Should I buy a desktop, laptop, netbook, or tablet?

Should I buy a desktop, laptop, netbook, or tablet?

Should I buy a desktop, laptop, netbook, or tablet?

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru

The IPAD has muddied the waters on what a person should buy for their personal computer. The first word in PC is ‘personal’, so this is a personal choice for your home computer. You may not have such an option at your office, but at home you should make it a choice that fits you. I will be your computer tailor today. Please, no white mice after Labor Day.

Desktops were the first to make the scene, and the most popular was the IBM PS1 and PS2. The PS2 was so popular we can still buy mice with the PS2 connectors. That shape and form is still the basis of desktops today. Why would you want a desktop over any other type of PC? They are more powerful, less expensive, and most expansive. You can put a more powerful processor in a desktop because of the space in the box itself. There is room for air to get around so it can stay cooler. You can even use a water cooled device to crank up the speed just as a radiator in a car keeps the engine cool. They are less expensive because the parts are larger and easier to make. The parts are also mostly non proprietary, which means you can replace most of the parts with off the shelf components. This allows more competition and better pricing.

They’re more expansive because you can add more internal cards to do things like high end graphics, additional hard drives, additional network cards, DVD burners, USB and Firewire ports, and the list goes on. You can even plug more things onto the outside of the box like USB hard drives, digital cameras, printers, etc. You can put a more powerful power supply in so you can add far more gadgets to your computer than any of the other devices and still have power to spare. If you want to have more than just a couple of high end monitors for stock trading or gaming, then this is definitely the way to go.

Laptops came out after the design of the “luggable.” These 15+ pound monstrosities were used by salesmen as they were able to lug them around from customer to customer to sell software installed on the devices, or sell the luggables themselves. They kept getting smaller until you could fit them on your lap. The great thing about them is that they are far easier to travel with than their predecessors and you also keep most of the functionality of the desktop models, but without the expandability. The disadvantage of not being able to add PCI functional cards, as well as the limited power keeps these devices for specific uses. Of course if you travel, a laptop is the right choice if you need more processing power than a netbook or tablet. They do tend to get hot so don’t leave them on your lap without a USB cooling device, or at least a book to protect you.

Laptops also have DVD players which makes them great for travelers who choose to watch movies and play less intense video games than the on the desktops. They have less hard drive space, but if this is not your only computer then you can dump your data onto a desktop or a USB hard drive when they get full. Laptops are also very good for wirelessly walking around the house or within range of your wireless access point. You have the freedom to move about. Battery life is anywhere from 2-6 hours based on the type of use and the type of battery. You can buy a longer life battery for an extra charge.

Netbooks may only be a few years old, but they are based on the laptop design. They look just like a diminutive laptop because they have no DVD player in them, and they use a much skinnier hard drive called a flash drive (in many models). Their screen size is typically 7-10”, although some manufacturers are pushing the envelope on this. They don’t tend to multitask very well because they use a power sipping processor to extend battery life as long as possible. The Intel Atom chip is the most popular and Windows 7 designed for the netbook is the most used operating system.

Without a DVD player, you’ll need to download your movies before getting on the plane, unless you’re lucky enough to get a plane with internet access. Being much smaller and lighter than a laptop, it’s great to travel with. It does have USB ports so you can add storage and plug in a digital camera, as well as many other devices. Since most run Windows, they have Flash so you can watch TV on it through Hulu.com. Hard drive space will be at a premium so don’t buy a netbook if you have massive storage requirements. The Netbook was designed for just a couple of things: email and internet surfing. It can do more than that of course, but you’ll be less than pleased with the results if you try to push the envelope beyond its intended design.

A tablet like the IPAD is a fairly old creature, but with a new design. A tablet was basically a standard laptop designed to allow your finger to be the mouse. This was alright for some groups of people, but it was lacking a multi touch design. The IPAD is ushering in a new wave of tablet design that removes the tablet from being a laptop altogether.

