Question: Becky writes: Hi David: Really enjoy listening to your Friday show on KBJS - it is very helpful! Please advise the best step to correcting our computer problem - it has been freezing up for months & we get the box that says error message - we are able to exit out that way & try, try again to complete the task at hand. We have a windows XPS 410 purchased nearly 2 yrs. ago. I wonder if we may have a virus??
Answer: Thanks for listening. I'm glad we are helpful. After all, that's been our prayer and goal from the very start. Now, on to the problem you're having...
I think you're probably right. I think you have a malware infection. I'm not sure which one you may have, but I do think you have one.
If you can get there, try to go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com to run a free online virus scan. Unlike some free online scans, this one will remove any infections it finds. Also, go to http://free.avg.com and get AVG if you don't already have it. If you can't get to either of these sites, you definitely have a virus that will either require professional disinfection, or running your Recovery discs. But be aware, running the recovery discs or procedure will probably wipe out everything you have on the computer so get copies of everything you need off it first.
Cool Site: www.slipstick.com: If you use any version of Microsoft Outlook then you should know about Slipstick Systems’ website. I had forgotten about this site until recently, but have found it an invaluable reference for all things Outlook. If you have problems or need solutions or add-ons for Outlook, try this site.
Cool Gadget: CardScan: Do you ever get business cards from people? I’ve gotten them. But who has time to enter the information from all the cards you get, like after a trade show or something. Well, with CardScan you can scan your stack of business cards, and it will put the information from the cards into Microsoft Outlook as a contact so they can be used immediately. The scanner scans business cards in about 5 seconds, puts the info into its own database, which synchronizes with Outlook. The Personal edition uses a portable scanner, but CardScan offers solutions for Executives, Teams, and whole companies. If you have a Mac, they have solutions for it as well.
It's All “Geek” To Me: Ethernet: Today’s term is a networking term that is sometimes mispronounced by folks who are new to networking. Ethernet is a way to connect computers in a Local Area Network (LAN). Today, it uses wires that look like telephone wires, but have eight conductors in the end rather than the 2, 4, or 6 in a phone line. Ethernet gets its name from the phrase “in the ether” because originally, all computers in an Ethernet network heard everything on the network the way the old “luminiferous ether” was thought to propagate electromagnetic waves.
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