Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

For a long time I have had clients wanting to access their work computer remotely. When GotoMyPC first came available I was inundated with questions and requests to setup this program.

In my business, I have to think of security first. All of my clients have Fortinet Fortigate firewalls with IPSec VPN capability. This is a very secure way to access your corporate network and PC remotely. The downside is that you have to install the FortiClient software on the PC your are using to access your work computer. In many cases this is no big deal because the user has a laptop or home PC they are using.

Increasingly, though, these people wanted to be able to use a friend or relatives PC and not have to carry a laptop when they traveled. This poses a serious concern security-wise since I have no knowledge or control of the PC they would be accessing the corporate network with.

I performed what I considered due diligence on GoToMyPC at the time and could find NOTHING on their website or via Google to determine who they where, what security they employed and enforced on the user and in general why I should trust them or their technology. It even cost me a good client because I wouldn’t endorse it.

Today is a much different story, though. GotoMyPC has been acquired by Citrix, a name that I not only trust but has been in the business of thin client computing as the backbone of their business.

But currently another big name is on the scene as well. Webex is a trusted name on their own, but they are now owned by Cisco - the router people who provide the infrastructure for a huge part of the internet.

No one questions the reputation or security of either company, including me.

Since I have been involved in so many Webex webinars recently and been so impressed, I decided to take advantage of the PCNow 30 Day Free Trial (it does require a credit card, but you won’t be charged if you cancel in 30 days) and try it out for remote PC access.

I have to say I am both thrilled and impressed. I have one accounting client in particular that hopes to save time (and $4 gas) driving back and forth to client locations when they can us a product like this instead.

In the past, remote control has been fairly easy. PCAnywhere did a pretty good job back in the days of dial up modems (good security there, just poor speed). The problem has always been printing; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Even Microsoft’s Remote Desktop, which I use extensively but only over secure IPSec VPN, only recently got the printing part ironed out.

With PCNow, printing is a breeze and so is file transfer. I not only highly recommend it but I will be doing one or more screencast videos to show how easy it is to use.

Why don’t you take advantage of the PCNow 30 Day Free Trial (it does require a credit card, but you won’t be charged if you cancel in 30 days)? I think you will be impressed too.

There has been quite a bit written recently about the computer software firewall tests performed by Matousec and the results posted here.

I would like to make a number of comments on this topic:

• I do recommend using both a hardware firewall, preferably a top notch true firewall like a Fortinet, but I fully realize that the cost for that is prohibitive in most home environments, and a software firewall. If you value your business however, it’s a no brainer to buy a Fortinet or equivalent.
• I also support the use of a software firewall, which is what the above test results are regarding. Here is where the rub comes in.
• A quality hardware firewall will protect you from the outside (inbound attacks), and can give you good outbound protection if configured properly.
• The software firewall is probably what is giving you outbound protection. BUT, only if the user understands what’s going on. As I and others have written many times, what good is a prompt from a software firewall that says “Program lsass.exe wants to connect to the Internet. Approve or Deny?“. One writer indicated that you have to be somewhat savvy to know what to do with this kind of message. I counter with - Who, including most PC Guru’s, truly know what to do with most messages of this kind? Helpful - NOT!
• Further, specifically regarding the test mentioned above, I draw your attention to a comment by LavaSoft a bit further down the page from those results: “2008-05-20 (Lavasoft Personal Firewall 3.0.2293.8822 scored 70%): Thank you very much for your inclusion of the Lavasoft Personal Firewall 3.0 in the Matousec research. Upon review of the results, we were surprised to find that the Lavasoft Personal Firewall program received a ‘good’ rating and could not be a recommended firewall, whereas our firewall technology partner, Agnitum, received an ‘excellent’ score with recommendations for the same firewall technology. We hope that you will take this under consideration with your next round of research, and continue your good work.Michael Helander
  Vice President
  Lavasoft” The answer, of course, is that the tests weren’t the same of every product! Then how can the results be of much value?
• You can spend all of your working day tracking down the best component of a good computer security suite. Find the best firewall today, it’s the worst (according to someone’s test) tomorrow. Same with Antivirus, same with Antispam. This is particularly frustrating if you have paid products and not free products. The solution is to accept that you will never have the best of everything for long. And never will every reviewer or tester agree which is the best in any category.
• Since your chance of infection of some type, as I have long said, depends in greatest part on YOUR INTERNET SURFING BEHAVIOR, keeping your PC clean has more to do with you than it does the security products you install on it.