They have light weight processors just like the netbooks, and also smaller hard drives. The Apple version is very proprietary so don’t plan on upgrading any RAM, adding storage, plugging in a digital camera, or watching TV on it through Flash. It won’t do any of that. What it will do, however, is run some fantastic apps. Brilliant designers have created applications to specifically run on this device that make it worth the money. If the IPAD isn’t for you, there will be many others that will also be considered tablets, such as the HP Slate due out later this year. It will run Windows, Flash, and have USB capabilities.

Doctors, students, lawyers, and anyone else who requires extreme portability, outstanding battery life, and the ability to do one or two things really well will find this type of device very useful. I think the most exciting thing about tablets is that we don’t yet know what software engineers will come up with next that will make it indispensible to our daily lives. It won’t replace any of the other three types of PCs, but it will be used in tandem to create more productivity for a lot of people.

For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Monday, April 12, 2010 4:33 PM by Devereux

Before You Buy Your Next Smart Phone, Read This!

Before You Buy Your Next Smart Phone, Read This!

Before You Buy Your Next Smart Phone, Read This!

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru

The next evolution in smart phones is coming out, and you may miss out if you buy the wrong one. This is an evolution of speed, not just features. There are also other hardware upgrades you should be aware of before buying, and here is the scoop.

We have been talking about 4G for a long time and now we can say it’s officially here. 3G topped out at around 2 megabits for data plans. Data plans are that extra charge you get every month for web browsing, downloading apps, and other internet surfing. 4G will be around 4-7 megabits. Just as a comparison, dial up speed is 56 kilobits, so 5 megabits would be around 100 times faster.

3G has two different types of technology. Rather than go into technical jargon, let’s just say that Verizon uses one, and ATT uses the other. Because of that difference, it has allowed Verizon to be able to spread out their 3G across the country more easily, but it allows ATT customers to be able to surf and talk on the phone at the same time.

We have a similar issue with 4G. There are two competing technologies. Clearwire makes the “Clear” product, utilizing Wimax technology. Wimax was a spinoff from Intel. Clear started calling themselves 4G over a year ago, and we called a party foul. 4G was not officially adopted at the time, so it was a little premature. As of now it is generally accepted that it is one of the two main players in the 4G arena. I remember Clear coming into our office a year and a half ago wanting us to test the technology for our readers and for listeners of our radio show. We thought this would be a fun thing to do until they presented us with the bill. Then we kicked them out. We don’t pay companies to do them favors.

The second 4G technology is LTE. This stands for Long Term Evolution, and this time Verizon and ATT are on the same page. They both plan to use LTE, although they will adopt it at different times. Verizon will start LTE this year, and ATT will do so next year.

I do realize there are other providers, but Verizon and ATT carry a total of over 50% of the market in our country, so whatever they do the rest are likely to follow. Sprint and Clearwire created a joint venture in 2008 to have Sprint’s phones use Clear instead of just 3G. Although the speed is far greater than either ATT or Verizon could muster, there were few communities where Wimax was already set up. Even now there are only 27 communities that offer it. There are already 40 LTE sites up in beta mode and ready to be moved into production, if they haven’t been already. Clear has also seen the inevitable large scale adoption of LTE, and they have left the door open to possibly move from Wimax to LTE when the time is right. That would leave us with one standard in the future.

If you recall about a year ago, I mentioned in this blog and on our radio show that we would see amazing innovations come from the sale of the wireless spectrum when our analog signals were shut down. LTE uses some of that spectrum, and it’s the first major breakthrough using the old wireless analog range that allows wireless data to penetrate walls. The current wireless technology we use for our computers at our homes and businesses can’t do this easily, but LTE can.

So should you buy that smart phone today? Let’s break it down by popular phone choices. The Apple 3Gs is a great phone, but it won’t support 4G until the release of the model expected in June. It won’t initially run 4G, but when ATT comes out with it next year, it will be ready to go. If you buy the 3Gs now, then you will be out of luck. Samsung has an LTE phone called the R900, and LG also has a 4G offering.

A Verizon representative told me this week that they don’t have a date for a release of a 4G phone, but it will be at the latest in the 3^rd quarter.

