Backing Up Your Data and The Cloud

Posted on May 31, 2016March 23, 2018 by Gail Eddy in backup, Cloud, Data Backup, Dropbox, Hard Drive, iPad, iPhone

It’s time again for my reminder about backing up your data! For many people, when you travel, your laptop could get banged up at the airport or in the camper. For others, summer is the season for extreme weather. It could be fires or floods or tornadoes or hurricanes, but there is always the chance that your home could be damaged, and your computer as well.

That’s why it is so important to make sure your data back up is current. The most convenient way to keep your data backed up is to use one of the Cloud backup services. I’ve had many people ask what “the Cloud” is and how it might affect them. The Cloud is a term used to describe using another company’s servers to store your data or to provide off-site computing.

Here’s a better definition from wiki:

Cloud computing, also known as on-the-line computing, is a kind of Internet-based computing that provides shared processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. It is a model for enabling ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services), which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

There are a many companies that provide cloud storage. I’ve been using Dropbox for a number of years and like the simplicity of it. (Disclaimer: if you use that link to sign up for backing up your data, you’ll get 500 mb for free, and I’ll receive 1g as a thank you from Dropbox.) https://db.tt/0ZRkMXZ

I like Dropbox for a number of reasons:

It will automatically upload a file to the cloud every time I make a change to it.
I’ve set it up so that it uploads photos I take on my phone to my account.
I can open files on my iPhone and iPad when I’m away from my computer.
Dropbox stores data for several weeks. If I get a bad virus, I can ask them to restore my data to a particular date.

All of this enthusiasm about cloud storage for backups aside, it’s also important to keep a physical copy of your data. About once a month, I backup my data to an external hard drive. Chris has set me up with the Seagate Backup 2TB Portable External Hard Drive which is convenient and easy to use.

If you need help backing up your data, let us know!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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Change Your Password!

Posted on May 24, 2016March 23, 2018 by Gail Eddy in anti-virus, Hackers, Phishing, Social Media

In the last few days, we’ve had a bunch of calls from customers who have had their email hacked. They are hearing from friends and clients that their email is sending out spam. Some of them have been aggravated with us because they feel like their anti-virus should have protected them. (Security software can’t protect you if someone else already has your password information.)

Here’s the deal. Several years ago, LinkedIn was hacked. Login credentials were stolen from approximately 117 million LinkedIn accounts! Although this happened in 2012, one of the “bad guys” has recently decided to sell the credentials.

According to this article from Tech Crunch:

Now, according to a new report from Motherboard, a hacker going by the name of “Peace” is trying to sell the emails and passwords of 117 million LinkedIn members on a dark web illegal marketplace for around $2,200, payable in bitcoin.

117 million LinkedIn emails and passwords from a 2012 hack just got posted online

CNN:Money adds their two cents:

Companies typically protect customer passwords by encrypting them. But at the time of the 2012 data breach, LinkedIn hadn’t added a pivotal layer of security that makes the jumbled text harder to decode.

Put on the defensive, LinkedIn is now scrambling to try to stop people from sharing the stolen goods online — often an impractical task. The company is also invalidating all customer passwords that haven’t been updated since they were stolen.

LinkedIn said it’s reaching out to individual members affected by the breach. This particular hack affects a quarter of the company’s 433 million members.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/19/technology/linkedin-hack/

Since many people use the same password on their other online accounts, the hackers can potentially access other accounts as well.

Our advice? Change your passwords for LinkedIn and other social media sites today. If you use the same passwords for other online sites, change the passwords for your email and banking accounts too. (If you didn’t have a LinkedIn account prior to 2013, you should be safe. This time.)

Changing your passwords on a regular basis is always a good idea!

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I <3 my auto mechanic

Posted on May 17, 2016May 24, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Tips

How is your computer like your car?

The longer we’ve had our Volvo and Hondas and continued our relationship with our mechanics, I continue to come to the conclusion that taking care of computers and cars is very much the same. I know; that sounds like Crazy Talk! I’ll tell you what I mean.

Regular maintenance:

Just like you want your mechanic to give your vehicle a once-over every 3-5,000 miles, your computer needs looking at as well. About once a year Chris will:

Clean up temporary files – this helps your machine run faster.
Check for and remove any viruses or other malware.
Make sure your drivers are up to date.
Look for any unusual behavior.
Ask you questions about how you use your machine and any annoyances you’ve experienced lately.
And other tasks as required.

