Avoiding Viruses and Worms

Good article describing viruses and worms:

Did you know? Computer viruses are among the most common security problems on the Internet today.

What is a virus?

Virus: A man-made computer program that, when opened, infects your computer and attempts to spread itself to other computers. A virus will often attempt to spread via e-mail automatically by sending copies of itself to everyone in your address book.

Worm: Shares most of the traits of a virus, but is able to spread on its own without human interaction.

*Did you know? Viruses need a person to help them! If you don’t help them, the virus can’t hurt you!

A person must open the virus-infected program in order for the virus to spread. Note that viruses can be attached to other legitimate programs and run without the user being aware of their presence, though. That’s why it’s important to follow some simple rules!

How do they spread?

Viruses are mainly spread via e-mail, although some websites can infect your computer as well. Worms seek out non-infected computers by searching the network, and then spread themselves by exploiting security weaknesses.

*Did you know? It is usually difficult to be infected by a virus without unwittingly installing it yourself!

Computer users often install viruses on their computers by accident. Because viruses spread themselves automatically, they often come from friends or family members without their knowledge. Even though an e-mail came from someone you trust, you may still be in danger of contracting a virus! The purveyors of viruses actually depend on this “trust factor” tricking you into opening the e-mail or its attachments.

Let’s say you get an e-mail from a friend with an attachment on it. When you open the attachment, thinking your friend or family member sent it on purpose, your computer becomes infected with the virus. The virus then spreads itself to your family and friends, using your e-mail address book to trick them into believing the message is a legitimate one from you.

How do I protect myself and my computer?

* Use an anti-virus program!
* Download updated virus profiles for your anti-virus program as often as practical, even DAILY!

Did you know? New viruses are created all the time! Anti-virus programs need to be updated often to keep up!

* Set your anti-virus program to scan at start-up
* Set your anti-virus program to scan each and every file when it’s used by the computer
* Keep your computer software up to date

Operating system updates are critical! Microsoft Update service is free of charge, and provides most members a valuable tool to keep their operating system current with the latest security patches

* Don’t open attachments to e-mails sent by people you do not know!

Tell everyone who uses the computer to do the same

* If someone you know sends you an attachment, scan it with an anti-virus program before you open it!
* Be very careful when using peer-to-peer file sharing programs. Viruses are easily spread on these types of services
* Make sure to scan all downloads with an anti-virus program before installing.
* Don’t install any software or programs unless they are from a source you trust!
* Back up all of your important files regularly!

Many viruses corrupt or even delete legitimate files and software

If a virus corrupts your files, and you “clean” your computer to eradicate the virus, you will run the risk of losing the corrupted files

Protecting your Passwords

I came across this very informative article about protecting your passwords:

Creating A Secure Password

Did you know??? Your password is the key to your accounts!

With your password, someone could gain access to your accounts, transfer funds, and steal your money. Knowing how to make a strong and secure password can keep strangers out of your accounts! This short tutorial can teach you how to create a password that is easy to remember yet complicated enough to foil most security attacks.

Did you know? The most common way your password is compromised is by someone simply guessing what it is, based on some simple rules?

Common Password Guessing Rules:
1.Try “password”
The word “password” is the most common password
2.Try Personal Information
1. Passwords often contain the name of a spouse, child, relative, pet or alma mater
2. Telephone numbers and social security numbers are common
3. Cities and States, especially home towns
4. Home addresses
5. Work Addresses
6. Vehicle License Plates
3.Try some variation of the person’s username or email account
1. Username spelled backwards
2.Email address used for password
3.A number before or after the username
4.Try common and easy to type keyboard sequences
1.qwerty
2.123456
3.asdfg
5. Any word that can be found in a dictionary
1. Password guessing programs use 30,000+ word dictionary lists as their first attempt

If someone wants into your account and you have a common password, chances are thieves can quickly guess your password.

So, how do you make a strong, secure password?

*Mix in numbers and punctuation
*Intersperse capitals with lower case letters
*Use at least eight characters if allowed
*Change your password at least every 90 days
*Make sure you can remember it somehow!

The following five steps can help you to make and remember a strong password!
1.Choose a phrase. It can be your favorite quote or reference, but don’t make it the quote on the calendar next to your desk.
*”Security is a process, not a product”

2.Use the first letter of each word. Using the phrase above to generate an acronym creates an easy to remember sequence of fairly random letters.
* “siapnap”
3.Substitute numbers for letters. You can do some or all, but the following are the easiest to remember.

0 (zero)
O (oh)
1 (one)
8 (eight)
S (ess)

4. Capitalize all the nouns and reinsert punctuation
* “S14P,n4P”
5. Make sure at least one symbol character is used. If no punctuation was inserted in step 4, add some symbol characters to your password.

Considering just how important the “key” to your accounts is, we would like to encourage you to make a strong password!

Computer won’t start and makes high pitch Noises

Question:
When my computer started up it makes a high pitch noise for about a minute and will reboot. It will not load into windows, but will just show the Manufactures logo and then goes black until it reboots. The high pitch sound is coming from inside the computer and not the speakers.

Answer:
In this case when the computer loads up and the keyboard does not initialize correctly the computer will not complete the boot up process. There was a stuck key on the keyboard that was causing the internal speaker to repeatedly beep. When a keyboard key starts to get stuck this can be aggravating when typing a document or doing normal use. In this case in which the key was stuck and not allowing the system to start is a very rare scenario.

