Actual PC Problems with Solutions

Fixing A Problematic LAN Connection!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:16:00 +0000

Have you ever encountered a LAN connection that is continuously or intermittently disconnecting? Before thinking of reformatting your PC, try adjusting the media type of your network card, by default it is set at auto config, try changing the setting to 10Mbps Full Duplex.Most often the cause of this problem is when a LAN cable is too long; a problematic RJ45 connectors or a problematic software, you may also try replacing the connectors (RJ45) on both ends.

Here is how to do it(In case you still don't know):

Its Bye-Bye for Office XP and Vista SP1 Next Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:02:00 +0000

Microsoft will phase out 2001's Office XP and the first service pack for Windows Vista next week, according to the company's published schedule.

Both Office XP and Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will exit all support July 12, this month's Patch Tuesday. That date will be the last time Microsoft issues security updates for the aging suite and Vista SP1.

Although Office XP's support expires next week, Vista users can continue to receive security updates by upgrading to SP2, the service pack Microsoft launched in May 2009.

Users can install Vista SP2 through Windows Update, or by manually downloading the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the service pack.

The consumer editions of Vista SP2 -- Vista Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate -- exit support in April 2012, while the corporate versions of Vista Business and Vista Enterprise will be supported with security patches through mid-April 2017.

Users can continue to run out-of-support software: There is no "kill switch" that gets thrown to disable or cripple the programs. Without security fixes, however, such software will be increasingly vulnerable to attacks.

Office 2003, the follow-up to Office XP, will receive security updates until April 2014. Office 2007 and Office 2010 will get patches until April 2017 and October 2020, respectively.

Office XP and Vista SP1 were last patched three weeks ago when Microsoft issued 16 security updates that fixed 34 flaws.

Source: Computer World

Free Tech Support Via E-mail!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:49:00 +0000

Hello to all my readers, starting today onward I am accepting inquiries from my readers regarding hardware and software problems, I will be providing you answers and recommendation to the best of my knowledge. Just e-mail me at litoac@yahoo.com and I will answer your email as soon as possible.

Have a nice day!

Regenerate Your Harddrive!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:48:00 +0000

The most important component in your PC is your hard drive, it is where your important application and data are stored, but most often hard drive will develop bad sectors overtime causing your system to crush.If your hard disk is still under warranty then I suggests that you return it to where you bought it, for replacement. If its already out of manufacturers warranty(5 years), I had this very useful utility that can fix your hard drive's bad sectors most of the time, it does not just fix your hard drive it may restore back the corrupted data that are store in those bad sectors.

The application is user friendly and can be run within inside windows or you can create a bootable disk.

Download Here:HDD Util

Maximize Your Harddrive Warranty!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:33:00 +0000

Hard drive in one's PC is one of the most important component of your PC, be it mobile or desktop. The reason I wrote this topic is to inform you(in case you don't know) that hard drives manufacturers(SEAGATE, Maxtor, Western) actually give more than 1 year in all their products.So, instead of buying a new hard drive I suggest that you verify first your drive's warranty with its manufacturers, most of them can be done online. I myself prefer Seagate's products because they offer 5 years warranty and free shipping in all returned defective item. Its hassle less transaction on your part.

Click on the link to verify warranty and return your Seagate's product!
Verify and Return Seagate's Harddrive

Malware scanner finds 5% of Windows PCs infected

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:15:00 +0000

One in every 20 Windows PCs whose users turned to Microsoft for cleanup help were infected with malware, Microsoft said this week.

Microsoft cited that statistic and others from data generated by its new Safety Scanner, a free malware scanning and scrubbing tool that re-launched May 12.

The 420,000 copies of the tool that were downloaded in the first week of its availability cleaned malware or signs of exploitation from more than 20,000 Windows PCs, Microsoft's Malware Protection Center (MMPC) reported Wednesday. That represented an infection rate of 4.8%.

On average, each of the infected PCs hosted 3.5 threats, which Microsoft defined as either actual malware or clues that a successful attack had been launched against the machine.

