Marietta Computer Repair Information

SAVING MONEY WITH TECHNOLOGY

SimpleTechGuy — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:30:33 +0000

SimpleTechGuy helps you save money

Have you ever wondered why it seems like everything is so expensive? Every few days a new phone is hitting the market or a new laptop or ipad, but the worst part is the big media companies do such a good job convincing us we need their toys. Then every other day we feel like we need to buy the latest and greatest stuff in order to keep up with technology, but that’s just not true.

I’ve been keeping up with technology now for nearly 10 years and have seen it grow substancially these past 3 or 4 years but other than a few minor hardware changes, the basic technology has remained pretty much the same. All the phones have had really fast internet, gps, and app markets for 3 years now but somehow the big phone companies are making millions on new phone sales.

It doesn’t stop with phones, but laptops, desktops, tablets, and even the hardware inside these devices is still pretty much the same as it has been for years. Ok, I’ll admit they are getting a little faster, but I can stand my 3 year old custom built pc up to just about anything out there on the market today and blow it out the water. How can I do this you ask? The answer is SIMPLE. There are a few major hardware manufacturers who produce the majority of the products available on the market today and each one of the big players have high end stuff and low end stuff. Their high end stuff pretty much stays the same, but the low end stuff is made in such small quantity that it quickly sells out in the retial stores and they change the name of the products, do a little marketing and put the same thing back out with a different upc code.

The trick to saving money is to buy the good stuff in the beginning and let it work for you for the next 5-7 years. This way you spend a little more up front, but save in the long term because you’re not spending the big bucks getting the low end stuff repaired or replaced with more low end stuff. Remember if you have a good product you don’t need the newest product because yours is probably already as good or sometimes even better than the new stuff on the market and you don’t have to worry about learning some new program or dealing with the bugs associated with the new device.

Another trick to saving money is to turn your computers off at night. If your family was anything like mine then you remember being told as a kid to “turn off those lights” or “quit wasting electricity”. Well the same things still applies today. Turning off all those gadgets at night can save an average of $200-300 / year on your electric bill. I know that doesn’t seem like much but it can be a car payment or christmas money for your kids.

Now that you’re all worked up about saving money you might want to think about downsizing. Some of us were in awe by all the individual products out over the past few years that did one or two things around the house but now we’ve found our homes full of clutter with electronic devices that we just don’t need anymore because we have a new device that does it all. Rather than having a separate scanner, printer, fax and copier we can sell them and use the All In One Laser Printer. We can put that old GPS system on ebay and get a cell phone holder for our car and just use the phones gps while we’re driving. Chunk that old mp3 player or ipod and use your phones bluetooth to connect to the cars speakers and listen to your music that way. I could go on and on but I have to go get some work done today! I hope this has helped someone out there.

Virtualization

SimpleTechGuy — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:09:21 +0000

Haven’t heard about Virtualization yet? Well today’s your lucky day. Virtualization, in computing, is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources.^[1]

So basically you can have a computer inside a computer. This can really come in handy for many reasons from just basic testing to enterprise level user management and backup. Many end users such as yourself are using virtual machines because they allow you to almost instantly restore you computer to its previous state if you get a virus or accidently press the wrong button and the computer suddenly stops working. Or how about that blue screen of death? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have your computer up and running again in 5 minutes and for free rather than paying someone like me to come out and fix it at $100/hr.?

There are many different companies out there today creating virtualization platforms, but the original and most popular is VMware. They do it all, but my favorite thing about them is they offer many products absolutely free of charge! A person can visit their appliances page and find hundreds of pre configured operating systems offering services such as web hosting, customer management, data backup, email servers, and much much more. Wikipedia has a large list of many other virtual machine software manufactures.

If you would like to know more about virtualization or would like to find a solution for your business then please give us call at 404.819.9027 or send an email to sales@simpletechguy.com and we’ll do our best to get you out on the right track.

Avoiding Overheating

SimpleTechGuy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:56:30 +0000

In today’s economy it is important to remember the little things, especially when they could end up costing big bucks when they break. I’m talking about your tech toys – Computers, Phones, Routers, Televisions, Etc. What we need to keep in mind here is these toys can last a very long time if they are properly taken care of but one thing is for sure, they will always eventually break down.

So what can you do when your “tech toys” break down? In this article I’m going to give you a few examples of ways you can protect your tech toys and what to do when that dreaded day comes that everything just quits working.

The first thing a person should always have ample supply of is compressed air. These little cans of “duster” can add months and sometimes years to anything that has a power supply. What many people don’t realize is that most devices have many little computer chips in them that need to have power and even more need to be cooled down. When the power supply on the device gets too hot it will send the wrong amounts of power to the device which will eventually cause catastophic failure. In many situations the easiest thing to do is simply use your can of dusters about once every two months and spray all the dust off the fans and open holes in the device.