There are many technology shows going on worldwide that are showing demos of Android using 4G, so we know it’s coming soon. It will be sold both at ATT and Verizon, as well as smaller carriers.

There are conflicting reports on when Rim will release a 4G Blackberry phone. Some are saying not until the 4^th quarter, while others say it will be included in the new Blackberry Thunder 9500.

So here’s the dilemma: Should you buy a 3G only phone and get locked into a two year agreement only to be left in the dust of 4g phone buyers in just a few months? I say we wait it out.

The other new technology is the vast improvement in camera and video technology we will see in 12 months. We are moving from an old fashioned CCD type of chip to a new quantum dot based one. The cost will be roughly the same but the increase in quality, especially in low light, may have you completely ditching your regular digital camera by next year. That is, if you wait to buy a smart phone until then. This may or may not be worth the wait because it will only start hitting store shelves in a year, whereas 4G phones will be here in a few months. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

I guess if we all waited until the next big thing we wouldn’t have any good toys!

For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Tuesday, March 30, 2010 10:07 PM by Devereux

U.S. Government Takes Back the Internet

U.S. Government Takes Back the Internet

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
An agency within the Department of Defense created the internet many decades ago, and then decided to give it away to the world. Although the U.S. controlled IP addresses and domain names up until last year, the technology itself was given away. At this point in most of our lives, we couldn’t imagine what it would be like without it.
Even if you don’t use it, you’re using it. Every company you buy from, including the biggest house to the smallest piece of cheese, is using the internet to create and distribute their product from end to end. This has been a boon to not only our economy, but the world’s economy as well.
Internet service providers (ISPs) bring us the data at very high speeds when compared to the dial up speeds of the 1990’s. But the Obama administration is not satisfied that they have made the right decisions by its customers. It’s too slow. We are 28th in the world for average internet speed despite having invented the technology. ISPs have come up with every excuse in the world as to why that is.
I can’t say I completely agree with either side. Both parties have their points. There was a mandate several years ago during the Bush administration that everyone should have at least a DSL connection that is always on by the end of 2006. It wasn’t really a law, but a very strong suggestion. Well, that year came and went, and we still have many people and companies that don’t have anything other than dial up or expensive T1 lines available.
And they wouldn’t even have that if it weren’t for the Universal Services Fund. This is the pile of money that phone companies collect from urban folks like us in the amount of a couple dollars a month. The government takes that money and subsidizes rural telephone service by paying the rural phone companies. Otherwise, the phone companies wouldn’t bother. It’s all economics.
Now President Obama has said that it’s time to take back some of the control the government gave away and do it themselves. Again, I’m not completely on either side here. I think the government is the only who has the money (even though it’s technically ours) and the power to make this happen. ATT, Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs don’t want to take losses in order to reach the rural areas. The money is also going to be used to bring fiber to urban areas to increase our speed dramatically over the next few years (I like that).
So President Obama has earmarked up to $9 billion to make this happen. Last week we saw the first salvo fly over our bough with a big explosion that most consumers didn’t even hear. The FCC has been given some additional powers when it comes to the internet to now regulate the speed of the internet. Congress never voted on it, and no law was signed into existence. He just did it (that I have a problem with).
A new tool was created to test your internet speed, and if the speed isn’t what the ISPs promise it’s supposed to be, then fines will start getting handed out to the ISPs. You can go test your speed by visiting http://www.broadband.gov. Unlike most speed tests, you have to give your full address to be tested. Why do they need to know this? Other speed tests can locate your general area by the IP address you’re visiting from. They can lock it down to a 2 mile radius. Why do they need to know my exact address?
I put in a general address that was near me, but wasn’t exactly where I was and hit the test button. The test was very close to the same results I received from Comcast and Speakeasy.net. The technology does seem to work. But I am afraid for the ISPs. And also afraid for us as well. If the ISPs get fined due to arbitrary rules that aren’t even laws, it will take nonstop battles in court to sort them out. The FCC has a history of arbitrarily fining TV and radio companies without telling them ahead of time what they can and can’t say on the air. If it’s deemed obscene you get a fine, and to fight it would cost a lot of money that the media no longer has since the internet and the recession has sapped the industry.
Speed tests are notoriously inaccurate. We only use them as a general rule when testing the speeds after we go to a customer’s site and they have a newly turned on service. If it’s dramatically off from the speed they were promised, we call the ISP and they fix it. But if the test itself is way off, we have other websites we can use just to make sure it’s the test and not the connection that has the problem. If the FCC’s tests are off due to too many people using it at once, or there is a general slowdown nationwide because of a virus just being released, then ISPs could get fined a lot of money due to an imperfect technology.
So if there are court battles, we end up paying higher costs to the ISPs, and higher taxes for our government to wage speed wars. Who wins? I tell you that it won’t be us.
There is also a concern that the money that has been going to the Universal Services Fund to help pay rural phone companies to keep people connected by phone are now going to suffer as their money will get siphoned off to pay for high speed internet. I think I can accurately say that rural folks don’t likely have data centers in their basements, and phone service will be more important than being able to order something on Amazon.com. Of course you could argue that they could use the internet to make those phone calls instead of using old fashioned analog lines. That may be true, but will there be any overlap where the rural phone companies get caught holding the bills paying for it while the government gets this all set up?
The next bombshell came out on Sunday night that the Obama administration wants to give away wireless internet access to everyone in the country using the analog signals they sold in 2008. This would force those companies to lease back any unused spectrum and create a nationalized free wireless plan. If this becomes imminent, you will see companies like Clear and cell phone companies that provide internet access stop supporting and updating their infrastructures as they will become obsolete.
I agree that the government does need to push us into higher speeds. Commercial companies just won’t do it on their own. But let’s give them the money to make it happen just as we did with the Universal Services Fund for rural phone service almost a century ago. Making it a government project without the commercial interests that will end up supporting it is a recipe for disaster. Let’s not start a speed war where our ISPs get fined and growth slows to a halt as they fight each other using our money to pay the lawyers.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Monday, March 15, 2010 10:05 AM by Katatkoin