Of the top 10 threats found by Safety Scanner, seven were Java exploits, said Scott Wu and Joe Faulhaber of the MMPC, in a blog post. Wu is a program manager with the MMPC, while Faulhaber is a software engineer.

That finding backs up a recent Microsoft security intelligence report that noted a huge spike in Java-based exploits in the second half of 2010, when the number tracked by Microsoft jumped to nearly 13 million from around 1 million in the first six months of that year.

Microsoft blamed exploits of just two vulnerabilities in Oracle's Java for generating 85% of all Java attacks in the second half of 2010. Not surprising, those same two vulnerabilities ranked No. 1 and No. 6 in the Safety Scanner top 10.

One of the heavily-exploited Java bugs was patched in December 2008 by Sun -- which has since been swallowed by Oracle -- while the other was fixed in November 2009.

Microsoft has sounded the warning about the explosion in Java exploits before. In October 2010, Holly Stewart, another MMPC manager, said the attack volume was "scary" and "unprecedented."

Hacker reliance on Java made sense to Marc Fossi, the director of Symantec's security response team, in an interview last year. "Since Java is both cross-browser and cross-platform, it can be appealing to attackers," he said, referring to Java's use by every major browser, and on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Safety Scanner found 2,272 Windows PCs with evidence of an exploit of the most wide-used Java bug, dubbed "CVE-2008-5353" in the Common Vulnerabilities & Exploits database. Of those machines, 7.3% of them also contained the notorious Alureon rootkit, while 5.7% of them had been infected with one of the fake security programs of the "Winwebsec" family.

"By the time a user downloads and runs [Microsoft Safety Scanner] to detect malware, the machine may have already been infected, if it was vulnerable to the exploit at the time," acknowledged Wu and Faulhaber.

Alureon made news in February 2010 when Windows XP systems infected with the rootkit were crippled after a Microsoft security update. And Winwebsec, as Microsoft called the line of phony antivirus software that dupes victims into paying for the worthless program, has been linked to MacDefender, the scareware that's been plaguing Mac users all month.

Safety Scanner, which replaced an older online-only tool, uses the same technology and detection signatures as Microsoft's free consumer-grade Security Essentials antivirus program and its Forefront Endpoint Protection product for enterprises.

The free scanner can be downloaded here.

Looking for new youtube downloader?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 02:46:00 +0000

Have you found problem downloading any youtube video lately? it maybe due to admin restriction to video which are copyrighted by giant music and movie companies.It seems that the campaign of companies that are trying stop the proliferation of illegal downloads over the net are gaining grounds, this is the reason why Limewire company has already has a court order to cease and decease their operation until such case be resolve.

But If you are one of those who love to download music and video for free, I recommend this software. Its not just performs video download it also convert video to any format you want. Its a nice find!

Download Here: Youtube Downloader

A Few things about Windows XP!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:04:00 +0000

In case you did not know it yet, I compiled few things about Windows XP!

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

Branded or Compatible desktop?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:13:00 +0000

Buying a new desktop? but still undecided what brand to buy?, This may help you make the choice.

Here are some points to ponder upon:

1.Public perception is that branded desktop PC is durable than assembled PC,true at some point, but not all branded PC are made the same, in fact I also experienced hardware problems in some of this popular brand in the market.

2.Parts that are installed in branded PC's are just almost the same with those found in any assembled PC units.

3.Hardware installed on any branded PC are just mixture of pc parts from different companies, such as Seagate, Kingston, LG or Samsung, liteon...ECS, Foxconn,etc.The only difference is its CPU casing which they design it to look so attractive.

Recommendation:

I will rather opt to pick my own pc parts with good quality at any hardware store and assembled it myself, in this way I am assured of a good performing CPU at a cheaper price. In case you have little knowledge in identifying the good stuff ask a friend or pay somebody to do the job for you, I am sure the cost will still be a lot cheaper than you buy a branded one.

Tune Up Utility At Its Best

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Hello to all my readers, just recently I discovered a high performance utility software that is easy to install and maneuver, yet it has robust performance.

