Be free with the new avast!

Does your laptop hate you?
Probably, but we can help!

Sometime in the last five years, laptops got cheap and suddenly, they were everywhere.   Once the domain of high level executives with fancy jobs and fancy budgets, you now see them at coffee houses, parks and even fast food joints.  With everyone's favorite tech toy becoming so portable, the question becomes whether or not you are treating yours right!

Jack it up!
Somewhere on the bottom of your laptop is a vent desperately trying to do its job.  If you set your laptop flat on a table top, it is probably just fine.  Despite its name, you have to be careful about air flow if you have it actually sitting on your lap.  Like all computers, your lap top desperately needs to stay cool in order to function.  Check out your machine to find its bottom and side vents and make sure they are clear to blow.

Your whole private life all in one neat little package . . .
Every laptop should be passworded without exception!  Should it get lost or stolen, that login password may be the only thing keeping all your banking info, addresses, and last night's chat session private! 

And while you are at it, set the password screen to come up as a screen saver if you are away from your laptop for more than 5 to 10 minutes.  Just one more precaution to keep it where it should be: private!

Pack it up?  Then back it up!
And like ALL computers, make sure to back up your data regularly!  Being portable makes it all the more likely that you will lose it or damage it.   Make sure that everything that is important on it is backed up with a reputable system like MozyPro.

Assaulting your battery?
First off, are you using your laptop as your on-the-go mobile office?  Then your laptop's battery life span will be longer if you plug it in early and often! 

If you are using your laptop as a desk pc replacement, you might be better off either discharging and recharging it daily or removing the battery all together.

A typical laptop battery life span is based on number of charge cycles it goes through and a cycle starts as soon as you use the battery, even if it is only half way charged.  You will use up the battery faster if you actually USE the battery, but that may be what you bought your laptop for in the first place!

The screen is not a handle . . .
Wanna see IT folks cringe?  Just try picking up your laptop by its screen and watch their skin crawl.  No laptop is designed to be able to support its weight from its fragile hinges. Once the connections break, they are almost impossible to fix. Instead, ALWAYS pick up your laptop by its base. 

Hot hot hot?  or Cold cold cold!
Like all things you love, don’t leave your laptop in the car on hot and cold days!  Even if it is not turned on, the blazing heat of a closed car in summer can do expensive and irreparable damage to your machine.  "Out of Direct Sunlight" won't cut it.  You will actually have to just take it with you to some place cooler.

Extreme cold in winter can also do damage to your laptop, so be sure to take it inside each night if it usually travels with you.

The “Take Care of Your Computer” Speech  . . .
Don't forget that your laptop/notebook is still a computer!  Make sure it gets all its regular updates, patches, and software.

Keep it clean!
Because your laptop goes more places, it seems to be more likely to be the victim of food and drink mishaps.  When your keyboard dies on your desktop PC, it is easy and cheap to replace.  Not so easy on your laptop. Don't eat over your keyboard and keep drinks lidded and well away from your system.

Keep it clean Part 2!
Laptop screens seem to pick up a lot of gunk during their travels. Whatever you do, do NOT use an ammonia based window cleaning product!  Ever!  It will ruin your screen's protective coating and leave permanent white spots.  Yuck. 

Many tech folks recommend isopropyl alcohol but others say it can yellow your screen over time.

Your best bet is a product made specifically for the job of cleaning LCDs.  Apply it to a cotton or microfiber cloth (some products come prepackaged on disposable cloths) and then LIGHTLY wipe the screen.

The End? Not for a while . . .
With love and care, you can expect most laptops to last between 2-4 years.  Many go past that, but their performance starts to lag as technology moves forward.  Treat it gently and kindly though, and you should have many hours of computing life tucked away in that chunk of technology.  Love your lap top and it will love you back!

APRIL FOOLS OR APRIL SMARTS?
What happened to all the Conficker mayhem?

Last night, techies all over the world checked their virus scanner one last
time before shutting down and going to bed.  The crossed their fingers and
waited to see what the morning would bring.

