The Protector

Below are my TOP 10 reasons to determine if your PC is infected.
1. Your PC takes a very long time to boot or startup.
2. Your PC is slower than normal.
3. You’re getting errors messages stating that your PC is infected.
4. Your normal Anti-Virus protection has been replaced and you did not install or purchase this new program telling you that you are infected.
5. Multiple programs are scanning and popping up on their own.
6. Your PC hangs or does not shutdown when you try to close it.
7. Your PC locks up and you have to hit the power button to allow it to reboot.
8. Your PC will not boot, it will show a blue screen with a lot of programming type information on it.
9. You cannot get on the Internet, yet you have verified that your signal is OK, from your Internet provider.
10. When you type in a web address it is redirected to another website, trying to sell you Anti-Virus protection software.
I remove virus removal for a living and you have just read my 10 ten reasons that I encounter on a daily basics. Finding a service company or person that can do this without losing your data can be challenging. Virus Removal is a specialize service that requires a lot of patience and the knowledge to make sure that the infection is removed and it will not return. On occasion the operating system must be reloaded; this depends on how long the PC has been infected. If caught in time all data can be saved and your operating system will function just fine. However many times the PC has been infected for a long time and no matter what is done to remove the infection it either comes back or the PC just does not perform like it once did. Restoring and or reloading the operating software can be a long process. However a virus removal company should be able to perform this for you either on-site or they may need to take it back to their office.
Most users do not have their CD or DVD to get their PC back to pristine conditions. It may be that no operating CD/DVD came with the unit or the CD/DVD are on the hard drive. However if no CD/DVD were made then it may be too late.
If your PC is having these type of issues and you need help. Please visit me at www.virusfixed.com or call me at 512-630-2375.
Thanks for stopping by and come back for more info on virus removal and more.
Ralph Walker Sr.
www.virusfixed.com

This is part 2 of  How would you like your PC to be virus FREE.  As mention in yesterday post, most computer companies like Dell and others only give you a 30 day trial subscription of Anti-Virus once this period is over you will start getting these constant reminders that your PC is not secure or your Anti-Virus protection is about to expire please renew.  What you may not realized is that Norton and I know this from removing 100 of viruses off of PCs’  that your computer is not currently protected and that your PC now is infected.  I have seen this first hand with Norton and Mcafee Anti-Virus 2010 software.Reddit Button

So how do you protect your computer.  Well first you need to get it cleaned and if you are not willing to do it yourself you need to hire a professional service provider.  Why, because if you have data that is not replaceable you want a service that can save your data before it is to late.  Click here for remote professional virus removal specialist.  If you want to tackle this yourself read on.

1. Remove the expired anti-virus program, from the control panel.

2. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, install update and run a quick scan, remove any infections and reboot.

3. Download and install Avast Anti-Virus, register and reboot.

4. If you need help or this does not work go click here.

Here is a video about Norton Anti-Virus and how to remove it completely. 

Did you know that 95% of all computers issues are virus related. How is that you might asked. Let’s use Dell computer for example but this holds true for any PC manufacturer. When your PC leaves the factory it is preloaded with your operating system and what ever else came with the system or per your order. They will also include a trial subscription of an anti-virus protection software that will only last 30-90 days unless you have paid for longer subscription.  Which is a good  because almost everyone is online now and if you have a broadband connection your PC is always online so it needs to be protected. The PC will also come with a lot of trial-ware software that Dell in this example is trying to get you to buy. The theory is give it to them for free and maybe it will will be to valuable to get rid of so you will purchase the software license. Dell and others use these offers to reduce the total cost of the computer, it is like a coupon to them if you purchase the product. Dell will get a refund or rebate paid directly back to Dell for the allowing their software on your new Dell computer.

Here is the problem with that. Let’s start with the software. The software is installed to come up or pop up every time you reboot your PC, or it may pop-up every hour. So what if you just continue to ignore or say remind me later? It will do just that, so every time you reboot your PC you will get this annoying pop up and depending on how many programs that were pre installed like this at the factory your PC will take a lot longer than it needs to reboot. I have seen some PCs’ take 15-30 minutes to start. A new computer should be up and waiting for you in seconds.

So here is how to fix it. You need to go to Start or the Windows logo and click on start and type in msconfig and press enter. ( This works on Windows XP, Vista and 7). The msconfig box will pop-up, click on the start-up tab and this will display all the programs that are starting up when your PC boots. Take your time and read thru each line. Unchecked any programs that you do not want to start. For example you do not need Adobe updater to load every time your PC starts. Do your really need AOL or any program that you are not using to start automatically. It slows down your PC and will crash your PC eventually. Do not check off anything that you are unsure of. Their are some vital items in there that is needed. If unsure unchecked, click apply and OK and reboot your PC. If everything works OK your fine. Continue this process if needed.

