Malware is the shortened name of malicious software and is any program designed with an ulterior, unscrupulous, or dishonest motive. The effects of malware can be as harmless as a simple annoyance like slowing down your computer, or as far reaching as infecting your important files or collecting private information from you, like credit card numbers, bank account information and passwords.
Malware falls into two basic categories which are “front door” and the “back door” intruders. Malware that tries to infect your computer through email, direct installation and networks is known as a front door intruder and can be detected and caught fairly easily by an antivirus program. ”Back door” intruders are hidden and disguised software that are often bundled with another program or appear to be something helpful. Usually these are downloaded by users from the Internet and are rarely detected by antivirus programs.
Types of “Back Door”
Spyware: This is software that secretly collects information about a user like search or surfing habits, passwords or credit card information. There are different types of spyware, like keyloggers that detect what keys are pressed, and “security programs” that promise to scan your computer for infections, but instead install programs to use your computer memory and give hackers access to your computer.
Adware: This type of malware is typically packaged with other software. It can vary from simply bombarding you with advertising every time you use the software, or collecting information about your searches and surfing habits in order to tailor advertising to your interests. A good indication that you may have spyware or adware on your computer is if your browser redirects to other pages by itself, search sites you don’t recognize, your homepage changes by itself, or advertisements pop up constantly.
There are several tools that can be downloaded to remove existing back door malware, but be careful what you download, as a misleading program might simply worsen your situation! A good firewall or antispyware program will help prevent new back door malware from having access to your computer.
*The Front Door Intruders*
Computer Viruses and Worms: These programs enter the computer through a computer network or through files like email attachments. They can replicate themselves to infect core computer files and even your system BIOS. Viruses and worms use up computer resources and are poorly built, so an infected computer will run slowly or crash often. Some types are very dangerous and can destroy important system or personal files and because of their replicating nature, these infections become more harmful the longer they are on the user’s computer.
Trojan Horse: This is a file that appears harmless or helpful, but once installed, it can open a “back door” through which a hacker can access the computer, use system resources for spamming and other malicious purposes, all without the knowledge of the computer’s woner. Unlike a virus, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves, but they are usually installed and running without the user’s knowledge or intent.
By: Chris Randall, Technical Director
Team viewer is remote screen sharing software for both paid commercial and free personal use. The software is very easy to use and you can easily take control of your friend PC using team viewer.
You can download team viewer here : Team viewer Remote Desktop Software
The normal installation process is simple and once you will run the setup file it will give you two options :
- Install
- Run
If you going to use The team viewer frequently use the install version. If you are using teamviewer for a one time event, or do not want a permanent link then select Run.
Selecting RUN
On the next screen you will see ID and password on the left hand side and create session ID on the right side.
The id and password given on the left hand side, you need to give it to your partner if you want them to be able to take control of your PC.
You can use Team viewer for :
- Remote Support
- Presentation
- File transfer
- VPN connection
The Create Session area on the right hand side of the TeamViewer panel is use to connect to your partner computer.
You need to ask your partner for ID and password given under the Wait for Session on the left section of the screen.
Once you their ID and password enter them into the Create session box and on the next pop up enter the password.
By Entering the password in the next Teamviewer popup box , you will be able to see their computer screen and take control of their computer (They can still override you).
The other user will see what you are doing and a message will indicate to them that you have control through TeamViewer and you can now work together to complete your objectives.
Make sure you use the TeamViewer free version for non commercial use only.
Go to the Logmein Website at https://secure.logmein.com/ – and create an account.
After signing up check your email to verify your account and then go back to their site and log in.
On the upper right hand of the site, you’ll see a link to My Computers. Click it and and the following will be displayed:
Click on the + Add Computer link on the right side and it will download and install LogMeIn on your PC.
During installation, it will ask you to setup an ACCESS CODE. This will be the code that you must enter any time you want to access this PC remotely.
LogMeIn’s default setup is to always be enabled, but you can change this setting (although this defeats the purpose).
LogMeIn provides an encrypted VPNtunnel and will still work while your firewall or anti-virus are running.
How to access your home PC remotely
Access the logmein website via www.logmein.com
Click on the My Computers link and it will show you a page with all of your linked PCs listed by name.
Click on the name of the PC you want to access and a page will open which looks like this:
Click on Remote Control
Wait for the next page to load as it connects to your remote PC.
After loading, it will ask you for your ACCESS CODE.
After entering your code, it will show you the screen below while loading
Click on Continue and you’re ready to control your remote PC!
