Ask Your Doctor If Google Is Right For You

Malicious Software, commonly called MalWare, is a major threat to computers and computer users. It is intrusive, insensitive and, often times, destructive.

Viruses are a form of malware. They often times replicate themselves and hijack your computer. A computer that has a virus may behave in such a way that websites visited are redirected to a site that is inappropriate for younger viewers (or any viewers), or it may redirect to a site that informs the user of the infection and offers a solution for a price.

The goal is to get your money.

Either directly by way of provoking you to purchase the supposed antivirus software or unwilling visit websites that generate ad revenue for the virus maker.

Google has recently rolled out a new service that informs users of malware-infected machines of their infection as they use the popular search engine. They also offer a link to a help article to help fix the problem. That was nice of them. See the post on the Official Google Blog

My personal preference in the way an antivirus software should behave is described as “Shut up and do your job.” I prefer it doesn’t bother me unless there is a real threat. However some antivirus will bother you with minor details that the user does not need to know, and may not even understand. You’ll probably have that from time to time with any antivirus.

Orange Bench likes McAfee for Desktop and Laptop Computers, Symantec Endpoint Protection for network workstations, and if you insist on keeping your money, AVG Free is a fine solution.

Do you suspect your computer is infected? Contact us.

iPhone or noPhone

You may have heard it said “iPhone or noPhone” as I have heard mostly from my artist friend, Blaiser, many times. When the iPhone was introduced, there was an instant loyal following.

I was an early adopter as I had the opportunity with my employer’s cellular plan to get the new phone of my choice. I had the iPhone 2g. However, I kept my personal cell on Verizon.

Having had the iPhone 2g for a couple of weeks, I had decided that Steve Jobs was a jerk because his company, Apple Computers, had made such a wonderful toy but then they blocked things that people who spend a lot of money on toys would do. Such as sending picture messages.

I thought it was kind of ridiculous how much it cost versus what it couldn’t do. However, the reason my personal cell stayed on Verizon was because I had a deep hatred for AT&T. It seemed they operated under the policy “the customer is always wrong”. Assuming you make it through the automated calling system to a real live person, then you would have to convince them that it really isn’t working. Sometimes it took several calls.

According to surveys done by Consumer Reports, this wasn’t just my own opinion.

Then the iPhone came to Verizon. My response to that was:

“Apple had their chance with me and they blew it by being exclusive with AT&T.”

Now the Droid is available in several shapes and sizes and I like it better. The commercials for the Droid said “Droid Does” and in most cases this was true. For the iPhone lovers, there is plenty you can do as well, and with the introduction of the iPhone 5, the list is growing. There is a rumor that Apple has ordered 15 million iPhones to be manufactured and shipped in September of 2011. That’s just a few months away.

Among the features to be introduced with the iPhone 5 are cloud-integration, voice interface, 8MP camera, and an embedded social networking tool (all of which my Droid X has already, no big deal).

I really do like the iPhone, though. If there was no such thing as Droid, I would be an iPhone junkie.

If you happened to be interested in buying an iPhone 4, check ebay in September.

You are stupid.

That wasn’t directed at you personally. Not everything you do is stupid. But some of your practices are stupid. I have been guilty of it too.

Gambling.

By gambling, I mean having a risky strategy, or worse, no strategy for protecting your data. Many businesses have taken a gamble on their data protection to save money in the short term. In the end, it could cost everything.

At the beginning of my career in IT Computer Support I was managing a network for a company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana just north of Indianapolis, and 5 branch offices in several states. Our backup strategy was similar to many other companies our size. We had Veritas Backup Exec 10.0 software, now owned by Symantec, and AIT 3 tapes. Every day, the tapes were replaced and last nights tapes would be taken to different site.

A primitive solution, yes, but still a good idea.

Another solution similar to this is the ol’ hard drive swap. As we did with the tapes, one would have multiples of these hard drives, replace it every night and take last nights hard drive off site.

This is a reasonable solution if you do it.

But you don’t.

Most of the businesses that I have come across who have this strategy don’t do it everyday. Sometimes it could be a couple weeks in between hard drive swaps. If a disaster occurred that ruined all the data, they would have to redo everything that happened in the last two weeks or more. For a successful business, this is a pretty big deal.

With the cloud gaining popularity even in the enterprise size businesses, naturally there would be a backup solution in the clouds. Norton 360 antivirus includes a backup with their software. Other backup-only options are Mozy and Carbonite or you can Sign Up for Orange Bench’s own cloud backup service.

No backup could be a disaster. T-Mobile’s Microsoft Servers Crashed without a backup.