Interesting statistics from Lavasoft...

From the makers of Ad-aware, my favorite anti-spyware utility, comes a startling statistic. /Lavasoft/October Newsletter/:

"Spyware infections prompted almost one million U.S. households to replace their computers in the first half of 2006."
-Consumer Reports, State of the Net 2006

Running out and buying a new PC every time the computer gets bogged down from spyware can be a very expensive proposition (and not necessary).

It goes on to say...

"The total loss from all cases of fraud referred to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2005 was $183.12 million, with an average loss of $424 per complaint. This is up from $68 million in total losses a year earlier."
-FBI IC3"

This is very important as I tell all of my clients who are reporting slow computers, to first check for spyware, as it is most likely the cause of many people's performance degradation problems.

It should be no surprise either that it is now something that should be a routine for PC users to run Anti-spyware software often or even daily, and there shouldn't be any excuse, as Lavasoft's "Ad-aware" software is free.

New Discussion Forums!

We now have new Discussion Boards up and running.

For anyone who has general computer support questions, or wants to share technology ideas, this is the place to be!

Please post your questions in one of the appropriate threads:

1. Gaming
2. General Technology Discussions
3. Computer Support

DF Agents will be posting responses and encouraging technical discussions on the myriad of topics.

Thank you for participating!

(SEE LINK ON RIGHT)

Network Monitoring...

As a small follow up to Wireless Security, I stumbled across a pretty decent app that allows the monitoring of inbound, outbound, traffic, as well as several other handy indicators for those more inclined to network technology.

It also has a nice alert management feature that can be configured several different ways.

(30 day trial $75.00 for registration)

CommView Network Monitoring

Open WiFi Networks...

This is quite an interesting story, and a personal one too.

I currently live in a Condominium complex that has over 30 units. I came across the other day, a gentlemen who was literally sitting on the floor in the hallway, with a laptop.

My next thought was, "what is this guy doing?" for one, he isn't even wearing a shirt. Next, I thought "ahh maybe he's stealing Wifi?"

So I proceeded to ask him if he was a resident. He said yes, and I quickly asked him if he was piggybacking an open network. He said yes. This guy has been doing this now for 2 weeks, and is there in the morning when I leave for the day, and is often there when I come back.

Granted, this guy was sitting 5 feet outside my front door; it was a bit disturbing and in such a blatent manner. I told the property management that he was sitting in the hallway, but they seemed to balk at the message.

Now, I'm not happy about the whole situation with this guy, but most of the blame should be placed on the 3 open networks just in our end of the complex.

It mostly is because of the rapid growth in wireless access and little education about the ramifications to setting one up without knowing how to lock it down.

This is very common, as some people are mislead at the stores when they purchase the WiFi router and equipment. Often, they will be told "yes, this is all you need to get setup." and "once you plug it in and setup, you'll be able to surf the internet."

For many people, this is the main goal, and so security is either dismissed or not even mentioned in the first place.

The reason for this posting really is to raise awareness about open WiFi networks and how it can be a potential problem for you and others that may be on your network.

Simply put, there are several threats that arise when you are not running a secure WiFi network. It is your responsibility to make sure that in the least, you are SSID, WEP, secure, and employing the access point / router as your firewall. Even using a software firewall in addition to these steps, can be an added layer of protection and can be useful to alert you to access intruisions (ones that you may or may not recognize as real threats so education here is also important).

Regardless, there are several steps that can be taken to make sure someone can't easily hack your system, steal your personal information, sniff your data, or even the most obvious, simply steal your internet for free, while you pay the $40.00 bucks a month.

I have alerted the residents in my complex to call me if they want a free security assessment to figure out if they are secure or not.

If you or someone you know is running an open unsecured Wireless network, read up on how to secure it, or send an Email to Digital Fray.

Free Online Computer Consulting?

It has been a long time since the inception of user groups and community based forums where people share their interests and hobbies with one another. Many of these communities help each other, often with answers to questions and guidance into, or about, specific topics or genres.

Digital Fray will sponsor a Computer & Technology forum for a growing community of personal computer and technology.

It will be a place where people can share ideas, computer questions, troubleshooting needs, and technology related posts.

I think it is important that people keep in perspective, their expectations of such a forum in that answers would hopefully evolve, ebb, and flow, among user interaction and only gain clarity by thorough research and step by step guidance. This will be the driving model for how we conduct our forums.

Stay tuned for Computer & Technology Help Forums.

Computer Security...

