Internet nasties.
They say, "In recent months, we have observed a trend toward exploitation of new or otherwise unprotected computers in increasingly shorter periods of time. This problem is exacerbated by a number of issues, including (they say):

Many computers' default configurations are insecure.

New security vulnerabilities may have been discovered between the time the computer was built and configured by the manufacturer and the user setting up the computer for the first time.

When upgrading software from commercially packaged media (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM), new vulnerabilities may have been discovered since the disc was manufactured.

Attackers know the common broadband and dial-up IP address ranges, and scan them regularly.

Numerous worms are already circulating on the Internet continuously scanning for new computers to exploit.

As a result, the average time-to-exploitation on some networks for an unprotected computer is measured in minutes. This is especially true in the address ranges used by cable modem, DSL, and dial-up providers.

Standard advice to home users has been to download and install software patches as soon as possible after connecting a new computer to the Internet. However, since the background intruder scanning activity is pervasive, it may not be possible for the user to complete the download and installation of software patches before the vulnerabilities they are trying to fix are exploited. "

Check my advice on PC Maintenance and Security

You can read the entire article here: www.cert.org/tech_tips/before_you_plug_in.html

Contact Hamilton Office & Home PC Care on our
PC Care

Confusing Messengers

2008-11-25T12:34:00.002+13:00

We have: Windows Live Messenger, Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger Service. Confused?
Well, I don't blame you -I have to stop and think all the time. Here we go...

A rose by any other name.
Windows Live Messenger, Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger Service are, in fact, four names for three applications. Three apps that do two different things. Of which, I submit, only one you really want. Here's why...

If you're running XP Windows Live Messenger will do it all.

So, uninstall the lot except Windows Live Messenger. You don't need them. If you are running older versions of Windows visit 'Ask Leo' -why should I reinvent the wheel?

Better yet, uninstall the lot and switch to Yahoo Instant Messenger for all instant messaging.

Having said that, I use Windows Live Messenger quite happily. But then, I'm running XP Pro SP3. Yep, that's right, SP3. It's running very sweetly and I have had no problems, in spite of the bad rep in many forums. So is every machine I've installed it on to date.

Happy Days,
John