2-23-2009

14 Household Ways To Protect Your Computer From Viruses   by Marv Ko

Computer viruses are deadly. They often spread without any apparent contact and can be a nuisance, or even worse, fatal to your computer. Individuals who create these viruses, estimated at 10-15 new ones a day, are the electronic version of terrorists. Their goal is to inflict havoc and destruction on as many people as possible by disabling, stealing, damaging, or destroying computer and information resources. Often, they have no specific target in mind, so no one is safe. If you access the internet, share files or your computer with others, or load anything from diskettes, CDs, or DVDs onto your computer, you are vulnerable to viruses.

Fortunately, there are good guys working just as hard as the hackers to develop cures for viruses as quickly as they send them off into cyberspace. And there are many things you can do to keep your computer from catching viruses in the first place.

Defining Viruses:

A virus is a small computer program that can copy and spread itself from one computer to another, with or without the help of the user. However, viruses typically do more than just be fruitful and multiply, which is bad enough in itself because it hogs system resources. Anything else viruses are programmed to do, from displaying annoying messages to destroying files, is called their payload. Often, they cannot deliver their payload until an unsuspecting user does something to make the virus execute its programmed function. This could be as simple as clicking on an innocent looking file attachment with the .exe (executable) extension.

Catching a Virus:

Most viruses are spread through e-mail attachments because it’s the easiest way to do it. Although Macintosh, Unix, and Linux systems can catch viruses, hackers are particularly keen on exploiting the security weaknesses in anything Microsoft, particularly Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Because of the popularity of this software, hackers get maximum bang for their buck, and they probably get some satisfaction from continually reminding Microsoft that being big doesn’t mean you’re perfect.

Solution 1: Anti-virus Software

Your first line of defense is to install anti-virus software. To be extra safe, also install firewall software, which is now included in some anti-virus packages. This software can scan all of your drives for viruses and neutralize them. Here are some features to consider when evaluating anti-virus software.

- Compatibility with your operating system – Make sure the software works with your system, particularly if you are using an older operating system like Windows 98.

- Firewall software – If it’s not included, find out if it’s available. If you must, buy it from another vendor.

- Automatic background protection – This means your software will constantly scan behind the scenes for infections and neutralize them as they appear. This provides some peace of mind.

- Automatic, frequent updates – Because new viruses appear every day, you’ll want regular updates. It’s even better if they occur automatically when you connect to the internet. If automatic updating isn’t included, you’ll have to check the vendor’s website and download updates yourself. This is vitally important, because you will not be protected from new viruses if your software is out of date.

- Disaster recovery – Software with a recovery utility to help you get your system back to normal after a virus attack is always good to have.

- ICSA certification – The International Computer Security Associatioin has standards for the detection rates of anti-virus software. Make sure your software has the ICSA certification.

- Technical support – It’s a good idea to select a package that offers free technical support, either online or through a toll-free number. If you’re ever felled by a virus, you may need it. Some anti-virus software vendors are Symantec Corporation (Norton AntiVirus), McAfee Corporation (McAfee VirusScan), Trend Micro Inc. (PC-cillin), and Zone Labs Inc. (Zone Alarm Suite).

Solution 2: The Virus Scan

If you receive a particularly juicy attachment that you’re dying to open, save it on your Windows desktop and run your anti-virus software on it first. To do this, click once gently on the file on your desktop … don’t actually open it … then right click and choose Scan with (Name of Anti-Virus Software) to activate a virus scan.

If it’s infected, your anti-virus software may neutralize it, or at least tell you the attachment is too dangerous to open. On the other hand, don’t feel guilty if the very thought of saving a potentially damaging file anywhere on your system is enough to quell your eagerness to open it and make you delete it immediately.

Solution 3: Delete first, ask questions later.

When in doubt about the origin of an e-mail, the best thing to do is delete it without previewing or opening it. However, some viruses, such as Klez, propagate by fishing in people’s address books and sending themselves from any contact they find to another random contact. You can spread a virus just by having people in your address book, even if you don’t actually e-mail them anything. They’ll receive it from someone else in your address book, which really makes life confusing. Because of the proliferation of porn on the internet, e-mail viruses often tempt victims by using sexual filenames, such as nudes.exe. Don’t fall for it.