Watch Out for Hidden Cameras While Shopping

Watch Out for Hidden Cameras While Shopping

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
We love our technology, most of the time. Cell phones with cameras and video have been a tremendous help in catching criminals and creating a whole new generation of internet reporters. You might even be able to make a few bucks if you’re in the right place at the right time.
But using these devices for good isn’t the only purpose. The bad guys get to use them as well. You would hope that most shopping malls have figured out how to secure their dressing rooms and bathrooms from creepy hidden cameras, and that is most likely the case. There is one type of hidden camera that is a lot more difficult to protect against, especially in a crowded location.
Last Saturday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a story emerged that has reached national levels and tells us about this new threat and about the accused man named David Delagrange. Delagrange used a special type of camera that can be mounted on his shoe. The camera is so small it can barely be detected, unless you know what you’re looking for. It picks up both video and audio and sends it to a flash drive in his pocket for later retrieval.
Delagrange would then walk up to women and girls and slide his camera shoe under their dresses to take video while the victims had no idea it was happening.  In a crowded location this is probably very easy, especially in a bus or on a train. In this case it was more obvious because it wasn’t as crowded, and it raised suspicion.
When confronted by security officers, he resisted arrest and was thankfully tased into submission. Delagrange has been charged with voyeurism, resisting arrest and felony child exploitation. How many of us would have paid to line up with our tasers to get our shots in?
How easy is it to get a hidden camera? I did a search and instantly found more than just a simple shoe cam. I found tiny video cameras for eyeglasses, a tissue box, an alarm clock, a lighter, a watch, a keychain, a pen, and even a can of soda. They run, on average, around $150. No permits are needed, although some of the websites try to protect themselves by making you click an agreement that you won’t do this in any illegal way. (If you’re about to do something illegal, would you say that you were?)
So, what do these guys do with these videos? Well, I’m sure they were for personal use when it all started, but now this industry makes big money. The terminology for it is called “upskirt videos.” I did a search for this and came up with a whopping 8.5 million sites!
Most of the sites appeared to be infected with viruses embedded in the pictures, so at least there is some justice for the people who visit them. But this does shed light on an entire industry that has flown under the radar for quite some time.
How do you keep all this from happening? The most obvious protections can help in many cases. Keep your eyes and ears open for people getting in your personal space, but there is an electronic option as well. Most hidden cameras are wireless and therefore put out a wireless signal. The closer they are to you, the stronger the signal. An RF spy camera detector can be purchased to warn you when these cameras get within your range and they cost around $75. If you want to be able to detect both wireless and wired cameras, then you have to spend a little more money, but the extra features may be worth it. For $280 you can get a miniature laser device that scans the room for hidden cameras. It sends out pulses of light and locates any camera lens that responds back to it. After giving away its location, you can alert security or just rip the camera out yourself. You can buy them both at dynaspy.com.
Being alert is still your best defense against any kind of intrusion, but it’s good to know about the threats that are out there. I’ll do what I can to keep you informed and up to date on all of them.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Monday, March 01, 2010 12:13 PM by Katatkoin

