Archive for June, 2006

Backups — Cheap, fast, and easy

Published on June 28, 2006 in Freeware Applications and Miscellaneous info. Closed

Having a backup of your important files can be essential should your computer fail and result in data loss. Backups that take a long time or are difficult to perform can lead to them them not being done as often as one should.
There are various backup solutions I recommend to my IT clients. The most common advice I give these days is to use a USB 2.0 Key Stick or a USB 2.0 portable external hard-drive. With 2GB capacity USB Sticks now at relatively low prices, and 4GB not far behind them this is, for many small business owners and home users, a viable backup option when your data does not exceed this limit. I’ve found that for most small business that simply use a computer as a work tool for Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Emails, attachments, PDF files, etc., seldom is 4GB exceeded when it comes to their data.

To those clients that do have larger amounts of data I recommend getting a small external hard-disk. Capacities in excess of 400GB can be achieved at a relatively low cost. The advantage of these two options is speed and convenience.

Saying goodbye to tapes: Tapes have always been the traditional back-up method for many years now. I’ve always found them slow, tedious, an cumbersome. The advantage that tapes always had was their high capacity and relatively low price for the capacity achieved. This advantage is not really an issue any more because you can pick up a high capacity external hard-drive for less than the cost of a tape backup system.
Other options: CD-R and DVD-R have become a common alternative to tapes in recent years, but these two are relatively slow and require the management of media.
Once you have the appropriate hardware (an external hard-drive or a USB Memory Stick), the next step is finding an application that will handle your backups for you. There are a number I recommend to clients, some of which are free. These are listed below. This list will expand and evolve over time.

SyncBack

2BrightSparks | SyncBack Freeware

SyncBack is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive.

RDComp EzBack-it-up - Freeware

EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.

Features:

    • Fast. Compares over 3500 files in less than 3 seconds! (1.2 GHz Athlon under XP)
    • Efficient. Incremental style backup - only backs up files if they were created or modified since the previous backup.
    • Full logging. Detailed logs provide you with peace of mind about your data’s safety.
    • Scheduler. Built-in scheduler allows for scheduled backups. Command-line switches give additional flexibility.
    • Free. No nags, no registration, just free.
    • All Windows platforms. 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP
      Note: Windows 95/NT4 requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

Cobian Backup - Freeware

Cobian Backup

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).

Many other options

This website lists many other free backup applications that would be worth taking a look at if the above mentioned does not suit your needs.  The link is: http://www.hsinlin.com/software/backup.html

Free Firewall

Published on June 27, 2006 in Freeware Applications and Opensource Apps. 0 Comments

Core Force is a free, community-orientated firewall security solution for Windows 2000 and XP.
It is vital to have a firewall running at all times if your computer is access a network or the internet. The number of free firewall products has diminished greatly in the least year or two as security software companies buy up their competition and cease offering the free versions of software these companies use to make available.

Check out Core Force

CORE FORCE - Welcome

USA Telecom Tips

Published on June 20, 2006 in Telecommunications. 0 Comments

For a small business in New Zealand exporting the USA it may be a great asset to have a direct telecommunication link with your customers abroad—such as a toll-free number in the USA the directs through to your New Zealand phone line. Setting up this sort of service using the common channels (such as via a New Zealand telco company) is expensive—actually it’s a total rip off when compared with the other options.

Here I provide some links to various companies providing telecommunication services that may be of value to the small New Zealand business wanting to establish a presence in the USA. This list will expand over time.

  • Kall8 - provides toll free numbers in the USA that will forward to your NZ land-line at a rate of 6.9c US per minute. Can also forward to a NZ mobile, although until the NZ mobile industry gets on par with the rest of the developed world the rates are relatively high, at 38c US. You can, of course, have this US number follow you to any location in the world at varying rates.

If you would like me to assist you in setting up any of these above mentioned services please give me a call or fire an email my way. I have many years of experience in this field and I would be happy to assist.

UK Telecom Tips

Published on June 20, 2006 in Telecommunications. 0 Comments

My clients and customers in the United Kingdom have two local options for contacting me. They can call my UK mobile number (free if their mobile plan covers this, or the normal cost to call a UK mobile which is about 20-50p) and the call will reach me on my mobile phone here in New Zealand. They can also call my local UK phone number (costing them about 5p a minute) and they will reach me on whatever New Zealand land-line number I choose to forward the call to. The cost to me? Nothing at all.

I am in fact able to have as many phone numbers, in different regions/areas of the UK as I like, and all at no cost. Of course I have no need for anything more than one land-line and one mobile number there, so that’s what I’ve got. The companies providing these services take a small cut of the money the caller pays to phone the UK based number, and that is how they cover their low costs and make a profit. Someone living in NZ and use to the sort of insane rates we pay for calls might wonder how these UK companies afford to cover the call redirection costs to a New Zealand phone number. Well, the truth is that the costs involved are tiny. As far as I know it costs Telecom NZ a few dollars a day (for 24 hours) to rent the lines they use to channel NZ outbound international calls through to countries like USA, UK, Australia, etc. Yet it was only a year or two ago that they charged over $1 per minute to each and every person making a call to these countries.

So how do I achieve this phone set up?

There are two telecommunications companies I have come across that provide these sorts of services in the UK. I am on the prowl for similar services from the USA. I suggest you check out their websites to find out more:

  • OpenTelecom (is the one I use at present)
    OpenTelecom provides a great range of UK based communication services including fax-to-email numbers, Global Roaming mobile SIM cards, toll-free UK numbers, and more.
  • Simwood eSMS Limited (is another one I have checked out recently)
  • dmClub - I suspect this company is now owned by (or at least closely affiliated with) OpenTelecom because there is a link to their user control panel on the OT site. You may, however, wish to check them out. They provide a similar line-up of services to the above two sites.

