FastNET Technology Resources Zone :: Hardware :: Keep you PC in tip-top condition

Here are some notes on keeping your PC desktop or laptop in good working order. Our objective in FastNet is to make your computer available to you whenever you want to work on it. If you follow these instructions you will achieve that objective too.

Ensure that you have a good, reputable and tested Anti-Virus program installed on your computer. Remember, just having the program installed is NOT enough. It has to be updated ALL OF THE TIME. Because I am using an “always-on” connection at home and in the office and whenever I visit one of our Hot-Spots I have scheduled my computer to check for updates every time the computer is idle for 11 minutes. Yes, minutes! It costs nothing extra and the cost of having your data screwed-up and lost is much much more – not to mention the detrimental effect it has on your blood pressure and other body parts!

My preference is for McAfee Anti-Virus. Why, because it works. I started working with McAfee back in the halcyon days of just a few viruses “in-the-wild” back in 1991. Many of you may remember Michelangelo Virus – one of the first mass market destructive viruses that scared most of us.

There are other Anti-Virus programs that are good but in my experience McAfee is the best. Our interest in an anti-virus program is to keep computers available and in working order – remember what I said in the first paragraph.

Set your anti-virus program to the following settings:

Update very frequently
Check all files being saved or opened – no matte where they come from
Scan ALL mail and mail attachments
Scan your entire system regularly – mine is scanned daily while I sleep – and scan all files and all compressed files and EVERYTHING

REMEMBER if you are using a proper Anti-Virus product all of this can be done automatically while you do something else.

2. Ever heard about SpyWare, Malware and Bots? Probably not. However, they are almost certainly on your computer if you are browsing the net. Some of them keep tabs on and report to their masters what you are browsing on the net – a bit like a loyalty card in your favorite supermarket – so that they can anticipate what you are most likely to want to browse next. Malware is short for malicious software and that speaks for itself. It is out to do bad to you. Bots is short for Robots – little programs that collect more information about you than you might like to give to someone you don’t know. I use two products – yes two - to keep my computer and my data protected. The first it SpyBot Search & Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html

It is easy to follow the link above and download the program. Go for all of the default settings, unless you are prepared to read the manual and become an expert, which you don’t need to do.

The second product is Adaware from LavaSoft

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

Once again, follow the link above, download and accept the default settings.

PLEASE REMEMBER that none of these programs is any good to you unless you click the option to UPDATE before you run the scanner. Once scanned quarantine or dump the offending programs.

The programs from SpyBot and Lavasoft are FREE to personal users. It takes just a little time to update and run them (weekly, if possible). Reliable Anti-Virus programs must be paid for, but the updates are FREE so there is no excuse for not using them. Scan everything all of the time.

Have you every thought about doing some house-keeping on your computer? Automobiles get oil and filter changes. Your computer needs to be maintained too.

Stage 1. Disk Cleanup – It comes FREE with your Windows program. On XP you go to My Computer. Right click on the C drive (and each other hard drive you may have – though it is less important, usually) and click on Properties. Then click on Disk Cleanup. The program will rid your computer of .tmp files and others that you do not need. If it takes a long time it is only because you have not done it for a long time, if ever. Next time will be quicker.

Stage 2. Check the integrity of your hard drive. There is little point in hoping to save data on a drive that is deteriorating, partly through lack of maintenance and wear-and-tear. Once again go to My Computer. Right click on Drive C:. Click on Tools and then on Check Now in the Error Checking section. This will check the disk and blank out potentially bad areas of the disk so that you can’t loose data that is inadvertently placed there.

Stage 3. The final check that you should carry out occasionally is Defragmenting your hard drive. This is analogous to tidying up a filing cabinet. Files are removed to be used and sometimes remain on your desk or get misfiled. The process of defragmenting returns files and their components to areas on your hard-drive that make them faster to retrieve and store. While the program that comes with your Windows is good we suggest that you use a program that we believe is better. It is Diskeeper Lite from Executive Software International. It is FREE to personal users. Of course a more full-functional automatic version can be bought from the same web site. You can download the free version from http://www.diskeeper.com/freeware/diskeeper-lite/download-lite.asp . Download it. Install it and Run it. It will certainly help your computer run better, faster, more reliably.

We at FastNet are happy to help you anytime you have a problem. However, we have to charge for home visits that are due to computer problems. Our rates are as follows:

Call out and first hour (or part of the hour) $35

Subsequent hours $25 per hour charged in 15 minute segments

Telephone support $10 per call

WiFi customers network problems external to your computer are always fixed free of charge.

Please contact us any time to help you with these and any other problems:

Joel: 8 903 172-5581

Steve: 969-5144

Owners of FastNet supplied computers receive all of this service FREE OF CHARGE as specified in their sales invoice.

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