Avast Free Anti-Virus

Posted on October 9, 2009 by admin

avast-logo

We’ve talked about AVG Free Anti-Virus on the blog before. We haven’t talked about Avast however, which is another alternative to the expensive Anti-Virus products from Norton and McAfee.

Avast is quickly becoming one of the most popular free anti-virus products on the market.

The producers claim that Avast is:

The most popular free antivirus with more than 80 000 000 registered users. Perfect for people who send e-mails and surf popular websites, but do not store any sensitive data on their computers.

Although we mainly install AVG Free edition on the computers we repair (if there is no anti-virus already installed) a number of our customers have requested Avast by name.

We’d always recommend that any customer that uses a free anti virus, also considers a software firewall (such as ZoneAlarm basic firewall) as this will provide added protection from trojans, malware, viruses or spyware.

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How a laptop DC socket/jack is repaired

Posted on October 9, 2009 by admin

Have a look at this fantastic video from youtube.com:

It shows the exact same process that we go through when replacing a DC (power) socket on a customer’s laptop. As you can see, it’s quite a lengthy process, that involves the removal of the laptop’s motherboard. We normally can carry out work like this for around £40, depending on the price of the socket itself.

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Reading Mac OS X Drives from Microsoft Windows

Posted on August 25, 2009 by admin

hero_bootcamp

If you use Boot camp to run Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX on your Mac, you may have discovered that you cannot easily share files between the two systems.

There is a technical reason for that – Mac OS X can read and write drives formatted using FAT and FAT32 (like USB thumb drives) and it can read (but not write) drives formatted using NTFS (most Windows hard drives)

However, Microsoft Windows cannot read Apple’s HFS+ disk format. Fortunately, there is a free Open Source utility that can help out with that problem: HFS Explorer

It was designed for use for Mac owners who use Boot Camp to dual boot between Mac OS X and Windows.

Here is how to set it up:

1. Download the installer from the HFS Explorer site.

2. Install the program by double clicking on the file you have downloaded.

3. The default installer options are fine, and will register the .dmg file extension, so Apple Disk Images can be opened automatically.

4. Start the program. When I first started HFS Explorer, it complained that MSVCR71.dll was missing. If you get this error, download this zip file and extract the DLL file to your Windows system32 directory (click Start > Run and type %systemroot%\system32 if you are unsure where this is)

5. You will see the main HFS Explorer window:

MWSnap062

6. Click File and then Load file system from device. The following window will appear:

MWSnap064

7. Click Autodetect. After a short delay, your HFS partition should be detected. Click Load.

8. Your mac files will be displayed in the main HFS Explorer window. You can copy files from HFS Explorer to your Windows hard drive by dragging and dropping them from the HFS Explorer window.

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Conficker Virus – Think you have it?

Posted on April 6, 2009 by admin

biohazard

The Conficker virus has to be one of the most difficult to get rid of. But how can you quickly diagnose if you have it?

There are some well known signs:

  • Windows Update and Automatic Updates are blocked
  • System Restore has been turned off
  • You cannot access anti-virus websites (such as Symantec, McAfee, AVG etc.)

There is now also an even quicker way: Click Here

Think you might be infected?

Symantec’s got a pretty simple (and free) tool specifically for Conficker: Download this file on an uninfected computer, follow the steps, and you should be okay.

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Installing Ubuntu 8.04 on a Viglen MPC-L

Posted on February 10, 2009 by admin

minipc

The Viglen MPC-L (<– PDF link) is a low powered (both in terms of CPU speed and power consumption) compact computer.

They are extremely similar to the Linutop machine (i.e. identical) and are actually an FIC ION 503 under the hood.

It comes preinstalled with xubuntu, a version of ubuntu that substitutes the gnome window manager with XFCE.

Better still, email Duncan Hargreaves at Viglen (tell them the ubuntu podcast sent you) and you can pick one up for a mere £79.

If like us, you are a stickler for utilising similar OS environments for support reasons (including the window manager) then a full install of ubuntu is the way to go.

Other than gnome, a newer version of ubuntu is necessary for long term support – the version of xubuntu preinstalled on the MPC-L is 7.04 which is now end of life. This means no more automatic updates (in fact, these result in a 404 error…)

Beyond the software, the hardware has a couple of foibles, which we will need to work around for ubuntu to boot properly. ACPI support is non existent, and the BIOS does not appear to be PNP compliant.

The installation process for Ubuntu 8.04 is thankfully simple. (You will need a USB CD drive to carry this out)

1. Attach the CD drive via the rear USB ports on the MPC-L. The machine will not boot from a device attached to the front ports.