If you need a hand setting up any of these services let me know. It is, however, fairly straightforward.

Free Malware Prevention / Removal

Published on June 14, 2006 in Anti-virus Firewalls and Malware and Freeware Applications. 0 Comments

There are many free applications that help in the detection, prevention, and removal of most forms of malware that are not specifically anti-virus programs. Most major anti-virus providers are closing the gap between fighting viruses as opposed to other malware (malicious software) by incorporating malware detection/prevention/removal (DPR) into their anti-virus applications. I don’t presently think that gap has been completely closed because some of the anti-malware apps out there have had many years of development, whilst it is only a relatively recent advent for AV suppliers to develop malware detection into their AV apps.

So, what are the options for free malware DPR? There are many, and users should be aware that numerous anti-malware apps available on the internet are in fact malware themselves. This articles is in addition to the many of the applications I have listed on the Trojan & Malware removal page.

  • Microsoft Defender: One strong contender is the freely available Defender program from Microsoft. Check it out here.
  • JavaCool SpywareBlaster: SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure, without interfering with the “good side” of the web.
    Get it here
  • JavaCool SpywareGuard: provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition to SpywareBlaster’s protection method.
    An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard.
    SpywareGuard now also features Download Protection and Browser Hijacking Protection!
    Get it here
  • Spybot Search & Destroy: go here
    I’ve been using this application for some time now and find it useful.
  • Lavasoft Adaware (free version): Check it out here
    Adaware has been on the scene for a long time and has a sound reputation in the malware detection arena. It is worth having a look at.
  • NoAdware: download it from here

If you plan on buying an anti-virus application suite I suggest selecting one that includes comprehensive malware detection (trojans, adware, spybots, and other malware).

A-Squared: Another application I have recently come across and found effective at detecting and removing malware from a client’s computer was A2 or A-Squared from Emsi Soft. They have a free version and a more comprehensive licensed version. I used the free one and found it to be of value. Check it out here (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/)

Other Prevention Tips

This next point is going to seem like a bit of a contradiction. What I am going to say is that a lot of spyware makes its way onto peoples’ computers through installing free software, yet here I am giving directions to install all sorts of free software!!

So what’s the story?

Well, basically if you are going to install free software it is important to do a bit of a background check on it first to make sure it has a reputation of being clean. One way is to only download free applications from sites (like Softseek.com) who certify that all the downloads that make available are malware free. The other way is to do a search on google with the name of the application you are considering along with words like “malware”, “adware”, “spyware”. So your search phrase might look like “[app name] malware adware” and see what comes up.

If you have the latest versions of the various prevention and guard tools I have talked about and the latest signature files then you should be able to scan the installation file you have downloaded for any given application to see if it has any known nasties in it. If you have real-time protection in place (such as the above mentioned Javacool Spyware Guard) then that should in most cases detect spyware trying to install itself when you try to install a new application you’ve downloaded from the internet.

Further information:

The info at this in the Wilders Security Forum provides some good tips and tricks. Many of these tips relate to Internet Explorer which is a browser I do not recommend using (partly because it has so many things you must do to it to make it secure). I recommend Firefox—nicer to use, more secure, free, and it’s not made by Microsoft.

Free Anti-virus for non-commercial use

Published on June 13, 2006 in Freeware Applications. 0 Comments

Anti-virus software is a must in today’s computer world.
There’s no way around it. A good firewall is also vital.

There is, however, more than just viruses that users should be protecting their computer from. Trojans, spyware, adware, and other malware (malicious software) can install itself on your computer by simply visiting an infected/implanted website (porn sites, warez / pirated software sites, sites with illegal content, etc. are the main sources of malware infection). Many perfectly legitimate web servers can be infected too, so simply avoiding a rendezvous with dubious websites is no guarantee you won’t browse an infected website / server. Some malware can also infect your computer by simply viewing / previewing an infected email. Removing them can be extremely time consuming and troublesome (read this story if not convinced http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/06/11/100679.aspx)

So… what are the options?

I’ve posted some info on Trojan and malware removal here.

This article, however, is about prevention — at potentially no financial cost. There are plenty of antivirus applications (many of which now include broad spectrum malware detection) available. Some are good at picking up infections once your computer is infected but not so good at preventing the infection beforehand. Whilst others will stop a file from getting onto your machine in the first instance, such as the moment you open an infected email or browse an infected web site. Here I am going to focus on software that is free.

I will update this list as more information becomes available to me.

AVAST! 4 Home Edition: Free avast! 4 Home Edition - Free antivirus software
- AVAST Home Edition seems like the best free option I am aware of at this time. It is almost the same as their Pro version, with only a few minor features missing. A full comparison is available here.

AVG Free Edition: Download it from here
- I know a lot of people using the free AVG edition. I think, however, that the Free AVAST may provide better protection. AVG Free is a watered down version of the AVG Professional version and does not provide many important options. Whereas the free AVAST edition appears to be almost identical to their Pro version.

BitDefender Free Edition: Available here
- Not a particularly good option in my opinion because it only provides on-demand scanning. This means that it does not run in the background protecting your system from infections—rather it is something you would manually run in order to test for and clean up an existing infection.

Free Online Virus / Malware Scanning

Another option is to run a free scan via the internet. If you have a broadband internet connection then this a good way to cross check the cleanliness of your computer with one or more alternative anti-virus systems. You’ll need to use Internet Explorer to run these scans. I don’t recommend IE in general, far preferring Firefox. But for these online scans an exception has to be made because IE supports a technology called ActiveX whereas Firefox does not (which is one of the things that makes Firefox safer for general web browsing).Here’s some links to some I have used or come across:

Bad Behavior has blocked 145 access attempts in the last 7 days.