My Recommendation:

• Examine your surfing habits, I’ve written on this before.
• Don’t rely on free computer internet security products if you want a fire-and-forget solution. Free requires (IMHO) a bit more savvy and work on your part.
• If you are buying a product, get one that is well respected even though it may not always score at the top of every single test; then only OCCASIONALLY check those test results. They change daily and may be skewed by any number of factors, not the least of which may be a financial tie somewhere.
• Do make sure whatever computer internet security suite or combination of products you use stays up to date. If you don’t understand how to do this then you definitely want to buy a competent product with a free trial and tech support.

Some recommended Computer Internet Security Software (Paid):

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite - My novice computer user clients find this easier to use than most

TrendMicro Internet Security Suite - Never scores the highest in all tests, but a long term success story

Lavasoft - This is a personal firewall only, NOT a full suite; also highly recommend AdAware product

Free Computer Internet Security Softare:

For right now I will leave this debate alone. Tempers run high in this area (why? - it’s like Yankees vs Red Sox..) so I will leave that to another post. I have offered many recommendations in the past in other posts and newsletters and will likely update from time to time.

I was reading this morning an article by some respected PC Guru’s about Driver Update programs. They led off warning readers not to be scammed by a product called Driver Update 5 which essentially does nothing for you.

The premise to all of this, although unstated, is that you need to keep abreast of driver updates for your computer’s hardware in a similar fashion that you need to keep your software updated.

I disagree with that premise.

Unless you enjoy the prospect of seeing the dreaded Blue Screen of Death on your Windows computer my recommendation is the same as in many areas of life:

If it works, don’t fix it.

If for some reason you feel your computer would benefit by updating certain drivers, my recommendation is to go the manufacturer of the computer (Dell, Gateway, local PC shop) and get the drivers from them. Hopefully you will get the right ones that way.

And before I go any farther, before attempting ANY update of this sort BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER!

This particular article did recommend a couple of free driver update programs, but the one they get the best review to apparently couldn’t handle the traffic today and I was unable to even bring their site up.

What they did mention is that these free products, which offer a paid version as well - naturally, typically will pollute your PC with InstaCrap (a new term I have coined to represent the installation of software, by default, unless you take action to prevent it, that is not related to what you are trying to install and probably shouldn’t want). So beware always when installing software to UNCHECK the InstaCrap boxes for the toolbars, installers and whatevers that they want to clog up your computer with.

And trust no company, it seems like everyone has jumped on the InstaCrap bandwagon.

And, remember, when it comes to updating drivers, “if it works, don’t fix it”.

Microsoft is on version 4.5 of ActiveSync, necessary for any phone/pda with Windows Mobile on it. After all of these years it still sucks. Granted, Palm’s sync is just as bad - it either works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t there is no knowing how much time you will waste getting it to work.

My Verizon XV6700 phone all of a sudden showed “no service”. I could still get on the internet, though. So 2 hours later after tech support, clearing storage (and losing hours of configuration work that you cannot save) and uploading a newer firmware and OS build, it’s working again.

ActiveSync had been working off and on for months before this (the phone is less than 1 year old, my PC is a clean install of XP Pro just a few months ago).

Now after all of this I think the phone is working again, setup, configured, programs installed, hours wasted.

Then I realize I have only a fraction of my contacts on it. Turns out it is not synchronizing any contact with Notes included. That’s handy - NOT!

Google it and you will find out this is a widespread problem; with no fix. I uninstalled/reinstalled ActiveSync, did some registry & file cleanup after it, still didn’t work.

Finally, I set it to sync off of my Exchange Server directly instead of the PC. Now it works. Not everyone has that option.

