mobile technology

vendredi 3 juin 2016

What Should I Do? My Computer/Web Site Has a Virus?

STEPS TO TAKE IF YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM HAS MALWARE.
Last week we discussed what we should do if we have come to believe that we have malware. What signs we look for in our computer system, etc. Now we need to go a little deeper into what to do when we come to that conclusion.
Before we dig into that, let me mention the little known fact that if you have a screen pop up saying something like:"virus detected,"that doesn't mean you necessarily have a virus in your computer system. It could mean that you downloaded a file and your anti-virus software detected a virus and removed it before it could become a problem. It also could mean that a malicious file on an infected web page could have been detected and was dealt with. If you see that screen, don't worry, a lot but you might want to go into your anti-virus program and check its quarantine or its detection logs to view more information about the exact viruses and what action was taken. Do this as an educational experience. You can't know too much about the dangers to your computer system.
So today let's talk a little about what we should consider when we come to the firm conclusion that we have, indeed, become infected with a virus or viruses.
This doesn't seem to be common knowledge, but I have found out from extensive reading that while many viruses and other types of malware are designed because the sender loves chaos, more and more malware at this time is being used by organized crime in order to steal credit card numbers from you as well as other sensitive data.
I know a number of people who purchased fairly good quality anti-virus software and then let it expire. Not too much you can do more foolish than that.
Many people I have known found viruses and then purchased appropriate software and considered the problem solved, as the software would detect and destroy the infection. Actually if I had a virus on a program I cared about I would immediately, after clearing my machine, install a new version of the program. Why would you take a chance? I can't imagine why someone would. These are sensitive pieces of equipment and should be treated with respect.
If you are not going to care for them, why should you expect them to care for you and all you've built.
Possibly you have an anti-virus program but you get the idea that you have viruses that it is not detecting. Possible? Sure. But you can get another opinion on this malware with another type of product. A variety of providers make a one-time scanning tool. These programs will download into your computer system and do a quick scan without a long installation process. You might not know that you cannot have multiple anti-virus products operating at the same time so this allows you to scan with another anti-virus software without the hassle of uninstalling your current anti-virus program. See?
Now what happens if you are right and the viruses are in your computer system and were not detected by your current software? Perhaps your anti-virus software is not up to the job. Maybe you obtained one of those free anti-virus programs widely available on the internet and you took it thinking you were crafty and thereby saved some money. Sorry, it was not crafty, at all.
But back to the problem: You might want to uninstall your thrifty-bargain software and purchase something that will actually protect what you've worked for.
You need to decide what you need; not what others think you need. Or what others want to sell you. But you need knowledge to make that decision.
You might find that some viruses and other types of malware tend to dig their hooks deep into your system, making them very difficult to remove from your computer system. This can be the case especially if the viruses have infected your system earlier and has had time to run crazy and possibly download types of malware. The competent and appropriate software you have now purchased is not always able to root out infections already in the system.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9403934

vendredi 27 mai 2016

Can You Stop Malware With Simple Passwords?

