Scareware

So here's a new term, "Scareware".
Someone has coined this new term to describe fake antivirus and antispyware software.
Makers of fake antivirus and antispyware software are exploiting search engines and driving people to sites selling fake security products.

By slightly mis-spelling the name of popular security products, they trick you into visiting their malicious site, and bombard you with messages and pop-ups about how badly you are infected and how many viruses you have and "scaring" you into buying their product.
This is fooling tens of thousands of people into purchasing this fake software, which in fact infects them further. I have seen figures that show these cyber-criminals may be making upwards of $10,000 per day.

Popular mis-spellings are Ad-Ware instead of Ad-Aware, Spywarebot instead of Spybot, and Spyware Blaster instead of SpywareBlaster.

There are a multitude of fake products out there. A couple that spring to mind, in addition to those above, are WinXP Antivirus, Antivirus 2009, but there are 1000's more.

The golden rule is DO NOT just search the internet for a security product. Contact a reputable company for advice, or better yet, just read this Blog!!!!!

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery

AVG and Acer Computers

In the past week I have seen three Acer computers with the same, or at least very similar, fault symptoms. That fault symptom being that as the system starts up and enters Windows, it will either reboot itself or not completely load up the desktop icons, however they would all start up fine in "Safe Mode".

The first one had me stumped for a while because I was thinking it was a driver or a recent windows update that was causing the problem. So to get it going again, I got the customer to boot up in Safe Mode and use the windows "System Restore" feature to return the Registry to an earlier time when all was good. This did the trick, but within a couple of weeks, the same thing happened again. This time I got the customer to bring the computer into the office for me to take a closer look.

I began by disabling things that were starting at boot up, and it just so happened that the first thing I chose was AVG antivirus. Low and behold, once it was disabled the system booted up without any trouble. Now I was confused. Why had it taken a couple of weeks for the problem to return? AVG regularly updates itself so the problem should have returned within a day or two. The reason was that the customer rarely used the PC and AVG hadn't had time to update itself again. As a quick fix I installed PC Tools Free Antivirus in AVG's place.

On the very same day I had a call from another customer with an Acer computer with exactly the same problem. So I got them to boot up in Safe Mode and uninstall AVG and download and install PC Tools Antivirus.

Then just this morning I had a third Acer PC land in the office, but this time the symptom was that it would boot to the desktop, but no icons would appear. Once again AVG was the culprit.

I have since contacted AVG, and it turns out the problem is a piece of Acer software called eLock. Apparently an updated version is available from Acer. Wouldn't it be nice if they shipped their computers with the updated software? Nahhhhhhhhh that would be too easy.

Now I ask you, who would want to work fixing computers? !!!!!!!!!!!

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery

Funny

This has nothing to do with computers or any relation to anything technical, I just wanted to share it.

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery

How Fast Is Your ISP Really?

A report released by Australian Research Company Epitiro has concluded that consumers are not necessarily getting what they pay for when it comes to Broadband Internet speeds.

Epitiro's analysis claims that Australians receive on average 65.5% of advertised package speeds when downloading data from national sources. ADSL2+ packages achieved an average 53.7% of advertised package speed; downloads from international servers are considerably worse (14.5% on average). Downloading data from locations outside Australia is also said to be much slower than in most other countries.

Telstra topped the ratings, whilst Optus slid right down the scale, something Optus customers don't need to be told. I have said it before and I will say it again, you might not like Telstra, but you can't deny the quality of their product.

Here's how Epitiro placed the ISPs (with previous quarter rankings in brackets):

1. Telstra (1)

2. TPG (3)

3. iiNet (2)

4. Netspace (4)

5. AAPT (7)

6. Internode (8)

7. Westnet (6)

8. Optus (5)

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery

Speed boost for Telstra Next G Mobile Broadband

Ok I am probably a little biased considering I am a Telstra Dealer, but you have to admit when it comes to network speed and reliability, Telstra wins hands down.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo announced that Telstra will increase the speed of its Next G network from 14.4 Megabits per second to 21Mbps on February 23, and to a staggering 42Mbps by years end. At 21Mbps, it is already the fastest network in the world and as such has been entered into the Guinness Book Of Records. That’s roughly four times faster than anything currently available from other telcos. It appears that this commitment will also cover the HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) evolution outlined by Ericsson on 13th Feb, which could push future peak speeds to an amazing 168Mbps.

Business customers will be among the first in Australia to access Telstra's upgraded Next G service when it goes on sale next week. Telstra business customers will be able to sign up to the 21Mbps Next G service from February 23, but consumers will have to wait until April. The improved service will launch nationally with Mr Trujillo saying, "We won't be going city by city or base station by base station, it will go nationwide''.

Mr Trujillo said consumers could expect to download a 2MB video in about 6 seconds with the speed upgrade. Although the network is capable of peak speeds of 21Mbps, a lack of compatible devices will make it difficult to achieve these speeds. The upgrade will only be available to users of mobile data devices, but Telstra is expecting 21Mbps compatible PDAs and handsets to be available at the end of the year.

Telstra has steadily increased the speeds of its Next G network since launching in 2006 with a theoretical peak speed of 3.6Mbps initially, then to 7.2Mbps in 2007 and 14.4Mbps early last year. Telstra now says the network will deliver speeds up to 42Mbps to 99 per cent of the population by the end of 2009. Real world speeds vary depending on location and how many users are on the network at any one time.

Now all we need is for Telstra to drop the pricing to a level that is affordable!!!!

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery

The Future Of Coffee Tables?

How cool is this?

Iain

Computer Repairs | Virus Removal | Website Hosting Design | Data Recovery