Have you received one of these letters?

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Don’t fall for it, it’s a scam. You don’t need their services and they aren’t the company who controls your domain. What they are trying to do is get you to switch your domain from your current registrar to them and these guys probably charge a lot more than your current company does. Just throw the letter away as your current registrar will most likely auto-renew your domain when it expires.

And if you have any questions about who your registrar actually is, you can go to http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp, type your domain name into the box and click on “Search”. Look for the section that says “Current Registrar” and you will know who your real registrar is you you can be certain that it isn’t “Domain Registry Of America.”

Tim

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Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

In recent months, I’ve noticed a growing trend in virus removal. Parents are actually having their children (either teenagers or adult offspring living at home) pay for it. About half the time I have a virus removal job; the parents blame the infection on the kids and let me know that the cost of the job will ultimately be paid for by the kids.

I think this makes perfect sense. Having been a computer tech for a number of years, I can usually look at a computer and tell you approximately how old the children in the house are by the software and viruses on the computer.

Whether the parents are helping the children learn about responsibility and consequences or the parents just want to save their own hard-earned money in these difficult financial times, I don’t know. But this is a growing trend and I completely support it. Hopefully, by learning this lesson financially, the children will learn about computer safety and that visiting certain types of websites is going to mess up their computer and cost them money.

***EDIT*** That being said, I know that there are parents that blame their mistakes on the children. Trust me, I don’t care who caused the problem or where the problem came from. I believe it is my job to fix the PCs, not place blame.  ***END***

Way to go Parents!

Tim

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Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

How much personal information do you have online? Have you ever thought about that question? Have you ever googled your own name? How about the different variations of your name, have you googled them? Take this story that just happened to me as an example of how personal information and data can end up online without your knowledge or permission.

Today I received an email from, Google Alerts telling me that my name had popped up in a new web page. This happens occasionally since I am on Twitter, Facebook and I have my own blog (this one) so I didn’t think it was anything strange. However once I read the email (pictured below), I had to check it out.

A day or 2 earlier I had written a letter of recommendation for a friend and thought nothing more about it. Then I get the email that you see above and I had to see what it was talking about. Apparently the friend needed to convert the Microsoft Word file to an Adobe Acrobat file and used the website http://www.scribd.com/ to do so. No big deal, right? Well, the website made the letter public and Google had searched it and found my name. This is why I was alerted. So I called my friend to ask her about it and apparently her resume as well as 2 more letters of recommendation were posted online as well. Thanks to Google Alerts, we were spared the embarrassment of having somebody else find it.

So, how much personal data do you have online? Have you ever Googled your own name? You should. And if I were you, I would set up alerts for the different variations of your name. That way, any time something new is added, you’ll know about it.

Setting up your alerts is easy. You don’t even have to log in or create a new account.

1. Go to Google Alerts.
2. Enter the text that you want alerts for.
3. Choose comprehensive.
4. Enter your email address.
5. Click on “Create Alert”.
6. Google will send an email to the address that you enter. Open that email and click on the link under “Verify this Google Alert request”.
7. You’re done.

Keeping up to date with your information online is a great way to reduce embarrassment and credit fraud.

Thank you for reading,
Tim

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Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

For years, Biden PC has resisted the temptation to start accepting credit cards. Due to the current economic climate we have found that it would make things easier for our clients if we started accepting them.

So in addition to cash and check, we now accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

Thank you very much,
Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

I was recently with a client who wanted to give their old software to other people or organizations. In general, giving to those less fortunate is a kind thing to do. However, there are circumstances when this generosity is not kind or legal.

The most obvious problem is that most software allows for people to install it only on 1 computer. This is where we run into the legal issue. You can’t give your old software to another person or organization to use on a different computer. You may be allowed to do this if you give them the entire PC, but on the whole, regiving software is frowned upon.

The second and less obvious issue is security. Some of the software that my client wanted to pass on was antivirus software. These are a security nightmare. The recipients of the software will believe that their computers are safe and secure but they aren’t. When people believe they are safe online, they take risks that they wouldn’t if they knew that they were unprotected. Therefore, this false sense of security is more dangerous than going without security software.

