Mach4 Computer Services

Mach4 have been contacted on several occasions by customers that have taken their computers into PC World for repairs and upgrades and have lost their valuable data.

The latest customer had taken their PC into PC World for a motherboard replacement, on return, the PC worked fine, but all data and programmes were missing from the hard disk. PC World had overwritten the original operating system and data sectors of the hard disk and the data was irretrievable. Evidently, the customer had inadvertently signed a disclaimer warning them of data loss, but was not aware of the implications. The hard drive was not defective before or after the motherboard replacement.

Mach4 ALWAYS back up customer data before undertaking major repairs or upgrades and explain to our valued customers that, when a reinstallation of the operating system is necessary, they will not lose their valuable documents, music and digital image files, but will have to reinstall programmes with the original software, or download new software using their customer log-in on the vendor site.

Our examination of the hard disk confirmed that the data had been overwritten and, unfortunately, was not recoverable.

Regular back-up of valuable data onto an external device is recommended, particularly when taking the computer in for major repair, if this is not possible, customers should confirm with the technician that data will be retrieved and backed up prior to carrying out work on their computer. Of course such action is not necessary with Mach4 who will always work to the needs of the customer.

October 2011

A local customer recently reported a scam that Mach4 hadn’t heard of before; the scenario went something like this:

• Customer receives a telephone call from the scammer, who informs him that, as part of their “internet service”, they have carried out a remote review of the customer’s PC via the internet.
• They continue to inform the customer that they have discovered several operating system faults and ask the customer to log onto their website to resolve the problems.
• The scammer provides a URL and the customer (unfortunately) logs onto the site, ignores any McAfee warnings (I’m assuming that there were some displayed), and their PC is promptly hacked and remotely controlled.
• The customer is then asked for their credit card details to ‘resolve the problems found’. The customer hangs up, but their PC continued to be hacked, demonstrated by a remotely controlled mouse and pages opened and interrogated remotely. On a restart the hacking continues and McAfee Internet Security has been disabled.

Mach4 is called to investigate and removed 2 virus infections with 4 Trojan horses.

It is unusual for the hacker to contact their victims by telephone, but criminal tactics evolve constantly. It is interesting to note that the customer was not protected by McAfee Internet Security software during the hijack, but it is not known whether the PC was hacked before, during or after the phone call.

The virus was removed using AVG but, as the customer had a long unexpired McAfee licence, they were unwilling to sacrifice this in order to change their security. They were warned that this was against our advice as either the customer had ignored warnings from McAfee, or the programme may have already been disabled inadvertently or failed to detect the threat.

The PC was running on Windows 7 Home Premium, which was also reporting that it had not been activated.

Stay safe, if you have knowledge of any new scam techniques, publish them on here!!

AMD are launching new Accelerated Processing Units (APU) that are targeted to compete with Intel’s i3, i5 and i7 processors.

Interestingly, they have also developed an integrated APU that will probably dominate the micro ATX form factor market for many years.

This APU, like some of Intel’s latest offerings, integrates the graphics processor into a single system chip, eliminating the traditional bottleneck between the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) usually found on a separate graphics card or integrated motherboard GPU.

This allows faster calculation of graphics data and releases more of the CPU function, resulting in blistering speed and smooth transition required for 3D image processing.

The integrated GPUs are not sluggish either, the 4-core Llano APU (A8-3850) incorporates the tested Radeon HD 6550D graphics capability at a price less than the Phenom II.

The Fusion family of APUs was due for release in January 2011, but they are only just reaching the market in the UK and Europe.

Software developers are already designing new software that will fully utilise the capabilities of APUs, so stand by for a rush of new games and graphics software and new technologies (touch or point commands) to excite even the most entrenched XP stalwarts!

The technology also uses less power, so notebooks and tablets with an all day battery life are on the horizon.

Learn more about the Fusion family here http://sites.amd.com/uk/fusion/apu/Pages/fusion.aspx

Locally, the first of the family, the Llano APU is now available with motherboards designed specifically for the APU, more will follow soon, and Mach4 can offer Fusion systems NOW and will offer the futuristic 8-core Bulldozer APU when they are available.

I have recently upgraded my BT Broadband service from their BT Home Hub2 to their BT Infinity service and this is an experience that justifies sharing!

Prior to the upgrade, my speed test on http://www.speedtest.net revealed the following results:

Download = 8.28Mb/sec

Upload = 0.3Mb/sec

Ping (to Manchester) = 65ms

The new Infinity Hub and Speedtouch router duly arrived the day before the engineer (a free service with their Total Broadband option).

The engineer installed one wired connection (my wife’s PC) and one wireless connection (netbook) and then fled when I was unable to connect to my main PC with a wired connection.

I was also unable to utilise a homeplug connection. In short; the Infinity hub was incapable of accepting more than one wired connection, despite having 3 ethernet ports.

Following lengthy discussion with a helplessdesk somewhere in India, another engineer arrived and, following a 3 hour visit, deactivating my homeplug pairing in the process, declared a hub fault; I then had to ring the helpless line again and order another hub, which arrived 4 days later (8 days after the installation). I swapped the hubs over with the same result and a further 3 helpless desk debates!

