What Is Malware?

August 7, 2012
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I just wanted to give a brief overview of what malware is and the difference between this and viruses. Malware stands for malicious software and is software that gets installed on your computer without your approval. Malware is a general terms that is often used to describe all of the spyware, worms, viruses, and pretty much just about anything else that is created to mess up your computer and steal information off of it.

Viruses are programs that can replicate themselves and try to infect more than one computer. It is designed to spread itself onto more computers and wreak havoc this way. Some viruses will try and delete files or corrupt system files to render your computer inoperable. In general viruses try to wreak havoc and “break” your computer by changing or deleting files.

In my next post I will go over the steps I take to clean and repair a computer that has malware on it.

RG

Internet Doomsday July 9th, 2012

July 4, 2012
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I just read an article today that I thought I would share with you in case you haven’t heard. If your computer is infected with the DNS Changer malware your computer will not be able to access the internet on July 9th, 2012. The FBI is going to prevent computers infected with this virus from accessing the internet.

The DNS changer trojan horse surfaced in 2007 and had infected millions of computers both PC and Mac. It would redirect you to hacked websites and kept your computer from updating or using your antivirus programs.

To see if you are infected with this virus go to http://www.dns-ok.us/ and if your computer is infected you can run a repair tool from Avira at http://www.avira.com/en/support-for-home-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/1199

If you have any questions or have trouble getting rid of this virus please let me know and I would be more than happy to help. But you need to act soon as July 9th is fast approaching.

RG

Can’t Download iOS 5.1.1

June 22, 2012
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If you have having trouble updating your iPad or iPhone to the new iOS 5.1.1 here is a quick tip that should fix the problem of not downloading the update.

Go into your wifi settings and change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8

Now try and download the update again. If should work now and take about 20 minutes (depending on your connection speed) to download. Its about a 200mb update and once downloaded will take about 8 minutes to install. Once installed it will restart your device.

I would also check your apps to see if there are any updates for any of them.

RG

Norton AntiVirus 2012 For 3 PCs

May 22, 2012
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***Updated 6/5/2012***

I just came across this offer and thought I would share it with everyone. You can get Norton Internet Security 2012 software for only $23.99 (which is a $56 savings over the retail cost of $79.99). This offer is only good till 6/09/12. Click here to view the offer.

 This is a great deal and if you currently don’t have an antivirus software this would be good one to get. If you feel this is still too expensive then you can always try a free one call Avast. So either download Avast or buy Norton but just make sure you have some kind of antivirus protection on your computer to prevent many hours of headache should you ever get a virus.

How To Get Pictures From Samsung Galaxy S2 To Computer

May 9, 2012
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I had a user with a Samsung Galaxy S2 and was having a hard time trying to get the pictures from his phone onto his computer.  I thought this would be as simple as connecting the phone via a USB cable and then opening up my computer and download the pictures. Boy was I wrong!!  After doing some research I was able to finally figure it out.  It’s a lot harder than it should be, but here are the steps.
 
1) ** Important: Make sure you have not connected your phone to the computer via the USB cable. You will do this in a later step.**
 
2) In the Settings menu go to Wireless and network and open.
 
3) Now go to USB utilities and open. You will see a screen like the one below that says “connect storage to pc“. Click on connect storage to PC button.
 
4) A message now comes up and says “connect USB cable to use mass storage” like the picture below. At this point you now connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable.
 
5) Now a little green android guy pops up like the picture below. Now tap on the “connect USB storage” button. You will see a little circle come up and then a few seconds later you should see the little green andriod turn orange with a message saying “USB storage in use.” 
 
 
6) Now on your computer an Auto Play will pop up on your screen. Click on “open folder to view files.” Now you can open up the DCIM folder, and then open up the camera folder. You will now see all your pics and videos which you can now copy onto your computer.
 
It seems like a long process but once you do this a couple of times its fairly easy, but not as easy and intuitive as it could be. I hope this helps some of you out there. 🙂