Archive for the Computer Category

Protection From Credit Card Fraud!

09-10-2008 by Tons.

Although you can’t always prevent credit card fraud from happening, there are definitely things you can do to lessen that chance.

1. Make sure to sign your credit cards immediately after they come in the mail and cut up old credit cards right away.
2. Always shred the customer copy of any receipts, bills, etc.
3. Keep a close eye on your credit card, always! Watch when the clerk runs your card, watch your wallet when in a large crowd, never leave your card sitting out, never lend someone your card, and notify credit card companies in advance if you’re going to move..
4. Never give your account number over the phone (unless you are sure of the company) and never never never give your credit card number online, especially foreign companies, unless it is clear that the company has secure international payment methods in place to protect your information.
5. If you suspect credit card fraud or notice that your card is missing, contact your card issuer immediately. Once you notify them you are no longer held responsible for any fraudulent charges made from your account.

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Cleaning up your computer

09-09-2008 by Tons.

I get a
lot of questions and emails with people asking me how they can improve
their overall speed of their machine and make it run faster. This is a
guide on how you can do that.

Where to start.

      
First off, you may want to boot into safe mode (but not before you have
downloaded all anti-spyware/virus applications) as this allows only
necessary applications to run and prevents any unwanted programs from
running allowing the quick removal of them.

What to look for.

       
There are several things that can slow the overall performance of your
machine spyware being one of them, viruses, and too many applications
loading on reboot. The first one is spyware below there are two links
to the best anti-spyware applications. They are both free is it will
cost you nothing to download and use them, if your not aware of how to
use them the tutorial is there available for you. Scanning for viruses
you can use your current anti-virus software but if you dont have one.
You can go to http://www.bitdefender.com
and it will cleaned and/or remove viruses that maybe in your machine.
The last and not least is a tricky one and does involve a little
knowledge of your computer because you would need to know what your
machine can run or cant for more advanced users i would recommend
hijackthis and for novice/beginners, i would recommend msconfig.
MSConfig, or System Configuration Utility, is a boot configuration
utility bundled with all Microsoft Windows operating systems released
after 1995 except Windows 2000.

What tools to use:

       
Clicking on the icon below will take you to the site that you need to
download the application and on the right hand side is the how
to tutorials.
                                                    
         http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial43.html

         http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial48.html

          http://www.removingspywareforfree.com/article.php/Ccleaner_Tutorial_Page

      
I also recommend using ccleaner after your done with all your scans. It
deletes up all your temporary files and miscealloenous files to give
you more space on your machine and safely removes registry
errors (WARNING: if you do not know what ccleaner removes, please read
the tutorial).

ADVANCED:

 
       
If your browser or computer is still having problems after running
Spybot or another Spyware/Hijacker remover. Use HijackThis, it is an
advanced tool, and requires advanced knowledge about Windows. If you
delete items that it shows, without knowing what they are, it can lead
to other problems such as your Internet no longer working or problems
with running Windows itself. I have included a tutorial that
can help if you really want to learn. There are forums there where you
can have computer experts take a look at your log file and can
recommend what you can and should remove.
 
Conclusion
    
      
After doing all this and your computer still runs slow then you maybe
just suffering from a lot deeper within the operating system or
hardware problems. One common mistake people always think is that if
something works today, then it should work tommorow as well. Never rule
out your hardware, they are not made to last a lifetime. Remember to
always update your windows security, as well as your anti-virus/spyware
defintion files.

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