Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Boy have I had computer dramas this past month. First my computer died well over a month ago, then I watched my computer get infected by a spyware virus, then this past weekend I had cable company drama.
It started with my “on demand” channels not showing up. So I called them up and we did some troubleshooting. They told me that they were going to “send a hit” to my box. That didn’t fix it and they sent me to the Video group. They wanted me to do a bunch of troubleshooting and I didn’t have time, so I offered to call back. Next thing I know, about an hour later my internet was starting to flake. I troubleshoot problems like this with my clients over the phone, so I know what to do right? Yes I do! I did all the in house troubleshooting and still couldn’t get a signal. Is it possible that their “hit” they sent to my DVR box might have done something to my internet modem? Hmmm….
I called the cable company and found it did need to be reset. After it reset, I got it working fine and was really irritated that the company didn’t tell me that my internet might be problematic after that “hit” to the DVR box. I was actually really irritated! Well, it turns out that I have a splitter on my outgoing cable connection so the “hit” hit everything, phone, cable internet modem and my wireless router.
Ok, so that is all figured out. The cable company came out and gave me a new DVR box that is very confusing. I have to spend some time to figure out how to record my favorite shows. (more drama!).
Now on to troubleshooting your modem. If your computer is giving you signs that the internet is not stable, then try these easy steps before calling your cable/DSL company.
For the most part, you will not need to reconfigure your wireless router. Unplugging it is enough to fix that.
If it still doesn’t work, then calling your cable/DSL provider to have the modem reset is usually not painful. My company has it set in the phone in options to reset it without talking to a person. If you do these things prior to the call, the call goes faster. They will ask you if you did these things already.
If that fails, you may want to Call That Girl. We have the experience to talk you through getting your internet repaired from other issues that are not caused by cable/DSL. Viruses may be not allowing your internet to work or just internal network configurations may be upset.
To close, keep in mind that some new Antivirus programs install their own Firewalls. Sometimes these cause folks problems with getting on certain websites or attempting to download certain programs. Make sure you check out all the options with all new Antivirus installations.
It’s our number at Call That Girl!
If your internet goes down, how can you “Google” computer repair? We all seem to rely on our internet providers way too much. Just last weekend I had another problem, this time with my internet. (Remember in the past 2 months, I have had a laptop die on me and I watched a virus infect my computer). When the cable company did a “hit” to my tv to check status, it also reset my internet modem. I wasn’t on the internet when they were working on the tv, so I had no idea until later my internet was down. A few hours later, I found my internet was on, then off, then on….I had enough and hard wired my laptop to the router and it still didn’t work right. Then I reset everything, including my Linksys router and it still was off. I gave up for the day and the next morning called the cable company and yes…the modem needed to be reset.
Of course. I should have known or figured it out, but when we have problems like this, we think it’s our fault. Not always the case, but in this case I should have done the math early on and called the cable company right away, saving me frustration.
With all of that being said, if your internet is down and you don’t have Yellow Books anymore, calling us will maybe help you out down the line.
Office: 612-865-4475
Night/Weekend: 612-865-4475
We have found that “one size doesn’t fit all” here at Call That Girl!
Unfortunately, I have to blog about this yet again. On Saturday I had a networking colleague call in with the “black screen of death”. Her computer would not get past the black screen after it crashed the day before. Luckily, I know how to troubleshoot remotely with folks to get their computer back up and running, but she did not.
After we got her computer going again, I asked her what had happened that morning and she didn’t really know. So I did my “usual suspects” list of what can cause it (Antivirus programs or Windows Updates are the big two) and what do you know, after checking her computer, it appears Norton had done an update 19 hours earlier. I asked her when did this black screen happen. She stated that the day before at 5:00 she started having problems. She called at 11:30 on Saturday, so after doing the math…I have no one else to blame but Norton for causing this problem. I guess we could also blame Comcast as well. We can’t blame my client as they were offered it for free by Comcast. I don’t understand how Comcast can offer a product or service to their customers that is a well known product to crash computers.
My last blog about Comcast and Norton crashing computers, posted on Feb 12th has almost 30 comments on this same issue. It is the #1 blog if you search “Comcast Norton slow.” If you would like to see the blog, here is a link to it.
https://callthatgirl.biz/comcast-users-should-avoid-installing-nortonsymantec/
As much as I enjoy working with these folks, I always want to call Comcast and just complain that “one computer program doesn’t fit all”, meaning that they should check the computer’s age and memory to see if the Norton Security Suite can even hold the program and do it’s unscheduled sporatic updates.
If you are going to download the Comcast/Norton Security Suite or have already downloaded it, then please be aware of a few things.
Here is the link to Comcast’s site for the Norton installation requirements. I have read through this list and still think that 256 MG of RAM is not enough to run this robust program.
http://security.comcast.net/norton/resi/?cid=33_230
If you have any questions, feel free to comment.
If you want help with this slow down, please let us know!
If you want to get RID of NORTON and replace it with an awesome program, then click on the logo below. Install Malwarebytes instead. $25 for a lifetime license!
I know for some of my readers they would be scared, but for a computer repair tech, it was pretty neat to see it happen. I’ve been waiting for this day, where my computer gets infected without me doing anything or clicking on anything. (Yes, I do have protection, but I keep it limited so I can get what you folks get so I can witness it).
Here’s what happened….
I left my computer on all night doing a back up, then I went to check my hotmail email and once I clicked on an email that should have been safe to open, I saw a window pop up at the top of the hotmail window, asking for permission to download. But right after, I saw the “download installer” start moving. I didn’t give it permission or press the install button. I watched for a bit to see if it would show me what I was installing, it never came, so I cancelled the installation.
Too late. Next thing I saw pop up on my screen was “Your computer may be infected, please check your antivirus software” and I knew I got infected right then and there.
Next thing that happened was a big green shield showed up in my system tray and then POOF, a huge window popped up and starting running an antivirus check. The virus I got was “Anti spyware Soft” (I believe). I have seen this before on client’s machines, so I was familiar with it. I could not believe what had just happened though, it was crazy to see it all happen. It was crazy to actually witness what happens to my clients!
I then fixed my own virus (just like how I fix your viruses) and went on with my morning. As a repair tech, we fix our own problems. We rarely if ever have to call a “helpdesk” or “repair company” but for you folks, you probably do need help to remove these.
We fix these problems and quickly. Your best bet is to write down our phone number in case your virus takes away your internet access. Mine didn’t work after the infection.
612-865-4475
Happy Saturday, it’s really just too cold here in Minnesota today!
Since 2007, I have worked with 2 counselors at SCORE to help with my business coaching needs. As I had never started a business before, I really had no clue how to do a few things and needed mentoring. I set up an appointment to meet with Virgil at the St. Louis Park office and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.
SCORE has posted a blog about my successes with them at their Minnesota Blog, feel free to read more here
http://www.scoreminnesota.org/2010/05/04/call-that-girl-another-score-success/
If you have a few questions about your business and need assistance, I highly recommend using SCORE. They are all retired business professionals who want to help you, for no charge.
Are you having problems with your Internet Explorer being glitchy and not working right? Maybe it’s stalling when you try to open it, or just not playing nice. We have created a video for you to watch to reset and configure IE 8 on your own. It’s a short 4+ minute video with no sound to watch and then you can do it on your own.
Remember to close your Internet Explorer 8 window at the end and open it again. You should find that it works much better and faster. Click on the button below and you will be redirected to our YouTube channel.
