How Do I Keep My Kids Safe Online?

August 25th, 2010

Keeping your kids safe online can be a challenge.  It’s natural for kids and teens to be curious about the world and a great way to satisfy their curiosity is by searching the internet for answers to their questions.  So how can a parent limit access to the internet while still giving their kids an enjoyable internet experience?

First, there is no substitute to parental monitoring.  Placing your computer in a central part of the house can discourage the type of online activity that can get a kid or teen in trouble.  But let’s be honest… even if the computer is in a central location, you can’t monitor your kids 100% of the time.

Using Windows?  Try their parental controls.  Windows Vista and 7 have built in parental controls that can limit the amount of time your child spends online.  For example, you can set it to where your kid can’t access the computer from 10 PM to 7 AM, so you as a parent can sleep knowing that your kid is off the net.  Here are some links to help you setup parental controls…

Vista – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Set-up-Parental-Controls

7 – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls

Look into parental control software.  While the Windows Parental Control software is pretty decent, many parents want more robust control over their kid’s internet experience.  Take a look at these software packages for a more fine level of control…

McAfee Total Protection 2010 – http://home.mcafee.com/store/total-protection

SafeEyes – http://www.internetsafety.com/safe-eyes-parental-control-software.php

Net Nanny – http://www.netnanny.com/products/netnanny

Cyber Patrol – http://www.cyberpatrol.com/cpparentalcontrols.asp

Our recommendation is McAfee Total Protection 2010.  Not only does it include parental controls, it is a full featured Anti-Virus program as well.

Try OpenDNS – A free website filtering service for your home network.  DNS is one of the main technologies that make the internet work.  When you type in www.novacpu.com, DNS resolves this to an IP address.  DNS is often described as phone book for websites.  What if that phone book never gave you the IP Address?  Your computer would not get to the website.  This is the concept behind OpenDNS.  OpenDNS filters DNS request from your computer and filters out the bad stuff.  For example, if your curious teenage boy tries to get to an adult magazine’s website, OpenDNS will block that.  It’s free for home use and you can even use it in the office.  Check out www.opendns.com for more details.

A few things you may want to tell your kids…

  1. Not to install additional software.  Many websites try to get their visitors to install software to ‘display the site correctly’, to ‘update your video player’, or (most common) to ‘protect you from a virus’.  And it’s easy to fall for this too.  Just remember, if it is not from a known company, you should steer clear.
  2. That your family computer is a great tool and not to abuse it.  Your kids love the computer, no doubt.  Teach them to respect it.  It can cause time, money, and heartache when a computer goes down for any reason.
  3. To check their privacy settings in Facebook, MySpace, etc.  Online predators commonly search these sites for things like “Females teens in ‘My Town’”.  Make sure their profile is not public – only their approved friends should be able to see their pictures, status, etc.
  4. Not to meet up with somebody they met online.  This happens more and more with the rise of social networking.  Many teens will accept random friend requests because they simply want a lot of friends on their Facebook page.  This can create a false sense of trust.  Online predators can be very patient, developing a relationship over weeks, months, even years.  If your teen posts “Going to the 7:00 show with my friends” on their Facebook page, the predator may see that and show up unannounced.  Let them know that a friend of a friend may not be their friend.

 

Kyle Greenup
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in Online Safety, Tips | No Comments »

Windows 7…. What to expect.

August 12th, 2010

We get many questions about Windows 7 these days, mostly because customers are in the market for a new computer and realize that Windows 7 will most likely be loaded on there.  But is Windows 7 a good operating system (OS)?  Most of us remember the release of Vista and all the trouble that came along with it (hardware compatibility, unstable, slow), so it is natural to be a bit scared of making the switch to a new OS.

NovaCPU is happy to report that Windows 7 truly is “Vista Done Right”.  It’s quicker, more secure, more stable, and has far less hardware compatibility issues than its predecessor.  The operating system is built on the same core as Vista, but there are many key changes by Microsoft that make the OS easier to work on.  Let’s explore some of these changes…

Libraries:  In Windows 7, libraries are a logical organization of Music, Video, Pictures, and Documents.  What’s neat about the library concept is that no matter where your files are physically on a hard drive (or across multiple hard drives), Windows 7 can logically group it all together in one place and make it easier to find.  For example, if you have pictures located in your Pictures folder and in a folder named C:\CameraPictures, you can define the Pictures library to include both places so that all of your pictures are easier to find.

HomeGroup:  One great feature of Windows 7 is the new HomeGroup feature.  This feature allows sharing of media, printers, & files across other Windows 7 machines.  While sharing resources is not a new idea, HomeGroup makes it very easy to setup.  When setting up a HomeGroup, Windows will create a password which you will supply to any other machine that you wish to share resources to or from.  The only downfall… This feature only works on Windows 7 computers, so you will not be able to use the HomeGroup feature with previous versions of Windows, but you can still accomplish the traditional sharing with Windows 7.

The New Taskbar & System Tray:  A welcome makeover!  In previous versions of Windows, if you have 3 Word documents open, then you would see 3 rectangles in the taskbar – one for each word document.  While this makes sense at first, the more stuff you open, the quicker that taskbar gets cluttered up.  Windows 7 fixes this by grouping documents of the same application together in one box, clearing the clutter.  When you hover your mouse over that box, you see a preview of the documents that are open… Nice!  Likewise, the System Tray is far less cluttered.  Now the System Tray takes only a small area of the total taskbar and provides an upward pointing arrow so that you can see anything that is not displayed.  This keeps the taskbar and system tray nice and neat, leaving more space for what’s important during your computer session.

User Account Control (UAC):  Remember Vista’s “User Access Control” (UAC)?  It’s that annoying message that pops up anytime you try to change something on your computer, such as install a new program.  Well, in Windows 7 it is far, far less annoying – seems the folks at Microsoft found a happy median between protection and annoyance.  You can still turn it off in the control panel if you wish, but there is much less need to do that with Windows 7.

Touch It:  Windows 7 natively supports touch screen monitors unlike its predecessors and it works pretty well.  You can scroll, close windows, and open programs easily by touch.  Basically, if you can click it with the mouse, you can touch it too. It’s now up to software developers to include some more advanced touch support & features in their applications (some already do), but we feel that this technology will only get better.

Hardware Compatibility:  When Vista was released, hardware was an issue.  It was likely that your printer, digital camera, scanner, or other piece of hardware would not work on Vista.  After a few months, Microsoft & the hardware vendors met the demand for drivers for the older hardware.  Windows 7 has these drivers built as well, meaning this release of Windows is far more hardware compatible from the start that Vista was.

Do I use it personally?  Yes.  As I write this blog, I’m doing it on my work laptop which runs Windows 7.  At home, my family (even my 5 year old) uses Windows 7 daily.  Except for my 1 Macintosh, all other computers in my house run Windows 7.

 

Kyle Greenup
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in New Technology | No Comments »

Where Did That Computer Virus Come From?

February 9th, 2010


At NovaCPU, we clean and remove many virus infections from computers on a weekly basis.  It’s only natural for our customers to be curious how their computer became infected in the first place and how that virus got past their security software.  Unfortunately, the answer is rarely 100% clear.  There are thousands of different computer viruses and many different methods of how those viruses spread.

Where do Viruses come from?  The answer to that is simple.  A person with knowledge of computer programming writes a virus.  That person may design the virus to delete important files, disable internet access on the computer, or display a barrage of pop-ups on the computer to name a few things.

How are they spread?  That answer is tricky.  There are many different ways a computer virus can spread, and it’s up to the virus writer on which method he/she will use.  Nowadays, most viruses are spread by malicious websites.  What does that mean?  Generally, it’s a website designed to look like a legitimate business website.  The website will somehow entice the user to click on a download and BAM… The computer has a virus.  The website may prompt the user to install an ActiveX control, install an ‘update’ to a video player that is really the virus itself, or use a popup message hoping the user clicks on ANY button (even the ‘Cancel’ or ‘Close’ button can be programmed by the writer to install the virus).