Your Website Could be Stolen, Legally

Your Website Could be Stolen, Legally

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Amid the many stories of hackers breaking into websites and changing the home pages to something unintended by their owners comes a different kind of problem.  You could have your website stolen legally, and attempted to be sold back to you at a premium.
Whenever your website comes up for renewal, you may be surprised to know it’s not always your website host that will inform you it’s time to renew. When you purchase a domain name, you buy it from a registrar. Examples of registrars are Network Solutions, Register.com, and GoDaddy. You can opt to have your registrar also host your domain, or you could pick another website company to do it for you.
We had a case this week where one of our reader’s website was stolen legally, but not ethically, right from under them.  Back in December Eileen was informed by her registrar, GoDaddy, that her company’s domain name was going to need to be renewed. One option you can choose when you register your domain is to have it auto renew when it comes up for renewal at the end of the subscription. If you buy one year at a time it will cost you more to renew each time than if you buy three years or more.
Eileen went with the discounted rate by choosing to buy for five years, but have another company host the website. If you choose to auto renew your site but don’t update your credit card expiration date, then it doesn’t matter if you have it set to auto renew. The card will be declined, and you will need to check your email to make sure you are made aware of this. Sometimes spam filters filter out the reminder, so it’s best to set a calendar entry for the future as to when the domain will expire.
Eileen was aware that the domain was going to expire because she did receive the reminders the month prior to the expiration. In December, she decided to consolidate her domains to one registrar for her company’s three websites. She wanted to transfer out the GoDaddy domain and move it to Network Solutions. She sent emails back and forth between GoDaddy and Network Solutions trying to get this done before the expiration date, but somehow got sidetracked and the domain expired.
One day last week the company’s email stopped working and they contacted me to find out if I could help. Here’s where things get technical, but I will try to make it a little less dry than beach sand (where my wife and kids would rather be right now anyway).
Registrars try to give you an extra six weeks after payment expires before they allow your website to be purchased by other companies. The day it reached six weeks after expiration, a cyber squatter bought the domain and immediately sent an email to Eileen’s company to ask them if they wanted to buy it back. They thought the email was a joke and deleted it. After their email stopped working they realized that it was no joke.
I went to their domain name in my web browser and it pulled up a “for sale” sign with an email address to reach the new owner. I tracked down the new owner and asked nicely to give it back, as he was squatting, which is illegal but almost completely unenforceable.  He laughed and told me to make him an offer.
There is a governing body called ICANN that is supposed to regulate these kinds of things, but it may take months or years to get it resolved. Eileen’s company has letterhead, business cards, yellow page ads and other advertising tied to this domain which would make it expensive to try to change. They asked me to make an offer for them. I decided to start low and go from there, so I offered $100. He laughed this off and came back with a demand for $5,000 plus some other bogus fees. Now, what makes this illegal in our country is that he has no business that operates under the name of the company’s website which he stole. But in his country it was legal, and no one in either country will do anything about it. ICANN will usually force the registrar to give the website back after a very long time and lots of legal work.
The cyber squatter dared me to pursue it, knowing Eileen’s company would spend thousands on legal fees and months of wasted time. At that point I turned the case back over to Eileen and said, “If you really want this resolved right away, it’s time to call your attorney to work out a deal.”
The real way to beat these guys is, unfortunately, to give up the domain for about three to six months. He will ultimately not be able to sell the domain to anyone else and the price will likely come down to the $100 figure I originally offered. If you look at the big picture, it’s just a huge inconvenience to do so. You will hopefully be in business for many more years than that and after a period time you will get it back for a more reasonable offer. Eileen’s company will have to weigh those options and see what is worth more to them, notifying of all their customers and contacts to use new email addresses and domain name, or paying the exorbitant fee to a criminal so they don’t lose the confidence of their customers. It is a nightmare either way.
Finding the squatter was not a problem. Through a service called “Who Is Contacts” I found out he is based in Armenia. He wasn’t hiding because he wanted us to find him so he could get paid. He is just hiding behind the law of his country so he could get away with it. I did a search of his email address and I found he has been doing this with dozens of other companies for a very long time. He even admitted to this when I contacted him, and was quite proud that this was how he made his living.
About ten years ago, Microsoft forgot to re register their domain for their MSN customers. Fortunately, one of the customers found out before the bad guys did and registered it himself and gave it back to Microsoft. Many other companies didn’t realize how powerful the web would be, so squatters registered domains for America’s largest corporations and squatted on them until the big companies realized their mistake. Most of the big companies had lawyers and money to get the domains back without having to pay off the squatters, but smaller companies like Eileen’s will have a difficult time paying $5,000 to this miscreant.
Now that you know the risks and how to avoid them, make sure your website doesn’t fall into the hands of a squatter. Make calendar entries now so your domain won’t expire. Update your credit card with the registrar online and check periodically that the domain hasn’t accidentally expired.

