One of the differences that can be significant in the anti-spyware arena is the proactive vs reactive protection. Most pay versions of anti-spyware have a more sophisticated ‘proactive’ component that helps prevent ever getting infected in the first place. Many of the free programs aren’t that good at preventing the spyware from getting into your computer, but they are very good at detecting and removing once you are infected.

At the core of paid & free programs, the basic anti-virus engine is the same; they search for ‘signatures’ of known virus code to detect and remove infections. If you are a fairly knowledgeable surfer; don’t engage in activities such as scrupulous search engine result clicking,  file sharing, software warez cracks, adult content, online gambling or other high-risk behaviors, the basic free protection is may be adequate.

The ‘signature’ updates are generally the same, although some companies offer them less frequently for the free vs the pay versions.

The real difference in most cases is the sophistication level of additional protection against the newest types of exploits. Signature based AV programs can only update signatures once a new strain is discovered. That means, until the new threat has been discovered, a new signature string has been developed and you download it to your computer, you won’t be protected against the new threat.

Removing items just because you don’t know what they are is very dangerous.

Windows based ‘Registry’ system is extremely complicated, so these ‘cleanup programs’ must guess what needs to stay and what it thinks it can remove. If you or it  guesses wrong, you end up with a much bigger problem that can be very costly to fix. All too often, we folks  crashed their systems then upon reflection discover that  ‘everything was working fine until a installed XXX cleanup program’ so be very mindful of any third party programs that claim to perform miracles for $49.95

Here’s the number one way to keep most junk from getting into your computer.

PAY ATTENTION!

What I am referring to is that dizzying (by design) number of screens that come up when you’re installing a new hardware device or software program to your computer.

Most of you click on NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, I AGREE without really understanding what you just agreed to.

For example,  installing  printer software for HP  printers or all-in-ones.

During the installation,you may be presented with two choices for the installation: Recommended or Custom (‘for advanced users’ to scare you off).

The ‘Recommended’ option tried to make it sound like it was very important that you have what they recommended in order for everything to work properly.

Always choose the ‘Custom’ option, because I am very aware of the sneaky games that these companies play. When I chose the Custom option, the next screen showed the three items that would have been installed had I chosen the Recommended option (which I call the “I Don’t Care What You Do To Me” option).

The first item was the actual printer driver software, the second was a quality assurance customer feedback program and the third the Yahoo toolbar.

Two of the three items only benefit HP and adds additional bloat to your computer, but they are counting on you to be asleep at the wheel. (Simply remove the checkmarks in front of unwanted junk in the future!)

Yahoo essentially has a deal with HP to sneak their toolbar into computers via the software install process; HP is benefiting by fooling you into allowing this to happen.

In this one example, you would have ended up with two unnecessary programs and by the time you get all your initial programs installed on the new computer, you could end up with 10 or 15 because you weren’t paying attention.

HP is not the only company that is doing this which is why you should always choose the Custom or Expert option for ANYTHING you install; hardware or software.

If you don’t understand what you are being asked during an install you should hesitate.

Networking issues have always been one of the more problematic areas in the tech world because of all the complexity and the introduction (and popularity) of wireless networking has made it even more problematic.

‘Wired’ is always better than ‘wireless’, but that isn’t always practical or convenient. If you can convert to a wired connection without impacting the practicality of using the laptop, then you could eliminate all the headaches that can seemingly pop up out of nowhere with wireless connections.

Wifi networks operate in an unregulated frequency range, so at any time a neighbors new wireless router, your microwave oven, cordless phones or even ‘nanny-cams’ can cause interference with your computer’s wireless connection.

Here are the most common variables that have to be diagnosed in order for you to troubleshoot this common situation: your wireless router (or Access Point), your laptop’s wireless adapter, your laptop’s network device drivers, your laptop’s overall health, the security levels setup on your router and the security settings on your laptop.

The quickest way to determine where the problem resides is to try using your laptop on a completely different wireless network and have a friend bring their laptop over to try to connect to your wireless network.

If your laptop works on another wireless network, then you can eliminate your laptop’s wireless adapter, the general health of your laptop or any associated driver issues.

