January 2009 Archives

I thought today's blog should incorporate an element of humor so below are the Top 10 ridiculous computer IT questions (courtesy of the PC911 website).

1. Where is the "any" key?

2. Does Windows 98 support Linux?"

3. How much does Windows cost, and do you have to buy each one separately?

4.You said I would get 98 windows with this computer. Where are they?

5.Support: "Tell me, is the cursor still there?"
  Customer: "No, I'm alone right now."

6.Support: "Ok, ma'am, do you see the button on the right hand side of your mouse?"
Customer: "No, there's a printer and a phone on the right hand side of my mouse."

7.Customer: "Someone was just here working at my home and now I cannot connect to my printer anymore."
Support: "What type of repairs were completed?"
Customer: "Plumbing repairs."

8.Customer: "I am experiencing errors on my computer"
Support: "When did this start occurring?"
Customer: "After I restarted"
Support: "What were you doing on the computer before the errors started?"
Customer: "Nothing"
support: "Then why did you have the computer on?"

9.Customer: "I cannot start my computer."
Support: "What was the last operation you completed on the computer?"
Customer " I deleted the Windows folder cause my computer said I was low on disk space and it was the largest."

10.Customer: "I love my new desktop so much. It's powerful and fast. I especially like the new cup holder that came with it.
Support: "Ma'am....What are your referring to when you say cup holder?"
Customer: "My desktop came with this neet slide out cup holder."
Support: "Are you referring to the cd-rom drive?"
At this point the customer simply hung up.

I hope these have brought a smile to your face, these are real questions & conversations that have been had. So please - keep checking back with us and we will endeavor to equip you with information that will not only help you look after your PC and get the most out of it. But will also help you with a few technical issues that people are facing around the world and keep you up to date.

If you have an issue that is on your mind, then just email it through or post a comment and we'll be happy to help. Have a great week and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Avantgate team.

In my previous post I expressed the importance of having good anti-virus software, good spy ware software and keeping your windows updates current. However I don't think I did justice to the importance of having a good firewall.

A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. (Quoted from previous post).

There is plenty of great firewall software available. After searching through some IT Tech forums, a few recommended ones are:- Comodo (Free, although apparently has an annoying amount of pop-ups), Bitdefender Total Security ($23.95 USD), Bullguard ($89.95 NZD), and Kaspersky Internet security ($96.86 NZD).  Windows Live One Care is also a great Anti-virus / Firewall / back-up software which can be downloaded from the Microsoft website ($49.95 USD).

If a trojan horse or virus slips past your anti-virus software, your firewall can protect you from them accessing the internet to recruit more viruses and cause further damage to your PC. One more thing, you should NEVER disable your firewall as it will leave you unprotected and very vulnerable.

I hope this helps, any questions or if you would like any help just leave a comment or send us through an email to info@avantgate.com and we will be happy to help. Have a great week.

If you or someone you know is on the hunt for a new hard drive for your computer, then it may be best to stay away from the Seagate 1TB drives at the moment as they seem to be falling over. See the links below:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/374/1050374/seagate-barracudas-7200-11-failing
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/seagate-7200-11-failing,6844.html

This is just a quick post to help protect you and your computer data. We hope it helps!

In a couple of posts late last year we talked about how to keep your PC clean in regards to dust & also keeping it clean of unnecessary temp files etc. So to add to these posts it's only appropriate to discuss the importance of having good anti-virus and spyware software.

So to kick things off I'll give a few definitions of some commonly used phrases (definitions from Wikipedia.com).

Virus:
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or sometimes knowledge of the user.

Malware:
Malware, a portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system with the owner's informed consent, The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.

Adware:
Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

Spyware:
Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer without the owners consent.

Tojan Horse:
Trojan horse payloads are almost always designed to cause harm, but can also be harmless. They are classified based on how they breach and damage systems.
Some examples of the affects are:

• Erasing or overwriting data on a computer
• Upload and download of files
• Phishing for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities
• Deactivating or interfering with anti-virus and firewall programs

Computer Worm:
Worms use a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.

There are many more types of "virus" and other nasty things out there. But basically as long as you understand that you need to make sure you're protected from them as best you can - you'll be okay.

I've searched around the internet to see what most people are using or what is classified as "the best" out there. There is plenty of great software available out there to use, however a few that we recommend are - Windows Live OneCare, NOD32, AVG.

I've checked out a few IT forum pages to see what they recommend as far as virus and spyware software, and they say that you should have at least one antivirus product and two spyware products. A couple of spyware products recommended are - Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, Spyware Guard (works in real time), and Adaware.

Also, if you don't already have a firewall to protect your PC, it is recommended that you download one. A recommended and popular firewall is ZoneAlarm.

Fire wall definition :
A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system.

I know this has been quite a long post already but with all the trash that is on the internet these days, you need to be as protected as you can. There are hundreds of new viruses being created everyday and your virus software should automatically update at least once a week to keep up with the new virus definitions being released.

Finally to top off the list, you should make sure your windows updates are kept up to date. This option is generally selected as automatic so shouldn't be a problem. To check if it is, click on   start < control panel < automatic updates and then select the automatically option and a time that suits you.

I hope this helps to keep you and your computer safe this year. If you would like any further help with this or things related to this then either post a comment or send an email through to us (info@avantgate.com) and we'll be happy to help. To access any of the above mentioned software simply Google it. Some of them are free and others cost a small fee, however it is a worth while investment.

Have a prosperous year!

Well 2009 is well underway. The team at Avantgate hope you all had a great holiday season and got some well earned rest.

We're so excited for this year and all it entails. We have a few new additions to the Avantgate tool belt that will be unleashed for you to take advantage of soon so watch this space as we know you will benefit from all it offers.

We're looking to structure our blogs around currant/relevant topics as well as have a flow between each blog so each one intertwines with the last one, so if there is anything that you would like to know or you think is relevant then just send us an email (info@avantgate.com) and we'll see what we can do.

The team at Avantgate hope that you are excited about this year as well, and look forward to working with you on a project soon. Until we communicate again, we hope you have a fantastic year full of sales.