Repair Status
Computer Repair and Sales Blog
Hard drive buying tips
On September 11, 2008 I will be speaking at the Mr. Bob’s Network Show, held at the Southshore Community Center in Barrie, ON. Mark it on your calendar and plan to attend this informative event, with many local businesses displaying their products and services.
During my presentation I’ll be offering helpful hints, tips and tricks of what to look for and what to watch out for when buying a computer or just a hard drive. A hard drive is the device that stores all your data such as documents, photos, music, emails, etc.
This will be one show you don’t want to miss. See you there!
Wide range wireless
One of the many computer services we offer is wireless networking. Although many companies offer the typical household wireless networking services, very few have the ability or expertise to offer expanded wireless capabilities outside of the typical wireless/network card setups.
One job we completed today in Port Severn was an example of this. Previously they had a wireless access point every hundred feet with a complicated mess of wireless bridges, access points, wires and routers scattered all over the resort. At regular intervals the system would go down and staff would have to wander around the resort resetting this maze of devices.
The owner of the resort called us in. A job like that is tricky, as they had a house across the bay they wanted the wireless signal to reach, plus full coverage across acres of resort. With two 14db high gain, omni-directional antennas, two wireless access points and a router we were able to cover approximately two square miles of property, including getting the signal to the owner’s home.
At the home was a placed a “client bridge” with a high gain unidirectional antenna.
The end result was removing the bird’s nest of wiring and wireless clients, greatly simplifying the infrastructure, and providing rock solid wireless networking to the entire area, for a fraction of the cost quoted by another company (about 1/5 of the price, including parts and labour).
If you’re looking to extend your wireless network to the limits, give us a call. We offer many specialized services, including wireless networking jobs such as this one.
Urgent malware warning!
At Northern Protocol Inc. we are currently witnessing a severe outbreak of a malware infection named “Antivirus XP 2008″. If you see any warnings about “security” or “infections” on your computer, do not click on them. Click on the red “x” or “cancel”. They are trying to fool you into buying their rogue software. In other words, it’s not a legitimate security software package to begin with.
What we’ve discovered so far is that the infection is coming through flash applications on websites. The latest to get hit is Facebook. The message on Facebook is “You have been watched”. When you click on the link, the malware is downloaded to your computer and then automatically spreads itself through everyone in your Facebook contact list. Do not click this link.
The company that is apparently responsible for placing ads on Facebook is interclick.com. Interclick is an advertising agency that provides flash based adervtising. Some devious individual or company has used them as a vehicle to spread malware. When the infection is installed on your computer, interclick.com installs some software in your flash directory.
If you have already been infected with this or any other malware, call us at 705.812.2236 as soon as possible or drop in to our office at 331 Bayfield, Suite 210 in Barrie. We will remove all traces of your infections and help you develop strategies to protect yourself.
* UPDATE * I was just telephoned by Mr. Marble, Senior VP at Interclick, and Mr. Kats, technician at Interclick. They collected as much detail as they could about our findings and are currently going through their ads to find the offender and remove them. Mr. Kats has assured that he will keep us updated with their findings. Their rapid response is commendable.
If you have any other information that you feel may help them, such as anything you remember about your last actions before your computer was infected, please email me at admin@npinc.ca
Spyware. Why is it prospering?
Lately we’ve seen a huge influx of computers infected with malware, or “spyware”. AVG reports that 1 in every 1000 websites are currently “infected”. When you think of the billions of web pages on the internet, that’s an alarming figure.
Naturally I felt compelled to ask why. What is the secret behind their success? The answer is alarmingly simple. Money.
Spyware vendors are making money by leveraging the latest internet sales craze, referal marketing. For every closed sale, they pay the refering party a commission. This is done in various ways, one venue being a website called “ClickBank”.
The lure of easy money compells webmasters and software vendors to go to the “dark side”. “Free” software will embed the “agreement” to install this “sponsor software” on your computer. Most people don’t read the agreements, and thus unwittingly install it. Websites will bury these devious schemes in their code, infecting unsuspecting visitors with “electronic rodents” which the vendors will then gleefully expose and promise to get rid of for a seemingly low price.
Ingenious “Social engineering” techniques are used once the infection is on your computer. The idea is a simple one. Fool the user into thinking that the “warnings” are legitimate Windows errors or warnings. Fool them into thinking that the “infections” are genuine. Once they get you to their website as a qualified lead, they “move in for the kill”. Many are so convincing that even the most savvy computer user can be fooled.
