Beware the fake stimulus

Email scams are nothing new; for example, look at the 'Nigerian Prince' (aka 419) emails.

But with the down economy, email scammers have a new tack, the 'fake stimulus' email. Because so many people are in trouble, either with their mortgage or with jobs and money in general, people are willing to be more gullible than ever if it means that they have a chance a getting some of the government stimulus money.
Emails are going out that look and sound official, as if some heretofore unknown government agency was telling people how to apply for government assistance. These emails do not come from a .gov address, nor do they have any official seals on them(even though a govt. seal is easy to fake).
People are just very willing right now to take a strangers word that this stranger knows how to get government stimulus money, that they are willing to share it with you, and it will only cost you a small administrative fee.

You should know by now that any email that says they know a secret way to get money from the government is fake, and a scam.
And, in addition, any email that asks for money is crooked and will only get you in trouble. Not with the government, but with your wallet.

So dont believe it. There is no stimulus money being given out to individual citizens. Even if there was, the government would not send you an anonymous email telling you so.

Why doesnt my Wi-fi work

If you live in an old house, that is, really old, your walls are probably made of a combination of hardwood sticks and a cement-like mortar; this is called 'lathe and plaster'.

Tests on wi-fi signal strengths have shown that lathe and plaster walls are so dense that they reflect the radio signals that make up your wi-fi signal. The next worse thing to have in your walls between you and your router are metal ductwork. The metal of the ductwork also reflects the radio signals.

The solution is one of two things: buy a stronger router(or a booster for your existing one), or move the router closer to where you want to work.

If you go the new router route, you will want to buy an "N" router(that means 802.11n, Draft 2.0); these are the newest and strongest routers, designed to bounce the signal around obstacles.

Printing (or not) from Mac's to PC's

Yesterday I had a customer whose daughter had an older iMac who wanted to print over the network to a printer hooked to a PC.

The PC was an older Dell and the printer was an older Dell All-In-One. Dell printers are made by Lexmark, the printer software is made by Lexmark, but the printer drivers are written by Dell.
(Drivers are small pieces of software that tell a piece of hardware how to operate; in this case how to print a document.)

It turns out that the Dell AIO did not have Macintosh drivers. The Mac could see the PC (who was acting as a print server), could send the print job to the PC, the printer would say "printing" and yet nothing happened.

The moral of the story: make sure your PC's printer has Mac drivers available.

More on the fake Anti-virus front

I've talked before about fake anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Normally you can write down the name of the suspicious program and Google it or go to respected review sites for answers.

Now, maybe not.

The newest fake anti-virus, Antivirus-1 or AntiVirus2010, will change the listing of known good websites contained in your browser(this is called the hosts file), and if you try to go to a well-known website like PC magazine, ZD Net, etc. the fake antivirus will re-direct your browser to a fake site controlled by the virus' author, where it will show glowing, wonderful reviews about the fake anti-virus program.

The best way to avoid this is to have a good anti-virus program running and updated. Also, it is good to be suspicious of any program you dont remember installing.

New Security Threats

It seems like there are always more threats to look out for. Today, some new ones you might not have heard of.

Variations on 'phishing': Voicemail and Twitter.
Voicemail Phishing ("vishing"): A voicemail call (sometimes called a 'robo-call') from your bank or a company you've recently done business with telling you that a large transaction, usually something you havent done, has been held up.
The call includes a tol free number tha tyou are asked to call right away to fix the problem. Once you do, a voice menu prompts you to key in your credit card number, as well as the expiration date and 3-digit security code on the back. After which, the caller is usually hung up on, or placed on terminal hold.

Twitter Phishing ("twishing"): A fake tweet (blog posts on Twitter are called 'tweets') is sent to your account with a link that supposedly sends you somewhere harmless, such as youtube or Flickr, but really sends you to a fake login page where you are asked to give up all of your info.

Power Leeches

PC World had an article recently about electronic gadget and how much power they consume even when turned off, or even when just the charger is plugged in but not charging anything.

It appears that the answer to "should I turn my computer off at night?" is "only if you want to save money on your power bill." The tower itself consumes about $7 dollars a month if you leave it on 24/7. Your entire computer setup (tower, monitor, speakers, etc) can cost you as much as $60 month; even in 'power-save' mode.

