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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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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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

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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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Have you been having a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) pop up on your computer? Have you seen your computer do a “Core Dump” then go to a “Logon Screen”? Has your computer screen changed resolutions or colors? If so, you have a nasty piece of spyware called Antivirus 2009.

There are many files associated with this problem including XPSecurityCenter.exe, av2009.exe, and Antivirus2009.exe. This problem is difficult to fix and neither McAffee nor Norton can remove it.

If you think you have this problem or need any other Virus or Spyware removal, call Biden PC at once. We know how to handle this problem and we will do it right the first time.

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

Happy (and safe) Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

So you’re probably wondering why I called this post Anti-Virus instead of Virus… Well, the wrong antivirus software can slow your computer down immensely.

As you may or may not know, you have many different options for antivirus software. You of course have the big 2, Symantec (Norton) and MaAfee. Then you also have antivirus programs from

• Microsoft
• Panda
• TrustPort
• Sophos
• AVG Grisoft
• Trend Micro
• Dr Web
• ClamAV
• ZoneAlarm
• AVK (G Data)
• Avast
• Avira Antivir
• Kaspersky Labs

There are tons of antivirus programs and they all catch different viruses and different percentages of them. Yes, some are better than others.

Symantec (Norton) and MaAfee (and probably many others) have a bunch of background process happening at one time, therefore reducing the speed of your computer. They do this to provide as many services to you as is possible. They provide a firewall, active virus scanning, active spyware scanning, online child protection, online personal data protection, and others. Expect to see them protecting you from traffic accidents and the flu in future releases. (Just kidding about the traffic accident and flu protection.)

There are other AntiVirus programs that find and remove more viruses than they do and they do it faster without the large strain to your system resources. Check the most recent test results from av-test.org at Virus Bulletin.

So there is a lot of data at the above sites. You’re probably wondering which ones I use or recommend. In the past I have recommended Grisoft’s AVG but I’ve recently switched to Avira Antivir and I’ve been quite happy with it. It performs active scanning on every file that is written and read from any drive but doesn’t slow the computer nearly as much as the big 2.

If you think you would like to try another product, I encourage you to examine the test results from av-test.org at Virus Bulletin and make your own informed decision from them. But if your subscription has not yet run out, I would recommend you keep your current anti-virus software so you can save your money until the subscription runs out.

Also Norton and Symantec can be difficult to remove and if you do so, you do it at your own risk. Click here to remove Norton and here to remove McAfee.

I hope this has been informative for you. If you have any questions or feel that this may be best left to a computer service professional, please email Biden PC here.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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There is some nasty “extortion-ware” on the loose that neither SpyBot nor AdAware can get rid of. If you have it, in your taskbar (the icons at the bottom right corner of your screen), there is usually a red circle with a white “X” in the middle. It will pop up a warning that says “Warning! Potential Spyware Operation. Your computer is making unauthorized copies of your system and Internet files. Run full scan now to prevent any unauthorized access to your files. Click here to download spyware remover….”

DO NOT CLICK ON IT OR CLICK YES!!! The creators of this are trying to get you to buy their software through extortion. They create a problem, tell you that it’s there and then want you to buy their software to make the problem disappear. That is illegal and you shouldn’t have to pay them to remove the problem that they created.

What you need to do is download a program called ComboFix. Instructions for using it can be found here and the program can be downloaded here. How much does it cost? Nothing. ComboFix is a free software created for the purpose of removing spyware (software that shouldn’t be on your computer in the first place).

There is disclaimer that says approximately 1% of the computers that use this software aren’t repaired correctly. The case is similar with most malware repair software. There are always computers that are overly infected and can’t be repaired. If that is the case, your only options are to buy a new computer or have everything, including Windows, reinstalled. But before you throw your computer out the window, try the ComboFix free software.

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

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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