1. McAfee was a pretty sorry product in my opinion.  I’m basing that solely on my personal experience.
2. Easily 90% of the systems I see in my consulting practice are running a version of Norton that isn’t being updated because the user won’t pony up the cash for a subscription.
3. There’s a Mac version!

With this new offering brings a new concern.. since Comcast has apparently ended their relationship with McAfee, how long until current McAfee users stop getting virus definition updates?  I’ve got a Comcast source I’m going to engage to see if I can get an answer to that question.  Mind you, I’m sure that it isn’t going to be a question of if.. it will certainly be when.  Stay tuned for the answer on that.

Bottom line.. you should switch.  Go to http://security.comcast.net for more info.

PS.. happy 2010!  I haven’t posted in over a  month, sorry for that.  Things are incredibly busy at work, and honestly – I just don’t want to look at a computer once I make it home.  Even as I type I’m out of town on business.

See you round the Internets!

Photo by ercwttmn

enjoy better performance and increased efficiency from your new system, no doubt.  So, what do you do with your old system?  You could pass it down to a family member – many folks do that.  You could keep it and use it for the kids.  You could prop a door open with it.  The list goes on and on.  If you’re like most folks though.. you’ll gather up that old PC and take it down the street to your favorite charity and donate it for the good feeling and the tax writeoff.  If this is your plan, STOP!  Charity is a great thing.. but you need to think this through.  You have personal data on that PC.  You’ve done your online banking on that PC.  You’ve probably allowed your browser to save some of your passwords on that PC.  Just a few of the above items are more than enough information to allow someone to gain access to your entire electronic life at your expense.  Did you attempt to delete the data?  That delete key on the keyboard probably doesn’t work the way you think it does.  For example.. say I keep a Word document on my hard drive that has all of those passwords that I don’t want to forget in it.  I’ve decided after some time that I’m going to sell my old computer at a yard sale, so I go to “My Documents” and delete the file before I sell it.  The file doesn’t show up in “My Documents” anymore and I’ve emptied my recycle bin, so it is gone, right?

Wrong.  Very Wrong.

What really happened inside the guts of your machine is this: your operating system marked the spot where that file lives on disk as “overwriteable” so the space on disk can be used later.  The file is still very much there, only hidden.  Theoretically.. I could purchase your machine, take it home, remove the hard disk and plug it into my already-running PC with an adapter.  I can run one of several programs I have for examining your old hard disk and “undelete” those files.. and Voila!  I have your password file.

I’m going to do a little experiment.  I’m going to head to my local donation center and purchase a used PC.  I’ll bring it home and do just what I illustrated and see what I can see.  I’ll chronicle the experience here to illustrate what I’ve been talking about and I’ll then properly destroy what I’ve found.  Stay tuned!

PS.. by now you know that I support my little blogging habit with affiliate advertisements.  Basically.. if you click a link or ad on this site and make a purchase I get a small cut.  Please take a look at the ads.. there are some big names there.  If you plan on making purchases with those advertisers anyway I’d appreciate it if you’d click on my ads to make those purchases.  Thanks!

Here’s a few selected OSS selections that are quite appropriate for the holiday season:

GNU Image Manipulation Program (The GIMP)

Image by Al Brown

If you need to do serious photo editing – say, for instance you decide that picture you have of your friend Eric wearing his full-face MTB helmet just needs some creative editing to make it pop.  Just fire up your favorite photo-editing software and, voila!  Eric now has Darth Vader’s body!  Hilarity ensues – especially if you post the picture where all of Eric’s friends can see it.  Everyone has heard of Adobe Photoshop.. that brand name has become synonymous with photo editing and it is indeed a powerful program.. but it is almost prohibitively expensive for the home computer user.  A great alternative that is equally powerful is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or The GIMP for short.  I haven’t found anything that I can do with Photoshop that I can’t do with The Gimp.  You can get The GIMP from here.. and if you like it, please donate.

InfraRecorder

I’m greatly annoyed by the fact that until recently you had to use a third-party program to perform what I consider to be basic operations with your CD/DVD burner – for instance, creating an .ISO image of a CD/DVD.  If you still use Windows XP you’re still stuck in that spot without third-party software.  You could go buy Nero or Roxio to perform those tasks.. or you could go download a copy of InfraRecorder.  From InfraRecorder’s site, here’s some of what you can do with it:

Features

• Create custom data, audio and mixed-mode projects and record them to physical discs as well as disc images.
• Supports recording to dual-layer DVDs.
  
• Blank (erase) rewritable discs using four different methods.
• Record disc images (ISO and BIN/CUE).
  