But why didn’t my security software stop it?  That usually has to do with the delivery method.  In the case of a malicious website, when the computer user is successfully enticed into clicking or downloading the virus, then that action by the user told the security software that “This is OK to do”.  The user probably didn’t realize what was happening.  But behind the scenes the security software was ‘told’ by the user to let the virus through. At that point, the security software may or may not be able to successfully remove the virus.  Many viruses are designed to disable certain security software before they begin to do whatever it is they were initially designed to do.

How can I protect myself?  First, have quality security software, and keep it updated.  Second, don’t be ‘Click Happy’.  If the website looks like a phishing site or just a bit odd, don’t install any software from that site.  If you get pop-ups from the site, don’t click on any button.  Use ‘Alt+F4’ to close the pop-up or shut down your computer immediately.  Third, do not click on links in emails or open attachments from people (even companies) that you do not know.

For a few tips on computer security, read this blog.

 

Kyle Greenup | Vice President
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in Virus/Spyware | 2 Comments »

Improve your Computer’s Performance & Security – 10 simple steps

February 2nd, 2010


Our Computers are valuable tools. I’m sure you agree that it is very worthwhile to keep them running smoothly. Like cars, computers need a bit of TLC every now and then. Here is a list of 10 steps that will keep your machine running smoothly.

These tips can work on any Windows PC, home or office.

1. Microsoft Updates. Any computer geek worth their salt will tell you to run the updates from Microsoft. These updates contain security fixes and performance enhancements. Why wouldn’t you want that? If you go without obtaining these updates, you put yourself more at risk of catching that new virus going around the internet. I’ve been asked to remove many viruses that could have been avoided by simply running the Microsoft Update Service. So please, do the Microsoft Updates and do them again… then again… then again… until there are no critical updates left. Then set your machine to automatically download and install them. The default time is 3 AM…. Is your computer on at 3 AM? Mine is not, so I changed that time to a more appropriate time.

2. Use a strong password. If you are using a computer with no password, it’s like leaving your car with the keys inside. It’s leaving an open invitation for anyone to use! Use a password that is difficult to guess and change it often (every 4-6 weeks is fairly standard). Need help creating a password? Read this great article.

3. Disk Cleanup. Simply put, it helps remove any unused files from your computer; files that are just taking up space. It’s the equivalent of taking out the trash. It’s good to do this monthly, right before step 4.

4. Defragment. All hard drives fragment. That basically means files get out of order on the disk. Defragmenting on a monthly basis is one way to ensure that your hard drive is reading/writing to its full potential.

5. Virus and Spyware Scans. You should do this regularly even if you don’t notice a problem. Use whatever scanning software you have and run a complete scan on all fixed hard disks.

6. Remove Unused Programs. Similar to the disk cleanup (#3 above), you should remove any programs that you don’t use. Open the Control Panel and then use the Add/Remove Programs (Pre-Vista) or the Programs & Features (Vista/7) applet to remove any program that you are not using.

7. Use a Firewall. You may be behind a firewall at work or even home via your router already. However, it is wise to use a software firewall directly on your computer. Windows XP, Vista, & 7 have them built in. Make sure they are on by looking at the Control Panel and then the Windows Firewall applet. Another great firewall program (it’s free!) is ZoneAlarm.

8. Don’t Click on That! Many WebPages have advertisements on them, enticing you to click on them and see what they are selling. Those advertisement’s respective WebPages may ask to install Active-X controls or perhaps some type of media player so they can “display the site correctly”. Ever wonder what really got installed? It could be tracking cookies, trojans, or spyware (Oh My!). If you don’t recognize the software or if the advertisement is not from a respected company, Don’t Click on That!

