Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Discussions from the October Meeting


It seems like a lot of our members are concerned with the health of their computers and want to take the correct actions to keep their computer clean. The hazards for the computer come in typically 4 forms discussed below.

 
Common Term for Issues
Solution
Virus – Typically brought down to your computer via a executable file with the extension .exe
Make sure you have a virus protection program running at all times. (Norton, AVG, Etc)
Malware – This is placed on your computer from the internet and is designed to cause operating problems.
Run a malware program on a periodic basis (Malware bites, Glary Utilities)
Spyware – This is placed on your computer by others who want to keep track of your preferences as you work on the internet.
Run a spyware program such as Glary Utilities) on a periodic basis
Cookies- These are bits of information some websites place on your computer to track your activity and to recognize your computer.
Most browsers (Chrome, Internet Explorer) had a tool to remove cookies. Keep in mind you may want this to occur.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Uninstall Programs

It is recommended to re-boot your computer after you have uninstalled a program.

Virus Basics

Below is a list of typical whys hackers can attack your computer

1) Virus (placed along with something downloaded with a desired file)
2) Spyware (placed on your computer while on internet)
3) Malware (placed on your computer from corrupt websites)
4) Cookies (placed on your computer from various websites)


We have talked about some of the programs which will help. Review the list of 100 free programs posted previously for programs to remove the threats.

Secure Password??? Look below for help

What will make your passwords more secure?

1) Use one Caps for a letter in the middle of a word
2) Use one Special character in password (!#%*()_-+)
3) Use a number


Thursday, October 2, 2014

To Clone or Image is the question

Backing up your entire drive: Cloning vs. imaging

Lincoln Spector Contributing Editor, PCWorld

Freelance journalist (and sometimes humorist) Lincoln Spector has been writing about tech longer than he would care to admit. A passionate cinephile, he also writes the Bayflicks.net movie blog.
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Felix Luke needs to back up his entire hard drive. He asked me to explain the differences between cloning and imaging.
Both cloning and imaging create an exact record of your drive or partition. I'm not just talking about the files, but the master boot record, allocation table, and everything else needed to boot and run your operating system.
This isn't necessary for protecting your data--a simple file backup will handle that job just fine. But should your hard drive crash or Windows become hopelessly corrupt, a clone or image backup can quickly get you back to work.
[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]
When you clone a drive, you copy everything on it onto another drive, so that the two are effectively identical. Normally, you would clone to an internal drive made external via a SATA/USB adapter or enclosure.
But imaging a drive is more like creating a great big .zip file (without the .zip extension). Image backup software copies everything on the drive into a single, compressed, but still very large file. You would probably save the image onto an external hard drive.
So what are the advantages of each?
Should your primary hard drive crash, a clone will get you up and running quickly. All you have to do is swap the drives.
On the other hand, if your drive crashes and you've backed it up to an image, you'd have to buy and install a new internal hard drive, boot from your backup program's emergency boot disc, and restore the drive's contents from the backup.
So why image? An image backup provides greater versatility when backing up. You can save several images onto one sufficiently large external hard drive, making it easier and more economical to save multiple versions of the same disk or back up multiple computers.
You can find several programs that can do these chores, including the backup tools in Windows 7 and 8. But I recommend Macrium Reflect Free, which is free for personal use. It's easy to use, can clone and image, and in my experience, is extremely reliable.

Friday, September 19, 2014

New Season is About to Begin

Englewood Area Computer Users Group

Time to reboot the new season beginning October 7th at the Elsie Quirk Library.
 
Solving computer issues and learning new skills. 1st and third Tuesdays thru June 2015. 1pm - 3:30pm. 
 
email : ourecc@comcast.net, call Paul 698-0036 or Ginger 492-4196 with any questions.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Member Comment Section

Dear Englewood Computer Club member. This space is provided for your comments you would like other club members to know. Please use the comment section below.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Virus Protection for Smart Phones

As a computer club it is difficult to keep computers and smart phones separated as the technology merges in the future.

Virus Protection is recommended for SMART Phones.

go.pcworld/avastgmobile.com

www.avgmobilation.com

go.pcworld/bitdefendermobile.com

Ed

Firewall Discussion

During the Feb 18th meeting we had a brief discussion on Firewalls.

Microsoft does provide a firewall for incoming internet traffic, however they do not provide a firewall for outgoing internet traffic.

ZoneAlarm is a firewall which will protect incoming and outgoing internet traffic.

The Microsoft firewall leaves the barn door half open.

Ed

Hardware to turn house wiring into Wi-Fi

The device I chose was

Netgear-Powerline 500mbps 2 port adapter

Purchased at Amazon for just over $100.00

Ed