No antivirus software is 100% effective at preventing virus infections so, the more viruses your computer encounters, the more likely it is that at least one virus will ‘get through’ and infect it. Viruses can stop your antivirus software from working and then automatically download more viruses – so once you are infected, you may very quickly be infected by other viruses making it much more difficult to remove them all.

Adopting the following tips should help to prevent you encountering many viruses, thereby greatly reducing the chances of being infected.

Keep Windows itself up to date – follow our simple guides to Updating Windows Service Packs and Keeping Windows Up To Date Automatically.

Keep Internet Explorer (IE) or other Web Browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome) up to date – if there is a new version then upgrade to it. See our article on the new IE9 and Firefox 4 for recommendations specific to your version of Windows.

Keep programs used by websites up to date – e.g. Adobe Reader (for PDF files), Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, Oracle Java. Because such programs are used widely by websites and are deeply embedded in webpages they can present a security risk. New versions are usually released every month or two which aim to block any new security holes.

If you use Microsoft Office you should ensure that you have the latest Office Service Pack and Office updates. You can check manually for updates for your version of Office from the Microsoft Update site here.

If you followed our article on Open Office – the excellent free alternative to Microsoft Office, the option to automatically check for updates was selected by default when you installed the program – update it when Open Office advises there is a new version available.

*IPM COMPUTERS EDIT BELOW*

I personally do not believe a paid anti virus is better than a free anti virus except in the case of being used in a commercial environment with an IT staff with servers. I have seen the same virus infect many peoples computers who were all using Nod32, McAfee, Norton, Avast, AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials, and many others. It is however best practice to make sure your anti virus program is up to date! I cannot count on my hands how many times I have seen people who say they have an anti virus and when I see the computer, it has a version that is over a year old, sometimes 5+ years old. Not only is it important to keep the definition files in the anti virus up to date, but it is important to keep the main anti virus program itself up to date too.

*IPM COMPUTERS EDIT ABOVE*

Practise ‘safe searching’ – when searching (e.g. in Google) we recommend using the excellent Web Of Trust (WOT) program that we reviewed in our article on browsing the web safely with WOT.
Some antivirus software may offer a similar feature of warning flags next to each search result but we have yet to see a system that works better than WOT.

Avoid using ‘peer to peer’ file sharing programs (e.g. Bearshare/Limewire) and Torrent programs (e.g. uTorrent) to download files unless you are certain of the source and security of the file.Apart from the questionable legality of downloading files like potentially copyrighted films and music, many of the files available to download may be infected by viruses. Using these programs is one of the most common ways we see computers being infected.

Avoid ‘adult sites’ or downloading ‘adult’ material you mucky pup Seriously, adult sites are frequently full of viruses – visiting sites full of naughty videos is a bit like ‘visiting’ hundreds of bedtime partners in real life – you will be infected sooner or later… This is the most common way we see computers being infected – and can be embarrassing to explain away (don’t say you weren’t warned).

Avoid downloading free programs/toolbars/system utility programs from unknown websites. Apart from the fact that too many programs can seriously slow down your computer, they may be virus infected or scams to sell you a commercial version.If unsure, Google is your friend – look up the program/website and see what others say about it. For example, we frequently recommend programs like Ccleaner to delete temporary files – even the quickest research will show that this is a popular program with an excellent track record by a solid company that is considered very safe to use.

Avoid opening email attachments or website links from people you do not know as they may contain viruses – especially if they are promising something like pictures of Angelina Jolie naked or free viagra! Common sense required here but it is surprising how many people still get caught out and blindly click on whatever comes into their mailbox…

Conclusion

Hopefully, following these steps will prevent you encountering too many viruses and those you do come across will be stopped in their tracks.

However, if you ever do become infected by a virus you need to disconnect from the internet and remove the virus as soon as possible – the longer you wait the more likely you are to become swamped by many more viruses, making their removal much harder.

Yesterday we had the support of wikipedia, google, facebook, and 20,000 other websites with the blackout showing awareness of how people dislike SOPA and PIPA!

Below are some links to media about SOPA and PIPA and why it is one of the worst things to hit government tables (next to the NDAA!)

Semi-technical document talking about portions of SOPA and PIPA: http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html

Videos:

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa

Yesterday had such an impact that many senators websites crashed under the load of people voicing their opinion! ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57361322-281/protect-ip-sopa-protests-knock-senate-web-sites-offline/ ) Unfortunately the disgust to SOPA and PIPA feels like a fad online and it seems nobody cares! Everybody needs to continue to voice their opinion either on facebook or via phone call!

Here is the info below for you to voice yours!

RICHARD BURR:
Wilmington Office
201 North Front Street
Suite 809
Wilmington, NC 28401
Phone: (888) 848-1833
Phone: (910) 251-1058
Fax: (910) 251-7975
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/senatorburr?ref=ts
EMAIL: http://www.burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

KAY HAGAN:
521 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone 202-224-6342
Fax 202-228-2563
EMAIL: http://hagan.senate.gov/contact/
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/SenatorHagan?sk=wall

The fan you see below is locked up unable to spin due to all the tar and dust built up over time.