9. Wireless Security. If you are using wireless, you need to use encryption. If you are already using encryption, make sure you are NOT using WEP encryption. An experienced hacker can crack a 128-bit WEP Encryption Key in about 10 minutes. Use WPA-2 as your encryption algorithm. If your wireless router does not support WPA-2, then it’s time to get a new one.

10. Backup your stuff. All hard drives have one thing in common. They all have a 100% failure rate. It’s unavoidable. Your hard drive will fail – it’s just a matter of time. If your hard drive crashes for any reason, you will have one of two reactions. Either 1) you will be devastated that you lost all your files, pictures, music, emails, etc or 2) you will be relieved that you have a current backup. In my opinion, the best backup strategy for a home computer is an online backup service. They are cheaper than buying an external backup hard drive, easier to install, and offer more features as well. Two online backup service providers that I recommend are Carbonite and Mozy.

And there you have it! Following these simple steps will help keep your computer running smoothly, securely, and with a backup. If you have a network administrator or equivalent, you should consult them before performing any these steps on your work machine – they may already have things in place and set correctly.

 

Kyle Greenup | Vice President
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in Tips | 1 Comment »

Watch Out for Bogus Online Haiti Scams, FBI Warns

January 14th, 2010


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning people to be aware of bogus scams involving the donation of money to help aid earthquake victims in Haiti.

People should be cautious when donating money, especially online. Symantec has already detected an email scam targeting people that wish to donate to a legitimate cause, such as the Haiti relief effort. One should only donate to an organization that is known for humanitarian efforts, and not to organizations or individuals without a well known reputation.

“Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes,” the FBI stated in its advisory.

Posted in Online Scams | 1 Comment »

Free, Compatible, Quality Software

November 16th, 2009


The nation’s economy is not very strong right now. Funds are tight everywhere and it looks like the economy will be like this for a while. That of course means that budgets are getting cut. Unfortunately, a popular place to cut budgets is in the software area. That’s very unfortunate if you are using outdated software or planned on purchasing a new application in order to get things done in a more efficient manner. There is hope! Here is a list of free, quality, and compatible software that you can use to supplement or possibly completely replace what you are currently using.

Note: Check the End User License Agreement (EULA) before you use any of these applications. Some are free for private use only, but offer a corporate version for a small fee. Also, you should always check with your network administrator (or equivalent) before you install anything on a business machine.

1. OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org). This is a suite of productivity applications just like the famous Microsoft Office. OpenOffice provides a word processor named Writer (i.e. Microsoft Word), a spreadsheet application named Calc (i.e. Microsoft Excel), a presentation application named Impress (i.e. Microsoft PowerPoint), a database application named Base (i.e. Microsoft Access), and even an image editor named Draw (i.e. Microsoft Paint). The OpenOffice suite of applications is fully compatible with the Microsoft Office file formats. That means you can open, edit, and even create Microsoft Office documents. OpenOffice does not offer an email client (i.e. Microsoft Outlook), but wait….

2. Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird). Thunderbird is a free email client that you can use to organize, secure and customize your email. It offers very good security which includes a great junk mail filter. It will work with any POP3 type email account.

3. CD/DVD Burning. There are several free CD/DVD burning applications that are totally free for use. Two of the more popular ones are CD Burner XP Pro (http://cdburnerxp.se) and ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com). Although these programs are not for authoring a DVD movie, they do offer an easy-to-use interface to burn files to your CDs and DVDs. You can also use them to copy CDs or DVDs.

4. Anti-Virus. AVG Free Edition (http://free.avg.com) and Avast! Antivirus (http://www.avast.com) both are two great virus scans for your Microsoft Windows computer. The installs are painless and offer instant protection against viruses. However, do not use both. Using more than one virus scan can cause a range of problems.

