[cvillepcnews] Cville PC Newsletter - June 2004
- From: "Cville PC Newsletter" <newsletter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <cvillepcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 01:17:04 -0400
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THE CVILLE PC NEWSLETTER
June 2004
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Dear Reader,
I hope you have enjoyed your spring and are ready for the truly hot, humid
days of Charlottesville summer. It officially began this week, but as you
already know, Mother Nature has beaten the calendar to the punch.
Keep an eye on CvillePC.com over the next month or so, as I?ll be adding the
ability to subscribe to the newsletter from the web site, and updating the
Resources page on the site to include archived newsletter articles and links
to more useful web sites and software.
For this issue, I'll be covering the following topics:
*Backups
*Spyware: the new threat
BACKUPS: JUST DO THEM
There are basically two important steps for doing a backup:
1. Decide what files you want to back up. For instance, some people only
want to back up their files under the "My Documents" folder. Some may want
to back up their Microsoft Outlook address book or AOL personal filing
cabinet. The rule of thumb is that you should back up any data you can?t
afford to lose.
2. Copy the files to your backup medium, such as a CD or another computer on
your network. Your options for what backup medium to use will depend on how
much data you want to back up, and they include the following:
-Floppy disk drive. A floppy drive can hold just under 1.5 megabytes (MB)
of data, which is in the range of 10-100 text documents. Floppy disks are a
fairly unsafe way to store data files because they can be damaged so easily.
-USB drive/thumb drive. These can be purchased with different storage
capacities, starting at 128 MB, which is the equivalent of almost 100 floppy
drives. Like floppies, these are best primarily for backing up text files,
although they offer enough room to store some pictures or music files as
well. I will be discussing these in more detail in the next issue.
-Internet. There are some services that can back up your files over the
Internet for a monthly fee. PC Magazine had reviewed some of them:
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1090075,00.asp>
You backups are stored off-site, which offers added security, and can be
accessed from anywhere you have access to the Web. This solution works best
with a high speed Internet connection.
-CD-R or CD-RW disc. These hold 700 MB, or about 5.5 times more than a 128
MB thumb drive. An added advantage of CDs is that you can purchase a
package of them and create each backup on a new disc, rather than repeatedly
overwriting your last backup, as you might need to do with a thumb drive.
Among other benefits, this allows you to keep a copy of your backed-up files
offsite-this is of critical importance for businesses. Blank discs cost
around 25-50 cents depending on how many you purchase at one time. It is
possible to fit pretty much anything you?d need to back up on a single CD,
or maybe a few of them if they?ve got a lot of large video files.
-Another hard drive. You can buy an external hard drive for about $150 that
will allow you to copy the entire contents of your computer at one time, or
store new versions of your important files without erasing older versions.
If desired, these drives can easily be disconnected from the computer to
store elsewhere when the backup is finished. Or you can leave it connected
and purchase software that will do your backups automatically. This is a
flexible, thorough approach to backups, although automating your backups
will take a little bit of work to set up. With the right software you can
create an exact copy of your original hard drive, which makes restoring it
very easy in the event of a catastrophic hard drive crash (this solution may
be appealing to small businesses that rely heavily on their computer systems
and data).
-Another networked computer. If you have more than one computer connected
to the Internet through a cable/DSL router, you can set them up to share
hard drives with each other and use other computers on the network as backup
hard drives for each other. I use this solution for my home network, and
although I have never had a hard drive crash, I believe I am sufficiently
protected if one occurs.
ADWARE AND SPYWARE Part 1: REPLACING VIRUSES AS THE NEW PC THREAT
Spyware is software that can be installed on your computer without you
knowing-either because it is installed along with some other software that
you?ve downloaded or because of a web site you?ve visited that has installed
it on the sly-that might have been written to do anything from monitoring
your web surfing habits for the purpose of better targeting popup ads, to
stealing your credit card numbers and passwords. This threat to safe
computing has emerged extremely rapidly; only one or two years ago, most of
Cville PC?s business consisted of troubleshooting hardware, yet these days
it is almost all related to spyware and viruses. Spyware was recently the
subject of a lead article on Yahoo:
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63345,00.html?tw=rss.TEK>
Adware and spyware (also called malware) should be considered as much of a
concern as computer viruses because there is more incentive for software
creators to propagate this kind of software. While viruses are usually
created by individuals who do it for the challenge, gaining no monetary
reward from it, spyware is part of a marketing industry that stands to reap
much larger gains from the information collected by this kind of software;
the resources of an entire company may have been brought to bear to create a
spyware program. The articles I have read suggest that at least one-third
of all windows computers may have spyware installed, sometimes with as many
as 20 different programs.
Here are some tips that may alert you to the fact that you have spyware on
your computer:
-Seeing more that one popup ad when you go to a new web page. Many people
who see this symptom simply install popup blockers, and ignore the
underlying cause of the popups.
-Getting a popup ad when you are not actively surfing the web.
-Having your web browser go to a different homepage than the one your
browser was configured to access. For example, you may have set CNN.com to
be your homepage, but when you start your browser, you may end of being
directed to Skeech.com.
-Your computer performance suddenly slows down considerably.
These symptoms should raise an even bigger red flag if they begin shortly
after you?ve installed a free software program you downloaded from the web,
such as popup blockers or Internet accelerators.
Expect to read more about how to deal with adware and spyware in future
issues of this newsletter. In the meantime, if you suspect that you have
spyware on your computer, you can download some spyware removal tools from:
<http://www.spychecker.com/software/antispy.html>
(My personal favorites are Ad-aware and Spybot - Seach & Destroy.)
SEND IN YOUR QUESTIONS AND IDEAS FOR TOPICS
If you have a question about your computer, the Internet, or specific
viruses or hoaxes that you would like answered, email them to
newsletter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx I will answer all emails, and select those of
general interest to publish in a future newsletter.
Well, that?s it for now. See you next month!
Best regards,
Adam Slate
Senior Consultant
Cville PC
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ABOUT THE CVILLE PC NEWSLETTER: The Cville PC Newsletter is a free, monthly
online publication dedicated to issues of personal computer security,
maintenance, and productivity. Its contents and advice are offered with no
implied warrantee. Unless otherwise noted, Cville PC has no formal
association with any product or service recommended in the newsletter, and
will not benefit materially from your purchase of any of those products or
services. Newsletter-related comments and questions can be sent to
newsletter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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ABOUT CVILLE PC: Founded in January 2001, Cville PC offers personal computer
troubleshooting, installation, maintenance, and training in Charlottesville,
Virginia and surrounding areas. You can contact Cville PC at 434-760-1346,
or info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Or visit us on the web at www.cvillepc.com, where you
will find information about the company, links to computer resources, and
archived copies of past newsletters.
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