WE support the courageous few standing up to the purveyors of malware. Those malcontents either make fun of your hard work or wish to make money out of your distress. Stand up for yourselves!
Web-wise thought for the day: The best anti-virus software is no substitute for your own common sense. A majority of today's cyberheists begin with malware that is spread via email attachments. Many of these threats will go undetected by anti-virus tools in the first few days. Read that last sentence again if you didn't get it.
You'd be surprised how few business people don't think of these little things, these small but important factors. Make it hard for the hackavists and they will go elsewhere to peddle their destruction.
YOU STAND UP TO MALWARE AND REFUSE TO BACK DOWN!
But you also have to do your part!
Good morning friends. Speaking of common sense, let's discuss our password control. Password control? That sounds easy, doesn't it. But do your employees think about it with the same seriousness you know you must attach to the subject in order to keep your computer system and your business safe? Do you?
What brought this particular subject to my attention was something I read the other day. A study was completed on the most common digit passwords currently used in machines today. Do you know what the most common digit password was for a machine needing six digits? 123456. How many readers got it before I showed it to you?
This, my friends, is the primary reason why there are tens of thousands of hackers breaking into computer systems with viruses or a single virus in the malware. Tens of thousands of new virus attacks on a regular basis.
See the problem that we all have? Hackers have gone wild and we have new viruses each and every day and they find a place because most people just don't want to bother with the little things we can all do. Things like: Good Password Control. We users of computer systems make it easy for them. If they are going to foist destruction on us, let's at least make them work for it.
Now keep in mind that passwords are, in general, transmitted and stored by plain text transmission. The encryption part is fairly simple. Make sure encryption is used. You will find Secure Socket Layer (SSL) pretty awesome. You will recognize that SSL is being used when you see "https" instead of "http," at the beginning of a web page address and also by a padlock symbol in your browser.
Secondly, your storage is solved by "hashing." A hash is the result of processing plaintext in order to create a unique, fixed length identifier.
You don't have to be an expert on these things; just be aware that it works and you need it. We all need to do our part together.
Password security is helped by "salting." This is a random value added before the hashing. Salting only helps if truly random salts are used and long salts.
There are a number of different type of attacks that you will find against your passwords. One is called "brute force attack," and is simply a software program that tries to find your password by building together all possible letter combinations. This type of attack is foiled by those limits that are placed on the number of tries being used. I know you find it a nuisance, but this is why it is there.
A second type of attack against your passwords is the "dictionary attack." This is where the software goes all through possible dictionary spellings and words to try and find the right combination.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9412710

jeudi 19 mai 2016

The 7 Secret Windows Shortcuts You Never Knew About

What if it only takes you a split of a second to initiate a command from fingers? For years, regular users of the Windows computer have been using their mouse more than these cool shortcuts which could very well save them time and effort.
You can be sure that the seasoned tech experts have been using these secretly. And now, you will be shown the way as well. Hang on! Here they come.
1. Windows logo key + L key
Moving away to pantry for a new cup of coffee? Keep curious eyes out of your work with this quick shortcut - you can lock your windows instantly.
2. Shift key + Delete key
Do you find it troublesome to always empty your Recycle Bin after you take out the trash? Now with this quick shortcut, you can bypass the Recycle Bin and get rid of it instantly. But do note of the downside - you won't be able to retrieve any accidentally deleted files.
3. Alt key / Windows logo key + Tab key
Too many multiple windows opened? This handy shortcut will allow you to select the right screen easily.
4. Shift key + Ctrl key + N key
Want to create a new folder instantly, without having to do the clicking? Now you can. Hit this 3 key combination, and a new folder will appear with the name 'New folder' already highlighted - so you can type in your preferred name.
5. Windows key + M key
Uh oh, did you load too many windows that they are cluttering your screen? Or are you sensing that your boss is coming right behind you? Use this quick shortcut to minimize all of the windows instantly. It's a great way to save your time, and sometimes, your appraisal at the end of the year.
6. Windows logo key + Left or Right Arrow key
If you are using a two monitors for your desktop, you may prefer some windows to appear on your left, and some others on the right monitor. Hitting this quick shortcut allows your window to move from one monitor to the next one. And if you only have a single monitor, this shortcut will re-position your window to the side of the screen.
7. Windows logo key + (+/- key)
Can't see that super small font? Or would you like to view your smaller? Press windows key and + key together to zoom in for a magnified view. Or you could hit windows key and - to get a zoom out view.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9412500

