Greetings
A warm hello to everyone as we begin to welcome Spring into the mountains. Its always a good thing to pause, take a deep breath of fresh outdoor air and be thankful for where we live.
As a reminder, we will continue our Spring Cleaning Special through the end of March. This includes: registry cleanup, removal of unused files and programs, ensuring critical software updated, free antivirus installation, optimization of computer resources, streamline software and data backup up to 4 GB (1 DVD's worth), all for only $69 (no trip fee!)
Because we have had increasing instances of "malware" removal, specifically "rogue scanners", we will provide you with an article which goes more in-depth regarding what do to and what not to do when you're online.
Should you have any questions, please call us. We're here for you!
Happy Computing,
Christopher's Computers
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Keeping your Computer Safe: What it Behooves you to Know
We are getting more and more calls
about malware. Its running rampant out there. "Antivirus 2008" and "Antivirus 2009",
"Antivirus 360" are some of the more common "rogue scanners" that we've had to remove from computers. Many people want to know where they come from, how they get on their computer and how to avoid getting these types of malware in the future. (More than once have we removed a rogue scanner or virus and in only a few days--- or even a few hours, it has popped back up on their machine.) Read the information below to learn how to keep yourself, and other members of your household and/or work-place, virus-free.
There are loads of free programs and services
out there that people just love to download from. These are programs like
Limewire, Kazaa, Imesh, etc. They quite often come bundled with lots of malware
that will cause you significant problems. Misconfiguring these programs can
leave you open to sharing personal and sensitive information from your PC (even
passwords and financial information).
You are
downloading unknown/untested files which may be infected from unknown sources
directly onto your PC and while these programs are running you are sharing your
PC with the whole world since these programs will allow others access to your
PC bypassing the firewall and other security programs. I strongly advise
avoiding these programs and servers completely. But if you must use them,
choose more wisely.
Also it
should go without saying but....avoid the porn sites! They are notorious
spreaders of more than one kind of smut. In addition many porn (and some
non-porn) sites that have various forms of videos that they are trying to get
you to watch online or download and watch, are causing vast amounts of people
to become infected. These infections typically occur because they trick you into
downloading a codec required (supposedly) to view the videos. What you normally
wind up with is an infection that is grouped into the SmitFraud aka Zlob family
of infections! Thus, DO NOT DOWNLOAD CODECS from anywhere except from a
reputable site.
Don't
download cracks, serial numbers, cheats etc for commercial programs. Besides
being illegal, you will often find you are getting more than you bargained for
(i.e. malware!!).
Also be
very careful to read popups before clicking on them. You probably do not want
what they are selling and sometimes the correct answer may be the opposite of
what you think. They will choose wording meant to confuse you.
Do not
open e-mails coming from unknown or distrusted sources. Many viruses and
trojans spread via e-mail messages. You can always check with the originator to
see if they sent something to you.
Be especially careful with attachments. Do not open the attachments of messages with a
suspicious or unexpected subject. If you want to open them, first save them to
your hard disk and scan them with an updated antivirus program.
Delete
any chain e-mails or unwanted messages. Do not forward them or reply to their
senders. This kind of messages is considered spam, because it is undesired and
unsolicited and it congests the Internet even more than it already is. If you
respond to their email where it says something like "to be removed from
our list", all you are doing is confirming your email address is valid and
you just got yourself added to a load more spamming lists.
Never add
any site to your Trusted Sites Zone unless it is absolutely necessary to run
something you really need (like for work).
Finally,
when installing any software, read the license agreement carefully before
accepting. You may be surprised what you will find. For example, thousands of people have become infected simply by using Messenger Plus (which is not related to Microsoft). As it happens, Messenger Plus itself is not the culprit, but the sponsor of this software is. *IF* you decide to use this, when you read the fine print of the license agreement, do NOT install the sponsor.
Be careful out there. Its a wild, wild web-world. If you decide to play it risky, always keep our number handy. We'll take care of you.
Source: MajorGeeks.com
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Thank you for supporting your local small businesses. We greatly appreciate your continued patronage and referrals! Christopher's Computers is a family-owned business since 2004. 828-670-9800ChristophersComputers.Com |
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On-Site Repair for PCs & Macs
Repair
Upgrades
Tutoring
New Computers
Refurbished Computers
Data Recovery
Data Backup
Data Destruction
Wireless Networking
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Speed Up a Slow Computer
Digital Video Training
Diagnostics
System Tune-Up
Software Installation
Hardware Installation
Memory Installation
Optical Drive Installation
Hard Drive Installation
Digital Music Training
Digital Image (Photo) Training
ETC.
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What do thieves do with your identity?
Read this article to find out an example of what thieves do after stealing someone's identity from hacking into personal information.
InfoWorld.Com article |
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Learn More
Do you ever get that heady, confused feeling when someone is speaking computer jargon? Check out this list of computer security terms and what they mean. Knowledge is power, so go ahead, empower yourself!
Dictionary of Computer Security Terms |
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Free Media Player for PC & Macs
This free program supports playback of DVDs, MP2, MP3, MP4, DivX, OGG, and a
whole slew of other file types. In addition, it also can function as a
streaming media server. Because of its open-source foundation, VLC
Media Player evolves quickly, with new features and fixes released
frequently.
Click on the link below to try it out:
VLC Media Player Download |
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