Blockbuster Trial – 1st month free

I recently joined blockbuster online. I have been very impressed with their new approach to online rentals. They call it Total Access. They give you the option to return your online dvd by mail or exchange it in-store for a Free in-store movie rental that you can watch that day. When you exchange it in store, it also triggers your online queue to send you the next movie in the queue.

Personally I found it very over whelming trying to keep up with all of the movies that you get when you are on the 3 out at a time. The 1st month trial allows you to have 3 rentals at a time. I continued my membership with the $9.99 1 dvd out at a time. This is a reasonable amount for my family.

If you’re ever interested in trying the online rental service, this is the best way to get caught up on your movies.

To get a 1 month free trial:
Go to www.blockbuster.com and Enter code: newhome2007

I think this model is finally an attractive and affordable way to rent dvd’s.

MP3/Video Player Reviews

I just recently upgraded to a mp3/video player. During this decision I reviewed the top hard drive mp3 players to determine which player was the best deal.

My criteria is as follows:
1. minimum 30GB
2. Audio (minimum wav,mp3,wma filetypes)
3. Video (minimum avi, wmv, divx filetypes)
4. FM Radio
5. Photos
6. Ability to use as external hard drive

As of December 2006, there were three 30gb players on the market
1. Ipod Video
2. Microsoft Zune
3. Creative Zen Vision: M

1. minimum 30GB
All 3 players had 30GBs

2. Audio (minimum wav,mp3,wma filetypes)
Ipod Video: Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV
[NO WMV File Support]

Microsoft Zune: Windows Media® Audio Standard (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
MP3 (.mp3): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): Up to 320 Kbps, Low Complexity (LC), up to 48-kHz sample rate
[NO WAV File Support]

Creative Zen Vision: M :MP3 (Up to 320 kbps), WMA (Up to 320 kbps), WMA with Digital Rights Management (DRM) 9 or later and Linear PCM WAV

3. Video (minimum avi, wmv, divx filetypes)
Ipod Video: Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
[Must use software to convert before viewing on Ipod]

Microsoft Zune :Windows Media Video (.wmv): Main Profile, CBR or VBR
[Limited formats supported]

Creative Zen Vision: M : AVI, MPEG-1/2/4-SP, Windows Media™ Video (WMV) 9, Motion-JPEG, DivX™2 4 and 5 and XviD3
[Does not need to convert most video before it can be viewed on device]

4. FM Radio
Ipod Video: NONE
Microsoft Zune: YES
Creative Zen Vision: M: YES, 32-presets

5. Photos
Ipod Video : Yes
Microsoft Zune : Yes
Creative Zen Vision: M : Yes

6. Ability to use as external hard drive
Ipod Video: No
Microsoft Zune : Yes via Hack
Creative Zen Vision: M : Yes

I ultimately chose the Creative Zen Vision: M because of its overall value and flexibility and capabilities. This product is late to the ball game like Microsoft Zen, but is facing stiff competition penetrating the market that the Ipod dominates.

Gadget Gift recommendation

Do you have any creative present ideas? I’m looking for something interesting for that all spectacular man who fathered my children and I’m not coming up with anything. I’ve thought about a portable GPS, but I’m dried up after that. He loves techy geeky stuff! Price – anything up to maybe about $350?

Answer:
Here are gadget gift ideas:
32” LCD TV for use as a Computer Monitor/ TV – $500 (21”-27” probably in your price range)
Wii – Game system
MP3 player/IPOD with Video -$250
Logitech Z-5450 Digital 5.1 Speaker System w/ Wireless Rear Speakers
GPS are cool, but I don’t now of many uses. Then again, if you have problems with directions it could be a lifesaver.

Best Free email system with access from MS Outlook

Can you direct me to instructions on how to switch our email addresses from Comcast to a hotmail account? I would like us to have addresses that won’t have to change whenever our ISP changes (as below) and I assume hotmail is as good as any. Specifically, I would like to make Outlook automatically sync up and download any messages in our hotmail accounts.

Answer:
I would typically recommend yahoo mail over hotmail, but in this case I would recommend going with google. These three email accounts should be around for a long time. Google is the only one of the major free email systems that allows for free pop access (access to dow nload mail to outlook). You must purchase an upgrade to get the capability to download emails to outlook from hotmail or yahoo mail. Gmail’s user interface is a little different than most email systems but if your using outlook to manage emails you won’t see any difference. Gmail also offers the most free space for email.

Google mail can be found at www.gmail.com.

Free Software Site – “No Catch”

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago. This is a great place to find a program free of charge. Each day there is a different piece of software. There is no catch. I assume this is a good way to get publicity for the software.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Here is a snippit from their site:
Well, that’s a convenient initiative allowing you to get the best commercial software titles – for free. Every day we offer licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise, for free! Yes, we are giving away software, and you can download it from our site, right now and right here and our goal is to give away every good piece of software, sooner or later. Want to learn more about our project?

Check this site out periodically, and you will probably find a application or utility that will be useful to download.

Podcasting for Free

I was searching for a cheap way to podcast a church service and sermons each week for Calvary Baptist church. I found a few sites that would host your podcast for free. As I reviewed the capabilities of the free sites, I decided the www.podomatic.com provided the best options for posting your podcast on the internet. You are allowed 500MB of free storage and 15GB of bandwith each month. This is plenty for storing a weekly podcast. For example a reasonable file of 30 minutes of audio could be compressed to around 10MB. That is 50 30 minute podcasts, before you need to archive your podcasts.

Here is a link to the weekly sermons that are being podcasted each week.

If you have questions about how to create a podcast email me at kevintadams@yahoo.com.