- On the PC being controlled, there will be a popup message saying that the PC is currently being remotely accessed/controlled by someone at a certain IP or address:
That’s it! LogMeIn Free for me is one of the best remote management solution. You will be able chech your home PC, reboot it or even shut it down. If you need a file you can just email it to yourself (The Pro version has file management if you want to pay a little and be able to directly transfer larger files)
By Chris Randall
The Best Way to Speed Up My Computer and Increase My Computer’s Speed and Performance - Part 2
admin : December 26, 2009 9:21 am : TechnologyBack to Part 1
Not enough RAM
RAM is the dynamic memory your computer uses to juggle all of the open programs you use. When you’re multitasking between three Internet Explorer windows, a Word document, and your music player, RAM is what enables all these programs to run at the same time. Adding more memory is one of the best, simplest and cheapest ways to speed up your computer. If you go to a computer parts store (Not a big box store, which charges 300% markups). Go to a small computer parts store, you may not get a good deal on a computer there, but they buy their parts in bulk. I went to Best Buy and the price of a stick I was looking at was over $100 and I picked it up three blocks down at CBIT. I’m not going to tell you how much ram to buy in this article. There are many different types and like CPUs Numbers like 2G and 4G don’t meant anything anymore, because some ram is faster than others, so I’ll save RAM discussions for another blog. For now, tell the guy at the store what you are trying to do and he or she can help you. I recommend taking your box with you.
The Page File
This file comes into play when your computer runs out of RAM and needs more dynamic memory. It turns to an area of the hard drive into the “page file” or “swap file.” This is a special area that Windows sets aside to act as RAM if the actual RAM is all being used. It has some good logic behind its creation, since running out of RAM can cause a computer to lock up, but this type of Memory takes much longer to access. You can really only do two things with this and letting Windows manager it is not a great answer for most users. Either set it to be very large, or buy enough RAM and eliminate it so that Windows isn’t tempter to use it instead of your RAM.
To access the page file settings: Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Under the Advanced tab, click the Settings box in the Performance section, then go to the Advanced tab and click the box that says Change. You can change the page file size or disable it. Once you make your changes, click OK until all of the windows are closed and then restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Be aware that if you disable the page file and your computer does not have enough RAM to handle your computing needs, you will probably be seeing a lot of memory errors or undefined errors and your computer will lock up when running large memory-intensive programs. If this happens you will need to and re-enable it.
Viruses and Malware
There are many harmful and malicious programs trying to harm or steal data from your computer. Even with protective software, some will eventually get through. There are five things that can add a great degree of protection from these intruders. A proper firewall, an antivirus program, a spyware program, frequent windows updates and safe surfing habits.
For antivirus, I don’t recommend an expensive comprehensive program for the average user. I find that the comprehensive programs tend to be data hogs and actually slow down my system, so much that it seems like I have a virus. I have been using AVG’s free version for over 4 years and have never had a Virus or Trojan.
Spyware is one of the nastiest little devils to come around in the last few years. This isn’t a traditional virus type of program that intends to damage your files or hardware, but is designed to run in the background and seek out your personal information and send it to a third party. First of all this is a huge privacy issue, but equally important if you allow these third party programs to run they will eat up your system resources and slow your computer down considerably. For adware and spyware, there are many good free programs available for you to download at CNET, including AdAware, Spybot, TrojanHunter and CA Anti-Spy. Sometimes it may be advantageous to run more than one of these since one program may detect a problem that another program missed.
Another important maintenance project you should be undertaking is ensuring you keep your operating system updated with the latest patches and updates. If you aren’t absolutely sure that you will keep up with this, then you should make sure you are setup on automatic update in the Security Center on you control panel. You should also run Windows Defender, because it will actively look for programs that are trying to make changes to Windows or affect the way the operating system works.
Back to Part 1
~Chris Randall
The Best Way to Speed Up My Computer and Increase My Computer’s Speed and Performance - Part 1
admin : December 26, 2009 9:19 am : TechnologyUnlike fine wines, computers do not get better with age. All of us have gotten frustrated at some point and thought, “Why is this computer so slow?”
All computers will slow down over time due to aging hardware, but a more substantial reason is what is going on with the software. Fortunately, there are simple ways to speed up your computer substantially. Here are some of the best things you can do to keep your system running smoothly.
Fragmented Hard Drive
One of the most common problems causing a computer to slow down over time is a fragmented hard drive. All of your software and data is stored on your hard drive. This includes your programs, pictures, documents, and any other files. Through the process of deleting files and saving new files, the data on your hard drive eventually becomes fragmented or broken up. When your computer tries to access the files, it takes longer because it has to put the information back together in order to load it.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest problems to fix on a computer. Simply running a program called a Disk Defragmenter will put all of the files in their proper and logical places and will greatly increase performance.
You can find your Disk Defragmenter program in the Performance and Maintenance section of the control panel or you can click Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Next, select the volume (usually C: drive) you want to defragment and choose “Analyze” for Windows to determine if the disk needs to be defragmented. If you run this regularly (monthly), you may not need to defragment, otherwise the chances are you will need to defragment your drive. If the drive needs defragmenting, click “Defragment” and let Windows do the rest. Depending on the size of your drive, this may take a while and it is best to not do work on the computer while it is running, since any programs running may cause it to start over again during the process.