Another must have for anyone who owns a piece of technology is a cool environment. As I mentioned before, every piece of equitment that has computer chips in it needs to stay as cool as possible in order to avoid over heating. When your devices are in places of extreme heat they will not last long. Sometimes it’s not possible to always be in a cool room so I would suggest keeping a small portable fan around to keep a constant airflow on the device to avoid the ambient temperature going above the manufacturers recommendations.

I hope these tips help someone out there get the most of their treasured devices. Just remember if you ever need any tech tips or advice you can always call the SimpleTechGuy for free!

Daniel Carlson

404.819.9027

www.simpletechguy.com

Synergy Warning Popup

SimpleTechGuy — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:39:51 +0000

In today’s tech world there are millions of applications and free tools on the internet for just about anything you could ever possibly want or need. This article is about a great little tool called Synergy that allows you to share a single mouse and keyboard across multiple computers and monitors.

Are you using synergy to connect multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse on your laptop or in a situation where different computers are constantly being moved around? If so then you’ve probably seen the popup window that says “WARNING: failed to connect to server: no address for:” and if you’re anything like me then that popup drives your crazy, especially on the laptop.

Well I finally got tired of seeing it all the time and did a few searches on the net to see if I could figure out how to make it stop but I couldn’t find anything so I started experimenting with it myself and found the solution to be quite easy.

The trick is to change to log levels. So first, if you already have synergy running you can go down to the task bar and right click the synergy icon and click “quit”. Then go to your start menu and find synergy and double click it to run it. You should get a new window showing up like this:

The trick to solving this problem is to change the “Logging Level” from Warning to Error and your problem is SOLVED! I hoped this helped…

Backup, Backup, Backup!

SimpleTechGuy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:37:40 +0000

Remember when you parent’s used to say, “I’m telling you this for your own good”? Well I’m not your daddy, but I’m telling you it’s time to do that backup! You never know when that lightning strike is going to take out your hard drive or a random virus might get through and eat up all your pictures. Backing up your stuff is as easy as it ever was if you know what you’re doing.

In this post I will suggest a free simple solution that will backup 5GB of your most important data! It’s called “SugarSync”… There are no monthly fees, everything is encrypted and secure, and best of all it’s FREE. Just browse on over to https://www.sugarsync.com/free/, create a new account and follow the instructions. They’ve done a very good job of making things as easy as possible.

Now most of you most likely have more than 5GB of information so this might not be the right solution for you. If you have thousands of pictures and songs then you may want to think about getting yourself an external hard drive. So many people really tend to get frustrated at this point because there are so many options out there, but believe it or not there is actually a simple solution. Just stop by your local Micro Center and pickup a 500GB Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0334244… They run about $50 and don’t come with all that extra backup software that clutters most of the external Hard drives out there today.

Now that you have your new external hard drive, just plug it into your computer and it will show up as the E:\ drive or F:\ drive in My Computer! All you have to do from here is drag and drop your my Pictures and Music into that drive and viola! You have yourself a backup of your stuff!

Hope this helps someone out there, and remember if you don’t want to mess with this yourself I will personally help you get your backup configured today! Just call me at 404.819.9027!

Wanna learn how to get rid of Malware?

SimpleTechGuy — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 21:59:38 +0000

How to use Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware to scan and remove malware from your computer

Posted by Grinler on February 16, 2010 @ 09:54 PM

Table of Contents

Introduction:As you may have noticed, we use MalwareBytes’, or MBAM, in a lot of our removal guides. We do this for no reason other than the fact that the program simply works well and that we can count on it to remove what it says it can. It is updated constantly throughout the day and has excellent protection on all the new malware that comes out. With that said, we feel that MalwareBytes is an important tool to have as part of your computer’s security arsenal. One of the program’s nicest features is that it is free and easy to use. For those, who may want more advanced features you can purchase the commercial full version to get real-time protection that will protect you from being infected in the first place. The guide below will walk you through installing, configuring, and scanning your computer with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

How to use Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware:

Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
Download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for infections.
MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.

You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.

You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
You can now exit the MBAM program.

Hopefully your computer should now be clean of any infections that may have been present. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

Troubleshoot Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

Below are some common errors you may run into when attempting to use Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

Malwarebytes’ setup program closes when you attempt to install it.

If you attempt to install Malwarebytes’ and the setup program automatically closes then there is a good chance that you have an infection that is trying to stop the program from installing. To get around this, try renaming mbam-setup.exe to other names like:

mbam-setup.com
iexplore.exe
explorer.exe
userinit.exe
winlogon.exe

After each rename, try and run the program again. If that does not work, then you may to download and run Rkill to terminate the malware processes that are stopping you.