As of this writing, it brought them, and anybody else with a computer, a
whole lot of nothing.

Does this mean we can sound the all clear?
Wouldn't that be great.  Experts are saying that we shouldn't get too
excited at this point, as the virus may just be slow to unfold and show
itself.  It may be weeks before we know what, if any, damage is out there.
This virus seems to be built to lay low and make money through illegal
actions.  If it caused international mayhem, it would be hard to do that!

Who said it was all going to happen April 1st anyway?
Researchers found that little bit of information contained in the virus code
itself.  The question now is whether that was the REAL date or just a
decoy.  Most likely, it was a date for minor changes to take effect that
will make the virus a bigger pain at some later date.

Or maybe it was all one big joke?
That is always possible, but it is a lot of hubbub for a joke.  The code
appears to be pretty well constructed, which is why the techies of the world
are still being cautious.  Again, the current theory is that this virus was
not made to destroy the Internet or computers.  It is likely there to go
undetected  as embeds itself and waits for commands that will make its
creator some money!
So, what now?
Keep  those  computers virus scanners updated and stand by for further
updates!  Maybe we just prepared enough for it (like we did the Y2k bug)
that we out maneuvered it and lessened its impact.  Or maybe it will be a
long  time before we find out just what it was up to.  Researchers are
monitoring the systems known to be infected for further clues.  Again,
follow good security practices and you will most likely avoid the worst!
That's worth a good night's sleep, at least!
  _________________________________________________________________

Want  to  know where Conficker got its name?  Or maybe you just want to know
more? Check out these great sources:

Conficker on Wikipedia
The BBC Technews
CNN Tech
 
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Managed Services: How NOT to worry about stupid stuff like Conficker

We got a lot of phone calls the last few weeks from clients worrying about
the media reports on the the Conficker virus.

So, how did we handle it?   For our Managed Services clients, we logged into
each of their computers securely and remotely and ran any security updates
and patches that were needed, all without any disruptions for them.

What is Managed Services  and how does it work?  Well, it is really very
simple:  All Managed Services means is that SimplicITy Tech can baby sit all
of YOUR services (ie.. computer systems) so you don't have to ever worry
about this security patch, that software update or the latest media horror
story killer virus.

We use specialized secure software to log in when you aren't around and
carefully inspect the system for signs of trouble, as well as running all
the  security updates that your system needs to keep keep things going
smoothly.

So, for the last couple of weeks, we have checked each of our clients that
are on Managed Services and made sure their systems were ready to meet
whatever challenges lay in store for the Conficker Virus supposed launch
date.

Does it sound expensive? It really isn't!  You will save time and money when
you have a system that works like it is supposed to, when it is supposed
to!    Now, if you could just get Managed Services for everything in your
life!

avast! anti-virus celebrates 75 million registered users

Prague, Czech Republic - ALWIL Software a.s. is pleased to announce that the multi-award winning avast! antivirus has now passed 75 million registered users. Since the first registration in January 2002, avast! antivirus has grown to be a truly global product. While it took 6 years to achieve the 50 millionth user, it has taken only an additional 12 months for this number to reach 75 million. 

Pavel Baudis and Eduard Kucera, the founders of ALWIL, said "We are very proud to have reached this truly amazing milestone. When we started the company just over 20 years ago, we strongly believed that we could make avast! antivirus a success, yet the community of loyal avast! users has grown more quickly than we ever imagined. We have only achieved this success with the help of our user community and we thank each and every user of avast! for their support; we could not be here without them.

This milestone demonstrates not only the success of the product, but also the success of our vision of providing the best security possible, free to our community. The free avast! Home Edition allows tens of millions of internet users to use the internet safely and securely, while our paid professional product provides extra capabilities to those businesses and users that need them.

We are also proud of the fact that testing by independent organisations such as AV Comparatives and Virus Bulletin confirms that the performance of avast! antivirus is among the best in the industry. We try exceptionally hard to bring the best protection in the industry to our community. And we know we are getting it right when, on the popular website Download.com, from which avast! antivirus has been downloaded over 39 million times, our users have rated us at 4.5 out of 5 stars - the highest of any antivirus product."