Solution 4: Beware of virus hoaxes

E-mails warning you about viruses are almost always hoaxes. You may be tempted to believe them because you typically receive them from well-meaning friends, who received them from friends, etc. These e-mails themselves usually aren’t viruses, but some have actually fallen into the hands of hackers who loaded them with viruses and forwarded them merrily on their way as a sick joke.

The proliferation of e-mails about virus hoaxes can become nearly as bad as a real virus. Think about it, if you obey an e-mail that tells you to forward it to everyone in your address book, and they THEY do it, and this goes on long enough, you could bring the internet to its knees. If you ever want to verify a virus warning, your anti-virus vendor may have a list of hoaxes on it website. It’s in the business of providing the fixes, so it will know which viruses are real.

Solution 5: Beware of filename extensions

The extension of a filename is the three characters that come after the dot. Windows now defaults to hiding filename extensions, but it isn’t a good idea. Just being able to see a suspicious extension and deleting the file before opening it can save you from a virus infection.

To see filename extensions in all your directory listings, on the Windows XP desktop, click Start button | Control Panels | Folder Options | View Tab. Clear the check box for Hide extensions of known file types. Click Apply | OK. System files will still be hidden, but you’ll be able to see extensions for all the files you need to be concerned with. Viruses often live on files with these extensions – .vbs, .shs, .pif, .Ink – and they are almost never legitimately used for attachments.

Solution 6: Disable the .shs extension

One dangerous extension you can easily disable is .shs. Windows won’t recognize it and will alert you before attempting to open an .shs file. The extension is usually just used for “scrap object” files created in Word and Excell when you highlight text and drag it to the desktop for pasting into other documents. If this isn’t something you ever do, or you have Word and Excell 2000 or later, which allow you to have 12 items on the Clipboard, click the Start button | Control Panel | Folder Options | File Types tab. Under Registered file types, scroll down and highlight the SHS extension. Click Delete | Yes | Apply | OK.

Solution 7: Dealing with double extensions

When you turn on your extensions in Windows, you’ll be able to detect viruses that piggy-back themselves onto innocent looking files with a double extension, such as happybirthday.doc.exe. NEVER trust a file with a double extension – it goes against Nature.

Solution 8: Beware of unknown .exe files

A virus is a program that must be executed to do its dirty work, so it may have an .exe extension. Unfortunately, this is the same extension used by legitimate program files. So, don’t panic if you find files named Word.exe or Excel.exe on your system – they’re your Microsoft software. Just don’t EVER open any file with an .exe extension if you don’t know what the file’s purpose is.

Solution 9: Watch out for icons

Viruses in attachment files have been known to assume the shape of familiar looking icons of text or picture files, like the wolf in the hen house. If you recieve an unexpected attachment, don’t open it without first running it through your anti-virus software.

Solution 10: Don’t download from public newgroups

What better place for a hacker to lurk and stick his virus than in the middle of a crowd? Sooner or later, someone’s bound to download it and get the virus going. Don’t download files and programs from newsgroups or bulletin boards, or open attachments sent from strangers in chatrooms (“Let’s exchange pictures!”) without first scanning with your anti-virus software.

Solution 11: Avoid bootleg software

This may seem like a no brainer, but sometimes that tiny price tag on a popular but expensive package can be too good to resist. Resist it! Likewise, be careful about accepting application software from others. You don’t know where it’s been, and what may have started out as a perfectly clean package could have become infected during installation on someone else’s infected computer.

Solution 12: Protect macros in MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint

A common type of virus uses macros. Macros are sets of stored commands that users can save as shortcuts to perform long functions in just a few keystrokes. A macro virus may perform such mischief as changing file types from text files or spreadsheets into templates, locking up keyboards, and deleting files. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint come with macro virus protection. To make sure yours is activated, open each application, then click Tools menu | Macro | Security. On the Security Level tab, make sure Medium or High is selected. Clcik OK. If you are already infected with a macro virus, you may find that the steps of this procedure are unavailable becasue the virus has disabled them. In that event, run a virus scan on your system to see if your anti-virus software can kill the virus.