I’m now on my 3rd Infinity Hub and am pleased to say that I have now configured the system properly and everything works.

Speed tests using the same website and server vary according to time of day but show a marked improvement in speeds (low to high):

Download from 20 to 36.97Mb/s

Upload from 2 to 7Mb/s

Ping from 45 to 24ms

Fortunately, the helplessline is free! The cost of the Infinity service is the same as before but, with a marked speed improvement, worth the effort.

All versions of Windows have a couple of self maintenance applications that will help to maintain your PC or notebook at factory speed.

This is particularly applicable to notebooks/laptops/netbooks, many of which are supplied with only 1GB of RAM and running Vista (which is quite memory hungry compared to Windows 7).

Back up your system files via the restore centre (set a restore point).

Go into ‘Programs’ >Accessories > System tools and right click on ‘Disk Clean up’ then pin to start menu. Repeat the process for ‘Disk Defragmenter’; both applications will now appear in your start menu and remind you to run them.

Disk Clean Up removes a lot of unwanted files that clog up your hard drive and make it harder to find files that are needed to run programs, each option for clean up will provide a description if highlighted; run this once a week to declutter your drive(s)

Disk defragmenter takes several hours to run in Vista and you should allow for this; it brings file segments together so that it takes less time to find and open the files. The more often you run it, the less time it takes!

You may also wish to check that your virtual memory (swapfile) size is set to be at least 1.5 times the size of your RAM and there are different ways to do this; for Vista/7 : Control Panel > Performance Info…….. > Advanced Tools > Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows > Performance options > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change . You can set the size you like or let the system manage the size. If you have more than one hard disk in your system, set the file to run on a different drive to Windows and it will run more efficiently.

A system restart will be required to benefit from the new settings.

If your system continues to run slowly, contact Mach4CS for a system check and/or memory upgrade.

On the first day of Christmas, Windows sent to me, a corrupt registry.

On the second day of Christmas, a seller sent to me, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the third day of Christmas, the Postman brought to me, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the fourth day of Christmas, a client brought to me, four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the fifth day of Christmas, a trader sent to me, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the sixth day of Christmas, Yeller sent to me, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the seventh day of Christmas, Thompsons sent to me, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my website brought to me, eight screens a cracking, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the ninth day of Christmas, a phone call brought to me, nine PC upgrades, eight screens a cracking, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the tenth day of Christmas, an email promised me, a win in the lottery, nine PC upgrades, eight screens a cracking, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, a virus brought to me, eleven worms a worming, a win in the lottery, nine PC upgrades, eight screens a cracking, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the sales brought to me, twelve discount vouchers, eleven worms a worming, a win in the lottery, nine PC upgrades, eight screens a cracking, seven notebooks swimming, six PCs crashing, five floppy disks. Four hard drives, three more bills, two dodgy mice and a corrupt registry.

Having a good password (and using it) is essential, but is yours ’strong’ enough to resist persistent hacking attempts?

Test your password safely on this microsoft site

https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspx?WT.mc_id=09Home_Password_Checker

Remember to change your password regularly!!

Want a nifty little free broadband speed tester and advice? Check out this site:

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk

It will tell you your current upload & download speeds and compare alternative internet service providers (ISPs) by postcode. It will even tell you how far you are from the telephone exchange!

A client recently reported that an intruder had ‘invaded’ their PC and laptop and ‘captured’ their desktop. The client was playing online poker and a ‘desktop.ini’ file had suddenly appeared on her desktop, they were unable to delete the file by conventional means and the computer was being controlled remotely. A previous computer local computer service company had formatted the hard disk, re-installed the operating system and loaded McAfee AV software, but the desktop was re-captured the next time they logged onto the poker site.

Firewall settings were upgraded, the computer was disconnected from the internet and the router switched off. McAfee was uninstalled and Kapersky Internet Security loaded. The anti-hacking software in Kapersky has detected and quarantined the file and all appears to be good.

It is advisable to contact your internet services provider and the site hosting the poker game to inform them of the event; they are keen to reduce such interference and may even be able to identify the hacker(s). Also, it is inadvisable to rely on Windows Defender alone to protect your system and anti-virus software alone is also often inadequate.

Another preferred option for regular surfers is to use an alternative to Internet Explorer, the most commonly used and hacked surfing interface, try others like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Your system can also be hijacked locally, either via the WiFi connection or your Bluetooth enabled COM port (known as ‘bluejacking’); these are within the range of your device, so make sure bluetooth is turned off (or disabled) when not required and that your WiFi connection is secure.

If you think a particular website is acting as a gateway; don’t use it!

These bugs can be a swine to get rid of!!

Mach4 Computer Services Ltd are pleased to provide a free IT Home Visitor service to support visually impaired IT users through the Royal National Institute for the Blind. This week we provided free IT support for a local RNIB member in Ackworth who had trouble with their Epson all-in-one printer. New software was downloaded and installed and a tutorial ensured that they could scan, enlarge and publish their archive photographs to share with family and friends online.

Could you help the RNIB? Read more here http://www.rnib.org