After having a healthy debate on one of the computer security groups over at groups.google.com, I decided to try and be more specific about education, understanding, and research, of computer security.

I find that there still are varying opinions about the topic, and rightly so. There is a wealth of information as well as a great starting point for investigating Computer Security, over at Wikipedia.

Great Guide to Choosing Motherboards...

There's a great article over at Tom's Hardware describing the ins and outs of choosing a Motherboard for build your own solutions.

Check it out here.

Digital Fray Updates

Hi everyone, wanted to jot down some updates as to the progress of Digital Fray Technology Consulting...

I have been trying some different webpage concepts over at DigitalFray.com
so go check it out frequently, as I will be improving the site with design changes, and better content and clarity.

In the meantime, check back here often too, as I'll be posting actual stories and scenarios of consulting gig's.

Digital Fray Advertising

Just checking in to let everyone know that we are up and running full swing. For anyone interested, please note that we are going to be starting an advertising campaign on startribune.com


We're also building out our main .com site and will have something for preview within the next week.

For information about Technology consulting or technology lifestyle questions, contact us at Digital Fray.

Dell AIO 960 Network Printer & Desktop WiFi

I was out late last night working again at the same site I was yesterday doing the WiFi home network setup.

I went back to do some additional work on setting up the new Dell All in one Fax/Copy/Printer AIO 960 model…

Project: Setup the AIO 960 Dell printer and add to the wireless network.

Printer Setup: I unpackaged everything (make sure you get all the tape off) and set it at the desk location next to the workstation. I always take everything out of the box and throw all the garbage back in, making sure to separate all the materials first.

After getting the printer setup, and plugged in, it immediately goes into a default ink setup to allow for the ink cartridge holder to be accessed.

Issues: Interestingly, the cartridge holder was not exposed, and I received a message on the LCD screen saying “Carrier Jam.” I tried all sorts of tricks to get it to dislodge, but it was not clear whether this was a physical malfunction or a technical one.

After getting online with Dell’s Online Chat support, I learned something new. The Dell Rep said that often times the ink holder / cartridge holder flips open and becomes ajar during shipment. The problem was the cartridge holder was not fully exposed.

Solution: I looked inside and noticed that it was indeed jamming due to the cartridge holder being ajar. I took a small screwdriver and stuck it in perpendicular to the cartridge holder, forcing the lid to snap and close. I then hit the “Check mark” and resumed the ink loading process. Sure enough, this did the trick and we were up and running.

Networking the printer: The printer was hooked up to the desktop via USB cable. The Desktop itself was connected to the WiFi network. There was also a laptop being used at this home network so I wanted to make the printer available to all computers sharing the network.

The D-link hardware came with a setup disk which allowed me to select “Share printer on the network” option. Network Magic also had a setting that allowed for me to turn this feature on.

Since I setup Zone Alarm for triple protection (firewall, spyware, antivirus) I had to make sure that I allowed the printer connection and made sure that was set correctly under the firewall>programs feature in ZA.

Results: This visit went fairly smoothly and now the client and his family can enjoy 54Mbps wireless connectivity and share printing, files, and internet between the two computers.

-Knabber

Wireless Home Networks (D-Link)

I just completed a Wireless Access Point setup for a client of mine... It went quite smoothly, and part of that success is owed to D-Links latest 802.11g Wireless AP gold series platform.


Project:
Setup a home WiFi network for 1 desktop and 1 laptop.

HW Solution: D-Link Wireless 802.11g router(WBR-2310)

D-Link supplies some neat Software employed to make the installation go more smoothly:
Network Magic (30 day free trial) allows for a dynamic graphical view of the network and all of the computers connected. It also supplies pertinent network activity information and alerts.

I also performed a Security update and removed all spyware, thanks to the new ZoneAlarm Interenet Security Suite 2006. I purchased and installed the software on behalf of my client, and installed it.

Issues:
Interestingly, after the install of ZAISS 2006, a common occurence is that the antivirus proection is disabled due to a conflicting antivirus program running.

In this case, it was the infamous PC-Cillin by trendmicro. I was more than disappointed when PC-Cillin had a password protection on it, preventing me from any clean uninstalls.

Instead, I ended up having to go in and fix the registry key through a manual process. (Trend Micro does provide a fix for this in their support forums.)

Results:
For anyone out there not using ZoneAlarm Interenet Security or a combination of Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and Firewall software, you are asking for trouble! get secure and get ZoneAlarm. Check out the links on the sidebar for more info.

-Knabber