| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| 1029usr078198 |
Posted - December 21 2011 : 12:44:10
Listen now. Download the archive. or Watch on UStream. Or stream with Windows Media.
Question: Elizabeth says, "I clicked a Google search result and a message from Security Shield came up and said that 19 infections were found and it wants me to pay $80 to clean them up. What is this and what can I do?"
Answer: Great question, Elizabeth. This is just more scareware. Since it just happened, let's hope it hasn't done much damage yet. We tried pressing the power button and until the computer turns off, but a message saying "Power button lockout" came up. If you get something like that, unplug the computer. Then turn it back on, and quickly and repeatedly press F8 and choose "Repair your computer" if you have Vista or Windows 7. If you have Windows XP, instead of that pick Safe Mode. When that comes up, start the Windows System recovery to back up to yesterday, which was successful in Elizabeth's case. Update and scan your computer using whatever AntiVirus you have, plus Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware from the Antimalware Toolkit. The key to doing this easily is catching it immediately.
Cool Site: KidzPage and Christian Christmas: Next week, the kids will be out of school for a while and will be looking for something to do. If you want to keep them from prowling, then you might want to check out this week's sites. TheKidzPage.com has a section just for Christmas activities where you will find printable coloring pages, online games, online coloring pages, online jigsaw puzzles with 6-40 pieces, online toys, Christmas clipart, learning games, and free stuff to download. The thing about this site is that the activities seem to be of the secular variety, but I didn't look at every page the site links to, so I don’t know for certain. However, that's where the second page in our Christmas two-fer comes in: Christian Christmas over on blogspot.com. This site is the blog site of a lady by the name of EJ Cooksey and the page we'll link to in the show notes will have a bunch of printable coloring pages on it. On either side of the page, you can find links to several different Christmas sites, games, crafts, decorations, games, all kinds of stuff.
Cool Gadget: EasyBCD: Windows NT gave you a way to boot multiple versions of Windows fairly easily, and it was a file called BOOT.INI. Well, that stuck with us until Windows XP. But beginning with Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced a new way of cataloging which operating systems are installed on the computer, the BCD which stands for Boot Configuration Data. But the BCD isn't as easy to edit as a simple text file. This week, we have a software gadget, a little free program called EasyBCD. With EasyBCD, you can add the information to let you boot additional versions of Windows, or modify how you load your current version, or if you have an extra entry like "previous operating system", then you can remove it. Now this is a geeky-type of tool, so be aware of what's up before you get it because it has the potential to break your computer. We'll have links in the show notes that expand upon what the BCD is.
Cool App: BerryJoose: This week we've got another Blackberry app. Apparently, Blackberry phones have issues with locking up, running out of memory, and having to have the battery pulled out to reboot the phone. You can fix that with an app called BerryJoose. BerryJoose doesn't do much that you can see, but it stops your Blackberry from freezing, fewer hourglass waits, fewer stops & starts, fewer dropped calls and missed connections. You get warned before you lose your work so that you can save it first. You can install more apps, and it just optimizes the performance of your Blackberry and all for only a buck. You'll need to know your Blackberry's PIN (by going into Options -> Status) and have version 4.2.1 of the Blackberry operating system. But it will just work seamlessly, and the reviews of the app are all just glowing. So if you have a Blackberry that's giving you problems, I'd suggest Joosing that Berry.
It's All "Geek" To Me: WEP: Our term for this week is WEP. WEP is an acronym that stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. Not quite, but... oh well. In the early days of Wi-Fi, which everyone uses now, there were concerns that persons unknown could eavesdrop on your computer's conversation over the network. They could then use that information in nefarious ways. It was a very real possibility, and one that did not present itself over a wired network. So, the wireless industry's first attempt at encrypting transmitted data was called Wired Equivalent Privacy. It encrypts data using either a 64 or 128 bit hexadecimal key. People who don't have the key can't connect to your wireless network. Like all encryption schemes ultimately, it's been cracked, but is the only kind of wireless security that older devices can handle. Newer devices use a better way, called WPA, which we'll talk about next week.
Links
Tech Tip Friday's Show Notes RSS Feed:
http://www.daconsult.com/downloads/rss.xml
Take Five Tech Tip Friday on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/techtipfriday
Today’s show on UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17517968
The Kidz Page Christmas section:
http://www.thekidzpage.com/christmas/
Christian Christmas:
http://christianchristmas.blogspot.com/2007/12/christian-christmas-coloring-pages-for.html
How the Boot Configuration Data Store Works:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770770(WS.10).aspx
Boot Configuration Data editor Frequently Asked Questions:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721886(WS.10).aspx
EasyBCD:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml
BerryJoose at Jaredco:
http://www.jaredco.com/berryjoose.html
BerryJoose at Blackberry’s Appworld:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/5579
WEP defined at TechTerms:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/wep |
|
|