Solution 13: Use passwords

If you share your computer, it’s a good idea to assign everyone a password. Passwords should be a combination of letters and numbers no less than eight characters long, and preferably nonsensical. Never write passwords and stick them anywhere near the computer. To assign passwords in Windows XP, click the Start button | Control Panel | User Accounts. Follow the prompts to assign/change passwords.

Solution 14: Update application software

Microsoft constantly issues patches for the security holes in its operating system and applications software. however, don’t be lulled into complacency if you have Windows Update automatically checking things for you. Update checks for patches to repair bugs in the operating system, not for security problems.

To get the latest security hotfixes (as Microsoft calls them), visit www.microsoft.com and look for hotfixes for all your Microsoft software, particularly Outlook and Outlook Express.

Microsoft also has a free downloadable package called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) that scans your system for missing hotfixes. It works with Windows 2000 and XP Home and Professional only. It doesn’t support Windows 95, 98, or ME.

To download the MBSA, go to the TechNet section of the Microsoft Website. Be warned that the information is written in techie language, so you may find it daunting.

Last Words:

Now that you know some ways for avoiding and dealing with viruses, let’s wrap things up with some solution you’ve probably heard before but have ignored.

- Back up your files regularly – If a virus crashes your sytem, you’ll feel much better if you’ve got backup copies of all your important files. Make the backup copies on a media that’s separate from the computer, such as on diskettes, CDs, or zip disks. Scan them for viruses before you put them away to make sure they aren’t infected. If they are, they’ll do you no good if you ever have to use them because they will just transmit the virus right back onto your computer.

- Make a boot disk – Create an emergency boot diskette before you have a problem so you can start your computer after a serious security problem To make a boot diskette with Windows XP, put a blank floppy disk in the drive. Open My Computer, then right click the floppy drive. Click Format. Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk. Click Start. Keep the disk in a safe place. With luck, you’ll never need to use it.

- Turn off you computer – DSL and cable connections that are “always on” may be convenient, but you should always turn off your computer when its not in use. Hackers can’t get to a machine that’s powered off.

You are free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as the clickable URLs remain in the “About the author” section.

About the Author

Marv Ko has many years of experience in business software and security. He is the editor of http://bestarticles.biz and also oversees http://best4biz.info Email: editor@bestarticles.biz

Written by: Marv Ko http://viralurl.com/royal/Computer-Tips/

2-21-2009

Technical Support Services offer everything needed for your OS Experience   by kumar gandharva

There are various operating systems available in the marketing like Linux, MAC & Windows. Each operating system designed by different vendors. Windows has been designed by Microsoft. Linux being an open source has been built under GPL license & is freely available in the market. MAC being another operating system in the market has been designed & coded by Apple Computers.

Windows 1.0 was released by Microsoft & first came into existence in Nov 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in Graphical User Interface (GUI). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world’s personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced previously. After this Microsoft never looked back and kept on releasing the new versions of windows in the market after collecting the user feedback. Slowly & gradually Microsoft became one of the biggest brands in the market with the operating system.

As the new versions of the operating systems were released new features were added to each version. The problems or the limitations found using online Microsoft windows vista tech support sites or other sources which were found in the earlier versions were fixed in the newer versions and an attempt was always made to keep themselves a step ahead of the technology or the need of the user. Slowly and gradually Microsoft identified a way to collect the information from every user by the way of error reporting & submitting the details of the error directly to Microsoft Support. This way of collecting the information from the user and identifying the problem was appreciated by the other technical support or service providers and followed by them.

Today being a big organization Microsoft has outsourced its technical support services to various vendors in the world located at various locations. These vendors serve Microsoft customer’s at some cost or free of charge depending on the kind of technical support required. Microsoft has also launched this on online windows tech support services and help related to the common issues that a user faces to minimize the cost and save the time of the user which can be viewed at support.microsoft.com.

