General

Microsoft has announced that they will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 on July 13 and Windows Vista RTM (the original release without service packs) on April 13. You can find out which version you are running by right-clicking on My Computer (Computer in Vista) and left-clicking on Properties. You can download the latest service packs (SP3 for XP and SP2 for Vista) at www.microsoft.com.

Microsoft will release Windows 7 on Thursday October 22nd. Are you ready? We’ve been testing 7 from early this year, and we really think it’s a worthwhile upgrade from Vista. You can check your machine to see if the hardware and software you have are compatible using the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (Beta) here, or you can use the compatibility check on the Windows 7 DVD when it’s released. If you would like advice on whether or not you should upgrade, feel free to contact us.

Update: Microsoft has released the official version of the Upgrade Advisor here.

We are happy to announce that we now offer an online appointment system. Visit our website, www.mdpsystems.com, click on the Make an Appointment button, and fill out the information to schedule an appointment for our services. No need to play phone tag or trade emails with us to figure out when the best time is. Now you can see our schedule and choose the most convenient time for you.

Would you like to learn more about how to use your computer? I usually get a few questions during a service call about how to do a certain task or how to use a piece of software. Most times I can explain the basics, just enough to get someone started, but if you are looking for serious one-on-one computer training I suggest giving Susana or Mike, from Home & Office Computer Training, a call. Whether you want to be more comfortable with basic computer skills, like navigating through Windows or copying photos from a camera, or need in-depth training for Microsoft Outlook, Susana and Mike are the people to call. I have had the pleasure of meeting them both on several occasions and I can tell you that you will not meet more patient people anywhere. I highly recommend them for any training you need. You can visit their website www.njpctraining.com; or call them at (973) 952-0053.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 will be available to the general public beginning October 22nd, according to the Wall Street Journal. This should give them a much better foothold with 7 coming out before the holidays than they had with Vista being released at the end of January. Unfortunately, even though Windows 7 is getting rave reviews from most people testing it, Microsoft has kept the convoluted versioning scheme from Vista. There will be 6 different versions of Windows 7; could they make it any more complicated? Here is a quick breakdown of the versions for anyone interested.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is now available for download from Microsoft. You can download the 32 bit version here and the 64 bit version here. To find out which version you need, simply right-click on Computer and left-click on Properties. Under the System heading, it will tell you whether you have a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows. Service Pack 2 should be available through Windows Update soon.

Service Pack 2 is here! Well, Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 is here; Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista is on its way. Service packs are large updates that roll together all the little updates that have been released before them, and usually include added security and functionality. You can download Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 here. Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 should be available for download soon, hopefully early May, here.

AVG is now providing its LinkScanner product free to download. LinkScanner will scan web pages as you surf and warn you if a page you visit is trying to install malware or is compromised in some way. It’s a good idea to use it, considering that the web is the most popular way to deliver malware these days. You can read a quick overview of the product here and download it at http://linkscanner.avg.com. There is free support available from AVG at http://freeforum.avg.com.

This article is from the April edition of our business newsletter, with some updated content:

Do you work on multiple computers (home, office, maybe even a laptop too)? How do you keep your files synchronized across all those machines? There are several options for working on multiple machines: you can remotely access your office machine, you can remotely access your office network , or you can use an online service to synchronize files on all the machines you use. The first option, remotely accessing your office machine, is the simplest. Your files reside in only one place (which is hopefully being backed up) and you want to access that machine when you’re not in the office. This can be done through remote control software such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Both companies offer paid versions that allow you to move files between computers, and print files from your remote machine to the printer connected to the machine that you are sitting at. LogMeIn also offers a free version that doesn’t include the file transfer or remote printing capabilities. The second option, remotely accessing your office network, is a little more complicated but is a good solution if you share a computer with other people in your office and don’t have an extra machine to remotely control, or don’t want to leave that machine on when you’re out of the office. There are several routers that offer what is called a VPN connection; this essentially lets you connect to the router from anywhere you have an Internet connection and access files as if you were in the office. The third option, synchronizing files between all your machines using an online service, is best for people that have files on several computers that they use on a daily or weekly basis and would like to have access to the correct version of all files without copying to USB drives or emailing copies around. One service in particular, Dropbox, offers 2GB of storage free or 50GB for $99.95 per year and allows you to keep your files updated across as many computers as you use. It also keeps all the old versions of your files (as long as you have storage space) so that you can go back or find deleted files. The only downside to Dropbox is that it only synchronizes a single folder that it creates when it’s installed. Another synchronization service is SpiderOak. It allows you to choose which folders you want synchronized. It also encrypts the upload and download of data, as well as the data stored on their servers. Both services allow you to share files with friends even if they are not signed up for the service. Which solution you choose depends on what your needs are and how you are currently set up. If you have questions or would like help setting up one of these solutions, feel free to contact us.