samedi 7 mai 2016

Backup Solutions For Small Businesses

While huge organizations and partnerships may have more 'mission-basic' information, their entrance to more prominent assets allows them to spend too much on the best tech. It's really the small and medium-sized organizations that have the most to lose, and with restricted assets, need to arrange painstakingly for their reinforcement needs.
Backup Devices
One of the key variables in your reinforcement approach will be the reinforcement gadget you pick. This can be as straightforward (and work concentrated) as circumventing the workplace toward the end of every day with a versatile hard drive and utilizing Windows' as a part of assembled reinforcement framework, or you can simply attach a NAS gadget with reinforcement programming designed to make programmed reinforcements.
Backup Appliances
These all in one gadgets implied for business use are maybe the most effortless to set up and may give the best venture class unwavering quality on account of components such as RAID, on-the-fly encryption, and mechanized reinforcements - at a cost.
Tape Backups
Once viewed as a definitive in reinforcement, tape reinforcements are no more as well-known as they used to be. All things considered, tape reinforcements may in any case be a decent decision for organizations that need more incessant full reinforcements.
Removable Hard Disks
The most straightforward reinforcement gadget is your unassuming USB hard disk. While these won't scale up too well for more than a modest bunch of PCs, these may very well suffice for small workplaces. Most producers give way reinforcement programming with these so you don't have to purchase that independently.
Backup Software
There are a few reinforcement applications you can look over. These can be utilized as a part of conjunction with convenient hard drives, NAS gadgets, or even with online records.
Online Backup Services
Offsite reinforcements are a crucial part of any business reinforcement arrangement. These works like other reinforcement or forming programming yet store your information in the cloud - giving you the advantage of offsite reinforcement. Nonetheless, these are regularly constrained by your Internet association. Fortunately, some of these administrations let you deliver hard drives to them for the starting reinforcement (which could some way or another take month over a moderate association). You can likewise utilize distributed storage administrations like Google Drive (Google Apps), Skydrive, or Dropbox to reinforcement records from tablets and PC
Backing Up E-Mail
Email stays one of our most regularly utilized instruments and can be basic to the everyday working of a business.
More than likely, your reinforcement procedure will include a blend of the arrangements we've notice. We'd simply jump at the chance to underline two things: Stick to your reinforcement technique, and do utilize some type of offsite reinforcement!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9313949

mercredi 4 mai 2016

How to Increase the Life of Your Printer

You have just come back from your holidays, you dust off your printer, pop in a camera memory card and set off printing your pictures only to find your printer isn't working properly. Now before writing your printer off, here are a few tips and ideas to help prolong your printer lifespan and to get it working perfectly again.
Keep It Clean
You would think this is a pretty obvious point, but it is amazing how many people neglect to clean their printers.
Everything needs a clean now and again to keep it working properly, especially printers. In order to aid with the printing process, ink and toner contain additives such as wax, drying agents and lubricants all of which, expectantly, get into all the little cracks of the printer after long print jobs. A build-up of this will cause mechanical parts to stick and seize and cover important sensors in your printer.
The best way to clean your printer is to first turn it off. Next you will need a small brush (A clean, fine Bristle paint brush works well) to clean off excess dust in and around the printer exterior. For the interior and mechanical parts, I tend to use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol on a small cotton ball and gently dab out the thickest chunks of ink, followed with a dry paper towel to polish. NEVER use water inside your printer, Isopropyl Alcohol evaporates very quickly and leaves very little liquid residue behind.
Be Gentle When Unblocking Paper
When paper is jammed DO NOT pull the paper out through the output tray. Doing this is harmful to the paper wheels which feeds the paper through and can also tear the paper, leaving behind bits of torn paper, which will harm your printer later.
Most printers come with a rear hatch which will allow you access to the printer wheels and where the paper jam is likely to be. Once the jam is located be careful when removing the paper to avoid bending or harming any parts of the printer.
Use Your Printer Often
It is a common recommendation from most manufacturers to keep your printer in regular use. Regular use will prevent ink from clogging your printer heads which can result in smudgy results or missing colours. Regular use will also prevent dust from settling inside your printer which will ultimately improve the printers performance.
Quality Paper Helps A Lot!
To the naked eye, printer paper looks all the same; however, printer paper comes in many different types. One of the main measurements for paper is its grammage or density of the paper. Paper with less density or a lower grammage is often cheaper and probably the choice of most people looking to save a few pennies, the drawback is that low density paper, due to its flimsiness, are more likely to cause paper jams which can ultimately damage your printer. A grammage of 90g/m2 is the industry standard for high quality printer paper.
Avoid Cheap Compatible Inks and Toner
Ink and Toner is expensive, this is fact. It is very tempting to use compatible, refilled or remanufactured ink and toner to cut back on the cost of printing but new, original cartridges are by far the best and safest to use. It is like putting a compatible or used engine part into your car instead of the manufacturer approved part, it may work at first but the performance of the car will be affected and you are likely to break down.
Printer Ink comes with a print yield, which is an estimated number of prints that can be done until the cartridge runs out. Original ink cartridges can produce anywhere between 1000 to 1 million prints before it expires.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9357039