Ondrej Vlcek, the lead developer for over 10 years, adds "The continued success and popularity of avast! is based on our ability to deliver a world-class free security product for all significant computing platforms. In these difficult economic times, we remain committed to providing a free security solution and not driving consumers to spend money unnecessarily. In addition to respecting our user community, we recognize that our success also comes from being at the leading edge of technological innovation and we will continue to respond to our customers' needs and develop the technology to ensure that we continue to provide a best-in-class security solution."

Anti-virus, Anti-malware, Anti-EVERYTHING!
If there is anybody out there in Computerland that has managed to never become a victim of a computer virus or other computer malware, they should buy a lotto ticket and get some more value out of that good luck.
  
Malware, Viruses and Spyware are nasty little beasties that are just about EVERYWHERE, waiting for some poor unsuspecting person to click on the wrong link or download a mislabeled file.  The result can be a computer system so bogged down it can barely function, or worse yet, a system so compromised that files are lost and the whole thing has to be wiped clean.  Not happy outcomes either way.
  
So what are these banes of the computer world and how can you avoid them?  Knowledge is power, so let's take a look!

Computer viruses: What are they?
Viruses are relatively small bits of computer code created as a prank or as a malicious action. They hide in other files and can copy themselves in order to further spread the damage.  These are the guys that show up a lot in email and attack when you download an infected picture or other compromised file.

Malware: What is it? Malware can refer to ALL forms of unwanted software (viruses, spyware, ect) but is also refer to the specific type of malicious code that has a profit motive.  Malware can show up from legitimate sources (like the BMG Sony root kits that covertly installed themselves on customer computers to keep them from copying legitimate music discs to their systems) or they can come from more criminal intents like programs designed to steal your passwords and personal information.   Malware can also take the form of a program that can hides out in your system waiting to take control of your computer to use for spamming or denial of service attacks.  Again, not something you want to be a part of for a multitude of reasons!

Spyware: What is it?  Spyware often comes from more legitimate sources, but this does not mean you want it on your system.  Most of the time, spyware is a small program dropped on your system from a variety of well known sources (like Google) for the sole purpose of tracking where you web surf.  This information is then used for advertising purposes.  Tricky, eh?  Even if you don’t mind the subtle invasion of privacy, your computer system may mind getting loaded up with all that extra software!  It can lead to slow downs and system conflicts that can make your computing life miserable.

How to avoid them?
1) Stop opening files from unknown sources!  Most of the time, these files will come from a person you know, but the heading may look strange or it may have been forwarded a lot.  And if you don’t know the sender?  And even better excuse to get rid of the email.   It is a good practice to delete any suspicious email messages immediately!  

2) Run a good Anti-Virus/Anti-spyware scanner.  This is a critically important step.  A good scanner will catch viruses that sneak by you.  They should also immediately notify you when you have gotten a virus so you can learn what the suspicious websites, emails and files look like allowing you to be more aware in the future. There are lots of anti-virus programs out there that are free to home users and low cost to businesses.  Find one that is from a reputable source that updates itself regularly so you can keep up with the current viruses that are lurking around out there.

3)Windows Updates.  Either set your computer to automatically update windows or check very frequently for updates.  A lot of spyware exploits issues within the software, the updates will essentially plug those holes.   You may even want to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

4)Turn off autorun for external drives.  Many spyware are now overriding the autorun of USB flash drives to infect your system.  Manually running the drive works fine, so turn off the autorun feature.

5)Make sure you have a firewall.  Whether you utilize the Windows firewall, a third party or a company’s hardware based firewall, just make sure it is active. 

Seasons greetings! 

As we are winding down the year here at SimplicITy Tech, we are looking back at a great year!  Despite all the doom and gloom in the news, we have blessed with a wonderful client base who continue to grow their businesses too.