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.

If you’re having problems updating Avira Antivir Personal Edition (FREE antivirus software) it is quite probably because your computer, router, or ISP (Internet Service Provider) don’t fully support IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) yet. If you are using Avira as your antivirus software and want a better method of updating your antivirus software automatically, follow these instructions…

1. Go to to “START” button and click on “RUN”.
2. Type “%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc” and hit “OK”
3. Open the hosts file with Notepad.
4. Copy the 2 lines below and paste it to the last line at the hosts file. Save the file.
   
   2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.com
   2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.net

The contents of the Hosts file should now look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host
127.0.0.1       localhost
2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.com
2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.net

Thank you for reading,
Tim

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

Did you know that if you get a virus, spyware or malware and remove it, it can still come back? It can. The way that viruses and malware do this is by attaching themselves to other files or your computer registry. This way, once you clean it out, it can download more virus files itself to attack you again.

Whenever Biden PC performs a virus removal we do our best to be certain that the virus can’t come back and we stand by our services. We offer a 30 day warranty on all virus removal services. So if you are reinfected within 30 days, we will remove the viruses again at no charge to you. Does your computer repair company offer that?

We So how do we ensure that the virus doesn’t come back again? We scour the registry for all places that viruses are known to hide. We perform multiple checks including checking for rootkits.

When we’re finished, we are so sure that your computer has no more viruses that we are willing to back it up with our 30-day warranty.

Disclaimer: This30-day warranty is null and void if there has been a music/file-sharing program (LimeWire, BearShare, BitTorrent) on the computer within the 30 day period.

Thank you very much,
Tim

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

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 andit 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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If you are a first time customer, you can head over to YellowBook.com ad and click on “Coupon” to see Biden PC’s 20% off coupon. This is 20% off our service fees. It does not include any hardware or software prices.

Happy Computing,

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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On one of my other blogs, I am testing spyware blockers. I have collected an entire list of “infected websites” and after going through quite a few pages (probably more than 50) I am noticing a theme… They all want you to download a file of some sort. So here is my recomendation and the theme of this post.

Unless you specifically trust the website that you are at, don’t download anything!!!

Keeping yourself and your computer safe online is a bit more complicated than that but just following that one rule will go miles in keeping your computer clean and safe. By reducing the number of virus and spyware infestations you have you will save yourself money on repairs and how often you have to buy a new computer.

Spyware Blockers are a legitimate and sometimes necessary product but they can’t help you if you circumvent them by downloading every Java or ActiveX plugin that you are given.You have to use your head when you’re online. A spyware blocking program will help to keep you safe but you also have to use common sense.

To quote a few cliches, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and “Don’t believe everything you read”. Scamming websites abound and you are their target. They don’t discriminate which is why you have to.

Happy and Safe Computing,

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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This is great news!!! Microsoft and Washington State Sue Scareware Creators. Everyone has seen these things either on our own computers or a friend’s computer. They say things like “Your Computer is Infected” and then tell you to purchase their software to fix the problem. I call this ExtortionWare because they are extorting money from you by telling you that they will fix the problem that they caused. I am glad to see that there is finally a movement against these criminals!

They are suing the company that makes Registry Cleaner XP as well as suing to discover the names of the companies that create Antivirus 2009, Malwarecore, WinDefender, WinSpywareProtect and XPDefender. I can add a few more to the list that they should be suing but no one has asked for my input.

Tim Biden is currently conducting a test of different freeware and commercial spyware blockers. Go see how the tests are coming out!

For more information, see Brian Krebs’ Security Fix blog.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Biden PC has just become a reseller for Avira Anti Virus Protection Software. They make the Antivir line of products including the popular free version that is available at www.free-av.com.

Why did we choose Avira over the more well-known security vendors such as Norton (Symantec) and McAfee? If you check out the results of the latest Anti Virus Software Shootout, you will see that Avira has a greater catch and remove rating than either Norton (Symantec) or McAfee. They also have good built-in spyware blockers. Not only has Avira done well in this test but also for all of the recent tests (almost 2 years), they have consistently placed in the superior range in fighting viruses.

I can say with all honesty that I trust Avira Antivir because I have used it on my own computers for about a year with great results. And when computers with Norton (Symantec) or McAfee on them get viruses, I scan them with Avira Antivir and it removes the viruses.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Recently I’ve had a number of clients whose Verizon DSL has been having problems. The service is extremely slow and the computers seem to have slowed down in general. They all have the MSN login software and it takes at least a minute (literally) to log in and start using the internet. These systems have been scanned for viruses as well as spyware and they are all clean. The problem is with the Verizon connection and MSN software. Though we have not yet been able to keep the login service and remove the problem, we are working on it.

If you live in the San Gabriel Valley and are having these or similar problems, please contact Biden PC to tell us about them. These problems are bigger than just your PC.

Also, if you are having a problem, with spyware, check out this blog topic about spyware blockers. A spyware blocker is a program that blocks you from going to websites that have spyware and also block spyware from entering your computer.

Happy Computing,

Tim Biden

Today I had a client who desperately needed our computer services. She said that her computer had a virus or something. What she had was a version of AntiVirus 2009 but she waited until the problem got so bad that the computer wouldn’t boot.

If your car is having problems, you take it to the mechanic before the problems get worse and more expensive, right? Why wouldn’t you do the same with a computer?

Well, to add to the issues the computer was so bad that it also wouldn’t boot up in Safe Mode so I attempted using a Boot CD that I often use to fix computers like hers but the problem had even grown beyond that. The internal hard drive wasn’t even recognized by the boot CD. I attempted fixing the MBR (Master Boot Record) to see if I could get the drive to be recognized but to no avail.

This computer is so infected that it needs to be formatted and have Windows XP reinstalled. Next time I go back, I will try another boot CD to see if I can get her files backed up because I want to do my best for her. I really want to save her pictures and data files but since she didn’t back them up, I can can only do so much to help.

So what are the lessons here? Call for computer services before the problem is beyond a simple fix. And back up your data files often. CDs are cheap.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.