lundi 2 mai 2016

How to Sync Android Phones With Windows 10 PCs

While some users have gotten rid of the hassle of USB cable to connect their Android devices to a computer, many others still have to plug it again and again.
Here are methods through which you can move your files to Windows 10 from Android.
File Explorer:
This is one of the easiest ways to move files from Android to Windows 10. Get a micro USB cable and connect it to the computer. Then Go to 'File Explorer' to see the accessible storage on your device and tap 'This PC.' Now look for "Computer transfer" or "MTP" and move the files.
OneDrive:
OneDrive - Cloud Storage lets you store all your personal files in one place, from where you can access them through your Android device, computer or tablet.
This cloud-based file service is fairly simple to use. You can access all of your data from anywhere simply by signing in to your account.
It starts with a 15GB of storage space, but you can get another 500MB by referring it to a friend. If that is not enough too, you can buy 100GB for $1.99 a month a full terabyte a month for $6.99.
Dropbox:
Dropbox is the oldest file hosting service used by millions of people across the globe. The standard storage size in it is the just 2GB, but $9.99 will get you 1TB of space for a month. Besides, that it also offers several other extra storage opportunities to its users.
Google Drive:
Google Drive is another file hosting service through which you can move your stuff to Windows 10 from Android. It starts with a 30GB of storage shared across Drive and Gmail but you can buy an unlimited storage plan for $10 a month.
Cortana:
This service actually acts as your personal assistant, allowing you to find files, manage your calendar, ask different things and do much more by creating a connection between your Windows PC and Android device or iPhone.
The syncing between Windows 10 and Android is useful through Cortana Notebook, which manages your interests and favourite places etc. Everything you post in Cortana Notebook appears on your Android phone and if you make any change on one device, it will show up when you use the service on the other device.
A problem most of the users face is how to figure out Cortana to enjoy a similar experience on both devices. For that, 'Phone Companion' is a useful in-built app in Windows 10 that ensures it works fine in conjunction with the phone.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9401405

dimanche 1 mai 2016

Yahoo Mail: Changing How People Communicate The World Over

Yahoo Mail is the face of the email industry, and that is because it was one of the first email providers to take the world of the internet by storm. Even before new and advanced email servers were introduced, Yahoo had been the forerunner of this business and the torch bearer of almost every industry both in marketing and telecommunications. People had a Yahoo mail account and were fully involved in using its standard services. With a worldwide consumer base of more than a million, Yahoo has attached itself to the ever growing population of professional personas and industries. Yahoo mail has been increasing its reach and has successfully done so utilizing the basic and standard approach to be the best.
Here are some of Yahoo mail's specs that one must know before opening an account on Yahoo.

  • Yahoo has wonderfully designed its advertisement page to include all that is happening around the world. Apart from the basic features of using an email, you also get the facility of syncing your tablet or phone to the service. This will keep you updated on recent notifications and important messages you want to be delivered there and then.
  • Yahoo mail has an easy to use inbox and other folders available inside the account. One can access the spam folder to know whether the messages are to be blocked or kept for future reference. Yahoo saves your emails for over 90 days and after that, those are automatically deleted to preserve the memory of your account.
  • You can get nearly 1 GB data as storage on Yahoo Mail. Including photos, videos or other stuff as attachments to your contacts in your email is now easy with the huge 25 MB allowance for the same per mail.
  • Yahoo has incorporated the benefit of increasing your reach per mail to multiple people. This makes it easy to send Bcc to everyone you want the mail to be sent.
  • Your personal information is kept a secret, and the Yahoo team makes sure your account is perfectly safe from any hacking device or miscreant. You can even get notifications in your account to know if someone accessed the account without your permission. The Yahoo mail feature will be unique to your device and recognize you only if you collaborate the service as per instructions.

These are some of the specifications Yahoo provides to its customers. If you don't have a Yahoo account, do start now as the procedure to create an account is quite easy. You will be guided through the Yahoo email login page well, and the report will be complete in just a few minutes. You can also opt out of receiving any advertisement notices based on your searches. This feature makes Yahoo a safe accomplice to trust in and safeguard your account. Make sure you draft out your problems with the team as the FAQs are provided for this purpose only. You can even get offers and any related service you want if you sync your Yahoo mail to the online shopping websites. They can contact you through the same. Create a Yahoo mail account and have a happy time emailing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9377927