Unfortunately it’s working, and unless the likes of ClickBank are shut down, you can only expect the problem to get worse. Websites are starting to abound, promising to make you a millionaire while you work from home, simply selling packages that teach you how to cash in on the referal link craze, offering “cookie cutter” websites that you can make some basic modifications and host on your own provider.
It’s all a big game, and unfortunately the only way of dealing with it from the consumer end at this time is to not click on the popups that show up on your computer. Avoid “free” software unless it comes from a well-known, reputable source. Many sites can go to great lengths to “prove” their credibility. It’s very hard to not buy into it.
Install a good anti-malware program, such as AVG 8, Panda or Kaspersky.
If you’re hyper-vigilant, it might be an idea to have your computer cleaned and then submit a copy of your repair bills to the vendor of the rogue products. Bear in mind that chances are good you won’t realize a return from them, but at the very least you could use the same principal they are to spread the word. Word of mouth is an exceptionally powerful tool.
And finally, have your computer professionally cleaned of all traces of these infections. Many are getting more and more difficult to get rid of, and require professional intervention. Call us today or drop in and see us. We’ll get rid of your infections, most of the time in under an hour, give you tools to help prevent reinfection and we’ll do it in most cases without reformatting your computer. We will preserve your computer’s state to one before the infections started.
What laptop to buy?
Quite frequently we’ve been asked this question. As prices drop and deals abound, the issue gets merkier. We sell and repair dozens of laptops a week, and as such are able to provide some helpful tips when looking for your next laptop:
- The HP 6000 and 9000 series laptops are very good. The 6000 series are their medium end home user product, the 9000 their flagship home user laptop line. We’ve seen numerous issues and recalls with the 2000 series and as such would recommend going the little extra to the 6000.
- Sony and MDG laptops can be extremely difficult to get parts for, and chances are good you’ll be needing them sooner rather than later based on our experience with them. MDG laptops are rebadged MSI products. MSI will not sell the parts, and MDG will often insist that you take the laptop back to MDG for repairs. They are also encoded with special software capable of disabling the laptop, which you agree to in your purchasing agreement.
- Seanix, while rare, are a hidden gem. They use Asus motherboards in them. They really aren’t much to look at, but the build quality is exceptionally good. They’re based out west, and as such aren’t that difficult to get replacement parts for. Even a used Seanix machine would be worth another look.
- IBM really didn’t make much of a dent in the home user market. They’re more well known for their point of sale, servers and corporate products. They can be quite ugly in appearance, but they are built quite tough/rugged. If you’re using it for business, an IBM (not Lenovo) branded unit would be a worthy consideration. The only note on IBM products is their use of Hitachi hard drives. While some of them are decent, many of them have been notorious for failure.
- Fujitsu is not very popular around here, but their tablet PCs, along with Asus, are really quite decent and have proven reliable. They never did establish much of a name in the retail consumer market after their disasterous attempts at making desktop hard drives, but their laptops, especially their tablets, warrant serious consideration in my opinion.
- Acer Aspire laptops, for the most part, are built with very poor quality components and as such should probably be avoided. The Extensa series appears to be the exception, with a bit of a price premium. We’ve seen very good results with the Extensa, while having to repair quite a few of the Aspires. Acer does have a redeeming quality, however. They have an excellent and comprehensive extended warranty plan available. In an abusive environment, where damage is likely, an Acer with an extended warranty can prove to be the perfect solution.
- Toshiba Satellites have given us very good results for the most part. A couple of the older A30′s and A40 series have given us a few issues, but overall Toshibas have proven to be very good. The A200 series are a very good value for the money.
- Lenovo (IBM’s answer to Acer’s stiff competition) has suffered a very bad rap lately. They’ve been plagued with quality control issues as a result of a rather archaic business model. While we’ve seen some very good units come from them, we’ve also serviced a very large quantity of them and have seen a very large number of refurbished units hit the market. We feel this may be good cause for caution when choosing a Lenovo model.
- Dell has recently introduced a Vostro line. While rather inexpensive by comparison to other similar units, they’ve proven to be exceptional quality. On our recommendation, a couple of clients have purchased them and been very pleased with the product.
- Asus has long been infamous for their top quality components. Their laptops have proven no different. We’re so pleased with the quality that despite their moderate price premium have become authorized Asus laptop resellers. We gladly recommend them to everyone.
- LG, aka Lucky Goldstar, has been in the electronics business for well over a decade. Goldstar, infamous for their “it wasn’t a Goldstar” television commercials, is owned by LG. Their laptops have proven outstanding. As you may know, they also make exceptional computer monitors. This quality has been incorporated in their laptops.