Overloaded Hard drive
Another sure way to slow down your system is to let unwanted or unneeded programs stay on your hard drive. Good hard drive management means regularly clearing your hard disk of these unnecessary programs.
Over time, the number of programs installed on your machine will build up, sometimes unknowingly. Even the seemingly safe programs that you pay for sometimes install third party software on your computer. More programs mean more data, and more data takes longer for your computer to sort through. Uninstalling programs is one of the easiest ways to speed up your computer and has the added benefit of giving you more disk space and increase the speed of other system tools such as Disk Defragmenting and Virus Scanning.
Windows has a descent uninstaller tool in the control panel, but there are also many free programs available out there that go behind the scenes and delete other pieces of data that the uninstaller tool may leave behind like registry keys and stray files. WinXP Manager (Windows Vista Manager, and the new Windows 7 Manager by Yamisoft are excellent tools for uninstalling unwanted programs thoroughly plus give you a host of other options to speed up your computer. They even have free trials available for download on CNET, so you know they are reputable.
Startup programs
Windows keeps a list of all the programs it’s supposed to load every time it boots up called startup and many of them are probably programs you’re unaware of. To access the list of startup programs in Windows XP, click on Start Menu > Run, and type in “msconfig” (You can also use a Yamisoft product to do this).
Windows will launch the System Configuration Utility. Go to the Startup tab and take a look at that long list of files which windows load on every startup. Many of them are system files that are necessary for the operating system to run, but there are many that you could use from this list by un-checking them. The less files on this list, the less time it will take Windows to load and the less resources your processor has to set aside to run them. Only uncheck programs if you’re certain they’re not necessary (such as AOL Instant Messenger, Adobe Reader, or a media player). You can always load a program whenever you need it. If you aren’t sure about a program then do some research before un-checking it. A Google search is usually sufficient.
If you make changes to the startup list, the next time you turn on your computer Windows will show a dialog box telling you that it is now running in Selective Startup Mode, which means is that you made a change to the startup programs. Check the box that says “Don’t show this message again” and continue.
Chris Randall
This post is just to piggyback on my review of Teamviwer and Logmein. I didn’t want to leave the other quality deskop sharing services without some credit. Here are some of my other favorite desktop sharing programs:
Yuuguu is very easy to use and allows you to instantly share your screen with anyone .
CroosLoop is also very easy to use and allows file sharing, but requires that each party install the CrossLoop software onto their computers.
Show My PC: Good for online collaboration, desktop sharing and remote access. Doesn’t require registration or login and is easy to use.
SkyFex: Is browser based (Only Internet Explorer) and allows user to screen sharing and remote control
Screen Stream: Is browser based and lets others see your screen. Great for presentations, lectures and teleconferences.
Citrix GoToMyPC: Works with Macs and Linux-based browsers and allows guest to logon remotely.
Allows you to view full colors instead of being stuck in 256-color mode.
Chris Randall, Technical Directer
Executive Edge, www.executive-edge.net
There are a host of service providers available with each having their strengths and weaknesses. These businesses provide their customers with free versions in hopes that with wet appetites the customers will upgrade to bigger and better versions. Many of us may find that in the long run, that the minimal cost is worth the value added of the extra functionality. Most of us however, will find that the free version gives all that we need.
Two of my favorite remote desktop software pieces are Teamviewer and Logmein. Both offer 256 bit encryption from my VPN tunnel, give me logon capability onto my network, offer file sharing and do not have problems navigating through firewalls.
Logmein is a web based application which only requires a safe active-x control to be able to access any of multiple PCs directly from your web browser. You will be able to logon to home systems as well as networked systems which require credentials. With the Pro version (Under $10/mo) you can even turn on your PC remotely. For file transfer you can copy and paste from one machine to the other. If your computer gets hung up you can reboot via remote control.
Teamviewer does require a small program to be installed on your system in order to create a real VPN. One nice feature is you can put this program on a USB drive, so that you don’t have to install it on all of your machines and it saves your settings. From that program, you can create permanent connections, or on the fly connections if you just need to login to someone else’s desktop on a short term basis. Teamviewer also creates a real VPN connections, it has the best file transfer capabilities.
Out of the two, I like them both. Logmein has the luxury of being web based, which is great when I am using someone else’s computer, so I don’t have to install or remember my setting for Teamviewer. Teamviewer can’t be touched for the speed of my virtual private network, which includes my screen refresh rates and file transfer. I would not expect this type of service in free software. Also, Teamviewerprovides me with a much clearer screen. I personally use both of these programs, since I enjoy features from both, but if I had to pick one over the other, that I would go with Teamviewer. The clarity and fast file transfer ability are key to my needs. I highly believe that Logmein makes a great product too.
Chris Randall, Technical Directer
Executive Edge, www.executive-edge.net
Please see a list of my other favorite desktop sharing programs here.
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