As the technology was worked upon Internet came into existence which was a revolution in the market as the entire world was at a mouse click. In the early 90s–the dawn of history as far as the World Wide Web is concerned–relatively few users were communicating across this global network. They used an assortment of shareware and other software for Microsoft Windows operating system.

In 1995, Microsoft hosted an Internet Strategy Day and announced its commitment to adding Internet capabilities to all its products. In fulfillment of that announcement, Microsoft Internet Explorer arrived as both a graphical Web browser and the name for a set of technologies.

In July 1995, Microsoft released the Windows 95 operating system, which included built-in support for dial-up networking and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), key technologies for connecting to the Internet. In response to the growing public interest in the Internet, Microsoft created an add-on to the operating system called Internet Explorer 1.0. When Windows 95 with Internet Explorer debuted, the Internet became much more accessible for many more people.

Internet Explorer technology originally shipped as the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Microsoft Plus! For Windows 95. Internet Explorer replaced the need for cumbersome, manual installation steps required by many of the existing shareware browsers.

After traveling a long way a new operating system would hit the market with the name Windows 7 which is expected to be more user friendly & secure than the earlier operating systems released in the market. The default browser expected to be is Internet Explorer 8.0 with this new operating system which would be released this year by Microsoft.

About the Author

I am an online technical support specialist for iYogi, iYogi is the first direct-to-consumer and computer support service from India.

2-20-2009

Choosing a Computer Consultant – Tips, Tricks, And Cautions   by Jeff Gross.

The world of business seems to get more complex every day, as the concept of automation is getting more and more rooted in the day to day operations of daily business. Hence, software of all kinds is penetrating many companies for easier operations all around the world.

Thus various software applications are quite important in the competition of a company against its competitors. Well developed software can enhance the day to day operations of a business considerably. Thus, this automatically causes the demand for computer consultants to go up considerably.

A computer consultant can be a considerable help when it comes to the development and maintenance of all types of business software. Moreover, a computer consultant can help to keep your computers in shape too.

Choosing a Consultant

The importance of choosing the right computer consultant for your company is very high. The cost of various software and hardware for your company will be high to begin with, so you will need to make sure that your computer consultant can keep them on top condition.

Of course, choosing the right consultant may not be as easy as it seems. In fact, choosing the right computer consultant on the first time can be quite trying for many companies.

There are two main categories of computer consultants on the market. The first type of consultant is responsible for the maintenance of your hardware systems. The second type of computer consultant will be mostly concerned with the development of various software for your business needs and desires.

In overall analysis, computer consultants are usually hired on a long term basis, while sometimes they may be outsourced for full time by the company. If a computer consultant is retained, then he will mostly be responsible for software development for the long term projects. Short term computer consultants are usually employed for hardware purposes.

Hence, it is important for you to make up your mind about what kind of a computer consultant that you need for your computer company. By identifying your needs carefully, you will be able to choose the right consultant for your company.

For example, if you need a special firewall for your company, then you will need to make sure that you get an idea of what a firewall is. Being aware of the problems can help you choose the right consultant.

Once you have identified your needs and requirements then you can go to the next step. In the next step, you will be able to choose a proper independent computer consultant for your business.

If you are going to use a ready made software package such as the Microsoft products, then you should be able to use a short term computer consultant who can help you to find them from a reseller. The consultant will then go about installing them and educating you about their uses. However, if you need special software prepared for your company, then you will need to hire a consultant knowledgeable in programming.

How to Look for a Computer Consultant

There is various ways to look for a computer consultant. You can look on the Internet to see scores of consultants. As a second alternative, you can easily use the Yellow Pages for a proper consultant. If you need some extra information, then you can also contact the Better Business Bureau.

Of course, some computer consultants are listed in various Chambers of Commerce in your local city. You can check for their contact information there or you can contact any one of the Computer associations to help you choose the right computer consultant in your area.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gross is the owner of Computer Repair Long Island in Long Island New York. For more information on Long Island Computer Networks, articles, and some insight into the computer consulting world please be sure to check out his website.