It looks like all that updating Conficker did on April 1st and in the past few days had a reason: to push rogue anti-spyware software. According to several security software vendors, Conficker is dropping a program called SpywareProtect2009 on infected machines. The purpose of rogue anti-spyware programs is to scare users into paying for the software to clean up infections that the software itself has downloaded to the machine. Typically these programs will besiege the user with large pop-up windows proclaiming, in big red letters, that the computer is infected with hundreds of pieces of malware. If you receive any of these so-called warnings, don’t click on any of them. Run your security software (Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, etc) to remove the threat. You can also go to any of the security vendors’ websites to get free removal tools for Conficker or any of the rogue anti-spyware programs. Check out our previous blog posts here for more information on Conficker and how to check for and remove it.

In an earlier post I mentioned how people are wondering if their files will transfer to Mac from an existing Windows machine. In that post I talked about running Windows on a Mac if you needed access to a Windows-only program. PC Magazine has a great article on the different methods to accomplish this, if you are comfortable doing it yourself. You can read the article here.

It’s been in the news recently, and we’ve talked about it here in previous posts and newsletters. The Conficker worm came to life yesterday according to TrendLabs, Trend Micro’s blog. It apparently downloads a file from other infected machines via P2P, similar to how file and music sharing services like Limewire work. From the TrendLabs blog:

Trend now detects this new Conficker variant as WORM_DOWNAD.E. Some interesting things (well at least in our perspective) found are:

1. (Un)Trigger Date – May 3, 2009, it will stop running
2. Runs in random file name and random service name
3. Deletes this dropped component afterwards
4. Propagates via MS08-067 to external IPs if Internet is available, if no connections, uses local IPs
5. Opens port 5114 and serve as HTTP server, by broadcasting via SSDP request
6. Connects to the following sites:
   • Myspace.com
   • msn.com
   • ebay.com
   • cnn.com
   • aol.com

It also does not leave a trace of itself in the host machine. It runs and deletes all traces, no files, no registries etc.

Do you backup? Should you? Backing up ensures that your information is not affected should anything happen to your computer’s hard drive. It can be as simple as copying your files to an external hard drive once a month, or you could use an online backup service that automatically backs up changed and new files every night. Let’s put it this way: If something were to happen to your computer and you lost everything on it, what files would you absolutely have to have? Professional data recovery services usually start around $1,200 and increase exponentially based on the size of your hard drive. What information on your computer would you be willing to pay that much to get back? Read the rest of this entry »

The email problems that some Comcast customers experienced this past weekend were apparently caused by power problems in its data center, a giant warehouse of servers. Apparently they also had to restore several email databases, which is why the outage lasted so long. The Comcast blog post is here.

A lot of people have been considering Apple for a new or replacement computer. The most common question is "Will my files transfer?". The answer, in almost all cases, is yes. Pictures, music, Word and Excel files, and even email can usually be transferred without problems. If you are worried about specific programs, you can always check the manufacturer’s website to see if they have a version for Apple. In some cases, mostly where you’re working from home, you may need access to a Windows-only program such as Internet Explorer. In that situation, it’s ok, you can still switch; we can install a copy of Windows on the Mac so that you have access to any Windows programs you need (it’s difficult to explain, but you can actually use Windows and Apple software simultaneously on a Mac). Just don’t forget that you will need to think about security software for your new Mac at some point. Luckily it’s not at the same level as Windows machines, but it’s moving in that direction. And of course we can still help you with your Mac if you have trouble.

Comcast email servers experienced some technical problems this weekend, resulting in its email service being down for better part of Saturday, or the entire weekend, depending on what part of the Northeast you are in. It appears to be working again now, but if you were without email for the weekend, you can sound off on Comcast’s Twitter page at comcastcares.

So April 1st is here, and the end of the world has not been brought about by the Conficker worm… as far as we know. However, Conficker is still around, and if you are not sure whether or not you have it, it’s better to be safe. PC Magazine has put together a checklist of steps to make sure your machine is not infected; it’s available here. If you just want to download the scanning and removal tools, you can get them from the Conficker Working Group site here. And make sure you have installed the latest Windows updates and any updates for your security software (you DO have security software right?!?!?).

PS- This is NOT an April Fool’s joke.

Conficker (also known as Downadup) is a pretty nasty worm that has three known variations (A, B, and most recently C). It gets onto your machine through a Windows security flaw that was patched in October of 2008, and is programmed to call a sequence of control servers for updates and presumably other nasty activities. Recently, Kaspersky Labs, a security software and research company, was able to figure out the list of names the worm would check for updates and teamed with OpenDNS to block these attempts. Now researchers are saying that the worm is programmed to do something on April 1. What that is, they don’t know; they only know that it is set to “call home” on that day. Fortunately, there are many ways to remove the worm if you’ve been infected. And as always, keeping your antivirus and antispyware software up-to-date and installing Windows updates will help protect your machine.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve seen a lot of machines infected with malware. In about 80% of the cases, I’ve had to completely reinstall Windows to clear up the problems. Not only is this time consuming (It takes 2-3 days depending on how busy we are) but it’s also expensive for the customer. So much can be avoided by running the latest internet security suite (I recommend Norton Internet Security 2009, available here) and keeping it up to date. If you think your machine is infected, run a scan using your security software. If you don’t think you’re running the latest version, you can do a free scan using Spyware Doctor (available from PC Tools here) or Trend Micro’s online scanning tool (on our website here, then click Free Tools). As always, if you have any questions or need help, just give us a call.

