Here’s a list of some good tips I’ve come up with over the years that everyone should know!
9 Great Tech Tips from Call That Girl
I ran across this article about things you should do if you lose your computer. Instead of writing a fresh one, I will share this one as it’s very good.
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/what-to-do-when-you-lose-your-computer.html
A laptop is stolen every 12 seconds, meaning one more will be taken by the time you finish reading this sentence. Here’s what to do if that stolen laptop is yours. And if you’re thinking you can rest easy and skip this article because you and your employees mostly keep your laptops at home, according to a December 2010 Ponemon Institute study, the majority of laptops (43 percent) go missing off-site in employee homes.
1. Change Your Passwords
First things first: Do not stop, do not pass go (or cry or order too many stiff drinks) – go directly to change your network username and passwords. The account you use to login to your office network needs to be changed first. If you have an IT department, let them know so they can keep an eye out for repeated authorization failures in your username.
You’ll also want to change information for all personal accounts you may have accessed: email, credit cards, bank accounts, web sites, airlines – anything web based for which you have a username and password. Access to these accounts may be available through web browser cache and cookies, so changing the password should prevent this type of access.
In the future, think about storing passwords and other sensitive information in a storage vault app. KeePass – a free open-source app – is easy to use and has encryption. Ditto for TrueCrypt, which is also a free open-source tool. It can be used for Windows, Mac and Linux. You’ll likely need some help using it if you’re not particularly computer savvy but it does have a tutorial for how to use it. Most computers running Windows XP will come with a built-in encryption system that owners can access. If you have Microsoft’s Vista Business edition or Windows 7, you’ll have BitLocker.
A December 2010 Ponemon Institute survey found that two-thirds of companies don’t take advantage of even basic security practices for their laptops. “While organizations may be aware of the lost laptop problem, it became clear as we conducted our research that most organizations, including workers, IT and CFOs, do not fully understand the adverse affect it can have on their bottom line. If they did, they’d be much more diligent in protecting their laptop fleets,” said Larry Ponemon, the Ponemon Institute’s chairman and founder.
Dig Deeper: Are Your Passwords Too Weak?
2. Check the Lost-and-Found
Don’t automatically assume your laptop is gone for good – at least make inquiries at the Starbucks or airport or wherever it is you left it unattended. Only a third of laptops turned in to airport lost-and-found departments are reclaimed. How much would you kick yourself if one of those sitting around is yours? If the laptop was indeed stolen, request a police report. You’ll need it for your insurance. (You do have insurance, don’t you?) Keep an eye on Craigslist, eBay, and local pawn shops. There’s a reason there are entire websites (including dumbcriminals.com) devoted to, erm, dumb criminals. This is also where knowing your laptop serial number comes in handy. Rich Castagna, editorial director of Tech Target’s Storage Media Group says, “The most important thing to do when you lose your computer is what you did before you lost it.” If you don’t know yours and happen to be reading this article purely out of curiosity, go find your serial number now and store it somewhere that is not your laptop.
Dig Deeper: How to Choose a Data Center
3. Make Clients Aware
Notify clients if they’re affected. If you were storing any access to their sites or personal information, you need to let them know so they, too, can change passwords.
Dig Deeper: Does File-Sharing Threaten Your Sensitive Data
4. Utilize Computer Tracking
If you don’t already have laptop tracking software, consider contacting MyLaptopGPS, which offers free help even for non-customers. For actual customers, the company claims a 99.6 percent success rate and a 300 percent guarantee, according to chief technology officer Dan Yost. Prices start at $9.95 per month for one computer; $49.95 covers five laptops. There are several laptop tracking services you can try.
If you’re not convinced of the value of laptop tracking, look no further than a 2009 Ponemon Institute study, which found that the average cost of a laptop is $49,246, 80 percent of which is the value of the data. A 2003 Computer Security Institute/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey put the value much higher – at $250,000. And yours may well be worth more than that. Consider the case of hip hop artist Ryan Leslie, who in October took to YouTube and Twitter to offer $1 million for the return of his MacBook, which contained irreplaceable intellectual property. (He didn’t get it back.)
“Any business with people onthe go — sales force, field agents, service teams –depends on laptop computing. Laptops mobilize productivity. Losing a laptop crushes productivity. Mobile employees lose their ability to work effectively, IT personnel spend time replacing and reconfiguring equipment, and customers wait for you to get back up to speed. But these are still just lightweight costs,” says Yost.
You may also want to download Prey, a free app that sends timed reports to your email with a bunch of information about your laptop’s whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and – in case your laptop has an integrated webcam – a picture of the thief.
Dig Deeper: Three Internet Security Programs
5. Invest in an Online Backup Service
Online–or cloud–backup services not only offer the easiest way to automatically back up your laptop’s data, they also provide the added safety of storing those backups offsite so the data is available at any time from anywhere. All you have to do is install the software, which then keeps track of when you create or modify files and saves a copy of the update. There are hundreds of services to choose from, but Castagna recommends EMC’s MozyPro, Carbonite Pro and Seagate’s i365 EVault to help smaller companies with limited IT resources protect their data appropriately. Whatever service you choose, he advises making sure you read and understand your options for restoring your data – some companies charge for transmitting data, and if you need to restore it all at once, the process can be both time-consuming (depending on your connection speed) and expensive. Ask if the service provides alternatives, like FedExing you a disk.