Un-dunking your cell phone

If you've ever dunked, washed, or otherwise immersed your phone in water, you feel like you've lost everything. But what if you could undo the dunking?

Take your freshly dunked phone, get a cooking pot or deep bowl, fill it full of uncooked rice. Submerge the phone in the rice and leave it there for a few hours or overnight.
Afterward, it should work as normal.

It needs to be noted, however, that this is not guaranteed to work; but it should.

And now, a couple of things that you should definitely not do with a wet phone:

• Use a hair dryer to dry it off. The heat can damage components.
• Put it in the microwave. The metal will spark and internal components can short out, so even if they were to dry, they would be fried.
• Leaving it out to air dry. This would work with a CRT monitor, but not with a phone; the water would have no where to go, and could continue damaging internal components.

Also, this is intended to work with water or water-based liquids (like coffee), not with syrup based liquids like soda (the water leaves, leaving the sticky syrup behind).

Blue Screen Errors

Sometimes fixing similar Blue Screen of Death(BSoD) error messages isnt as easy as it seems.

When you have an IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, the first thing you do is swap out the RAM; but when you add DRIVER_IRQL to the error message, it becomes much harder.
You might think, as I did, swap out the RAM first. That doesnt work. You might also think that there is a driver issue, after all, the error message says 'driver' in it.
Ok, but which driver? In my case, it was a video problem. Changing the video driver didnt help.

Now, you might be thinking, Google for the answer. I did; at least 4 different answers, including Microsoft's. All of them suggested something besides the RAM and the video drivers; so I tried them all (Microsoft's answer was to change the video drivers).

After everything was tried, I used System Restore and went back further than the time the problem had occurred. I got the rid of the video problem, but the Blue Screen remained.

If you know a definitive answer, I'd love to hear it.

A Bad Valentine

There is an email currently making the rounds that has a Valentines Day-themed romantic message. The email has only one or two lines of text and a link to a web page.

Surely, I dont need to remind you NOT to click on any links in mysterious or spam emails, do I?

But, if you do need the reminder, and you DID click the link, it takes you to a web-page full of cute little hearts and a message that says "Guess which one is for you?" If you click anywhere on or near the heart pictures, you will be asked to run a program. This program is a virus, and it will 'zombify' your computer(allow someone from the Internet to take remote control).

The virus doesnt happen automatically; the email contains no virus, visiting the website will not automatically virus your computer(as can sometimes happen), YOU must download and run the virus. You will even be asked 'are you sure?' If you are using the Firefox browser, you will be asked twice.

So why the concern? Because in the month the email has been circulating, the amount of infected computers has been steadily rising.

So dont click the link! If you do, dont click on the webpage! If you do, dont run the program!

If, after all of this, you do run the program, save up some money for the sooner-rather-than-later repair you will need.

What you might not know about the Digital Transition

With all of this talk about the transition to digital over-the-air broadcasting, some things have gotten lost. There is some confusion about what needs to be replaced, or added, or whatnot.

First, you do not need to replace your TV; your TV will work just as well as it ever has, but unless it can receive the new TV signal you wont be able to watch any programs.
With current over the air broadcasts, which are called analog (because they're simple radio waves), if you receive a weak signal it shows up as static, and you can try to tune in a better signal.

With digital broadcast signals, there is no 'weak' signal, it is either strong and bright or not there at all. If you live in a place where your current TV signal is weak, you will receive no signal at all after the changeover.

Consumer Reports suggests that if you receive the error message from a digital tuner(the add-on box you will need to receive the new TV signal) that says "weak signal" that you get a bigger antenna, move your current antenna near to a window, or to a higher point in your house, such as an attic, or buy a signal booster (which you can attach to the TV).

If you live in a Comcast service area, they are required to sell over the air channels at low cost (sometimes as low $11/mo); however, they are not required to tell customers that this service is available; you will have to ask for it.