Get with it Microsoft. ActiveSync is so widely used; totally proprietary - can’t do without it. Yet so many people have so many unanswered problems with it and so very little help available.

Is the iPhone this bad too?

I have chosen over the years to not let Windows do Automatic Updates on its own. The reasons are simple. Typically, I am working in a corporate environment with anywhere up to 100 computers. Some of these reasons do not apply with your home PC or a smaller environment.

• Some updates, like service packs, are huge. I will update those once either manually or preferably through Windows Software Update Services - a server application that controls updates for a network. If you let automatic updates handle it on an individual PC basis, your internet bandwidth will suffer as each of these workstations downloads the same huge files. I download once to a shared location and install from there.
• Microsoft, especially of late, has a habit of releasing updates that break things. I don’t want a call at 8am one Wednesday (after a Microsoft Patch Tuesday) from each of my clients telling me all of their workstations are broken in some way or another. I let other experts test the updates and when they say it’s all clear, then I release the update from WSUS on the controlling server. Recently a SQL Server update crashed the main line of business software for one of my clients - not good. And that was after I waited. The other day I had to fix a home PC where an automatic update screwed the machine up royally because Trend Micro Security Suite was installed. Not Trend’s fault. Just 2 weeks ago a Microsoft update cause people with ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite to be locked out of the internet. Hard to lookup or download a fix that way, isn’t it?
• I don’t trust Microsoft, nor hardly any other vendor for that matter. I don’t want them phoning home for anything without my knowledge and permission. I don’t want them hogging my CPU power without me knowing and approving it and I bought broadband so I could access the internet, not them.
• And I certainly don’t want mass updates going out to my clients any time I am not going to be around to fix a problem should it arise. Automatic updates from anyone, anytime just make it hard to answer the question “what changed”. That’s the first question I ask someone when they tell me their PC stopped working properly.
• Add up the companies that want to hog CPU and bandwidth from you, then tell me you have no idea why your PC seems so slow. Microsoft (windows updates, office updates, installer updates), Sun (Java), Apple (Quicktime, iTunes), HP (whatever printer you have that will never have any updates available for it anyway but they want to check for some reason regardless), RealPlayer - who have I forgotten? You don’t really wonder where all of your performance, system resources and bandwidth have gone, do you?

I still like scheduled visits to secunia.com which checks a whole bunch of things in one shot, with links to any needed updates. It’s free (they will offer you another service, but you don’t have to do that); and works like a charm.

Eeek! I can’t hardly believe I’m saying this. Take a look at Napster. Since I am rather a music connoisseur a friend suggested I do just that.

I remember when Napster was the bane of the internet, Attorneys General salivating at the concept of a class action. PC’s infected by that horrid peer2peer music sharing software. So it took a while for me to get over those memories and actually visit their site (McAfee SiteAdvisor gives them a green rating!).

Well, sometimes, all things happen for the best. I’m not sure the folks at Napster were thinking that many years ago when the RIAA music industry people were threatening lawsuits etc for helping people illegally share music.

But look what happened. Napster has now become one of the premier legitimate sources of music; including not just MP3’s but commercial free online radio stations as well.

Who’d have thunk?

So do yourself a favor and take a look at the new Napster, you might be surprised. I sure was. They have a 7 day free trial (which should be 14 day IMHO) and an optional offer that gets you a free MP3 player.

There are a number of reasons to shop and buy online, in no particular order:

• Don’t have to leave home, can do it in your underwear at 3am if you want
• Easy to compare prices, including tax & shipping
• You can save money - by increased selection of merchants and many times no sales tax. Shipping costs may negate savings of sales tax but many online vendors know the value of the words “free shipping” when competing for sales
• You can benefit from reviews written by previous customers
• Easy to compare products

But one thing that you should consider when shopping and buying online: did you go to a local retailer first to pick their brain or “touch and feel” the product?

The Bible says that a worker is due his wages. If you find a local retailer to be helpful or you feel you could not have made the decision without seeing the product, then do the right thing and buy from them even if the cost is higher.

The same goes for a website. If one particular website was the most helpful far and above the others, don’t go back to the site with the lowest price and buy from them. Don’t reward a merchant with a poor website, reward the one who has put forth the effort.

