Challenge IT Solutions

Advice and Recomendations

Laptops

When purchasing a new laptop we would recommend purchasing a leading brand. i.e. a Dell, HP or Toshiba

Laptops that are marketed for business users are often far more robust and can be far more reliable. With this in mind they often offer a lower specification for your budget.

We recommend budgeting for your laptop with the view of it lasting 3 years. Considering laptop repairs can be expensive it is also worth considering purchasing an extended manufacturer warrantee increasing the warrantee from 1 year to 3 years to cover this period. A well used laptop can often suffer from problems with the moving parts such as the screen hinge and cd/dvd drives. Power supplies and batteries can also be problematic and expensive to replace or repair.

As a basic specification for a new laptop we recommend the following.

Windows Vista
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor
2GB Ram
250GB + Hard disk
Built in Wireless and Lan

www.dell.com.au

Software

Many of our customers come to us with problems caused by viruses and spyware. This may manifest itself in the form of their computers running slowly or receiving lots of unwanted pop-ups. With this in mind we have decided to write a page to keep customers informed on how to avoid these problems and others. These problems can be very annoying, but there are a few things you can do to really minimise the risks. The following advice is free, we hope it helps!

Viruses, malware, adware, spyware, worms and trojan horses

The above terms are all used for various harmful programs that you don’t want on your computer. I could go into detail about the technical differences between them and how they manage to get themselves onto your computer, but ultimately they are all programs that have undesirable effects for the user and usually install themselves and operate without your knowledge or permission. If you follow the following guidelines you can reduce the risk of being affected by these programs to the level that a large company would find acceptable.

If you would to know more technical details regarding the above you may like to read the following link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

Windows

Microsoft Windows is the software (operating system) that most people have installed on their computers. This is the software that loads when you first turn on your computer. This software is needed to run further programs such as Microsoft Office. It is not surprising given the extensive features and the main stream use of Windows that it is a target for hackers. Hackers take advantage in oversights and weakness in the design of Windows. These issues are addressed by Microsoft in the form of Windows updates. These updates are provided free of charge. I would recommend you use the following link to update Windows with all updates available. You should repeat the process until there are no more updates to install.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

You should have automatic updates enabled via ‘control panel, security centre, automatic updates’.

Antivirus Software

Many antivirus software packages also protect against malware, adware, spyware, worms and trojan horses.

It is important that you have antivirus software installed on your computer. Antivirus software works by comparing a database of all know viruses against files opened or saved on your computer. If a virus is detected it is deleted or repaired. There are other methods used by antivirus software to detect viruses. Most viruses will reach your computer via the internet. It is all important you keep your antivirus up-to-date so it knows about new viruses. Antivirus software will normally schedule updates automatically.

One of the most effective and comprehensive antivirus packages I have used is AVG Antivirus. AVG Antivirus is free for home users.

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

Firewall

A firewall is either software or hardware that protects you from the internet. Put simply a firewall is like your front door, it prevents people from public places from accessing your personal property, in this case your computer. A firewall simply allows all requests from your computer out and blocks any requests from the internet in. Information from the internet is only allowed to flow into your computer if the connection was first initiated from your computer. The firewall software included with updated versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista is perfectly adequate for most home users. It is not necessary to purchase additional software for these versions of Windows.

For more information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall

Make sure your firewall software is turned on via ‘control panel, security centre, firewall’

Web

Surfing the web can be of concern with certain sites. Visiting sites such as your bank, reputable shops and government agencies are examples of sites that are perfectly safe in all but the most unlikely cases. Visiting sites that offer pornographic material or illegal software are examples of sites likely to cause problems. It just a case of common sense really, there are no real rules.

Mozilla Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer. It is widely considered to be more secure, this in part is because it is not such a focus for hackers as Internet explorer. I would highly recommend its use. It will import your existing bookmarks from Internet explorer.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Phishing

Phishing is the process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy website.

Lets say your bank is called ‘Trustworthy bank’ and their web site address is www.trustworthybank.com.au

Someone may setup an exact copy of the web site hosted by themselves at the following address.
www.cardservices.trustworthybank.com.au

They would then send out thousands of e-mails to people appearing as if the e-mail was from trustworthy bank. The e-mail address my look correct and they may use all the correct fonts and logos. The e-mail may ask you to logon by following the link in the e-mail to fake address. They may suggest they would like you to logon to update some details. By logging in to the fake site you are passing on your details to unintended parties.

Most reputable banks will not send you e-mails of this nature as they are aware of this kind of scam. I would recommend you only logon to your bank by typing in or using a bookmark of an address you know to be correct. Do not use links from unsolicited e-mails.

For more information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

Spam (unsolicited e-mail)

Spam can be very inconvenient. There are a few steps you can take to avoid getting spam. Spammers don’t generally just guess your e-mail address. Your address is acquired in a number of ways. The main way is by you giving your address to third parties on the internet. This is usually by some kind of free service provided on the internet that requires your e-mail address to setup an account, to login. Another example would be getting an insurance quote on-line. Once the site has your e-mail address they may send you unsolicited e-mails or pass your e-mail address onto other parties that do. If you are careful you may spot a tick box that is ticked by default that states that you otherwise the occasional promotional e-mail. You may want to un-tick these boxes.

Giving a false e-mail address is not usually enough to avoid this problem as web site designers are wise to this and usually require that you click on a link contained in an e-mail they send to your e-mail address before you can proceed with the service they are providing you. This is to confirm you have given them the correct address. A technique you can use to avoid this problem is to setup an e-mail account such a hotmail account that is separate from the e-mail address you use on a day to day basis. Use this address to ccompleate such requests. That way any unsolicited e-mail sent to you will be sent to this separate address.

Publishing your e-mail address on a web site allows spammer to collect your address using automated programs that scan the internet for e-mail addresses. So avoiding this can help. If you need to publish your adress