Try it and you will be satisfied of its performance, the software not just tweak your systems performance, it has a lot of additional features.

Click to Download

Download Tuneup Utility

Dealing hard to remove viruses on one's PC!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:31:00 +0000

In days where PC viruses are not that hard to remove, a free version on any anti virus product will fairly do the job well. But as hardware and software advances, so with this criminal who are developing viruses that is hard to detect, even with those paid versions of those popular anti virus software.

If you suspect that your PC is infected with a hard to detect unknown virus, and your not yet ready to reformat your hard drive, you can try the following method:

1. Remove your hard drive and full scan it on another virus free PC with updated virus definition.

2.Another method is to download a rescue disk on some popular anti virus product(Kaspersky, bitdefender, avira,Norton...etc,), you can google it and its free.

Method 2 is more comprehensive than method 1 but its more tedious.

The concept behind using a rescue disk is to create a bootable disk out of the downloaded image and use it to scan you system.In this case you can full scan your hard drive without booting at the infected system thereby preventing hard to detect viruses(rootkits) to load at startup.After downloading use Daemon tools or PowerISO software to create the bootable CD.

Take note, downloading and creating the rescue disk must be done on a clean and virus free PC.

I am using a Kaspersky Rescue Disk but other anti virus rescue disk will also do the thing.

Click here to download Kaspersky Rescue Disk

One of the culprit of system slow down!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:23:00 +0000

Have you ever notice that your OS and other applications seems to perform sluggish or slow, in spite you done all the necessary tweaking?

Before you think of reformatting your hard drive, try to uninstall your anti-virus and check if system performance has improved. Many problems I have encountered in the past in as far as system slow down is concern can be attributed to a problematic anti virus application.

Re-install the same anti-virus or a different one, if problem still exist, its time to reformat your hard drive to restore your PC's performance.

Have a nice day!

PC Turns On When Power Is Plugged In!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:54:00 +0000

Have you ever encountered a system that automatically turns on, when power was just plugged-in in your AC outlet or the AVR was just turned on? Well this may be the same case I experience weeks ago.

Its a socket 775 MOBO, actually the brand is Asrock! I was troubleshooting an intermittent unit, I notice that when I turned on the AVR, the unit automatically turns on and it display a CMOS battery bad. Although the system works just normally(except for the time and date), it is not just normal. So I replaced the CMOS battery, and to my surprise the unit does not turned on automatically anymore,the system now turns on via its switch, therefore the previous problem was caused by a drained CMOS battery.

Strange problem can sometime remedied on an unexpected manner, that's what makes my profession challenging, you will encounter unusual problem all the time.

That's all folks, until on my next post and belated happy new year to all!

China Warns About Return of Destructive Panda Virus

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:37:00 +0000

A computer worm that China warned Internet users against is an updated version of the Panda Burning Incense virus, which infected millions of PCs in the country three years ago, according to McAfee.

The original Panda worm, also known as Fujacks, caused widespread damage at a time when public knowledge about online security was low, and led to the country's first arrests for virus-writing in 2007. The new worm variant, one of many that have appeared since late 2006, adds a malicious component meant to make infection harder to detect, said Vu Nguyen, a McAfee Labs researcher.

"It has gotten more complex with the addition of a rootkit," said Nguyen. "It definitely makes it more challenging for users to clean up and even to know that their systems have been compromised."

A rootkit burrows into a system to try to hide the existence of malware.

The first Panda worm gained fame in China for switching the icons of infected files with an image of a panda holding three incense sticks. The same image would also flash across a victim's screen, but the worm's final goal was to install password-stealing Trojan horses. The worm infected millions of PCs, according to Chinese state media. Its author was ordered to write a removal tool for the worm and later sentenced to four years in prison.

China's national virus response center warned about the updated worm earlier this week, but it dubbed the virus Worm_Piloyd.B and did not link it to Panda. The center said it had found a worm spreading online that infected executables and html files. The worm blocked a victim's PC from restoring infected files, turned off active antivirus software and directed the machine to Web sites to download Trojan horses and other malware, the center said. The center urged Internet users to step up defense on their PCs against unknown viruses.