And in the flavor of my blog post of earlier today Moving The Free Line - Part 1, don’t begrudge someone their commission either. There is nothing wrong with someone going to the trouble to review or promote a product in some way and being paid for their effort. Presuming, that is, that their effort was of value to you.

Note, that after writing that post earlier, I realized that this website did not have a disclosure policy, an oversight I have corrected. (More recent websites that I have started I have included a disclosure policy as I learned about website “required” pages. - thanks Jeremy!) Again, the emphasis is on value; if someone helped you, you shouldn’t mind helping them.

A personal anecdote in this regard of buying online versus buying locally is in order. I recently took my family to the local Best Buy (I cringe just walking in) to look at Apple iMacs since we don’t have an Apple store within a 3 hour drive and gas is almost $4 a gallon. Best Buy is the only store in our area that claims any Apple product on hand.

What I found was a table of product on display that had the look and feel of a garage sale. The Mac AirBook looked like it was well used and abused. The actual iMacs were absent from the table. A somewhat arrogant but helpful young lad explained that someone had intentionally closed the lid with the mouse on top of the keyboard and destroyed the screen of each of the two display models.

“Don’t you have any more we could look at?” I queried.

“No,” he answered, “but we should have those back in about 10 days or so, we had to send them in for repair”.

Gee, don’t you suppose Best Buy can afford to put some other units out for display - possibly even ones that look attractive to buy and own? Yes, I understand damage happens, some people aren’t nice.

But how many sales do you suppose they lose in the 2 to 3 week time period they had no product on display? How many sales do you suppose they lose because the display product looks beat up?

My business philosophy is this: “Do it right or don’t do it at all”. In my humble opinion, Best Buy should put away the garage sale table and quit selling Macs.

I happen to have business interest in a website that is an Apple affiliate and I could make a commission (albeit small) if I bought an iMac through that website. But if Best Buy had attractive product on hand for my wife to try out and fall in love with, chances are we would have brought one home that day.

If we ever buy an Apple laptop, we will probably buy online instead of buying locally.

If you have ever wondered how someone makes a six-figure income online using a blog, I have a video you just HAVE to watch. And NO, the person with the six-figure blogging income is NOT ME (I wish). I don’t often write about making money online but I do receive a lot of questions about it, so I feel it is appropriate to mention something once in a while.

But I have learned a lot about blogging from Yaro and I have never paid him a dime. And he has never paid me a dime either, at least yet.

Here’s the link:

Yaro Starak Video

Here’s the thing: he will offer you an opportunity to join his MasterMindBlog program and it does cost money. But it is a VERY SOFT SELL.

More importantly: The videos that you can watch for FREE offer great insight into blogging and are well worth the time to watch. These videos are NOT just promotional hype.

Some background (from Yaro himself):

Yaro Starak, a well-respected blogger and blog trainer, released a free video that takes you inside his Internet business, which is based on just one blog.

Using his blog, Yaro generates a steady $10,000 to $20,000 each and every month.

His system is not your usual story of using a blog and sticking AdSense on it - he’s taken a much more BUSINESS focused approach.

He calls his system “Conversion Blogging” because it combines a blog with an email list to create consistent income.

Inside the video you will learn:

• Why blogs are the only Web 2.0 marketing tool you will ever need
• Exactly how Yaro uses his blog to build a MASSIVE email list
• How just a blog can turn you into the No. 1 authority in your market
• What methods Yaro uses to translate his blog into a steady cash-flow stream
• How you can replicate Yaro’s methods using just one blog and get started in minutes

I loved this video because it’s not full of marketing hype, just a very down to earth and practical presentation.

I guarantee you will enjoy this and learn something too.

Set aside about a half hour right now, grab a java or maybe a cold drink, sit down and watch this video:

Yaro Starak Video

If you want to get serious about blogging, I highly recommend you check out Yaro Starak. I was watching a free video of his early this morning and he mentioned “Moving The Free Line”.

I like that term.