Now let’s get back to your Anti-Virus. Are you getting your Anti-Virus protection is out-dated or your subscription is about to expire. If so you may already be infected.

Check back tomorrow for the scope on why 95% of all computers are currently infected. You will be surprised

Had a customer that was running Windows 7 and he told me that his screen would go white when trying to send an email. He was using Yahoo email just so you know. He also was chatting with a friend and the person he was chatting with told him that his online status kept going on and off. When I first arrived I did not know he was using a WiFi connection. I assume he was using a direct cable connection to his AT@T U-verse router box. Well it was not and I found out thta 2 hours later. I should of checked this first, lolo.  Anyway as it turns out the customer had this Dell desktop installed into a heavy wooden desk. When the desktop was inside the desk cabinet, I notice the signal was strong at sometimes, but sometimes it would drop to 2 bars. Full strength is 4 or 5 parts. I should also tell you that this was in a apartment complex which when I perform a WiFi search there were several AT@T wireless routers in close proximity.

The fix for this common problem can be trace directly to the wooden desk. The installed WiFi wireless card has two antennas that were butted up against the solid wooden desk drastically reducing the signal strength. The AT@T U-verse router was in another room inside a closet. So taking the Dell desktop out of the wooden cabinet and adjusting the antennas helped the signal strength. I also changed the default wireless channel settings on the AT@T U-verse router. I think it defaults to 11, so changing it will help reduce with any interference with any other routers that are close enoughto cause some interference. You can also id your household of annoying, intermittent Internet outages. Switch to OpenDNS and immediately notice a faster, more reliable Internet experience. Join the millions who’ve already unbundled their DNS service from their ISPs Internet connection. Read my earlier post on DNS to find how to do this, just click here.

Thanks

Today I got a call from a customer that had issues with her work connection. She needed to connect to her email from home to her work. It would not connect, stating something about Proxyerror. Well upon arriving I notice the HP computer was taking a very long time to boot. After it booted I immediately saw the issue. This PC Was crawling, it had Norton Anti-Virus 2010, Webroot Spysweeper and Microsoft Essentials, wow. I am surprised it booted at all. So I had to remove Norton 2010 first, I thought Norton had improved their product. Well maybe I had to much faith, or hope but man it still bogged this system dowwwwn. So Norton came off, and I rebooted. Now Spysweeper, the cust. said that Spysweeper would constantly scan but it never found anything. Yea, I seen this before. Someone recommended it to me. Well I learned that this was not a great product either. Why would you want to keep scanning the hard drive if no viruses are found. That is just slowing down the computer. So now Webroot was gone. Now I had to remove Microsoft Essentials. It took a long time to uninstall but it finally uninstall and I rebooted once again.

Now the computer was clear but it was still sluggish, I was beginning to think I was going to have to reinstall Windows XP. I thought about it and said I need to scan for viruses anyway just be sure. So I downloaded and installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and ran a quick scan it found 2 infections right away, by the time it finish it removed over 100 infections. So you tell me what is Norton 2010 doing, it surely is not protecting your PC, not to mention it is slowing the crap out of your processor. If you have Norton Anti-Virus any version you need to get rid of it NOW. I do this for a living folks, and it is not protecting your PC and you will eventually lose your data and have to get a service tech out there like me. My customer called Geek Squad before she called me and they told her it will cost $299.99 as an estimate and they could not get out onsite to her house for 2 weeks. Or she could bring it in the store, which would still cost her the same and it would take her 2 weeks to get it back. She had already had a bad experience with the in store Geek Squad. She took in a notebook and it was doing the same thing that it was doing before she took it in. They still wanted to charge her for a broken notebook. Say What!!

So if you want to get rid of Norton you need to click here now, for cheap alternative to Norton Anti-Virus, and you need this program also to keep your system Malware free. This program is what I use to scan the hard drive once I get rid of any out-dated or non-working protection. Click here.

So I rebooted the computer and my customer was watching me the whole process, she said WOW, the PC is running faster than ever. I said thank you and collected my fee.

Why don’t people backup their data? It use to be a pain in the butt but not anymore.  Removing viruses for a living has taught me to back up your vital files on a daily or weekly bases.  You never know if you are going to need a backup until it is too late. 