Strange noises:

Unexpected noises are never a good thing. Whether it’s from your car or computer, if you’re like me, your first inclination is to ignore it and hope it goes away. Then, if it happens again you start to take it seriously! Unusual noises that some of our customers have experienced include:

Grinding fan noises. Your computer needs to stay cool in order to work properly, and that is what the fan is for. If the fan starts to make noises, it’s getting ready to fail. If it stops making the loud sound, it’s already failed and it needs to be replaced asap! If your computer gets too hot, the whole thing could fail.
Voices. Yes, voices. Lately we’ve seen some weird viruses that talk to our customers. “Make sure you call 800-555-1212 right now!”
Squeaking from a dry fan belt
A clicking sound from inside your machine could indicate that the hard drive is failing.

We’ve found that one of the most important things to do in keeping our vehicles in top shape is to get to know our mechanics. We’ve been invited to their special events and are proud to call them our friends. We have similar relationships with many of our customers too, and we’d love to get to know you as well!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

Q&A with Chris Eddy (iMac’s, PDF’s and Windows 10)

Posted on May 10, 2016May 18, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iMac, iPhone, Microsoft, PDF, Smartphone Apps, Tips, Win10

Question:

I’m currently running window 7 professional on my work laptop. Windows 10 want to upgrade computer software. I have office 2003 and ms project software 2010 and I’m wondering if windows 10 compatible with these programs? Also since I’ve been rejecting windows 10 computer seems to constantly upgrade software (daily) and is running slow. Any way that not upgrading to 10 can be causing this?

Answer:

I think you should decline the W10 upgrade because W7 works fine for you, I don’t think that W10 has enough new and different and better stuff that you should run right out now (metaphorically) and get it. Also, I’m seeing occasional strangeness with W10 becoming unresponsive or very disk intensive for long periods of time, and have seen occasional filesystem corruption after things like a graceless shutdown which causes the machine to require serious startup repair (not the automated one), but W7 would have recovered from that in stride.

Question:

An associate recommended PDFMerge as a great program to take individual pdf pages and be able to combine them into a document. I went to the website www.pdfmerge.com and downloaded it. …. Well now every pdf on my laptop is a soda pdf. This was not what I intended – will this cause me problems since they are no longer adobe pdf’s? Should I have you change it all back? Worried about this change. Recommendations?

Answer:

This is an easy thing to change. Go to the file using Windows Explorer, right click on the file name, go down to “Open With”, select the Adobe Acrobat Reader program, and make sure you put a check in the box to use this program for this file type in the future.

Question:

Do you have an opinion on the iMac all in one? The 21.5 ” most suitable for my space and I’d like to connect it to a TV and be able to watch TV at same time as using computer – is that possible or a pipe dream?

Answer:

In general, I like the iMac. And, in a nutshell, yes. But you’ll need an “Apple TV” device, which is a white hockey puck sized thing that connects to the house network and to the TV. More here: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/appletv/can-i-use-apple-tv-to-mirror-my-imac-on-my-tv/QCFJP9Y472HAJP9YP

Do you have a quick question about your Mac or PC? Send us an email to support@geekforhireinc.com

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.

Windows 10 – Once more

Posted on May 3, 2016April 25, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone Apps

It’s almost like it’s Groundhog Day. Again. (The movie, not the holiday.) Yes, we are still getting calls from customers who have upgraded to Windows 10 and immediately began to experience issues with their machine.

What are some of the issues? Here’s a sampling of some of the questions we’ve received:

I can’t find any of my files! They all seem to have disappeared!
I can find my files, but my computer won’t let me open any of them
My applications don’t seem to work properly anymore
My computer can’t find my printer, or the network
I’ve got the dreaded black screen (or blue screen)
My computer won’t boot

The problems go on and on. I am guessing that there are plenty of times that someone upgrades to Windows 10 with zero problems. Those are not the people who call us!

We still have the same advice that we did in February: https://geekforhireinc.com/windows-10-update/

If you have a Windows 7 machine, don’t upgrade unless you have a serious business need.
If you have a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine, you should be okay to upgrade, although you may still experience some issues
If you have a Windows XP or earlier machine, don’t (DO NOT!) upgrade. Consider purchasing a new machine with Windows 8 or 10 already installed.

If you’re planning to upgrade do this first:

Back up your data. Use an external Hard Drive if you have one, or upload to the Cloud
Make sure you have a list of all the programs and applications that you use.
Make sure you know what all of your passwords are, especially if you have asked your computer to remember them for you.
Make sure you know what your WiFi Router password is.

Please let us know if you experience any issues with your upgrade. Call with any questions!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.