2. Check the BIOS boot order – ensure USB CD-ROM drive is higher on the list than IDE HDD.

3. Restart the machine with the ubuntu installation CD in the CD drive

4. When you hit the main installation menu, press F4 and ensure ACPI=OFF is selected (with a small x)

5. Install as normal beyond this point – selecting keyboard language and location etc.

BE WARNED: The installation will take a very long time – approx 2-3 hours

6. Upon restart, you need to edit the GRUB boot string, so ACPI is off. Edit the first ubuntu 8.04 entry on the grub list. One of the entries looks contains the line “UUID=xxxxxxx” where the ‘x’ are hexadecimal characters. Append this line, adding:

pnpbios=off pci=noacpi

Then press enter to save the entry.

7. Press ‘b’ to boot from the edited entry.

8. Upon logging into gnome for the first time, you will need to update (if only for the updated graphics driver which will allow resolutions over 800×600 – the key package is available here (xserver-xorg-video-amd))

9. You will need to permanently edit your GRUB list, to avoid having to edit the line (as per step 6) on every boot. The file is located at /boot/grub/menu.lst. Edit this with gedit or similar (from terminal: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst) and then run: sudo update-grub from the terminal.

10. That’s it! A fully working installation of ubuntu hardy!

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Enable DVD Playback in Ubuntu – Fast

Posted on January 7, 2009 by admin

It’s a pain that ubuntu does not play DVDs ‘out of the box’ as it were.

To fix this, quite simply, open a terminal session and type:

    • sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3
    • sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

      That should be it!

      Note that the DVD decrypting tool you’re installing is not licensed or supported by ubuntu, so tread carefully. I have never experienced any issues with the above commands however.

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      Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

      Posted on November 4, 2008 by admin

      This handy utility removes a variety of different viruses and malware, and is available free!

      Here is a list of some of the viruses it can remove.

      Some key features:

      • Support for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.
      • Light speed quick scanning.
      • Ability to perform full scans for all drives.
      • Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Protection Module.
      • Database updates released daily.
      • Quarantine to hold threats and restore them at your convenience.
      • Ignore list for both the scanner and Protection Module.
      • Settings to enhance your Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware performance.
      • A small list of extra utilities to help remove malware manually.
      • Multi-lingual support.
      • Works together with other anti-malware utilities.
      • Command line support for quick scanning.
      • Context menu integration to scan files on demand.

      The program is available now from Malwarebytes

      Of course, not all viruses are that easy to eliminate. Give us a call if you just can’t get rid on 0800 7879 258 for some free advice, or to arrange an appointment.

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      How-To: Install a Graphics Card in Your PC

      Posted on October 27, 2008 by admin

      Tiger TV have an easy to follow walkthrough on installing a new graphics card into your PC:

      Both Maplin and Insight are good places to buy a graphics card – Insight is a little cheaper than Maplin also (if you are prepared to wait for the card to be delivered!):

      Of course, if you aren’t confident, or just can’t get it working – give us a call on 0845 310 2750 for some free advice or to arrange an appointment.

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      Alternatives to Microsoft Office

      Posted on October 27, 2008 by admin

      openofficelogo

      Sun Microsystems have now released v3.0 of their popular ‘OpenOffice.org’ productivity suite. It’s a fantastic alternative for current users of Microsoft Office, or those who wish to have the functionality of the Microsoft Office suite, but do not like the high pricetag.

      It has compatibility with all the Microsoft Office file types (including new .docx for Microsoft Word 2007)

      Installation of OpenOffice.org is easy – follow the links below for walkthroughs:

      For online only use, perhaps consider Google Docs – you can download and upload files from here also, meaning that at a push, you could use it to edit a file where you do not have your normal office suite installed.

      There is a huge list of other alternatives at wikipedia – our preference definitely lies with OpenOffice.org however.

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      Using a BlackBerry with ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

      Posted on October 25, 2008 by admin

      Mad Analogy has a nice walkthrough on how to charge or backup your BlackBerry device under Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. This also works fine on Hardy Heron 8.04.

      Barry, the software package he reccomends installing can also be installed by double-clicking on the RPM files that are available on the SourceForge.net site for the tool:

      http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=153722

      You will need to download and install the following packages:

      barrybackup-gui_0.14-0_ubuntu804_i386.deb
      barry-util_0.14-0_ubuntu804_i386.deb
      libbarry0_0.14-0_ubuntu804_i386.deb
      libbarry-dev_0.14-0_ubuntu804_i386.deb
      libopensync-plugin-barry_0.14-0_ubuntu804_i386.deb

      Which some may find a little easier than the normal apt-get malarkey!

      Link to Mad Analogy walkthrough:
      http://www.madanalogy.com/2007/10/blackberry-support-in-ubuntu-gutsy.html

      Posted in blackberry, hardware, software, ubuntu | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment