You are currently browsing the Techno Blog weblog archives for January, 2008.
29. January 2008 by Rob.
A member of my girlfriend’s family had a computer tech in today because she is so concerned about her laptop and that it can be hacked. Better a tech than me because I would not go near this one with a 2 mile pole.
The first thing the tech did was take Zonealarm off and just use Windows firewall. What he forgot is the Windows Firewall in XP is one direction and proper security measures require a BI-DIRECTIONAL firewall. For interest sake Vista has a BI-DIRECTIONAL firewall.
Problem number 2 - The tech did all the Windows updates. This includes all the Outlook Express Updates. One of the features in the new Outlook/Outlook Express updates is that Outlook will not allow you to click on a web site directly. The reason for this is to protect the end user of Outlook from Phishing sites. By copying and pasting the URL there can not be anything behind it masking itself.
Phishing is the act of tricking someone into giving them confidential information or tricking them into doing something that they normally wouldn’t do or shouldn’t do. For example: sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
This is so funny because this person claims she is paying all this money to protect herself from identity theft. How some people can be so gullible.
Rob
Posted in Phishing, Firewall, Security | No Comments »
23. January 2008 by Rob.
It’s so funny - when I was a kid we carried around transited radios for a while and ghetto blasters. Then we graduated to walkmans. After that is was portable cd players. Then cell phones.
What do I carry around now - A Blackberry/a Cell phone and a Phillips MP3 player that holds more songs then imaginable. The best part about Mp3 players is that they do not skip the same way cds do. I use mine for both audible books and podcasts. Toss in a bit of music and I am set:)
Rob
Posted in Music | No Comments »
21. January 2008 by Rob.
Many people have asked me over the years what I use for computer protection. Well I use a pile of free utilities plus one paid utility to do my yearly backups.
The following is what I use:
Virus Scanner - AVG Free
Firewall - Zonealarm free.
Spyware Scanners - Adaware/Spybot - both free.
Spam Blocking - Gmail - all ,y accounts are forwarded to Gmail and it’s spam filters are great.
Backup - I use Carbonite - $50 US per year.
I run Windows updates on a regular basis.
Plus I use a lot of common sense. Do not be on sites you should be on. Be careful of the attachments you open.
Rob
Posted in Spam, Backup, Spyware, Virus, Security, Firewall, Windows | No Comments »
17. January 2008 by Rob.
Today’s tip is for a website called Secuina. This site is neat because it does a scan of your computer (with your permission first) and then tells you which programs you need to update for security purposes. The site will also give you list of all programs which need to be upgraded and the versions to be upgraded to.
Posted in Security | No Comments »
13. January 2008 by Rob.
Steve Gibson is a man in the computer industry who I have the utmost respect for. He is an expert in the field of computer security and computer technology. He is a genius when it comes to great ideas on how to protect your system. Steve can make the most complicated topic basic so the average user can understand or talk at a higher level for someone like me.
Steve has written several utilities over the years including the hard drive savior utility, Spinrite. Below are a couple links to his podcasts and his own web site so that you can learn more from him.
http://www.grc.com/intro.htm - Steve’s own site.
http://www.twit.tv/sn - For the security now podcast with Leo Laporte
Posted in Leo Laporte, Steve Gibson, Security, software | No Comments »
12. January 2008 by Rob.
If you want to erase information securely when you do a format of a disk, I would suggest using a program called Kill Disk. The program is free if you want to do a one pass format with 1’s and 0’s. If you want to do more then one pass, their is a cost for the program but it is relatively inexpensive.
For a link to the program you can go to http://www.killdisk.com/
Rob
Posted in software | No Comments »
12. January 2008 by Rob.
I have as of now pulled my old The-Techshop.com web site. Going to www.the-techshop will bring you here. What I found is most people wanted information and links to free programs to help them with their computer security. The blog format will be easier for me to help people stay informed.
If you look on the right hand side, their is a links section which lists links to the most popular free ware and low cost commercial programs for computer security. This replaces the links section on my original page.
If anyone has any comments or requires more information, please email me at webmaster@the-techshop.com
Rob
Posted in Changes, Security | No Comments »
12. January 2008 by Rob.
Well I have decided to make one more web presence change. I am switching my security site to a blog format. I was going to rebuild the web site but have realized this is just as informative and easier to keep current and maintain on a daily basis. I will be adding links under the right side to point to the best free security software on the market. I will also be constantly pointing to updated articles and features for the technology field. As of Saturday, I will be re-rooting www.the-techshop.com to blog.the-techshop.com .
Besides these change, nothing else changes. All my email accounts and other web sites will stay the same.
Posted in Changes, Security, software | No Comments »
7. January 2008 by Rob.
One of the the things I have been doing is consolidating my web presence of late back to my own sites. The one exception to this is video. The reason for this is video bandwidth is high and I rather someone else take the hit for the bandwidth usage. I am currently investigating what would be a good video sharing site.
PC World recommends the following: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136089-page,1/article.htmlery
I will let everyone know my findings in a few days.
Posted in Video, software | 1 Comment »
5. January 2008 by Rob.
Backups are always something that every computer user should be doing. I have a couple of methods which I use depending on the types of files. For day to day files, I use a product called Carbonite. I will back up any files you specify with the default being the My Documents directory.
The program backs up your files to a secured site when you are not using your PC/Internet connection.
The product even comes with a 15 day free trial. Cost per year is $50 - a cheap insurance policy.
Posted in Recommendations, Backup, Security, software | No Comments »