Happy new year! I hope everyone had a good holiday. To start off the new year, we are developing several presentations to help educate users in basic internet safety and security. We hope that through these presentations,  you will be able to avoid the most common mistakes that lead to a malware-infested computer. Any feedback that you might have would be greatly appreciated, both on the idea of these presentations and also any points or topics you may want us to cover.

This is the subject line of an email I received this morning purporting to come from “NetworkSolutions Support Team”. First of all, I don’t have any domain names registered with Network Solutions (notice that there is supposed to be a space between Network and Solutions); second, bad grammar (your domain ARE expired) is a tip-off to a phishing scam. I checked the Network Solutions support website, and sure enough, there’s a phishing scam going around targeting their customers. You can see what they have to say here. This just serves as a reminder that you should always be wary of unsolicited email, even if it looks like it comes from a legitmate company.

Once again, Comcast is having issues with their email service. They are in the middle of transitioning their existing email system to a new system called SmartZone. In the course of this transition, they have had several email outages and service disruptions. I personally have fielded several support calls from customers whose email suddenly stopped working; upon calling Comcast, I was informed that their email server address had changed… of course there was no notice whatsoever from Comcast. It seems that this time, however, they have really made a mess of things. As of last night, a community forum discussion on Comcast’s website had approximately 419 responses regarding email and webmail being completely down yesterday. Another site that I follow had about 46 responses to a story yesterday about the Comcast email problem. So if you are experiencing problems accessing your Comcast email at all this week, you are not alone. Unfortunately it seems that there is not much anyone can do except wait for Comcast to “fix” the issue. Verizon’s FIOS is looking very tempting at this point…

Occasionally someone will tell me that I’m talking over their head. More often, they will just nod in agreement to make me think they understand. Don’t get me wrong, some people really do understand my poor attempt to explain a technical problem in lay terms; but most people probably do not. I try to make it as non-technical as possible, but it’s difficult when there just isn’t an easy translation from techno-speak to everyday language. Because of the complexity of computer security, most people don’t understand the importance or know the how-to of keeping their computer secure and virus free. To that end, Symantec (the parent company of Norton) has created a “cult icon” superhero called Norton Fighter. You can read more about their endeavor here. Unfortunately, Norton Fighter exists only in Japan at this point; but the idea is good. Hopefully it will encourage more security companies to come up with creative ways to explain the complexities of computer security to the average user. And the next time I start getting carried away with the techno-speak, feel free to tap me on the shoulder and bring me back down to earth.

As anyone watching the news lately knows, there are a lot of buyouts and bailouts going on. With all the mergers and financial worries going on, spammers have found a virtual paradise to play in. For the past few weeks, the amount of financial institution spam has skyrocketed. Just yesterday I received about 30 emails from supposed banks asking me to update my online information because of website redesigns or mergers. As always, you should be aware that your bank will never ask for any personal information via email. And you should never give out your social security number, credit card numbers, account numbers, etc through email to a bank or anyone else. If you receive an email that looks legitimate, don’t click on the links in the email, but rather type the bank’s website into Internet Explorer yourself to make sure you are at the correct website. The last thing anyone would want to deal with in this financial climate is having their identity stolen.

I was just reading an email from Microsoft promoting a free scanning tool from their OneCare service, so I decided I’d post here about it and also include some links to a couple other scanning tools. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that the spam never ends these days. In a previous post, I wrote about a new wave that looked like it came from CNN, Microsoft, and later, MSNBC. That seems to have slowed down as everyone caught on that it was a hoax, but the general sea of spam has kept up at a steady pace. I just wanted to remind everyone about the basics of good email safety: never open a message from someone you don’t know; never click on a link in an email (if you have to go to the link, such as a bank, open your browser and type in the address); don’t send your personal information via email; no reputable company will EVER ask you for either your personal information or your account information via email, so don’t send it. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve created a new, more recognizable name to operate our residential portion of the business. I’m proud to introduce to you our new moniker: Computer Fixers LLC. Fear not, we are still MDP Systems with the same great service you’ve known. We just thought it would be easier to recognize and remember Computer Fixers. We have also set up an 800 number to make it easier to contact us for service: 800-480-4598. We will be handing out new business cards and magnets in the next few months so everyone has our new information.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if you like peace and quiet in the house) it’s time to start thinking about kids going back to school. If you’re thinking about getting the kids a new computer, but aren’t sure what they need, give us a call. We’ll walk you through the process of configuring and purchasing the new machine, and we can help set it up too.

Welcome to my new blog. I hope to keep you informed of the latest happenings within the world of technology and also within MDP Systems itself. Stay tuned for more!