The calls are starting to ramp up wondering about AVG's messages regarding the discontinuation of their anti-virus. The message is a little alarming, but rest assured that AVG (Grisoft) is NOT going out-of-business and for home users the product will remain free. Although Grisoft is discontinuing support and updates for their current version, they have released a new version of… Read More »AVG AntiVirus Upgrade
One of my customers today had a problem with general computer slowness, pop-ups and couldn't hook up to their cable connection. This particular client is well known to me because I help clean up the computer on a fairly regular basis. My advice is always the same: don't use free download services (Bear Share was loaded), online poker sites are known spyware beds (two different online poker programs were loaded), please use the proven anti-virus and anti-spyware software that I install and configure (my software was deleted in favor of the super secure AOL Security Suite).
After removing the AOL security suite and re-enabling the high speed connection, I installed AVG Anti-virus and Anti-spyware. Just doing a quick scan with the Anti-spyware program yielded more than 80 spyware problems which AVG then dispatched of quickly. Is this a slam of AOL? No, just a factual account of yet another example of what I find on computers that use sup-par security systems. To be fair to the AOL system, the computer user engaged in practices that would tax any computer system, but the problems would not have been nearly magnified with the security setup that we recommend.
I took a short two-day vacation with my family. When I got back I had 31 calls to return. I was able to get back to almost all of them but I still have a few to call back tomorrow.
I am about ready to declare that computers are not yet perfect. With all of the windows fixes, anti-virus programs and teenagers out there to fix and prevent computer problems, we have made little progress in perfecting today's machines.
Some people call it job security, but I think there is plenty of job security just in teaching people how to use clean running systems. We don't need problems to keep good computer guys employed.
While reading through the news from last week, I came across this story at CNN about the increase in the number of viruses in Macs this year.
The story gives most of it's attention to a story from last week about a PC viruses that was found on very few iPods (less than 1 percent). Reading a little further down, I saw this little gem:
"Oliver Friedrichs, director of security response at Symantec, a leading anti-virus software vendor, said 72 vulnerabilities were discovered in the Mac's OS X operating system in 2006, up from 19 in 2004."
Many of my shotguns this week have been more news than tips, but they are extremely important news items. Today, I want to inform you that our favorite anti-virus software and anti-spyware software has released new versions. AVG released version 7.5 of their anti-virus software and also rolled out their free (for home users) edition of their new anti-spyware program that resulted from their acquisition of Ewido earlier this year.
The announcement is important for two reasons. 1) Grisoft (makers of AVG) will no longer support the current 7.0 version of AVG starting in February 2007, and 2) Even with the upgrades in protection and updating, AVG remains one of the only anti-virus programs available for older operating systems including Windows 98. We interviewed the president of Grisoft last year on the show, and he reiterated his company's commitment to providing top of the line computer protection at affordable prices for businesses and free for home users without compromising computer performance. And his company has certainly held true to those goals. We continue to be very impressed with these products and recommend them hands down over any product available today.
I had one of my longest appointments ever today as I cleaned a computer free of almost 15,000 viruses, setup a network, installed a wireless card, removed bad security software and replaced it with AVG, did troubleshooting on a fax machine problem and installed Firefox.
I even left for lunch and to another appointment for a while. The appointment took 5 hours not counting virus scans (I went to lunch and another appointment once I saw that there were more than 500 viruses.)
Of course my client was curious how so many viruses got on the computer. I had to explain that it was all caused by infected files that were downloaded through a file sharing program.
Picking out an Internet provider in the good ol' days of the Internet was easy. All you had to do was pick a company that wasn't owned by AOL and you'd be OK.
Today the choice is much tougher because you must choose between dial-up and broadband. And if you choose broadband, you must choose which type of broadband is best for you.
Here is a handy guide to help you decide.
Dial-up – Dial-up Internet the slowest way to connect to the Internet, but it is usually the least expensive if you are comparing actual costs of service. However, there are other disadvantages besides lack of speed.
While Rick and I run seperate businesses, we each do the same thing. I spend my day travelling to various homes and businesses all over town to work on computer problems and train people how to get more from their systems.
To do this I have been charging $50/hr. for homes and $75/hr. for businesses. Does that sound like a lot? Probably not if you live in a bigger city, but let's compare that to everything else out there.
As gas prices have gone up and everything else has gone up in price right along with it, I have kept the same rates for over two years. I hate raising my rates. But, after doing some math and some research, I don't feel too bad about making the big move to raise my rates.
REALLY! The health of your computer, your friend's computer, your neighbor's computer, the government computers, my computer are all at stake. Heck, economies world wide depend on the information I am about to repeat to you and you HAVE to forward it every computer user you know! REALLY!
I cleaned up a laptop today that belonged to a sophomore in college. She readily admitted that she knew very little about her computer and knew nothing about Internet security. After cleaning off some horrific spyware and a couple of viruses, I explained to her how to maintain the standard products I add to all my customer's computer:
We have talked and written volumes on this subject, so I'm listing for you links to the articles and tips we have written so you can brush up and educate and inform all the computer users you know.
There are many things that can slow a computer down, but nothing does more to negatively impact the performance of a computer more than spyware. Even many viruses run undetected, but almost all spyware prevents a system from running at top speed.
Spyware comes from a variety of places, but there are three types of web browsing that will guarantee that you accumulate some of the worst forms of spyware.
Online gambling sites: Not all online gambling sites are sources of spyware, but most of them are.
Online surveys and drawings via popups and spams: Many legitimate companies ask for your opinion through surveys, but surveys can also be lures for spyware. If you get a popup or spam offering a free iPod, laptop, ringtone, etc., consider it a trick to get you to download spyware.