If your computer is already infected than backing up your data could be risky.  You do not know when your data was actually infected. You may bring back a infected file if you are not careful.  Since I have been removing viruses I have never infected my PCs’ with any of my customers’s infected hard drives.  How do I do it.  I make sure my main system is protected.  I use a Avast Free Home Edition, you can get it by clicking here now.   I also use the full version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, I am running Windows 7 Ulitmate and it is running great.  Click here for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware special pricing.  This software is great, they have a free version also which can be used to clean computers of infected files, without this great software my service calls would take longer to complete. Okay so we these two programs your computer will be safe.  However that does not prevent you from losing data if your hard drive fails.  I have had 2 hard drives since 2005 that have not failed.  I recently upgraded to a 1.5 Terabyte and I hope it is just as reliable as the older drives.  So do I backup my data. YES.

I use a three phase approach.  If you are just a home user than any one of these options will do.  However if you run a business like me, I suggest to use all my suggested methods.  Here is what you need.

1. USB key 8 GB or more.
2. External hard drive 500 GB or more.
3. Online data backup account.

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A USB key is vital for me because I work on so many customers computers that it makes it real handy and quick. I keep all my vital files on it so I can fix most computers infections with that.  I recommend keeping your important docs on it keeping it in a safe place.  Personally I wear mine on my neck. Click here to see my picture.  Yea I am a geek. What else do you need on your USB key, you need to keep all your drivers that make your PC work.  If you only keep two drivers you need your network drivers so you can get back on the Internet if your hard drive fails and you have to restore Windows and your video and sound drivers.  How do you get those drivers you might want to know.  Depending on your PC maker you can go to their website.  Put in the model number of your PC and find the current driver.  Download the drivers to your USB key. Easy to do, take less than 15 minutes.

Using a external USB or FireWire hard drive is very easy to do.  Just plug it in to the USB/FireWire port and your PC should automatically see the drive.  Some of the external hard drives comes with backup sofware. If not just bring up two Windows Exploreres windows and make click on drive C on one and the other Window can be the external hard drive.  Now just select the files that you need/want to back up and you are done.  What do you need to back up.  Most of the time users do do not change the orginal layout that Windows setups up.  So clicking and dragging you My Documents folder will get all your personal data.  If you have any music like iTunes or anything else you need to get the files from that folder. For example your iTunes music should be saved in the iTunes folders. Just drag and drop that folder to your external drive.  Update that this weekly, what I mean by this is attach the external hard drive and drag the files again.  If there are any changes, Windows will prompt you to let you know this file is newer than the older one.

Online Data Backup,  you will have peace of mind knowing your mission-critical data is safely stored offsite automatically each night. I use this and it works flawlessly.  Set it and forget it.  If you need your data you need to invest into this.  I just worked on a customers PC and he lost his hard drive.  When I confirmed it was gone.  He got upset, well I told him he should not get upset with me or the hard drive.  He should of take action before now, you can pay now or later.  It also better to pay now.  This company offers a 30-day free trial and has many features that will keep your data safe and secure.  Check it out click here.

Here is another issue that I recently resloved. Customer had a Dell computer and it was several years old. I think about 7 years old. It had a old dial-up modem which means it came with dial up software so you could get on the Internet. Back in the late 1990 and early 2000 not that many people had broad-band/high speed Internet at home. All we had was AOL and dial-up, unless you were rich or had the right connections.

So your hard drive is kind of confuse. You need to uninstall all of your all dial up software. That includes AOL, SBC and or Comcast. Just go into your control panel and bring up the add/remove software and go thru the list select it remove it. Reboot and you PC should be working better.

This customer had SBC and they had installed a version of CA Computer Associates that was loading and just flashing at the bottom of the right side of the screen. It was not updating so I did not know what it was doing, besides slowing down the computer. Anyway I removed it and the computer started running as expected. No more lagging when getting on the Internet. I am not a programmer but I am thinking that the old dial up software was still trying to access the Internet in the background along with the Broadband connection. I also recently found out that most cable companies installlers have no knowledge of PC’s and
how to troubleshoot speed issues, other than making sure your connection is live and your signal is strong. Normally they will put on a Anti-Virus program that will in fact slow down your computer. You may already have protection on your computer. So if this has happen to you and the cable company is telling you that is a Microsoft problem or you have a hardware issue and to call a tech out. Save yourself some money and contact me at 1.512.364.5711 or click on my badge below.

Well if  you are like me you need the fastest connection you can afford at home. I am with Time Warner Cable, Road Runner High Speed with Turbo Power Boast.  My current download speed which is my main concern is 18,233 kbps.  The advertisement states that you will get speeds of 15,000 kbps. So I am getting my money worth.  What about you?  You can test your Internet access speed here. 