• Fixate discs (write lead-out information to prevent further data from being added to the disc).
• Scan the SCSI/IDE bus for devices and collect information about their capabilities.
  
• Create disc copies, on the fly and using a temporary disc image.
• Import session data from multi-session discs and add more sessions to them.
• Display disc information.
• Save audio and data tracks to files (.wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 and .iso).

If you need these functions, go here to download InfraRecorder.  If you like it, please donate!

Have any OSS suggestions you’d like to share?  Leave a comment!

ComcastBonnie Happy Fun-Time Learning Series GO!

By: @ComcastBonnie

(I was originally going to post this back in September. Oops!)

Since the new school year has begun, let’s learn some fun stuff about your internet connection and how to fix it! Prepare to amaze and awe your neighbors, family, and friends who will suddenly deem you as their tech support person

OK, class! Let’s begin…

Today, we’ll start off our fun learning series with the simple stuff. When I see problems, the very first thing I’ll ask is: Have you reset your modem? If the answer is yes, then I’ll ask: Do you have a router? This isn’t because I’m trying to blame any particular piece of equipment. You’d be amazed at how many times a router will get “out of sync” with a modem, and vice versa. To fix this…

1. · pull the power from both the modem and the router
2. · Next, plug the power into the modem ONLY.
3. · Wait for the lights on the front to calm down. On Motorola modems, you need four SOLID green lights. (Scientific Atlanta/Webstar needs a SOLID cable light. RCA modems need the Cable Link and Internet light SOLID. If you have a modem not listed here, chances are you bought it or it’s an end of life modem and should be replaced)
4. · Once this is done, go ahead and plug the power back into your router and wait for it to finish up it’s startup sequence.

Easy enough, right? If you’re still unable to connect, try moving on to the slightly more complicated steps below.

For a direct connection to the modem:

• · PC’s: Go to “Network Connections” in your Control Panel. Right mouse click on “Local Area Connection” and click Status. Click the Support tab in this window, and check the IP address.
• · Macs: Finder>Applications>System Utilities>Network Utility This will display your current IP address.
• · Does the IP start with 169.254? If so, your computer is not getting a connection from the modem and you should probably give us a call. If you see 192.168, you’re connected to a router, have your IP set static, or something else is going on with the modem. Again, something you might want to call us up about.

For connections using a router:

• · Make sure your router is obtaining an IP address by going to its home page at http://192.168.1.1 (login required in most cases). You should be able to check on the router’s status page and see if you are getting an IP. If you see a 169.254.xxx.xxx address, your router is not connecting to the modem. This could mean that it was not powered on in the right order OR the modem is not assigning IP’s.
• · Make sure your computer is receiving an IP address from the router by following the steps above. A 192.168.x.x of 10.x.x.x address should show. If not, your router has a problem!
• · Make sure you’re connected to your own wireless network. I get more of this than most people think. Be sure to put your wireless network as top priority over others in your network preferences.

For the super geeks out there:

Speaking of modem’s not handing out IP’s… I see this little problem all the time. The geeks out there seem to notice this the most, and take extraordinary measures to correct the problem. I’ll see folks spoofing their MAC Addresses to get the modem to talk to the equipment on the other end. Guess what? You don’t need to do that ANY TIME you connect something in to your modem, you will need to reset the modem. Otherwise, it will still consider the original device connected, and hence refuse to work with the new device. Easy fix, right? Make sure you’re not overlooking the basics above, since it’s easy to forget the most obvious things sometimes. I once troubleshot a modem for well over an hour, and then discovered it was in standby. The lights on the modem will tell you a lot about what’s going on.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the basics of troubleshooting. Next week, we’ll move on to checking out your internet signal from the comfort of your own home

Got a topic I should cover? Let me know in the comments! Got a question about any of the stuff above? Ask away! Let’s keep comments about the lessons on-topic, so we can all chirp in about each thing

About @ComcastBonnie:

Your friendly neighborhood Comcast Ninja here to answer questions, fix problems, and make the world a better place for our Customers. Got a question? Ask me!

