Tag: computer services
Is Pinterest the perfect camping grounds for viruses?
Pinterest is an online pinboard.
Organize and share things you love.
Now, love that virus you’re about to download.
Think you already have a virus?
Click on the black button to the right of this post to book an appointment!
And now you can send your friends right to viruses, too! Many of you might not know this part of Pinterest, but when you find a picture you love and “Pin it”, you’re basically telling your fellow pinnners to love that pic, too and that they need to click on the picture to pin to their boards. Pinterest hosts the pictures, but then when it is finally “pinned” it can take people right to the website that is hosting the virus (after clicking on the image). The website that is hosting the pictures could have been attacked by a virus and now it’s camping out on the picture, just waiting for pinnners to pin, click and download a virus in less than a minute.
What can you do? Not much. If you pin the picture virus free you will never know. If the site becomes tainted, your future pinners will probably get it after clicking on the image, unless they have awesome protection. My client that called in this a.m. had McAfee protection and it sailed right past the security features McAfee offered. He didn’t even click on the image, he typed it in manually. If you get a virus, call us at 612-865-4475 immediately!
Watch our Youtube video to find out what you should watch out for now that you know this is a possibility.
Research has turned up little information on the laws regarding Pinterest and this issue, although I did discover another virus report. To read more, I found this blog about a clever Pinterest virus sneak.
http://doktorspinn.com/2012/03/18/clever-pinterest-virus-a-first-for-the-booming-image-site/
The FBI recommends you check for viruses
Info from a variety of websites we have reviewed: Last November, the FBI in the U.S. solved a major computer hacking ring that had infected more than half a million computers worldwide. The FBI set up government issued backup servers to prevent internet disruption for all those infected computers until all the “Bad Guy’s” computers/systems came down. On July 9th the backup servers will be taken down.
What this means is if you are infected, after the servers are taken down your computer and internet will not work perfectly. The computer will try to redirect itself every time you try to access the internet. The good thing is, there is a way to find out if you are infected or not. If you go to www.dcwg.org and follow the simple on screen instructions it will tell you if you are infected or not. If you are infected, the website lists a bunch of helpful tools to get your computer back up and running. If you need help you can always Call That Girl at 612-865-4475 or fill out the form to schedule an appointment.
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Why peeking in the Junk Mail or Spam folder is important
Simple blog today folks.
I hear this on occasion, “I found your email in my junk folder,” so I felt there was value to writing up a blog about the junk/spam folder. When I am remoted into a computer repairing Outlook, I usually have to do an email test to insure it’s sending/receiving and many times…my email doesn’t show up on the client’s computer. The same email is in my inbox, but when I reply, it’s in their junk folder. It wasn’t junk! It was a test email and that should not be flagged period. But it is. The subject line was just “test”.
We have two things to discuss.
- Subject lines can get an email into junk
- Any email can get into junk
These two things are important to remember and you might have important emails sitting in your junk folder. I check mine daily and find tons of little goodies sitting in there. Emails from colleagues, clients, my staff, it doesn’t matter…it finds its way there. A good reminder for you is to check your junk/spam folder on occasion and make sure you’re not missing an important email.
My computer won’t turn on -Tips you can try
Nik here with the Call That Girl blog! Today I will be discussing something pretty simple, but something I find more and more people seem to have little idea about; hardware. More specifically what you can do if you are having problems simply getting the computer to start up, or if when you pressed the power button you could hear fans and see lights, or hear beeps, but the PC itself would not get activity on the screen, or get to the “Windows” splash screen. Keep in mind this will not fix major problems, and a deeper diagnosis may be the answer, but just for starters, here are some things you can do yourself without harming your computer that may help.
So basically you want to check all the things you would normally think are fine. You’d probably be amazed how many “problems” are fixed by the primary things.
- Go to the back of your PC tower and check all the cables.
- Jiggle cables and make sure things are secure, or to be certain…unplug them all and plug them back in.
- Check that the power from the wall outlet is working if the PC isn’t giving you any power at all. If you need to, plug it into another outlet or reset the surger.
- Check the power cable to make sure it has not been unplugged (especially in office settings, cleaning crews or other folks can sometimes unplug things.)
- Unplug external hard drives and basically anything you don’t need to have plugged in. I once had an issue where I had checked every connection except the video cable that physically plugged into the monitor itself, and had I checked in the first place, I could have saved hours of time.
- Also, if your PC has the small on/off switch in the back on the power supply (where you plug in your PC) make sure it is switched on, so the small line is pressed down, and not the power circle that is usually on the front panel.
After all is said and done, hopefully when you press the power button your computer boots up and everything is in order! If not, please Call That Girl and have your computer diagnosed at one of our service stations!
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Check back next week for part 2 of this simple guide to hardware and getting your computer to boot up!
Six Outlook Tips That You Need To Know
Many of our clients use Outlook and most of the tips below are things I review with the clients when they call in with problems. Not every tip pertains to everyone, but overall these are great tips for Outlook users.
TIP: Outlook by default opens a PST File (Personal Storage) in a hidden file on your computer. That is where most of your email and folders probably are. Not everyone knows this and it’s very important that you back up that PST file often. If your computer crashes, the PST is just as important as your pictures and music!
TIP: if your Outlook is getting slow to open, you may want to see how large your PST file is. Some versions of Outlook will lock you out if it gets too large. If you have a newer copy of Outlook, you have a lot more room. But keep this in mind, the larger your PST file, the longer it will take to open. I won’t get into technical talk about this, but if your Outlook is slow to open, call us for a quick review on it, we can help you move off old emails to another PST and get your Outlook in good shape again.
TIP: Using multiple computers and am sick of dealing with mail everywhere? I happen to use a IMAP instead of (Pop3) that synchronizes all of my email and folders. I was at a place a few months ago where I had 4 computers I was checking email on and was just tired of all the extra work I had to do to manage the email. If you are interested in learning more about this, contact us for a review.
TIP: Set up rules and make your life easier! I have been doing this for years and LOVE IT. If I happen to get a ton of email from one person, I give them a folder and a rule. When I get an email from that person, it goes right to the folder I need. Outlook marks it unread, so you know there is new email there.
TIP: Looking for a calendar sync tool? I have been using the Google calendar with my Outlook for a couple of months and have to admit, I really like it. As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of using Google for everything, but I am liking this calendar option. You have to invite yourself to the event, and then it syncs to your Outlook calendar. I have my assistant do all the bookings on the Google calendar and I get the invites on my Blackberry and every computer I have Outlook on. I really dig this!
TIP: Be sure to check your junk e-mail folders! So many of us forget to check that folder, and I have found many important emails sneaking in there! Why is that? Because of the subject line. The person sent it with a title that was caught by spam/junk filters. I think checking that daily is important, you can mark what is not spam/junk to make sure that those emails come to your regular inbox.