For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Monday, February 22, 2010 11:18 AM by Katatkoin

Eugene Kaspersky: “I’m afraid, but resolute”

Eugene Kaspersky: “I’m afraid, but resolute”

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Ola’ from the Dominican Republic! This week I had the privilege of being invited to the Kaspersky Security Conference for the Americas in Punta Cana. Now don’t hate me because I’m in a warm climate with an ocean view from my hotel room. (Although I wouldn’t blame you.)
Kaspersky Labs is the largest privately held antivirus and anti malware security company in the world, and soon to be the third largest overall in market share. Their growth has been phenomenal, and even with the recession, they still grew over 30% last year.
Now comes the part that should concern all of us. If Eugene Kaspersky is afraid, you should be terrified.
So why is Eugene Kaspersky afraid?  We first met after he just got through with a meeting with the leader of Singapore. He was in a great mood, and was amazingly surprised that they were not only listening to him, but also planning on taking his advice on computer security. Despite his company growing to an estimated $600 million in sales for 2010, Eugene is still a big (genius) kid at heart, and more humble than anyone would expect.
 His name is so respected in Asia that refrigerators, stoves, and other products bear his name and logo without his authorization in China. It would be like putting the name or logo of CBS on a car, or a box or cereal. It doesn’t make sense to us, but brand name recognition of a product held in high esteem is hard to come by in certain places, and unscrupulous vendors will try to exploit that. 
 During the conference, in a segment entitled “Eugene Unplugged”, Kaspersky talked about his company’s phenomenal growth, and how he got started in the industry. He also joked that he never would have named his product as he did had he known how big the company was going to be. He never counted on being a brand name.
 When the MC asked him how viruses and Malware have changed over the years, and what’s in store for us in the future, Kaspersky’s face changed in an instant. The normally gregarious Eugene Kaspersky showed such emotion that he had to think very hard on how to respond in this very public setting.
 He said “I don’t really want to bring this wonderful crowd down. This is a time for happiness and celebration.” But the MC pushed on a little further, unknowingly backing Kaspersky into a corner where he had to respond.
Kaspersky said “There was a time when the people who wrote viruses were doing it just to prove they could bring down millions of computers. They’re motivation may have been mischief or political. But now it’s all about the money. And the people who write malware programs that now infect over half of the world’s computers will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.”
With the weight of the world seemingly on Kaspersky’s shoulders he went on to say that Kaspersky Labs had analyzed over 35 million pieces of malware. Even I didn’t know how pervasive malware (aka viruses worms, Trojans etc.) had become, and I work in this arena every day.
The US is no longer the spam capital of the world. Kaspersky says that now the crown belongs to Brazil. They sent out over 7.7 trillion pieces of spam last year. Almost all of them were designed to lure people into clicking on their links or attachments so their identities and their money could be stolen.
 Other executives came on to elaborate on what Kaspersky was speaking of earlier. One of the more interesting analogies is that we are taught to not take candy from strangers from the time we are able to speak, but we do this every day we click on a link or attachment in an email. Sometimes these strangers dress up as people we know and usually trust, like a bank or credit card company. But these emails are almost always a wolf in sheep’s clothing. No legitimate bank or other financial company will have you enter your password from a link in an email. Do the right thing and call the organization that supposedly sent you the email before clicking on it.
 The Kaspersky product has only been in the US for about five years, but their market share is growing rapidly.
With the bad guys finding new and scarier ways to steal our money online, I’m glad we have Eugene Kaspersky to do all the worrying for us. It may keep him up at night, but we’ll all sleep much better for it.