Here are some ways to make your Internet work faster.  I use them and I recommend all of them.

1. Make sure your PC is not infected.  Get this program, click here, it’s FREE.

2.   Optimized your operating system with Ccleaner.com.  Why,  it’s Free and CCleaner is my system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. Click here for a free download and a no cost tool.

3.  If you do not have a current Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware you can get one that I use here.

4. Optimze your hard drive with Defraggler.  It is also a free also.  Get it here. 

5. Change your DNS server settings, why?  DNS is such an integral part of our Internet life working behind the scenes every time we connect to a website. In most situations, our Internet Service Provider specifies the DNS Server address that we key into the browser network settings or the router. Unfortunately, this can prove to be the weakest link in the entire workflow. For example, if the DNS server of your ISP is slow, the time it takes to resolve the web address adds up to the overall loading time of the website. To solve this problem, I looked at a simple and reliable service called OpenDNS that speeds up your Internet connection and also handles some other very important issues. There is no software to install, it’s very easy to set up and the price is just right – $0.  First go to www.opendns.com  if you want to find out more about OpenDNS. To change your DNS, click on start, control panel and then click on the network card and then click on properties, go to TCP/IP and then select properties under general. Leave the Obtain an IP address automatically as you find. Change the Use the following DNS Server address: and insert Preferred DNS server: 208.67.222.222 and Alternate DNS server: 208.67.220.220, click OK and reboot your computer. 

6.  If your comptuer is still still slow and you need and want it to be faster.  I recommend more memory.  Most computers that I work on, only have 256 MB or 512 MB. You need 1024 MB for Windows XP or Windows Vista, for Windows 7 you need at least 2048.  Most computers will hold up to 2 or 4 gigs. Upgrading your memory is very cost effective and one of the best things you can do to increase the life your your computer. You can scan your computer here. This utility will show you how much memory is in your PC currently and what you can upgrade to.

Enjoy,

Ralph Walker Sr.

http://www.adjustservices.com

So what is LimeWire, is the world’s most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing program. With over 50 million unique monthly users, the software is downloaded hundreds of thousands of times every day and boasts millions of active users at any given moment. LimeWire uses the BitTorrent protocol and the Gnutella network to provide unparalleled searches and download speed to the user. As always, LimeWire takes the security of its users very seriously and offers the world’s most technologically advanced peer-to-peer software.

I have work on several PC’s that have blue screen, meaning that they would not even boot to Windows XP.  Upon arriving at a customer’s site. I am show the blue screen on the computer.  Well even for me that blue screen is the screen of death, BOD.  I do not even look at the screen.  I just immediately try to reboot it to see if the blue screen  comes back.  Most of the time it does. 

 My next step is to boot to safe mode.  In Windows XP, Vista and I believe 7 you can press the F8 function key at the top of your keyboard as soon as you see the PCs makers logo screen.  You have to be quick so if it goes into Windows it did not work, just try again.  When you get a black and white screen you will be prompt to select the booting options.  Always select Safe Mode with Networking and press enter. You screen will then display a lot of text that you do not need to understand.  It will boot to Windows normally, however it will have a Windows Safe mode on the top of the display and it will inform you that you are in Safe Mode. 

The reason why I am telling you this is because if you or more likely you teenager has installed LimeWire on your PC and now your PC is infected.  LimeWire by defaults wants to start-up when Windows XP starts. Please uncheck this box if you have not already.  If it is installed now you need to go to startup and move or delete it from that box. I do not recommend keeping LimeWire running all the time. Here is why, LimeWire does not keep any record of files being shared on the Gnutella network, nor does it scan any files being uploaded for viruses. Therefore, if you attempt unknowing to download a virus-infected file using LimeWire, you will be vulnerable to any viruses contained in that file. Generally speaking, you should be very careful when downloading files with a .exe or .vbs suffix, since these files are more likely than most to be viruses. Scanning the files you download with some sort of virus-protection software is also a good idea. If you need protection software that works.  Click here, I use it and recommend it.

I can not tell you not to use LimeWire but beware you will get infected sooner or later but if you follow my guidelines at least you can use LimeWire without losing all you data and $300.00 service call. Here are the steps.

1. Never leave LimeWire running when you are not actively downloading or uploading files.

2. Make sure you have both a Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware  and Anti-Malware protection solution. Go here to get yours.

3. Be careful what you are downloading not every file description is accurate and honest.

Take care,

R. Walker Sr.

www.adjustservices.com