Credit Card Fraud

A recent Wired magazine article made me think about credit cards and the possibility of theft and abuse.
Your credit (or debit/"check guarantee") card is an amazing thing; it allows you to buy things without using money. However, most people look at their credit cards as if they were pieces of plastic instead of being as good as cash.
It is possible these days for a waiter/waitress to pass your card through a miniature card reader, called a "skimmer," before they pass it through the point of sale machine. Skimming can happen anywhere; anyone you hand your card to can pass it through a reader in only a second or two.

The best way to avoid having your card "skimmed" is to not hand it to anyone, or, at the very least, watch the person you hand it to until they hand it back.
While is not possible everywhere, you should do it whenever possible.

The reason you should treat your credit/debit card as if it were cash is because criminals can make an exact copy of your card, and max it out, in less than a day.

It is always good policy to closely watch your statements when they come, because most credit card companies will forgive charges made with a stolen card IF you report them as soon as they are noticed.
Debit cards, however, do not have this same protection. Debit cards are hooked up to your bank account and if they are stolen, your bank account can be emptied in hours. This is why you should treat your cards, especially debit cards, as if they were cash.

Netbooks and Error Messages

Recently, a customer had a netbook that would not boot up; when he tried to re-install from restore disks, his netbook gave him a series of unusual error messages.

Because it looked like a problem with the restore disc, I tried several other discs that I knew were good, but I got the same results. After some more testing, I got a Blue Screen (of Death) whose error message, IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, I knew to be indicative of bad RAM. So, I replaced the RAM in the socket on the bottom of the netbook.

No change. Same error messages. I searched for a resolution on Google (the researchers friend) and all the results said 'RAM issue'. But I had changed the RAM. So what was going on?

As it turns out, most netbook computers have a secondary RAM socket underneath the keyboard.

I pried up the bezel above the keyboard where the power switch usually is, lifted up the keyboard, and opened up this secondary RAM socket and replaced that RAM with the RAM originally taken from the primary socket.

Problem solved. (Once I placed the cover back on the socket.) No more error messages!

Except for the one preventing Windows from booting. Which was taken care of in short order.

On Modems and Routers

Sometimes technology just doesnt work.

Most people in large cities and towns have some form of connection to the Internet. Quite a few of these have "broadband", which is a generic term for a fast connection to the Internet; accomplished by a DSL or cable modem.
Alot of people also have more than one computer, thus needing a way to connect all of them to the Internet easily; hence, the router.

Normally, once hooked up, the router and modem work just fine. But, when they dont, the usual fix is to unplug one or both of them and wait.

As it happens, if you have a non-standard or older modem, you have to wait longer. As was the case last night, a lot longer.

Then you plug the modem in first, and wait. A few minutes (or an hour) later, you plug in the router. A few minutes after that, you turn on the computer(s) that you had turned off previously when you unplugged everything else.
Then you wait a few more minutes for everything to load and settle down and decide whether it wants to work properly.

Then you either celebrate your good fortune, or you curse and reach for the phone to call a guy to come out and do the same thing.

Network cables

You've heard the term "network cable" or "ethernet cable" before, but do you know what they are?
First off, the terms "Ethernet cable" and "network cable" are interchangeable. So if someone says to you "just go to the store and get an Ethernet cable" and everything is labeled "network cable", you'll know it is the same thing.

Secondly, there are two types and three varieties of Ethernet cables: Patch(also called "Internet") cables and crossover cables. Patch/Internet cables connect your computer to the high-speed modem; crossover cables connect one computer to another. These two type are NOT interchangeable.

With patch/Internet cables the three varieties are Category 5 (usually labeled as "cat5"), Cat 5e and Cat6. These labels refer to the type of wiring inside the cable itself.

Normally, you want Cat5e patch ("Internet") cable. If you need higher speed cable, look for Cat6 "Gigabit" cable.

Finally, a word about speed. Ethernet cables are rated for three levels of speed:
The oldest and slowest is 10Base-T, this isnt usually sold any more.
The next-newest is 10/100, which you can still buy.
The newest and fastest is Gigabit Ethernet, or 10/1000. Gigabit Ethernet is new enough that budget computers and pre-built computers more than 3 years old usually dont have it built in.

What is Windows 7?

Unless you are a computer geek, you probably have not heard about the newest version of Windows that is in development. This newest version is called Windows 7 (because it is the seventh actual version of Windows).