I don’t believe that people should go without security software so I would like to point out some excellent and FREE (to home users, not businesses) security software.

1. Avira Antivir:              Download it HERE.
2. MalwareBytes:             Download it HERE.
3. SuperAntiSpyware:       Download it HERE.

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

Just a friendly reminder for everybody out there who has WordPress and uses Google Analytics on their blog… Don’t be in a rush when updating your plugins.

I was in a rush and just realized that, when I last updated my Google Analytics, I neglected to update (re-enter) all of my information so I haven’t been tracking a darn thing. Apparently in the past when I updated it I remembered to update all of my settings but the previous time, I didn’t so I lost all of my stats for the last month.

Lesson learned.

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

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“ERROR: The registry settings used by the iTunes drivers for importing and burning cds and dvds are missing… Please re-install iTunes”

Have you seen this error? If you have, Apple gives some relatively easy but dangerous (if not followed exactly) to fix it.

Unfortunately, in my case, their instructions didn’t fix the problem. What I did was go to http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.php and click on the “Drivers Downloads” near the bottom of the page. I downloaded and installed the file for 32-bit and 64-bit systems and rebooted Windows. Upon reboot, iTunes was able to use the CD drive and the warning was gone.

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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To get the best antivirus Scan from Avira Antivir, you have to change 1 small setting in Avira. If you don’t, not all files will be checked for viruses.

1. Open Avira.

2. Click on “Configuration” just above the status view.

3. Under “Scanner” choose “All Files” instead of “Use Smart Extensions” or “Use File Extension List”

4. Click “OK”.

5. Run scan.

6. Be Happy.

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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I recently had my first experience with Windows Live OneCare and I have to say that I was less than impressed. Here is what happened. Microsoft, take note!

My clients are an elderly couple who are nervous about using their PC but they’ve gotten by for a while now. So they had Windows XP Home edition with Service Pack 3 (I think) and a few run of the mill software programs installed. They kept having freezing and rebooting problems. I did a repair of Windows XP. That didn’t fix it. I ran all the diagnostics I could think of but no hardware problem would show up.

I finally ran out of options and formatted their computer. It was running perfectly. I reinstalled most of the programs but not Windows Live OneCare. I don’t like Microsoft’s AntiVirus products so I skipped the program entirely. Unfortunately there were functions in OneCare that the clients wanted so without really thinking that it was the problem, I installed it. BAM!!! The same problems were back exactly the way they were before. I attempted a system restore but OneCare was still there. I tried uninstalling it but that didn’t fix the problem either.

My clients needed their computer so they opted to put up with the problems rather than be without their computer for another day. I said “Okay” and left. About a week later, they called me again and asked if I would help them set up their new Apple laptop. Well, they now have a nice new fully functioning Apple MacBook Pro and they love that it works the way it is supposed to. They’re still getting used to the software but since Windows Live OneCare caused such havoc on their PC, they’re glad to have something that works.

So, as you can tell, Windows Live OneCare won’t get my vote for software application of the year.

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Are you unable to access your Windows XP Control Panel after removing viruses and/or malware? I recently had this happen on a client’s PC and it presented a message that said “This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on the computer. Please contact your System Administrator.”

I was logged in as the computer administrator and I still got that message so I knew that there was another problem. After much searching and reading tons of “solutions” I found that many of them were simply impossible because the necessary registry entries were not there. I finally found the answer and I want to share it with you.

1. Download Trojan Remover.
2. Install Trojan Remover and when prompted, put check-marks in the boxes marked “Check for Updates? (You must be connected to the Internet)” and “Run Trojan Remover after setup is completed”.
3. The Update program will run and alert you to any updates that are available. Choose “Update”.
4. That program will close and the full program will open.
5. You haven’t purchased the full version yet so just click “Continue” then click “Scan”.
6. The program will now remove any Trojans that it finds as well as check registry entries. One of the registry entries will be the one that has been blocking your access to the control panel.
7. When it finds a problem, choose the default option and continue.

After the scan has completed, reboot your computer and you should have access to your control panel again.

Thanks for reading! If this has helped you, send me a comment saying so.
Tim Biden

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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