What “Moving The Free Line” means is giving more away for free than you used to. Maybe it’s an ebook that was free but now comes with a bonus ebook or a video. One way or another you are trying to “over deliver” with what you give away for free.

Here at FreeComputerConsultant.com I think I have done a pretty fair job of “over delivering”. After all, my offline clients pay over $100 per hour for my time and opinions. On this website, it’s free.

In fact, the only thing I have sold, I sell cheaply. Namely my two eBooks.

My first eBook, “How To Improve Your Email Image” has sold for under $10 the whole time it has been offered. I just haven’t gotten around to raising the price and creating new PayPal buttons. To be quite honest, the eBook doesn’t sell all that well because people don’t care about their email image. I see that every day.

People, in general, don’t care if their emails get opened. Again, I see the evidence every day.

I shouldn’t be surprised, a lot of people don’t even care how they look. With the advent of the popular “bed head” hairstyle, the shorts falling off one’s butt to reveal not just designer undies, but as of the 4th of July I have (unfortunately) seen “tightie-whities” prominently displayed this way. Curiously, the young men sporting this look did NOT have a legion of attractive young girls surrounding them.

My other eBook, “One Secret Can Save You 8 - 16% Buying Dell Online” has been a better seller, and I could easily charge more considering how much you save with just one Dell purchase, but I haven’t gotten around to that either.

Here again, most people are looking for a FREE COUPON CODE that will save them a few bucks; without considering how many dollars they could save by spending less than $20 on my eBook. Corporations especially could save HUGE money time and again by buying a $17 eBook (that still sells for $14.95 because I’m too lazy to create a new PayPal button) once.

If you detect a little bit of “grit” in my writing today, it’s probably because I received an email from someone who read this post on my new FREE Support Forum. Here’s the post:

I ordinarily try the free adaware.

http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

The person emailed me this:

You’r no better sir you refer me to some site to buy a product by clicking on more “blind” links to buy some more crap!
This is what is Killing America the BS crap on the net!
Either sell a good product or take it else where

If you notice in my recommendation, I bolded and italicized the word FREE. I gave the person a link, not cloaked by me in any way, that has a download button for the free version of AdAware. I am NOT a web affiliate for LavasoftUSA and would make ZERO if anyone chose to buy the PAID version available on the same webpage.

Come on, folks! I know everyone wants free, but can you blame LavasoftUSA from wanting to offer a better product for a price? And is that MY FAULT for sending you a link to page that has BOTH? I said to use the FREE one!

Quite frankly, I and my clients have gotten such benefit out of the free version for so many years we probably should send them some money. They have been gracious in offering such a great free version we are indebted to them.

If someone offers you value, please don’t object to paying something for it.

If I tell you something is free, then it’s free; unless I’ve been misinformed. If so, contact me and let me know and I’ll change it.

The original Asus Eee PC was spectacular hit. Most people, however, wanted more power, longer battery life and a larger solid state storage drive. Many wanted to install Windows besides.

Now it’s here! The ultimate in an ultra portable PC.

The new Asus Eee 901 PC, which comes in white or ebony, has all of that. The Asus Eee 901 is based on the new Intel Atom CPU, has 1GB RAM, 802.11n wireless, bluetooth, 10/100 lan, webcam, 12GB SSD drive, 8.9″ (1024 x 600) WSVGA display, hi-def speakers and mic, MMC/SD slot and it only weighs 2.4 pounds.

This machine is packed full of features and has Windows XP Home preinstalled. Thanks to the new Intel Atom architecture it can boast a battery life of 4 - 8 hours instead of the typical 3 hours of the original Eee PC.

When the first Eee PC debuted I thought it was just a bunch of hype and that it would die down. It never did. In fact, entire online communities sprung up around the Eee PC and what you could do with it.

Now with the 901 version of the Eee, Asus has added about every feature that users hungered for in the first edition.

You won’t find much competition on the price, it’s pretty set at $599. What you will be looking for is availability.

One of my favorite vendor’s is Buy.com, they are offering the Eee PC 901 with free shipping - when in stock! You can place your order and they will ship it as soon as it’s in.

Asus Eee 901 PC - ebony