The new worm is unlikely to hit as many PCs as the first one. Chinese companies and Internet users are much more aware of malware than they were a few years ago, partly because of the wake-up call brought by the first Panda worm, said Nguyen.

As in other countries, cybercrime looks increasingly professional in China and labor is often divided along the production chain from virus design to the sale of stolen information. Chinese police are rushing to keep pace and cybercrime arrests have become more common in the country. Police in central Hubei province recently took six suspects into custody for building and selling viruses and attacking victims with a botnet, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said this week. The group made over 2 million yuan (US$290,000) in about six months from their activities, the report said.

Separately, a Shanghai court this week sentenced a man to six months in prison after his Internet company spent the equivalent of $17,500 to launch a denial-of-service attack on a rival's servers, according to local media. The man's company, iSpeak, paid for the use of a botnet to attack rival Duowan.com, reports said. A botnet is a network of malware-infected PCs that an attacker can order to repeatedly contact a target server all at once, overwhelming the machine with requests for information and essentially shutting it down.

China officially had 338 million Internet users at the end of June, more than the population of the U.S.

A small utility inside your Windows OS!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Looking for a utility that gives summary on the hardware/software installed on your PC? from board manufacturer, memory size, hard drive capacity, software information......etc?

Some of us are using Windows XP for so many years now but maybe a few knows that this utility existed within Windows. The utility name is MSINFO32, a useful utility that gives quick overall view of your system.

To launch utility just click Start, click Run, type MSINFO32 in the Open box, and then click OK.

Wait a few seconds and a window appear that displays all the related information!

Happy Weekend!

Proper Approach In PC Troubleshooting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:56:00 +0000

Today I will discussed some troubleshooting approach that may help shorten your time in solving/isolating a particular PC problem.

Based on experience, I often encountered problems that seems a major problem when its not.
An example of this is a blackout motherboard only to find out that cmos enable switch is wrongfully set or there is no jumper inserted on the CMOS enable switch.

Another example is that you just transfered your PC in a different location, and when you plug everything you got a non responsive unit or PC on a continues reset, only to find out that PC was wrongfully inserted on the 110V power source, instead on the 220V outlet.

There are other scenarios that you will encounter in troubleshooting a particular problem, but with the right approach you can shorten the time in your troubleshooting.

Listed below are my basic approach in PC troubleshooting,

1.Talk to the user first what he/she noticed before the PC bogged down, often it will perform strangely, it this way you may have a hint to were you start your troubleshooting.

2.Try to establish if the problem cause by a software or a hardware, in this way you can cut half of your time in troubleshooting.

3.Look for minor cause of a particular problem first before digging deeper unto it, you may wrongfully reformat a PC that intermittently resets but later you found out that its just a case of poor memory contact on its slot or a clogged processor heatsink.

Thats all for now folks, I hope this particular topic help enhance your troubleshooting skills!

Just another LAN problem with a twist

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Its another busy week, one problem I encounter that I want to post here is about a LAN connection problem on a problematic RJ45 connection.

The problem indicates a no connectivity even if LAN cable is inserted(take note that this is a previously working connection), on the first look of the situation there are possible scenarios that may have caused it, it maybe cause by problematic LAN cable or RJ45 connection,a LAN card problem or perhaps a software problem.

The first thing I did is checked and re-crimped(without replacing the connector) both ends of the LAN cable(visually connection looks fine) but problem still the same. I go ahead on replacing a different LAN card(PC is using a PCI LAN card), when I rebooted the system it detects the new hardware and load the corresponding driver but still a no connectivity exist. What else is left, a cable or a software problem? this will requires a lot of work if I will replaced either of the two, so I look for other ways to confirmed the problem.

Before I continue, I just want to add more info about this particular problem, the problem occurs after the two PC has switched location.The reason I include this fact because this will be bring twist to the problem. I re-inserted that problematic cable to another PC, it's actually the one being previously switched and to my big surprise the connection did work fine.