- Gateway is a name you don’t often hear in this area. We’ve sold quite a number of them and must say how pleased we are with the results. Only one of them had an issue with it. Other Gateways that have been brought in for repair were very minor issues. They’re certainly worth a second look.
- An Intel-based laptop is arguably your best value for your money. They offer industry-leading efficiency and performance, for very little price premium.
- As most new laptops are coming with Vista, ensure that you purchase a unit with at least 2 GB (gigabytes) of RAM (system memory). A hard drive size of at least 160GB will ensure plenty of storage for all your media.
- Apple is now providing Intel-based laptops and desktops. They come at a higher price, but they offer the unique ability of running both Windows and OS X. We’ve found some rather annoying quirks in the OS X software, especially for users coming from Windows, but if you’re into photo and music editing, desktop publishing, or programming, a Macbook would be well-suited to your usage. A Macbook Pro provides all the bells and whistles for any task that you may require of it.
Laptops are not created equal and as such can have vastly different feature sets with a very large variation in price. If you’re a gamer, a laptop with a discrete video card (in other words it’s not built into the north bridge like the cheaper units) should be a serious consideration. If you’re into graphics, a DVI or HDMI output should be sought after. If you need long battery life, an Intel chip and 8 or 9 cell battery should be high on your list.
Although different models may look very similar, the secret is what’s under the “hood”.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me. No matter where you buy your laptop from, I will be delighted to answer any questions, time permitting, and help you make an informed decision, at no charge (and no commission!).
What about Norton or McAfee products?
Every day we confront issues with Norton or McAfee products, and gladly remove them. Both of them do a mediocre job (at best), both are terrible resource hogs, taking several of the top ten spots for resource hogs, both can create all kinds of problems. We’ve seen internet connections broken, printer/file sharing broken, email boxes corrupted, infected computers supposedly “protected” by Norton or McAfee, very slow computer performance, etc.
When we’ve removed these products for our clients, the problems go away. Both Norton and McAfee are very poor quality products and should not be installed on your computer. Vendors push these products because it’s another way to upsell a client and make money. Websites push these products because Norton especially buys advertising from them. Rogers cable is offering Norton as well. It is fundamentally the same (and thus as bad) as the retail version.
Fortunately, there are far superior alternatives. On every new system we sell, and every system we repair (by request), we put top-rated AVG 8 Free on them. This is a vastly superior product to either Norton or McAfee and is 100% free. It detects and removes viruses and spyware, in many cases items that Norton or McAfee either miss completely or fail to remove. AVG 8 updates itself and scans your computer daily, fully automatically.
Finally, AVG 8 is much easier on resources than either Norton or McAfee.
- It’s free
- It’s far more effective
- It causes far fewer problems
- It updates daily
- It’s fully automated
If you are within 60 days of your Norton purchase, I would encourage you to return your product to Symantec for a full refund and download/install top-rated AVG 8 Free. Your computer will thank you.
Please note that simply using the uninstaller for either Norton or Mcafee will not work to get rid of these pests. Both vendors have released special tools to “fully” remove these products. Even then, several traces of the product are left behind. We recommend to have a professional fully remove these products from your systems.
Welcome to our new staff
I am very pleased to welcome Brad, who brings with him a love of the industry and plenty of Linux and desktop/gaming experience.
Please join me in welcoming him to our team. Come in and say hello.
Why you should call us first for your computer repairs
Today we had a gentleman come in with a Gateway. He explained that he had it at a shop in the south end who told him that he needed a new hard drive, one fellow there said he could recover the pictures, the other two said that they couldn’t as it was “hard”. He explained to me that he’d had it there for two months, and finally gave up and went to get it, after having purchased a new laptop to replace his tower.
As he left, I put it on the bench and within an hour his corrupted hard drive was repaired. His computer was booting back into Windows again, he hadn’t lost any of his thousands of files and music, and all he paid was one hour plus GST. All he could say was “that’s amazing!”.
That made me smile. A happy client is what we’re all about.
Yesterday, we had a lady that called us up in frustration. She spent hours on the phone with Sympatico. When they couldn’t help her, they sent a tech out. The tech replaced the modem, phone cables, etc, and finally said “your three computers are broken”, left his work order and left. She called us in. The router was defective. We replaced the router, configured her wireless and set her computers back up. Within the hour we were finished.
Obviously thrilled, she asked what computer she should buy to replace her (very) aging desktop. She had explained that a local big box retailler couldn’t even tell her if a DVD/RW burned CDs, so she had opted against buying a machine.
After answering all her questions, she ordered a new machine.
These two clients are two reasons why we invite you to call us first for all your computer repair, sales and service needs.
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