If you have trouble connecting to another wireless network, then you can focus your troubleshooting attention on your laptop. If you plug your computer into a wired ‘Ethernet’ connection and it works, then you can eliminate the overall health of your laptop and it narrows the problem to either a defective wireless adapter on your laptop or improper configuration (which can sometimes be fixed by reloading the software driver from the manufacturer).

If another laptop also has a problem connecting to your wireless network, the problem is likely in your wireless router (or access point) or some other wireless device that is causing interference.

Wireless routers do go bad over time, especially if they are on top of another heat generating device, like a cable modem or an older CRT monitor, so if you’ve had your wireless router in that type of environment for a couple of years, then replacing it may be your best bet.

In some cases, you can update the ‘firmware’ for the wireless router by downloading a firmware update from the manufacturer’s website, which can solve known reliability issues and return it to service.

The other possibility is that the security level (generally known as the encryption level) is set too high and therefore less compatible with devices from other manufacturers.

The easiest way to test this segment of your wireless network is to disable the encryption in the router and in your laptop’s wireless adapter configuration, making your router easily accessed by anything in range. If you can connect with no problem, then you may have the encryption level set too high (lower it from 128-bit to 64-bit, for instance) as the more complex the encryption routine, the more likely you will have a problem, especially if you are using adapters and routers from different vendors.

Information contained herein may have changed since posting.

In the world of computers, there are only two types of hard drives: Those that have failed and those that are going to fail (which kind do you have, reader?)

The process of backing up critical files is one of the most overlooked essentials of owning a computer even though everyone realizes how important it is. It’s astonishing how many people fall victim to human nature every year (I’ll get around to it…)

Data recovery on a severely crashed hard drive can cost several thousand dollars to recover, so addressing this before your next crash is a lot less expensive.

The fact that you’re asking if it’s working suggests that you may not completely understand what you bought.

Here are the top backup mistakes made by most users:

Mistake #1 – Buying an external hard drive but not buying any backup software

Too many companies are selling external hard drives as ‘backup systems’ but they don’t bother to include the all important backup software that is essential to success.

The reason they don’t include the software is to appear to be a cheaper alternative and assume that the user understands that some form of backup program needs to be setup.

Add to the equation that most folks don’t read instructions and you have a recipe for disaster.

THE most important part of the backup process is the backup software, but the industry knows that people buy based on price and they don’t read packaging or instructions, so they play on those behaviors.

Mistake #2 – Installing backup software but not setting up the automatic scheduler

If you think that you can rely on a human remembering to run the backup software, you should think again. In our service business, the most common thing we hear from folks in need of data recovery is “I meant to run a backup, but never got around to it”.

How often should you set your scheduler to backup? The answer is based on what you are willing to lose. If you backup once a week, you are saying that you are OK with losing up to a weeks worth of work.

Mistake #3 – Not verifying your backups

Assuming that everything is working fine is a very dangerous way to live. The only way you will ever know if your backup system is actually doing its job is to verify the data that is being backed up.

It can be as simple as manually looking for a recent picture or document that you created to see if it’s on the backup drive or better yet, turning on the ‘verify’ option in your backup program.

If you turn on the verify option, after each backup the program will go back and compare the files against the originals to make sure they are the same (this is also a good way to be alerted to a failing backup hard drive).

Activating this option essentially doubles the amount of time that it takes to backup, which is why many folks turn it off, but that’s a huge mistake. Set your scheduler to backup and verify in the middle of the night so you don’t care how long it takes.

Mistake #4 – Only having one copy of your data

Redundancy is a critical part of a good backup strategy or you will have very little time to discover file corruption issues. If you backup over yesterday’s backup with today’s data, you won’t have any recourse if you corrupted a file during the day (the bad file will overwrite your last good version).

Understanding the difference between a full backup and incremental backup sessions and how to schedule them is critical (read your manual or get some help!)

BIGGEST BUSINESS BACKUP MISTAKE – No off-site data sets

Businesses should especially incorporate some form of off-site data sets in case of fire, flood, theft or any number of business interruption possibilities.

With today’s plethora of online backup services, both consumers and businesses would do well to include an online backup of some sort to compliment any localized external backup system.

A well designed backup strategy is one of those fairly complex issues, so don’t take it lightly. If you’re not comfortable making decisions on what to use or on how to setup a good backup system, ask someone for help. This one is far too important to leave to chance!