I re-insert both PCI LAN card to the other PC, still no connectivity exist. The LAN device used on the particular PC where the particular connection work is on board(strange?), I replaced both RJ45 connectors on the problematic connection and connectivity backs to normal.

Conclusion
A not so good RJ45 connection exists from the very beginning the LAN cable was installed its just it works on the original PC which is using an on board LAN, the problem was only discovered when the user switched PC.

PC cannot establish network connectivity!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:48:00 +0000

I just want to discuss a particular network problem I encounter just recently, it's actually an additional connection to the router, the cable is just newly bought and crimped from the store.

The problem encountered is when you plugged the cable, network icon indicates a limited connectivity and shows an exclamation point. It took me sometime to trouble shoot the problem, but later I found out that CAT5 cable is not crimped based on standard configuration.

The hard part in identifying the problem is that LAN cable is newly purchased so it's the least you suspect.In case you encounter similar problem described above, try to inspect the connector visually or adjust network connection properties to 10 mbps full duplex(default setup is auto), if PC established network connectivity then it's confirmed that connector was not crimped in accordance to standards.

It is important than you observe proper cable configuration when crimping new connections to ensure a problem-free network.

Standard CAT5 LAN connector configuration:

My Favorite Anti-Virus Programs(Software Freebies)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:17:00 +0000

From my previous post,I note the importance of having a good anti-virus on one's system,I now post my favorite anti virus programs based on performance and its a 3 program download.

After installing any of the program make sure to update the virus pattern, then full scan your system. Regular full scanning of one's PC is recommended at least once a month, sometimes malware, trojan, rootkits, slip on one's system unnoticed and will activate when certain conditions exist.

Enjoy!

Click link to download!
Anti-Virus1

Anti-Virus2

One way to stop viruses/worms propagation in one's PC!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:09:00 +0000

As hardware and software advances in the last couple of years so was the crooks who are creator of hard to detect and delete viruses in one's PC, and as the internet is very much affordable as ever it only give this criminals easy way to propagate their evil wrongdoings.

As technical support for the last decade I witnessed some of the variety of viruses that bring damage to one's PC and believe me containing some of those viruses is getting harder everyday.

One of most easy way this worms/viruses propagates is via a USB Flash drive,when you insert a device via usb connector your system perform an autorun function prompting you to choose an options what to do next.This is were this viruses attempt to infect your system and if your anti-virus software is not good enough to detect such an attempt your system will be infected in an instant, making your PC to perform slow or your PC to hangup.That's why choosing a good anti virus software is also an important key to combat such an attack and I will discuss this topic on my future post.

Disabling autorun on your system and FD(Flash Drive)is one way to help prevent stop virus propagation,disabling autorun on your system can be done manually but if you are an end user it maybe unsafe to open the system configuration and some are afraid to do it for the reason that they might do it the wrong way.

The easy way to disable autorun on one's system is to use a small utility software, there are lots on the net and its available for free, the one I used is from a reputable anti virus company, if you want to download it you can click the link below.

Note:Make sure to disable autorun feature both your PC and your USB Flash Drive to lessen the risk on infection.

Good Day and Happy Weekend!

Disable Autorun Utility
USB Vaccine

Internet giants should make the move!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:27:00 +0000

Good day, today I want to discuss adult qualification requirements when registering a website, especially social networking website such as Yahoo, Friendster and others alike.

The reason I brought this topic because I was monitoring my kid(a 6th grader) browsing activity lately and I notice the he is hook too much in this social networking websites.Well some may say so what, almost everybody is doing it? I don't argue on it,that's the IN thing nowadays, but what I do disagree with is the way this websites conduct adult qualification check on their applicants.

If you notice when you register on this websites(ex: Yahoo, Friendster, Facebook,etc.)you can easily falsify your personal information especially the age category, the implication to this is that there will be a lot of kids which is below 18 years old that can easily get around the age requirements and become members to this websites.The moment minors will become members to this websites they will be exposed to things that are not appropriate on there age bracket.