5. Anti-Malware. Malware (a.k.a. Spyware and/or Adware) is a big issue these days and will not go away in the foreseeable future. Fortunately, there are some good free spyware scanners out there. Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008 (http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php), Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html) and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org) are three anti-malware applications that are free for personal use.

6. ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonealarm.com). Windows XP and Vista both have a built-in firewall, but it is always a good idea to run a third-party firewall because the Windows built-in firewalls have a higher likelihood of becoming compromised. ZoneAlarm is a good choice when choosing to beef up your firewall protection.

7. 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org). 7-Zip if a file archiving utility for Windows. With it, you can zip and un-zip files with ease. It also performs much faster than Windows XP’s and Windows Vista’s built-in software. If you find yourself dealing with zip files often, give it a try. You’ll be glad you did!

8. Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US). Firefox is a web browser like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox offers some cutting edge features such as the “Smart Bar”, which offers suggestions and finds related sites as you type in an address in the address bar. To date, it has much less security issues than Internet Explorer, and seems to consistently outperform Internet Explorer.

9. VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc). If you are having trouble playing DVD’s on your computer, give this piece of software a try. It is a good alternative to Windows Media Player and to buying some DVD playing software. Careful during the install. By default, the install tries to be the default player for all types of media files. While this is OK, you may want to change the defaults during the installation.

10. GIMP (http://www.gimp.org). GIMP is a free image editing program with many of the same features and capabilities as the famous Adobe Photoshop. If you find yourself needing to edit photos often, you may want to give it a try!

11. Picasa (http://picasa.google.com). Another free program for photos. Although not as advanced as GIMP as far as image editing, Picasa does plenty that GIMP does not. It organizes all your photos into one, easy to use interface, allows for plenty of editing (again, not as advanced as GIMP, but easier for most to use). Picasa also allows for online sharing to your friends, family, co-workers, or whomever you choose.

12. PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com). This is a virtual printer that changes anything you can print into a PDF document. Quite handy when you want to send out a document and you want to make sure that it does not get edited.

13. Skype (http://www.skype.com). Video calls are here! This software allows for Skype users to communicate in a video call fashion to other Skype users. Skype accounts are free, but with limitations (such as you can’t call land lines or cell phones without paying a rate). You do of course need a webcam, speakers, and a microphone to make the video call feature work. You can however ditch the webcam for voice-only communication. Note that the party you plan on communicating with via Skype must have a Skype account as well, but remember – Skype accounts are free!

 

Kyle Greenup | Vice President
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in Free Software | 3 Comments »

Conficker Virus – Still not a joke.

May 7th, 2009


No doubt that you have heard of the Conficker virus by now, a.k.a. the ‘April Fools’ virus. The Conficker virus is technically a ‘worm’ which means it can spread without any user interaction. This particular worm spreads by exploiting a known vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows operating system – specifically the Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta operating systems. That’s pretty much all of them in use today!

You may not know that protecting yourself from this horrible worm is extremely easy to do. If you are not already infected, you need to stop what you are doing and visit the Windows Update website. Obtain all patches listed for your machine, specifically the patch described in article MS08-067. This patch will protect you from being infected by the Conficker virus. If you are all patched up, then you are protected. This method will not remove the virus if you are already infected, but it will protect you if you are not infected.

Without the proper tools, Conficker is tricky to detect. Symptoms can vary but include diminished internet connection speed, diminished system performance, rouge tasks in the task manager, and denial of access to network resources.

If you think that you are infected, you need to turn off your machine or at least unplug the network cable or disable the wireless network adapter (or unplug your machine from the modem, depending on your setup). This will stop the worm from spreading from your machine. Next, you need to contact us at NovaCPU.  We have sucessfully removed this virus for our customers and can do the same for you!

 

Kyle Greenup | Vice President
NovaCPU
www.novacpu.com

Email: kyle@novacpu.com
Office: 615.822.5454  |  Cell:  615.498.5789
111 Hazel Path | Hendersonville, TN | 37075

Posted in Virus/Spyware | 1 Comment »