Costa Rodis Blog

It’s time to clean up your computer, both virtually and physically.

Lots of dust and dirt gets in your computer case over the winter, which you can see by removing the side panel of your computer (after disconnecting the power cord, of course). These are the basic problems with dust in your machine:

• Electronic components such as capacitors and processor chips overheat when covered with even a thin layer of dust, which acts like an insulator. Overheating reduces the lifespan of these components and can lead to an early retirement for your computer.
• The vents at the front and back of your computer get clogged, blocking air flow. Without air flowing through, your components - including discs and video cards - overheat and fail sooner than they should.

I recommend blowing out the dust and dirt with compressed air. But do it outside or you’ll end up with dust bunnies and worse all over your desk or floor. Remember to blow out the vents in the front and back of the computer so that cool air can flow through unimpeded.

When you get your computer back up and running, you’ll find it actually runs a little faster. Five or ten minutes of cleaning can have very positive results.

A virtual cleaning means cleaning out cookies, spyware, adware, and temporary files. Running two antispy programs can effectively take care of most of these issues. Programs like PCTools will also automate temporary file cleanup, too. Having thousands of temporary files gather up can slow down your computer and/or your browser considerably. Cleaning these out can make a huge difference.

If your computer is a good candidate for a cleaning, just give me a call. I’ll come out and take care of it for you.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

- Costa

At the request of clients, I have been building computers that meet their specific needs for the last five years. While similarly configured computers can be purchased from the likes of HP or Dell for $200 or $300 less, they come to the purchaser preloaded with software they don’t want or need and hardware (hard drive, DVD drive, etc.) of lower quality.

Unlike the big computer vendors, the computers I build stand up well over time. Only one computer - built for high-end gaming - has needed warranty work over the last five years.

Most of the computers I build are for businesses. Almost all of these businesses have opted for small form factor computers to reduce the space they take on and under desks. The size of these PCs is one-half to one-third that of the typical tower computer. And their performance bests that of similarly priced computers from Dell and HP while being quieter and less obtrusive.

As for warranty, parts are covered for the first year after purchase, and service is covered for the first two years.

If you’re interested in a great new computer that runs circles around the big dogs, contact me at cr@costarodis.com. I’ll build you exactly what you need.

A preferred customer always gets the best deals: a cut in the consulting rate and/or no travel charge, for example.

Who are my preferred customers? Well, that’s easy. They’re the clients who use my services frequently, refer me to new potential clients, and who pay promptly and in full.

Become a preferred customer not only to save on each appointment, but also to keep a technological advantage over your competitors. Contact me now for an appointment at cr@costarodis.com or at 201-689-1823.

Welcome to 2008!

Will Vista be compelling and usable enough for more people to move to it this year? 2007 was supposed be the yea of Vista, but it didn’t pan out as most people opted to stick with Windows XP. 2008 will be marginally better for Microsoft as more people get new computers with Vista pre-installed. Until the next version of Windows is released, XP is likely to remain the strongest choice for Windows users throughout this year and next.

While there are good advances in computer security, malware moves faster and harder. The threats we’ll face in 2008 will be just as great as last year. Spam will remain relentless, and virus writers and phishers just get more clever all the time. It’s more important than ever to keep your security patches up to date and to be sure to be running strong antivirus and antispyware software. Mac users are not as immune as they once thought; as the Mac gains market share, malware is starting to target Apple products. Keep alert!

On the home networking front, Microsoft has released an interesting and very useful new operating system: Windows Home Server. HP and other vendors are selling low-cost boxes with this OS pre-installed. Users will find connecting their home computers easier, centralized backups of all computer files automated, and sharing of media files - music, photos, and videos - a breeze. Home Server can be purchased separately for installation on any computer that you would like to use as a home-based server. I’ll be looking at this product more extensively as the year progresses.

Later this year there will be further hardware advances, too. Inkjet printers will get much faster while retaining high quality. (Of course, there’s always the question of the cost of the ink to consider.) AMD and Intel will continue competing in the processor area with quad chips and energy efficiency. Flash technology is also moving forward; we should see faster and higher capacity flash drives later in the year.

As always, I look forward to your comments and questions.

Have a great 2008!

When it comes to computer security, most people either ignore it completely or jump into it without much thought.