Of course the parents can do their share in monitoring their child internet browsing activity but parents can't monitor their kids all the time. This is were this websites play a very important role in tightening the age requirements of an applicant, they are the last line of defense against younger kid pretending to be adult.

But, the question is are these websites willing to implement a registration filtering system that will somehow works against their growth? that's a big question that only them can answer.But to me this websites has social responsibility to help make the internet a safer place for the kids and all of us.

They(Owner) already make millions($) from their websites,it is now time for them to do the right thing in making the net(world) a safer place to browse for all of us, especially the younger generation.

Software Freebies Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Everyday on the net we stumble on a lot of many PC utilities that promise to speed up one's system but came short once you install it,but today I will share a very useful software that will really help speed up things on your PC.

Its a 4 program package and you have to install it separately, the program designed is very user friendly and its best for users who are not really familiar in manual tweaking.

It defrags, clean registry, look for missing drivers,clean unwanted files and many more.

Here's the link guys, Enjoy!

SpeedUpMy PC

Another PC Mind Boggling Problem!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Every day at work I used to experience unusual problem, just yesterday I encountered such a problem. The unit is a P4 CPU, the only problem of the unit is it cannot connect the net, it always indicate a limited connectivity. I tried all the basics to fix the problem, but still does'nt work.

The network device was tested good in other unit,And I suspect that it maybe a software problem so I decided to install a different harddrive with a fresh installed OS, to check if it can connect to the net with no problem and it did. With that I decided to replace the OS to restore its internet connectivity. I install back its original harddrive and started the system, but I decided to check its internet connection again before fresh installing the whole drive and to my surprise the connection was restored.

It may leave so many questions in me, but I was happy though that network connection was restored with less effort.

Tribute to a great leader!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Today I will go off topic, to give last respect of woman who play a significant rule in restoring democracy in our country and become an inspiration to every nation who loves democracy.

Farewell President Cory Aquino!

To learn more about President Cory Aquino! click link below

Cory Aquino

Different Virus Description & Characteristic Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:53:00 +0000

Continuation...........

MALICIOUS UTILITIES

These utilities are designed specifically to inflict damage.However, unlike other malware programs, they do not perform malicious actions immediately as they are run and can be safely stored and run on the user's computer.Such programs have functions used to create viruses, worms and Trojan programs, arrange network attacks on remote servers, hacking computers or other malicious actions.

There are many types of malware utilities with different functions.

Their types are described in the table below.
Click to download table in PDF form

POTENTIALY UNWANTED PROGRAMS

Potentially unwanted programs, unlike malware programs, are not intended solely to inflict damage.However they can be used to breach the computer's security.

Potentially unwanted programs include adware, pornware and other potentially unwanted programs.

ADWARE

Adware programs involve display of advertising information to the user.They display ad banners in other program's interface and redirect search queries to advertising websites.
Some adware programs collect and redirect to their developer marketing information about the user, for example, which sites he or she visits or which search requests he or she performs (unlike Trojan spies, these programs transfer this information with the user's permission).

PORNWARE

Usually, users install such programs themselves in order to search for or download pornographic information.

Intruders also can install these programs on the user's computer in order to display ads of commercial pornographic sites and services to the user without his or her permission.

To be installed, they use vulnerabilities of the operating system or web browser, Trojan downloaders and Trojan droppers. There are three types of pornographic nature distinguished based on their functions.

These types are described in the table below.
Click to download table in PDF form

OTHER RISKWARE PROGRAMS

Most of these programs are useful programs used by many users. They include IRC clients, dialers, file downloading programs, computer system activity monitors, utilities for working with passwords, FTP, HTTP or Telnet service internet servers.

However, if an intruder obtains access to these programs or install them to the user's computer, such intruder can use some of their functionality to breach the security. Other riskware programs are classified depending on their functions.

Their types are described in the table below.
Click to download table in PDF form

Until on my next post!