Do you know how to do these important computer-related functions? Here are the answers we promised!
1.) How do you save to a flash drive?
A: Insert your flash drive. A window should open up that opens your flash drive. If you do not get this window, then go to “Computer” or “my computer” and you will see your flash drive as a “drive letter.” Your computer is always the C: drive. Your flash drive might be the E: or F: or G: etc. Then when you go to save documents or pictures, you can find your flash drive letter in the list of places to save.
2.) Do you know how to download software, install it and use it?
A: When you download software, it usually downloads to the “downloads” folder. It’s best to always keep your downloads there so they are organized. Once a download is finished, you go to the “downloads” folder and double click the software and it’s usually just as easy as clicking the “next” button. Once installed, you can view the software by going to your start menu and clicking on “programs” and it should be listed there.
3.) How do you back up your data to a flash drive or external hard drive?
A: Save as answer #1, but you can copy and paste full folders of your pictures and documents to the flash or external drives.
4.) How do you find out if the link you’re clicking on goes to the site you intended or if it is taking you to a virus?
A: When you see the link, put your mouse on it and right click and view “properties”, then it will show you where the link actually goes. If it appears to be what you think it is, you can click on it. If it looks foreign to you, then click with caution.
5.) Do you know how to Google properly?
A: Many people try to Google their own computer repairs. Here is a tip if you are one of those folks…search for the exact problem you are having. Then read the list of searches. Try to click on only reputable websites that you recognize. If you are curious, have good Antivirus on your computer! Also, when you are clicking on the links, if you get a pop up to download software, close the box immediately, this is a virus more than likely. If you are asked on a website to download software to fix, keep in mind most are free, but want you to pay to “really fix” it and many times, those are fake as well.
6.) Do you know how to do a basic search on someone on the internet?
A: Search “name + town” in quotes, that will give you better results
7.) How do you blind copy (BCC) people in emails (So people can’t see the email addresses of others that you included in an email)?
A: Turn on BBC (meaning, you can send many people the same email, but they don’t see each other’s addresses). Some email programs have it already on, with outlook you may need to turn on the feature.
8.) How do you properly turn off your computer?
A: Go to “shut down” and shut it down. Just holding the power button is not the best way to shut it off. The power button shut downs just shuts it off without Windows helping to do it right.
9.) How do you perform a system restore?
A: Sometimes when your computer goes crazy, you may or may not have caused this problem. Either way, a simple system restore may help! What this does is take you back to a few days before it went crazy.
It may depend on what operating system you have, but you can search your computer for “system restore” and you will get a wizard that pops up. Do the restore to the date before it stopped working right. Then hit finish and it will take 10-15 minutes. After that, then see if your problem is gone or still there. If still there, you may need our help!
10.) Do you know how to find Call That Girl on Google maps and call us when you need help!?
A: Check out our website for directions, Google our name/address or just call us at 612-865-4475!
Do you know how to do these important computer-related functions? Take the quiz and see how well you do!
1.) How do you save to a flash drive?
2.) Do you know how to download software, install it and use it?
3.) How do you back up your data to a flash drive or external hard drive?
4.) How do you find out if the link you’re clicking on goes to the site you intended or if it is taking you to a virus?
5.) Do you know how to Google properly?
6.) Do you know how to do a basic search on someone on the internet?
7.) How do you blind copy (BCC) people in emails (So people can’t see the email addresses of others that you included in an email)?
8.) How do you properly turn off your computer?
9.) How do you perform a system restore?
10.) Do you know how to find Call That Girl on Google maps and call us when you need help!?
Check back in on Friday or subscribe to our RSS feed to check your answers and see how well you did!
Ah, finally…it’s time for the Doctor to tell her patients what they are doing wrong with their computers. One thing I will tell you for sure not to do is, floss at night! But there are many things we find our clients doing that are just flat out bad, wrong and ugly. Your computer will thank you if you listen to this advice.
1.) Never restarting. Many of you keep your computers on all day and night. Give it a restart on occasion! It’s good for the computer to refresh itself.
2.) Never do your updates. I can’t tell you how many computers we look at each week that never get basic updates. These include Adobe, Java, Flash, Windows and your anti-virus.
3.) Shutting off with the power button. You should always try to shut down your computer the proper way by going to your start button and selecting “‘shut down”. This allows the operating system to shut down as it was intended. By just pushing the power button, you are forcing a shut off and sometimes the computer’s operating system will be corrupted after doing that. You may see some repair windows come up the next time you turn it on.
4.) Not buying enough memory for your computer. If you have had a tune up done by us, we conduct a 22 pt checklist and part of that checklist includes checking your memory. It’s important to have enough to make your computer time fun and fast! No one wants a sluggish computer experience. We can help you with memory; to set up an appt, give us a call!
5.) Overspending on a computer. Many of our clients have told us that they paid over $1000 for a family home computer. I’m going to guess that was years ago, because now you can get a decent home tower/desktop computer for well under $500. Before you go shopping, call us and get a consultation done and we will help you purchase what you and your family needs, save you money and save you shopping headaches! Many times we can help you buy it online, get shipped to your home and we can come help set it up!