Since Vista has, relatively, just come out, a person might be excused for thinking 'Gee, isnt this new version coming out awfully quickly?' to which the answer is "no, not really."

Coming out relatively soon after Vista, you should know that Apple routinely puts out new versions of it OS 10 software for the Macintosh every 12 to 18 months; so the unusual part is that Microsoft waits 3 to 5 years between releases, and then expects everyone (businesses and households alike) to buy something entirely new.

Windows 7 looks alot like Vista, and, according to early tests, works alot like Vista but without the problems that plagued Vista when it first came out.

Does this new version of Windows matter? Do you need it, Will you need it?
Answers: Sort of, No and Maybe.
Windows 7 only matters in that it advances technology without forcing a hardware upgrade cycle like Vista did.
Needing it? If XP works for you now, and all you do is email, web surfing and Youtube, then you dont need it now(now meaning the beginning of next year, when it is scheduled for release).
Will you need it in the future? Yes, almost certainly. In the future when all things are possible, you will need the features Windows is promising. They will help you manage your photos, videos, all of the stuff you will be creating and storing.

In the somewhat more realistic future, Windows 7 will look prettier, be easier to manage and help you find all of your stuff faster... if Microsoft can do the one thing they've always promised but never done-

Deliver on their promises.

What Security Programs Should I Get?

It seems like every client I have asks this question. The answer depends on a couples of things:
What kind of Internet connection you have, and how often are you on the Internet/what do you do when you get there?

If you you have Dial-up, then any antivirus program you come across (except Windows Defender) will be enough security; I'd recommend AVG Free(http://free.avg.com).
If you have DSL or a Cable connection you need two types of programs all the time, and occasionally a third one for a couple of hours once a week(or once a month if you hardly use the Internet). The two types of programs you need all the time are antivirus and firewall. The third type is anti-spyware. If you arent using a firewall, then you will need the anti-spyware all the time.

So, which security program is the best? Does it have to be separate programs?

The answer to the second question is 'somtimes' and 'depends on the program you are using'.
If you are using a 'suite' (which is a combination of separate programs which are sold bundled together, like Microsoft Office) then no, all the security programs are installed and run as one program. If you are not using a 'suite', then yes, it has to be separate programs.

Which security program is the best? Currently, the 2 best are Norton 2009, which is available in standalone antivirus and as an Internet Security Suite, and Eset Nod32 antivirus; which is also available as standalone and suite. What is the difference between the two? Only price; Norton is the more expensive and Nod32 is only available from the Internet.

What would I recommend? Norton.

For anti-spyware, I'd recommend Webroot's Spy Sweeper.

Its a New Year

And I'm already falling down on my resolution to blog more this year.

So, let's get started.

The two biggest threats to your computer in 2009 I believe will be "WinAntivirus 2008/2009" and "Spyware Guard".
WinAntivirus has a shield icon that has the four Windows colors on it and pops up onto your desktop as soon as you turn on Windows. It will then look like it is scanning your hard drive and it will tell you that you have some number of dozens of infections and the only way to get rid of them is to buy WinAntivirus. If you do this, the makers of the virus will then charge your credit card account to its maximum limit.

WinAntivirus can be gotten rid of using anti-malware programs, but the best option is to have an effective anti-virus program already installed (and updated!).

Spyware Guard is relatively new, and harder to get rid of. It has a shield icon that is silver with a diagonal stripe. It does not pop up as you load the desktop; it waits until the user starts doing something and then pops up and says 'you are not protected; do you want to scan now?'. It will then scan and tell you to buy the program online, just like WinAntivirus, with the same end result.

I have found that Norton 2009 is the only program that successfully disninfects Spyware Guard from an infected computer.

What good is support that doesnt support?

Everyone knows about telephone support. You call a number and a person answers; you tell them your problem and they read a script that tells you the steps you must take to produce a solution.

But what happens when even that support stops working?

A fellow computer repair guy near me has had just such a problem. He was building a web site with Microsoft's new Office "Live" web creation tools when he encountered a "bug" (In software terms, a "bug" is an undocumented and usually unwelcome feature built, or left, in the software by the manufacturer.)
The problem was that when he added a link to a traffic analysis website, Microsoft's new web tools locked him out of his new website. And, as it turned out, locked him out of every Microsoft website requiring a user name and password(like Hotmail, etc.)