@ComcastBonnie’s blog can be found at http://comcastbonnie.blogspot.com

If you haven’t looked into a netbook yet – you really should, especially if you think you’re in the market for a laptop.  First and foremost, netbooks are small.. screen sizes on netbooks are usually in the 10.1″ widescreen range which is similar to some of the nicer portable DVD players out there.  Most netbooks are built on the Intel Atom processor which was purpose-built for mobile computing devices.  As far as other specs you might be more familiar with – netbooks usually come configured with a few gigs of memory, a sizable hard drive (sometimes substituted for a SSD), wired/wireless networking, a few USB 2 ports and a webcam.  Before the general release of Windows 7 most netbooks came with the Windows XP home operating system we’re all familiar with though now the newer versions of these devices come bundled with Windows 7.  I wouldn’t be concerned by that last bit.. the hardware spec of the older models seem to be the same as the newer versions with Win7.  What they don’t come with.. a CD/DVD drive – though they work fine with external drives.  This is by design.. USB memory sticks are so ubiquitous now that I prefer them over CD/DVD.

Netbooks are designed for mobile connectivity, pure and simple.  They are perfect devices for students because of their low cost, battery life and portability.  For example.. the netbook that our babysitter is toting around has a battery life of about five hours so she can leave the power brick in her dorm, and the outside case is ruggedized with rubber so that she can lug it around in her backpack without worrying about scratching it up.

But, Mr. Blogger.. are they slow?  Not at all.  These things are perfect for web surfing, skype, email, and office-type programs and it does those jobs happily.  Don’t try cpu-intense operations like gaming on one.. that will never work.  Feel free to sync your music player to it or download photos from your digi-cam.. that works just fine.  Linux folks.. Fedora 12 just dropped and it has specific enhancements for netbooks!

At around $300 for a decent netbook these things are going to be hot for Christmas.  One word of warning though.. don’t fall for the ads that some wireless companies are touting where they’ll give you a netbook in exchange for a contract on a mobile data plan.  You’ll do much better getting your own netbook and having the free will to choose who you might want to use for mobile connectivity assuming you need that.

Got a netbook?  I’d love to hear from you, so post a comment!

Want a netbook?  Check out the Gateway LT2022u NightSky Black 10.1″ WSVGA Netbook over at Newegg.com.

Image by Leonid Mamchenkov

Are you a PC gamer?  I’m sorry to say that unless you are already proficient with Linux (and those folks may not have read down this far) you’re going to be disappointed.  PC games can and do work thanks to a software package that emulates Windows.. but not all games will work.  That situation gets better with each passing day.. but it isn’t there yet.

Are you hopelessly tied to Microsoft Office or Internet Explorer?  If you know nothing else but IE for browsing or Microsoft Office for office functions you’re going to have a slight learning curve to tackle to be able to use Linux effectively.  If you are willing to learn then read on.. the alternatives to those programs are built in to most desktop distributions of Linux.

Do you live on the Internet?  Are you never more than 5 minutes between checking your Facebook or Tweeting?  Do you use Firefox as your primary web browser?  You’re in luck.. Linux for the home user is perfectly suited for you, whether you are on a desktop machine, laptop or netbook.  Most distributions of Linux use Firefox as their default web browser and it operates in the same way.. you can be instantly productive.  Linux is also much more efficient than any version of Windows would ever hope to be.. it requires much less than Windows in the way of computer hardware to operate on, which translates to extra computing power and better speed for you.

Here’s the best part.. Linux is open-source.  That means FREE!  It is maintained and updated (under Linus’s watchful eye) by its users.  For more about the concepts behind open-source software, go here.

Will it work on your system?  How do you give it a test drive?  Why.. you download a Live CD of the Linux distribution of your choice, burn it to disc (with the proper software), pop the disc in your CD drive and reboot your computer.  Linux will boot up and run off of the cd without touching your existing Windows installation or files.  If you like it you can go back to Windows, get your files and then use that Live CD to load Linux.  You can even dual-boot Windows and linux if you have the drive space to do so and run both systems.

As far as Linux distributions go, I’ve had the best experience and success with Fedora.. go here to have a look.  There are many other Linux distributions geared toward different types of users.. if you want to have a look at those and are familiar with downloading files via BitTorrent then pop over to Linuxtracker.org and have a look.

If you have questions, I’m here.. @neilster1 on twitter or leave a comment here.  I’d like to hear about brave souls who take the plunge!

What is “Scareware”, you ask?  Technically speaking.. it is a piece of software designed to fool the average computer user into paying for a service that they don’t need by convincing them that they do in fact need what the scammer is selling.  The most common scareware I’ve seen in the past few months is the very same one that my relative stumbled upon.. a fake antivirus program that looks very, very real – all the way down to the Windows Vista-styled icons.  In this case the fake AV program was only a pop-up ad, albeit a very dangerous one.. click anywhere in the window and, voila – spyware infection.  This is the very reason that you need to know exactly what antivirus and anti-spyware you have installed on your system.. if something different comes up you can kill it via the Windows taskbar.

