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Over the next few weeks I’m going to discuss the virus problem, how to remove viruses and malware, and how to protect your computer from becoming infected by viruses. In today’s first installment I’ll talk about the problem of viruses and malware.

The problem of computer viruses has been evolving since the internet was born. In the past you could only catch a virus or malware by actually opening a file. Now you can become infected simply by going to a web site or opening an email.

There are over 4 million virus threats that are currently flagged by current antivirus programs. And that number increases by over 2,000 new threats every day! Depending on the virus the effects can range from annoying to destructive. The worst infections can delete files on your hard drive, make your computer inoperable, and some malware (keyloggers) can even capture and send your personal and financial information to the bad guys. Even a mild infection can slow down your computer and internet connection, cause annoying popup advertisements and redirect your internet browser’s homepage.

Unfortunately there’s no one program that’s good enough to remove and/or prevent every virus. There are some decent antivirus programs and there are some decent antispyware/malware programs but so far no one has created one program that can do both effectively. Also, some programs are better at virus prevention while others are better at virus removal.

Because of that, the main point I’d like to make today is that it’s primarily your job to keep viruses off your computer. That probably comes as a big surprise to a lot of people but don’t worry, it’s not difficult and we’ll cover everything you need to know. You just have to use the tools that are available, like antivirus software, but more importantly you have to use some caution and common sense on the internet.

The virus/malware business is a very lucrative business, generating about $8 billion a year for the bad guys, so don’t expect them to fold up shop and go away any time soon. And the bad guys can afford to pay their software developers a lot more money than the antivirus companies can.

Stay tuned for next week’s article. I’ve had the opportunity to clean up a lot virus infected computers and I’ll tell you how to do it.

-Bert

In celebration of their 15th anniversary, Check Point Software will be giving away their ZoneAlarm Pro software for free!

This offer is only good for 24 hours starting at 6 AM PDT on Tuesday November 18th, 2008.

ZoneAlarm is excellent security software that includes a firewall plus identity theft and spyware protection. Normally they charge $39.95 for this software which includes one year of updates. 

Be sure to click here on Tuesday to get your free copy of ZoneAlarm Pro.

Thank you Check Point Software!

-Bert

A while back I posted about internet scammers  sending email viruses and trying to get your personal information while posing as fortune 500 companies like UPS and Northwest Airlines.

They’re at it again, but this time posing as the Better Business Bureau. They spoof the email address so it looks like the email is really coming from the Better Business Bureau.

Follow these three steps so you don’t fall prey to online email scammers:

1. Install antivirus software that checks your email if you use an email client like Microsoft Outlook. A very good free antivirus program that does this is AVG. Most of the major web based email portals like Gmail and Yahoo mail have antivirus software on their server that checks attachments.

2. Delete email from anyone you don’t know or the subject line seems strange. Don’t even open these email message.

3. Even if an email message appears to come from someone you know or a business be skeptical of it and don’t click any links or open any attachments unless you’re absolutely sure it’s legitimate. Even then, you’d be better off calling them then taking the chance.

-Bert

Terri Gruca came through again! On her Consumer Blog she reported that Restaurant.com is having a 60% off sale through 10/26/08. The last time we used Restaurant.com we had such a great time I blogged about it HERE. This time I bought two discount coupons for $25 each and it only cost me $8.00!

If you haven’t used Restaurant.com yet, this is your chance for an incredibly cheap dinner out.

If you don’t want to miss a deal like this in the future be sure to click the blue button under my picture and sign up to receive an email when I post something important :)

-Bert

If your computer runs a Microsoft Operating System, there’s one free program you should not be without. 

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a free system optimization tool that removes unused and temporary files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. 

One of my favorite past-times is fixing other peoples computers and I’m always amazed when I run CCleaner on a PC and see just how much junk Windows collects. I’ve seen over 3GBs of junk removed by CCleaner. The result was simply a faster, cleaner computer.

You’ve probably noticed that your computer was much faster when it was brand new, but over time it has slowed down. Just to give you an idea how much junk gets collected, I ran CCleaner to insure my PC was clean. See the screenshot below:

Then I opened Internet Explorer and browsed to three popular websites. First, I checked my email, then a news site, and finally my local weather. I didn’t click any links on those sites I simply went to their home-pages. As you can see from the screenshot below, visiting those three websites in about 15 seconds Windows managed to collect 2.25MBs of junk..

Just to give you an idea how much 2.25MB is, an MP3 music file is usually about twice that size. And if I can pick that up in 15 seconds of surfing, just think how much junk is on your PC if you’ve never run CCleaner..

So how often should you run CCleaner? I’d recommend at least every week or two.

CCleaner deletes files, including your cookies. So if you save websites usernames and/or passwords be sure to go into Options > Cookies and move any cookies you’d like to keep over to the “Cookies to Keep” side before running CCleaner the first time.

I won’t mention any names but, there are companies out there that will charge you for software that does exactly the same thing CCleaner does. 

CCleaner is the fastest and easiest way to clean up your PC. And, since it’s free, it’s a no-brainer. Download CCleaner today.

Happy Computing!

-Bert

This weekend we had a house full of children for our 10 year old daughter’s birthday. When they asked to use her computer I was thankful we use an internet filter and didn’t have to hesitate to let them use it.

Anyone who’s ever surfed the web knows how easy it is to stumble upon inappropriate content. Parents have an obligation to protect their children inside and outside of the home.

Thankfully, there are some great applications parents can turn to for help. My favorite, if you have younger children, is K-9. It’s best for younger children because it’s free and doesn’t have all the options that pay programs do. That being said, K-9 is still an excellent internet filter that we’ve been using and promoting for the past couple years.