For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at  9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/

 If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Tuesday, February 16, 2010 1:34 PM by Katatkoin

What if my computer is infected with a new virus?

What if my computer is infected with a new virus?

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru

I guess we need to take a quick break from all the iPad and other tablet news to concentrate on something that seems to plague all Windows users at one time or another, and that is what to do when you get a virus that even your antivirus can’t protect you from.

I see this every week. People bring their computers to us to fix what they thought they were protected from: Worms, viruses, Trojans. You name it, they’ve got it, and in many cases they didn’t even visit websites that were considered high risk. High risk sites would be gambling, adult entertainment, and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The people with infected computers had antivirus software. They even may have had anti malware software. It just doesn’t seem to matter.

This hit my sister’s computer this weekend. Despite having the latest antivirus software and even a program to protect her web browser from websites that could infect her PC, she still got hit. Now I’m going to tell you how the pros get rid of your computer viruses when you bring them to us, and it’s not that difficult if you take it one step at a time.
I have previously covered the differences between viruses and other malware, so we’re not going to get caught up in terminology. We will just refer to them generically as viruses, even though technically all intrusion based software installations come under the name of “malware.”

I’m going to refer to some products for home users that are absolutely free. I don’t recommend them for businesses because they have additional security requirements that will cost money and do additional things you may not need. We will also use Windows XP as the example since most computers are running this version. Although the principles apply to Vista and Windows 7, the actual locations of various different things to check may be slightly different.

I also want to express I take no liability for any changes you may make to your computer. This is a “do at your own risk” venture. These things work for us, however, so they are based on sound advice.

Let’s assume you have obtained a virus on your computer despite having antivirus software that’s up to date and running in the background. This is what I had to deal with on my sister’s computer this weekend, so I will walk you through what I did to resolve it.
After attempting to boot the computer into Windows, the screen went blue for a second and then rebooted over and over. I went ahead and chose the F8 key during the next reboot and tried to boot in Safe Mode and other modes with no success. I had to assume that the virus had damaged the hard drive and a repair was in order. I booted from a Windows CD and I chose the repair option. When I was presented with a command prompt, I typed in a command that fixes the hard drive (hopefully) and allows me to remove the virus in Windows. The command was chkdsk /r /p. This locates bad parts of the hard drive and repairs them.

Success! I was back in Windows, but now the virus was launching itself and trying to tell me it was infected. It asked me if I wanted to fix the infection. I know this is an old trick that downloads new viruses and makes the infection even worse. Fortunately, I had disconnected the network cable so it couldn’t go online to download any more baddies.
Since I couldn’t locate the virus using antivirus software, I knew I had some choices. I downloaded a free copy of Malwarebytes which you can get online by going to Download.com. I also downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy. Since she already had this program, I knew that the Spybot program wouldn’t help with this infection, but I saved it for later. The virus wouldn’t let me go to Download.com so I had to do it on another computer and save it to a USB flash drive. I copied it to the desktop for installation after the next step.