So, naturally, he called Microsofts support hotline, and gets a person who only has passing familiarity with English and then attempts to log in from the support desk. Because the support rep did not speak English well, they were not able to accurately understand my colleague's name, which is not easy to spell for fluent English speakers, they mis-spelled it often enough that the log-in failed and locked this customer out of his own website for 24 hours.

This went on and on for five days, because each support rep was a merely a clerk reading some words off of a screen, and so could not "support" Microsoft's product when it went wrong.

So, technical or any other type of telephone assistance that does not and cannot provide the "assistance" that is needed is not good. Unfortunately, more than ninety percent of all telephone support centers are staffed by people who have never been trained on the item they are supposed to be assisting with; in some case, the support people have never used or even seen the item they are hired to assist with.

What is the point of that?

What is DRM and why it is bad

What is DRM? DRM stands for Digital Rights Management.

When a company releases a product, whether it's downloadable software, movies or music or when it is a physical item (like a CD or DVD), they feel that there should be some way to prevent thieves from copying it and reselling it or just giving it away.

Everyone agrees that stealing is wrong. However, when companies punish their customers, those customers start to think things like "if the company is going to treat me like a criminal, I may as well go the whole way and not have to worry about the restrictions imposed on my legal purchase of the companies product."

If you think that is a bit of a wordy way of saying some people just want to be thieves anyway, I will give you an example of how companies are turning there own customers into thieves (the common term for someone who steals software, or digital copies of music and movies is 'pirate').

Recently, the video game company EA (Electronic Arts) released a game that had been enthusiastically anticpated for several months. This game, Spore, had people lining up at stores just to buy it on the first day it was released.
When these enthusiastic customers got home and opened the game, they were told that they would have to allow their computers to be monitored through the Internet and that they would not be allowed to install the game more than 3 times.

Ever.

If you have ever bought a video game, you know that they tend to last for 10 years or more, provided nothing happens to the disc the game came on. If you have a game that you enjoy playing, and you have a Windows-based computer, chances are that over time you have had to re-install your video games more than 3 times.

The Digital Rights Managements included in the Spore video game was considered to be so onerous and draconian that thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of normally law-abiding people turned to the Internet in order to illegally download a version of the game that could be installed and re-played repeatedly.

Incidents like this are what is turning paying customers in 'pirates'. And, sometimes, when a person sees no ill effects from this kind of downloading (no viruses, no police kicking in the door at midnight) they continue to pirate material, thus leaving less money in the marketplace for the Next Big Thing.
After all, if people arent going to get paid for their work, they're not going to do the work.

People deserve to get paid for their work.

But, when DRM is so ridiculously bad, it turns honest people into criminals.

And that is bad for society.

Formatting and re-installing Windows

Recently, I have had a customer who had troubles with their Internet. Every time they would type an URL into the address bar, Windows would launch additional browsers windows and then stop responding; causing the user to need to reboot.
No viruses or spyware were found, causing some puzzlement on my part.

When the customer fisrt turned the machine on, the system would would light up and the fans would turn on, but it would neither POST nor boot into Windows. After some investigation, I found that I would need to run a repair installation of Windows in order for the machine to boot into Windows properly.

I did, and Windows did. But, the problem persisted, even after the scanning mentioned above.

It was at this time, that I installed all of the customers recent updates and the newest version of Internet Explorer, as well as the Firefox browser. This appeared to fix the problem.
After a couple of reboots to check for proper operation, it turned out that the problem was not remedied.
This problem could be gotten around by using Firefox(which I always recommend), but, because this was merely a work-around, the customer was not happy.

Normally, this is when I tell people that they need a format and re-installation of Windows.

Formatting erases the hard drives and all problems associated with Windows. Sometimes the situation is so dire that none of the customers data can be saved.
This was not one of those times.

The lesson I have learned from this experience, is that if your computer needs a repair installation of Windows just to get it to turn on, you need to save all of your data immediately and then format and re-install.

And why werent you performing regular backups of your data anyway?