With K-9 you have 6 different levels of protection and 60 different categories that you can choose to block or not. You can also limit what times the computer can access the internet. You’ll also be able to view the internet surfing history broken down by categories to see what sites your children are visiting.

Blue Coat recently released a new Beta version that runs on Mac’s as well as Windows, it works in more browsers, and more search engines. I highly recommend K-9 and created a video to help parents install and set-up the program.

For older children I’d recommend Net Nanny, CyberPatrol, or Safe Eyes. They’ll run you $40-50 per year but all of them provide great protection and have more options than K-9. CyberPatrol gives you the most options, Safe Eyes is best if you want to install it on more than one computer, and Net Nanny is the easiest of the three for parents to use. Net Nanny also beat its competitors in reviews by a slight margin.

All three of these programs have different features so I’d recommend that you view each of their websites and purchase the one that best meets your needs.

It should be said that no internet filter is perfect and there are ways around internet filters. It’s a well known fact that kids in schools and libraries use proxy avoidance to get around the filters. If you, as a parent, have any inclination that your child is using their computer inappropriately you have two choices. Either you can put the computer in a public place in the house and/or take it away altogether for a period of time. Don’t worry, it is possible for them to live without it..

If you have children that use the internet in your house, an internet filter is essential. Get one today!

-Bert

OK, so I was working on the national financial crisis today and started thinking, hmmm, what if we don’t give 1 trillion dollars to a bunch of fat cats who ran their companies into the ground??

Let’s see.. there are about 218 million people in America over the age of 18. Lets divide that one trillion dollars by the 218 million adults so we can pay off our own debt or really boost the economy by blowing it on stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like.

Here’s where it gets cool, because I was thinking how much money that would be for each person. Problem was, my archaic calculator doesn’t have enough digits for 1 trillion (how many zeros is that anyway??).

So I go to Google and type in “1 trillion divided by 218 million” and it worked!! Try it and see how much we should be getting. The sad part is, that’s actually the number we’ll all end up contributing so the fat cats can keep getting fatter..

Well, at least we have a cool calculator :)

-Bert

The world of free malware (malicious software) removers is constantly changing as does the number and complexity of malware. Even though the Malwarebytes company has been around since 2004 their anti-malware program has just recently become popular because it’s extremely fast and effective at removing malware.

This weekend I cleaned up a computer that was infested with adware/spyware (Zango, 180 Solutions, CoolWebSearch, to name a few) and a couple trojans.

For the past month or so, the first thing I download and run is Malwarebytes. The program is small so it doesn’t take long to download and the installation is fast and easy. The two things that separate it from most anti-malware programs though is its fast scan and effective removal of malware. 

Most programs take an hour or more to thoroughly scan your computer but using the Malwarebytes Quick Scan, that just checks the most important areas of your PC, the scan only takes a few minutes to run.

The second thing I like is its ability to disable any malware it finds. In fact, I haven’t run into any malware yet that it found and couldn’t remove.

You can often gauge the effectiveness of anti-malware software by looking at what the experts are using. When the excellent folks at sites like bleepingcomputer.com, daniweb.com, and majorgeeks.com are recommending it and using it in their forums you can feel confident that it works well.

That computer I worked on this weekend was cleaned up and running smooth in less than an hour, thanks to Malwarebytes..

Have a great day!

-Bert

There are so many different kinds of viruses, trojans, spyware, and adware they’re often all lumped together and just referred to as as malware (malicious software). By the end of 2009 experts predict that there will over a million malware programs trying to disrupt your computing experience and steal your personal information. 

The sad reality is that most people don’t use effective virus protection or follow my 11 steps to protect their computers from viruses and other malware.  Not only are most computers at risk but, until someone’s computer actually gets infected by malware, they don’t even think about it.

If you’re one of those people one day you’ll probably experience one or more of the following signs and symptoms of computer malware:

1. Lots of annoying pop-up advertisements.

2. Dialog boxes popping up telling you that you have a virus or other problems. 

3. New toolbars on your internet browser.

4. Your internet Home Page has changed.

5. New Favorites in your browser that you didn’t put there.

6. Your computer has slowed down or even crashes and restarts on its own.

7. Programs not working or files not opening.

If you ever get a pop-up window telling you that your computer has a virus or registry problem and telling you to buy some program to fix the problem, DON’T! 99% of these are viruses, trojans and adware just trying to sell you software that will just make things worse. All they want is your money.

This is exactly what you need to do if you’re experiencing any of the signs/symptoms above:

1. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. (Save it to your desktop)

2. Close all programs and windows on your PC, including your web browser.

3. Rename the downloaded mbam-setup.exe file to mb.exe to help work around certain malware that will block it from being run.

4. On your Desktop double-click mb.exe to install the removal program. Leave the default settings.

5. Update the program if asked and begin the Quick Scan.

6. After it’s finished running click the Remove Selected button.

7. When finished you can close the program.

If you’re still experiencing problems, run an online scan at Eset.com. 

To keep from getting infected in the future, follow my 11 steps to computer security.

Happy Computing!

-Bert

In creating this list my goal was to provide you with accurate and non-partisan websites that can help you decide who to vote for and that will give you timely information on the upcoming election between John McCain and Barack Obama. 

The following links show you where McCain and Obama stand on the issues:

www.2decide.com   – Simple format

www.ontheissues.org   – Detailed comparisons

en.wikipedia.org  

www.obama-mccain.info  

www.iht.com  

If you’d like to take an interactive approach to finding a candidate who shares your views check out this Candidate-Match-Game from USA Today.

The following links show you where McCain and Obama stand in recent polls:

www.realclearpolitics.com  

www.rasmussenreports.com  

The following links can help separate the facts from the fiction you’re hearing in television ads and the media:

www.factcheck.org

wire.factcheck.org

www.politifact.com

Please exercise your right to vote in the upcoming election this November!

-Bert