I then right clicked on My Computer and chose Properties. I checked the box to disable System Restore. If you don’t do this when you remove the software, it will automatically re add itself from the saved files in the restore area, and the virus will come back. Then I rebooted into Safe Mode by pressing F8 on reboot and choosing that option.
I installed Malwarebytes in Safe Mode and it found ten viruses, which I was able to remove. I scanned one more time to be sure that the virus didn’t create any new ones from the time I discovered the viruses and when I cleaned them. Everything was good, so I rebooted.

I was disappointed, but not surprised that another virus appeared upon reboot. This was going to be harder than I thought, but I’ve been down this road before. I had a virus at the Hillsboro airport that took almost three days to clear out. They even named the virus after one of our techs since we discovered it.

I went back to safe mode so the virus couldn’t launch and stop my efforts and opened the registry. You get there by going to the Start-Run command and typing in regedit. I wanted to find out what was launching when Windows opened in regular mode. I had to go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
I looked to see what programs ran at startup. Some of them I knew, but just to be sure I typed each one of them into a search on the web. Some viruses look like regular files with one letter off just to be harder to detect. They were all fine except one. There was a file that ran at startup called vnvlsftav.exe. I did a search online and found nothing on this file, so I knew I had discovered a new one.

I searched the hard drive for this file and any other ones like it that started with “vnv” by going to the start menu and choosing “Search.” I typed in vnv*.* so it would find any file that started with those letters. I found two. One was the exe file that was the new virus. The other was a similar name but ended in a .pf instead of a .exe.  A .pf file is used to make the virus load and run faster. It can also be used to locate and run new viruses locally and on the web.

I deleted both files and also deleted them from the recycling bin. Then I deleted the key that looked for the file in regedit that had previously opened. It’s also a good idea to backup the registry before making any changes. You can do this from the menu at the top of the regedit program.

I restarted the computer and the virus was no longer launching. I double checked both regedit and I ran msconfig from the start run menu. This allowed me to see if it lodged itself in the startup tab from there as well. Everything was looking good, but then I had to deal with the damage the virus had done. I could put the Windows CD in and run a repair of Windows, but that takes a long time and you have to have your Windows key handy in order to reactivate Windows during the process.

Instead, I put the Windows CD in the computer and ran a very useful command. I went to Start- Run again and this time I typed in sfc /scannow. This replaces all the important DLL files that makes Windows and all your programs run. Viruses like to corrupt or replace these files to cause all kinds of havoc.

Next, I wanted to do a few more things like install Spybot Search and Destroy, and run an online scan. Spybot Search installed and ran fine. I also activated the web browser protecting Tea Timer application that’s included. I then attempted to go to Trend Micro’s website at trendmicro.com to run the free Housecall application. This does a scan of your computer online and removes any viruses. I like to run multiple programs because very rarely does any one application remove everything. You should only have one antivirus program on your computer running because sometimes they fight each other and disable each other without you knowing about it. Apparently, their programmers never learned good manners.

Unfortunately, I was unable to reach any website. However, I quickly remembered that many viruses like to change a setting in the web browser that’s easy to fix. Just go to Tools-Options, and then the Connections tab in Internet Explorer. Uncheck the proxy settings buttons and then everything works as usual. There are similar buttons for other web browsers.

If I was unable to remove the virus then I would have removed the hard drive and plugged it into a USB enclosure. Then I would have plugged it into a known clean computer and scanned and removed the virus from there. That is assuming I had a virus that is known by an antivirus program. In this case, it was a new one that no one knew about, so I had to use the sleuthing techniques I spelled out for you here.

Now she’s back to surfing the web and causing other kinds of trouble, and I can get back to … working on…… everyone else’s computers.

If you have an interesting virus story please let me know about it.

For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at

9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.

Published Monday, February 08, 2010 8:49 AM by Katatkoin