Preventing Pc Issues

Several people in the class have had "computer problems" in the last couple of weeks. This is often caused by Aware, Spyware, Malware, Viruses, and not maintaining the hard drive. Many times people will buy a new PC and 6-8 months later cannot understand why it is running so poorly. I rebuild a lot of computers for people. If it is a Pentium III or better and the person has all the original software that came with the pc, it is not a difficult task, although it can be time consuming.

There are several things we can do to prevent this from happening.

Defrag the hard drive weekly or at the very least once per month. Get the "red" out.

(On an XP OS it is: Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Disk Defragmenter)

Use a good virus program and keep it updated. Norton or Mcaffee are the most popular. A new-comer is PC-cillin by Micro Trends. They have a very good application that uses very little resources and they update their "dat" files much faster than the other big two, include a spyware search and have 24 hour phone tech support. Do a search on the internet. There are a lot of great articles by magazines such as PC Magazine written about this program and company. Norton and Mcaffee have not updated their engine in almost 2 years.

Download Ad-aware and Spy Bot and use them weekly. These are free programs you can find with a simple Goggle search, download and install. The updates are free also. These programs will find most of the pesky programs you don't want on your computer.

Back up your data. All your MS Office data files; .doc, .xls, .ppt .mdb, email, jpeg pictures, etc. If you have a CD burner, you can copy 750mb on each disk. If you have a DVD burner, you can save 4.7GB on each disk!

Don't use "file-sharing" programs that allow you to download music, movies and applications from other people. You never know exactly what you are getting. I have seen some of the most evil stuff coming from these places. Besides, most of that is stealing anyway. Would you want to write or produce something only to see it all over the 'net right after its release?

If you have a broadband connection, USE A ROUTER. I can't say it enough. With a broadband connection, Cable or DSL, you are on "open" IP address on the internet. Any guess how long it takes to have adware, malware or spyware enter your computer on such an open connection? Less than 20 minutes! A router uses a service called DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) which has one visible IP Address on the internet