Notice the before and after of the fan on the CPU and the inside of the case.

So if you want your computer to last longer and stay in top shape, don’t smoke around them! We also recommend taking your computer to an air compressor and blowing out all the dust at least once a year! We provide this service as part of our regular hourly rate! Call us for details!

Marvell:

-Read: 686MB/sec

-Write: 597MB/sec

Intel:

-Read: 1089MB/sec

-Write: 1003MB/sec

As you can see if you are sticking to the on board raid configuration to save a dollar, stick with the Intel raid controllers! We can DEFINITELY feel the difference in performance without a single doubt.

This test was done with 2 120GB OCZ MaxIOPS SSD drives in a RAID0 configuration.

Read more here..

These guys used the Republic of Gamers series of boards from ASUS which allowed them to overclock on the fly. This is the same series of boards we have been using to build our gaming machines for our clients. This is the only board other than anything Intel makes that we will use in our builds. This board works exceedingly well with Intel and AMD chipsets and is the best series of gaming motherboards on the market!

Read the full article here

Case: Coolermaster HAF X

Power: Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold Series 1000w

Video: EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX580 (2 in dual SLI mode)

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme (Tuned via android mobile phone)

CPU: Intel i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (OC’d to 4.8GHz)

Memory: AData XPG Gaming 2.0 8GB DDR3 2000mhz (2 of these totaling 16GB memory)

Primary hard drive setup: OCZ Vertex3 Max IOPS 120GB (2 in raid0 totalling 240GB of storage in the main os)

Secondary hard drive setup: Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB 10k RPM (2 in raid1 totalling 600GB of storage in a data partition)

Cooling: Corsair H100 with 2 Cougar CF-V12HP fans running in push in conjunction with the cases pull fans.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64

We can build this very same machine for you for $4,200 installed in your home or office!

Come back later to check out videos and pictures of benchmarks and the complete build.

On October 15th at the UNCW track at 9:00am I will be walking a 5k with several others for the American Heart Association.

Also in effort to help the association, every job we do until October 15th, we will donate $25 for each job completed.

If you would simply just like to donate, you can visit our page at: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?msource=Gigya&ievent=456096&supId=337274383

You can view the teams page at: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=456096&lis=0&kntae456096=D72E67B8ED30417EB6CD13F03086909C&supId=0&team=4227559

track at 9:00am on October 15th and walk a 5k with us!

We can now help you purchase and install Carbonite at a $5 cheaper rate than the advertised rate on the website!

Give us a call at 910-815-0900 for more details!

When it comes to desktops, I always tell people I build the best desktops out there, because I do. Unfortunately there is hardly any standardization out there for laptops so I cannot build custom laptops. Therefore I recommend the next best brands in these orders: 1) Dell 2) Toshiba.

The reasons I pick Dell as #1 go for many reasons.
1) When it comes to cost of maintenance, you can’t beat a Dell. They standardize the hardware for their own laptops as much as possible. When it comes to software, they also do this. One CD fits all. When it comes to reinstalling Windows, you do not need an independent cd for each and every model like you do with HP/Compaq/Sony/Toshiba/Every other brand on the market.

2) Reliability. The saying “You pay for what you get” goes for pretty much any brand, but I do notice Dells to be the most widely spread used computers in the IT industry. In my eyes at the same time they also seem to be the brand that break down the least from non-user related issues (When the user doesn’t beat up the laptop)

3) Choices. Dell lets you tailor each model to your budget and taste. Sure Toshiba and other brands have different models, but you cannot customize how much of a CPU or memory you want in each model like you can with Dell.

Also this year we have been doing a LOT of solid state hard drives due to the major price drops in these types of hard drives. The hard drive is the BIGGEST bottle neck of any computer and always has been for the past 5-10 years! 90% of my clients never use more than 60GB of storage so buying these over hyped 500GB-1TB hard drives is just a major waste of money when you can get a 60GB for $100-$120. Couple that with my $80-$150 price on doing this upgrade (price depends on if I have to ghost the hard drive or completely reinstall Windows from scratch) and your still at a cheaper price tag than buying a laptop that comes with a solid state hard drive. Plus the SSD drives that come pre-packaged with laptops are almost always the lower end scale versions whereas the versions we sell are the best top of the line bang for the buck.

When it comes to choosing the hardware most people want in a laptop, I choose Intel for reliability and AMD if you just need something cheap. If you go with an Intel processor, I recommend not getting the i7 if you plan on using the laptop in you lap a majority of the time as that line of processors operate so fast they generate enough heat to make most laptops uncomfortable.

When it comes to memory this is a rather straight forward answer. 4GB of DDR3 memory is the bare minimum these days. If your feeling like your budget can go higher 8GB is what I prefer in most laptops.

As I tell everyone I meet, if you have any questions about this, always feel free to call IPM Computers at 910-815-0900 and we will be glad to help you with your next purchase!