Malwarebytes’ wont start

If you attempt to run Malwarebytes’ and it does not start then there is a good chance that you have an infection that is trying to stop the program from running. To get around this, try renaming C:\program files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.exe to other names like:

mbam.com
iexplore.exe
explorer.exe
userinit.exe
winlogon.exe

After each rename, try and run mbam.exe again. If that does not work, then you may to download and run Rkill to terminate the malware processes that are stopping you.

Error 732 when trying to update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

If you receive an Error 732 when trying to update MBAM it could be because you do not currently have an Internet connection or a malware has changed your connection settings so that you are using a proxy server. To make sure your connection has not been set to use a proxy server, please do the following steps:

Please start Internet Explorer, and when the program is open, click on the Tools menu and then select Internet Options as shown in the image below.
You should now be in the Internet Options screen as shown in the image below.

Now click on the Connections tab as designated by the blue arrow above.
You will now be at the Connections tab as shown by the image below.

Now click on the Lan Settings button as designated by the blue arrow above.
You will now be at the Local Area Network (LAN) settings screen as shown by the image below.

Under the Proxy Server section, please uncheck the checkbox labeled Use a proxy server for your LAN. Then press the OK button to close this screen. Then press the OK button to close the Internet Options screen. Now that you have disabled the proxy server you will be able to browse the web again with Internet Explorer.

Now try and update MBAM again.

Error 2 when installing MBAM

If you receive an Error 2 when installing MBAM then a core executable was deleted by a malware running on your computer. To fix this we will first need to download a randomized version of mbam.exe and save it to the C:\program files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\ folder. We can then run that random named executable to start Malwarebytes’ and scan your computer. To do this follow these steps:

If you receive a code 2 error while installing Malwarebytes’s, please press the OK button to close these errors as we will resolve them in future steps. The code 2 error will look similar to the image below.
As this infection deletes a core executable of Malwarebytes’ we will need to download a new copy of it and put it in the C:\program files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\ folder. To download the file please click on the following link:

Malwarebytes’ EXE Download

When your browser prompts you where to save it to, please save it to the C:\program files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\ folder. When downloading the file, it will have a random filename. Please leave the filename the way it is as it is important that it is not changed. You may want to write down the name of the file as you will need to know the name in the next step.
Once the file has been downloaded, open the C:\program files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\ folder and double-click on the file you downloaded in step 2.

Now that MBAM is running, please update the program and scan your computer like normal.

Using Rkill to terminate infection processes that may be stopping MBAM from running

If all of these steps do not work, then you can download, or copy from a clean computer, the Rkill program and run it on the infected computer. Rkill will then try and terminate the infections that may be stopping you from installing MalwareBytes’. Rkill, under various names, can be downloaded from the following links:

Rkill.com
Rkill.exe
iExplore.exe
rkill.scr
uSeRiNiT.exe
WiNlOgOn.exe

Once Rkill runs, it will create a log of what applications were terminated. You can then attempt to start the installation of MalwareBytes or start the program again.

For more detailed troubleshooting information, please see this topic at the Malwarebytes’ site.

This is a self-help guide. Use at your own risk.

BleepingComputer.com can not be held responsible for problems that may occur by using this information. If you would like help with any of these fixes, you can ask for malware removal assistance in our Virus, Trojan, Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs forum.

If you have any questions about this self-help guide then please post those questions in our AntiVirus, Firewall and Privacy Products and Protection Methods forum and someone will help you

Here is a great post borrowed from BleepingComputer.com

It’s so easy to hack these days!

SimpleTechGuy — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:29:36 +0000

How to Create Your Own Android Trojan in 5 Easy Steps -

It seems that every few weeks a new crop of malicious Android apps turns up in the market. Sometimes Google just removes them from the market; other times it uses the “kill switch” to disable already-downloaded apps from Android devices around the world.

Typically these threats are perfectly ordinary-looking apps. Like the Trojan Horse of legend, they enter your device freely, with your permission. Once installed they do something nasty. Some users are shocked that Google can remove stuff from your Android phone remotely. I’m more alarmed at the ridiculous ease with which malicious coders can create Trojans for Android.

At last week’s Next@Norton event, Symantec researchers presented a dazzling array of information about the current state of mobile security and the mobile malware landscape. Eric Chien, Technical Director for Security Response, revealed the absurdly simple steps a malefactor uses to create a brand-new Trojan by creating one right in front of the audience. Don’t worry; his sample app never left the room.

Here are the five simple steps Chien demonstrated:

One. Start by downloading a free app. You can choose any app at all, but of course you’ll want to pick something that will draw plenty of downloads.

Two. The language compilers that create applications on your PC take textual source code and convert it into assembly language that the CPU can read and process. It’s a one-way translation; there’s no way to go from the final executable file back to the source code. Android apps are written in Java, though, and that means that you can decompile them back to the original source code using simple, easily-available tools. For the next step, decompile your target app.