If you’re not sure what antivirus or anti-spyware software you’re currently running is called I’ll be happy to help you.. just drop me a line.

We’ve all seen them.. forwarded emails that warn of impending doom and gloom if you don’t keep your eye out for the latest virus, the latest bill moving through congress that promises to strip you of your rights to carry a handgun, etcetera. There are hundreds of thousands of these internet “myths” floating around out there. Chances are you’ve received at least one just today. Possibly more. I mean, your friend/brother/mom sent it to you.. it must be true, right? The answer: Probably not. But how can you tell?

Your first defense from ridicule by us technical types.. common sense. The most common myth email I see is regarding some killer virus being classified by Microsoft and CNN as “the most dangerous ever”. There’s your clue.. while Microsoft will occasionally do mass-media releases about patches for their software I can promise you that you won’t hear about it via a chain email first.

Your second line of defense.. a well-known site known as snopes.com. Snopes is run by a couple who have dedicated a large amount of time researching these very myths of which we speak.  Just grab that latest email, cut and paste some of the key text or the subject line in the search field on the snopes website and I bet you’ll be surprised at what you see.  Give it a shot now.. then do all of those relatives and friends that forward you these emails  a favor and point them here to educate themselves.  You’ll be doing a bunch of us a favor!

Windows 7 is proving to be different.  Users like it.. I like it.. it seems to work well in our office environment – so I’ll let it creep in with new desktop machines and laptops as we replace them without spending the time to downgrade to XP.  Certain users will get the opportunity to upgrade to take advantage of the better-than-average hardware they are already running, so I figured I’d better put myself through the upgrade process.  Just so you know.. most IT folks will generally advise against doing in-place upgrades.  There’s just too much that can (and often does) go wrong.  An in-place upgrade is rarely a clean one – you can end up masking compatibility and software issues that will haunt you down the road.  So, with all that in mind, I went ahead anyway.

Oh.. you XP users – Microsoft did you a favor whether it seems like it or not.  You can’t directly upgrade from XP to Windows 7.  That’s probably a good thing.  Vista users.. read on.  If you read nothing else.. read the statement below:

My advice to you.. re-read my previous post about backups and take that advice.. you might need it like I did.

I put the Windows 7 dvd in my drive and let’er rip.  Things started normally enough.. then the compatibility check that runs before install kicked out a problem.   My wireless software (by a large company with a catchy little tune for their brand) wasn’t compatible with the install for some reason.  The suggestion was to remove that software and start over.. so I did.  Without the wireless software I wasn’t connected to the Internet, and I didn’t bother to grab a cable and plug in to get connected.. and that was likely the reason for my upgrade failure.

Windows 7’s installer gives you the option to connect to the Internet to get installation and hardware updates before install.  It shouldn’t be an option.. it should be required.  Once I told the installer to soldier on without updates it appeared to be doing just that.  The system copied the files it needed to copy in order to restart and perform the upgrade, and came through that restart just fine.  After getting about halfway through the upgrade the installer encountered a fatal problem with a device driver and tried to automatically roll back the install.. but it failed.  The box rebooted and tried to repeat the very same upgrade process with the very same failure.  The OS was toast.  No boot for me.

It was a good thing I ran a backup with Acronis before I started.  I was able to restore the system to its pre-upgrade state inside of 30 minutes and get all of my data back.  If I had needed to revert to the factory image I would have likely lost an entire day reinstalling software and reapplying the tweaks necessary to make Vista perform acceptably well.

I have since performed the upgrade to Windows 7 without issue while cabled up to my network.  The installer resolved whatever driver incompatibility it had previously encountered and did what it was supposed to do.  I’ll file this little nugget of information away in my brain for the next upgrade request.. I’m sure there will be one.

Want Windows 7?  Click the image below to get your copy.

So, what can you do now?

Update your AV subscription NOW.  It is absolutely worth the $30 to get that done now versus the potential loss of time and money you’ll experience getting viruses removed later.  It doesn’t matter much whose AV program you use as much as it matters that you use one.  Some are indeed better than others, and with some you get what you pay for.  For example, my giant-mega-cable company gives away a pretty well-known AV program for free with your paid cable bill.. and it is absolutely horrible.  That particular program will bring well-built computers and laptops to their knees while they perform a scan.  In a corporate setting I use a enterprise-type package that gives me incredible reporting tools for machines in the office.. for remote business and personal use I highly recommend AVG Anti-Virus for its speed and ease of use.

If you suspect you’re having a problem with viruses I can help.. drop me a line.

photo credit: I woz ere