A client recently came calling for help when his computer could no longer boot into Windows - he was presented with a “blue screen of death” (BSOD) indicating that the boot record could not be read. After replacing his non-functional CD drive, I loaded a Windows disc, jumped to the Repair option, and chose to use Fixboot from the command line. This didn’t do the trick immediately; I had to run CHKDSK first and then Fixboot to get into Windows.

The first thing I saw on getting into Windows was a dialog box from a utility called System Doctor. It claimed to be scanning for viruses and malware and had a short list of found items already displayed. A quick internet search (on another computer, naturally) brought to light the information that this software actually installs viruses and malware rather than fighting it. Hmmm. The last time I saw this computer, System Doctor was not on it. Of course I removed it and 33 other viruses and 800 other instances of malware to get the PC back up and running.

Where did System Doctor come from? As it turned out, my client’s wife decided that she needed to get something to combat viruses. She saw System Doctor advertised as a free solution and immediately downloaded and installed it. Rather than helping her out, the program made things progressively worse.

The lesson can be hard to learn: don’t download and install anything that advertises itself as a security solution. Do some research first, or give me a call. I’m happy to point you to security software that actually works as advertised, whether free or not.

I’ve been coming across a good number of PCs with expired security subscriptions lately. One client had a computer with Norton Antivirus 2004 on it, but expired by nearly 2 years. The result? 53 instances of viruses and trojans, making the cleanup complex and lengthy. These bad seeds also brought in a good bit of spyware - over 200 instances of it, with over 5oo instances of adware on top of that. To say this PC was running slow would be exaggerating; it was glacial until I eliminated the malware and deleted temporary files from various locations.

And this has not been an unusual case. It’s typical of what I’ve been seeing lately, especially on computers that are more than two years old. If you currently have antivirus/security software that you’re happy using, don’t let the subscription lapse - renew it before it expires or you may end up with an unusable computer on your hands.

If you’re not happy with your security software, shop around for a better fit. Many of my clients like Grisoft AVG (www.grisoft.com or free.grisoft.com), which is available as both a free version and a paid version for consumers, and others have had an excellent experience with NOD32 (www.eset.com). The advantage of these products over Symantec/Norton and McAfee is that they do not slow down your system to nearly the same degree while providing excellent protection.

Don’t forget to supplement your antivirus product with one or two good antispyware applications. It’s hard to say which is best since spyware is constantly “improving” and the antispyware products are hard-pressed to keep up. This means that the product that seems to do the best job today is likely to be superseded by another tomorrow. I find that decent base-level protection can be achieved by installing Microsoft’s Windows Defender (go to www.microsoft.com and click on the Security link to download it). But it’s important to add another antispyware program to catch more of the nasties. At the very least, download and install AdAware (www.lavasoft.com) or Grisoft AVG-Antispyware (www.grisoft.com or free.grisoft.com). For more robust protection, you may want to check out Webroot Spy Sweeper (www.webroot.com) or PC Tools Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com).

Of course, letting your Windows Update lapse is not a great idea either. Windows Update patches Windows security flaws found by Microsoft and others. Viruses and other malware take advantage of unpatched machines to infect them. The result can be identity theft, the use of your computer to infect other machines, or the loss of data.

So get on top of things and keep your computer secure! If you need help locking down your computer and eliminating malware, contact me right away.

As I mentioned at a recent LeTip meeting, more and more Dell Dimension computers that were new 3 to 5 years ago are ending up on my workbench due to system board or hard drive errors or failures. One failure I’ve been seeing with increasing frequency is the network interface module on the motherboard corrupting or failing. In most instances, it’s a small matter to throw in a PCI network interface card, but it is indicative of a motherboard on its way to the recycling center. It’s clearly time to start budgeting for a new box.

I’m recommending that my clients with these PCs should start considering purchasing new computers or, if they have specific needs, have me build a custom PC for them. Both Dell and HP make decent consumer-level and business-class Windows PCs, but with Gateway having recently been purchased by Acer, I’m pointing people away from Gateway until things settle down there.

When it comes to notebooks/laptops, if you’re on the road a lot you should get a Lenovo ThinkPad, which holds up better than most notebooks on the market. If you don’t travel a good deal, then both Dell and HP are good bets. Sony and Toshiba laptops are good, too, but don’t age as well.

If you have any questions about how to find the right replacement computer for your aging machine, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll point you in the right direction and will gladly help you with transferring your data from your old PC to your spanking new computer.