Three. The third step is a little tricky. You’ll need to obtain Java source code that does something nasty, like sending personal information from the device to a third party. For the demonstration, Chien used a known threat called Android.Geinimi.

Four. Adding the Trojan code is absurdly simple. You copy it into the folder containing the existing source code, make a small change in the manifest to run the Trojan code before the rest of the app, and edit the permissions to give the Trojanized app free access to the entire device. While you’re at it, tweak the app’s name. Chien added “FREE!” to the name for his demo.

Five. Compile the modified app and upload it to the market. You’re done!

Of course, malicious apps don’t last long in the Android Market. If you really want to spread a dangerous program, you’re better off uploading it in China, where there is no official Android market. In fact, virtually all of the examples referenced in Chien’s presentation surfaced in the free-for-all markets of China.

Not planning to do this yourself? Good! But I’m sure that like me you’re shocked at how easily someone with bad intentions can create a brand new Android Trojan. It’s time to look into mobile security for your Android device.

This article copied from PCMAG.COM

Vtiger wont install error – You must specifiy a valid user name and password during installation.

SimpleTechGuy — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:33:00 +0000

This was really bothering me and I searched the internet for a solution but didn’t find much information so I thought I’d write up a quick solution that worked for me. My issue was in the MySQL database itself. All I had to do was log into PHP My Admin with the same user name and password I used to create the database and navigate to the operations tab and under the Collation drop down menu choose “utf8_bin” and press GO.

Easy as pie!

SimpleTechGuy

Office 2007 Send/Receive Problem, Outlook Freezing on Send/Receive

SimpleTechGuy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:24:50 +0000

Office 2007 Send/Receive Fix

“Display As” Field causing problems? Send/Receive flashing and not sending emails? Outlook freezes when sending an email to one contact but it works fine with another? Does the send/receive count keep getting higher and higher as it flashes and freezes?

If you are experiencing any of those problems you are in luck. After hours of searching the internet I found the solution over at the techguy.org forums. The problem actually lies within the “display as” field in your contact manager. Every time you put an email address into your contact page it will automatically generate a name in the “display as:” box. This name usually looks something like this:

john.doe (john.doe@email.com)

Don’t ask me why, but when you take the “john.doe” and the () parts out, you get a perfectly good Outlook 2007.

The problem most people run into is when they have 200 or more contacts in their contact list it would take forever to go into each contact and edit the Display as: field manually. With my solution you can correct your problem and repair the “display as:” field for every contact in your address book in just a couple of min.

All you have to do is fix you’re messed up contacts. It’s actually really easy, just 3 main steps.

Export your contact list.
1. File / Import and Export / Export to a file / Comma Separated Values (Windows) /
2. Select your “Contacts” folder
3. Click Browse …
4. Navigate to your desktop, name the files and press ok to save
5. Click next
6. Click “Map Custom Fields …”
  1. i. On the right side scroll down until you see the “E-mail Display Name”
  2. ii. Click and drag “E-mail Display Name” into the left hand column.
    1. Follow this process for “E-mail 2 Display Name” and “E-mail 3 Display Name”
Click OK
Click Finish
Delete all the contacts from your contact list
Import the file from your desktop through Outlook
1. In Outlook navigate to the File Menu / Import and Export / Import from another program or file / Comma Separated Values (Windows) /
2. Click “Browse …” and navigate to your desktop
3. Open the file you saved in Step $1
4. Fill the dot next to “Replace duplicates with items imported”
5. Click next
6. Select the “Contacts” folder
7. Click next
8. Click finish

If you follow these steps correctly you will accomplish 2 tasks. First you will stop that annoying send/receive problem, but you will also have fixed the “display as” problem for every contact in your entire contact list at once.

Internet Explorer 8 wont connect to the internet

SimpleTechGuy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:19:25 +0000

Usually, Internet explorer just connects to the internet. I mean, it “usually” just works, but this time is different. I turned on my computer, opened up Internet Explorer to check my email, and waited, and waited, and waited. Then I got that screen that says, “NO CONNECTION!”. Now what?

Well first you would check to see if you have a connection to the internet. Just follow the steps below if you have Windows xp.

Click ‘start menu’
Click ‘run’
In the black box type, “ping google.com”
If you see “Received = 4″ in your results then you are connected to the internet.
If you see “Received = 0″ then you are not connected.

The steps I’m going to give next usually only work when you “ARE” connected to the internet. If you “are not” connected to the internet it may not work.

Scan for viruses using your favorite anti-virus program.
Download “WinSockFix” from SoftPedia.
Install WinSockFix.
Run WinsockFix.

If all that doesn’t work there is one other thing you may try.

Go to start-> run… type – “regsvr32 actxprxy.dll” (without the quotes), if the message says succeded- you’re good to go.