On October 1st, 2011, I’ll be walking on Kaanapali Beach on Maui.  While I am doing that, those of you with custom Facebook fan page “tabs” that are not hosted on a server that has a SSL Certificate will find that their expensive custom tab is no longer displayed.

For the rest of us, this requirement by Facebook that all apps and custom fan pages be hosted on a secure server means that we will have an added layer of security as we cruise around on Facebook.  If you have bought any thing online, or if you use online banking, you have been the beneficiary of secure browsing.  Here is how you can tell if the site you are visiting is  using SSL: it will have https in the address bar and not http.  

Seems like a small change, but it is quite significant.  That little added “s” means that all traffic between your computer and the web server that you are visiting is encrypted.  Up until just recently, none of the traffic between you and Facebook was encrypted.  This was especially precarious if you were using public WiFi to access Facebook.  Coffee shops anyone?

For the owners of Facebook Custom Fan Pages, now would be a good time to get in touch with the person who built your custom tab and find out if you will be affected. If your page is using the old FBML method you are safe (unless you have an image on the page…those are hosted elsewhere) as those pages are hosted by Facebook.  But, if your custom tab has it’s own icon next to it (and not the fbml icon) you need to find out from your provider if the page is being hosted on a secure server.  Since the change takes place on October 1st, you’ve only got a few weeks to get this handled.

My guess is that you will be ok, as the designers have known about this since June.  If you have designed your own tab and are hosting it on your WordPress blog, you might be in trouble.  Facebook has precious little information on their developer site, so if you need some help on this get back to me asap…time is a-wasting!

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Tick-Tock, Facebook’s SSL requirement is coming soon. Is your page ready?

Most of my time on computers is spent on my iMac or my MacBook Pro and I am thrilled that I made the switch to Mac a few years back.

But, there are occasions when I have to use my Windows 7 desktop machine at my office. I also have Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed as “virtual PCs” by way of VMWare Fusion on both my iMac and MacBook Pro. (I also have two Windows XP laptops and my wife has a Windows XP desktop, netbook and a Win XP Virtual machine on her iMac). This means that I have to pay particular attention to keeping those Windows machines humming along.

I thought that I’d share two tools that I use to keep those PCs safe from malware and also to keep them working at peak efficiency.

The first tool is Microsoft Security Essentials. This is Microsoft’s answer to Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, Avast, AVG, et al. From the Microsoft Security Essentials website:

About Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

This is a FREE tool (in case you missed that word above!) that I have been using on my desktop and virtual machines for over a year. I also use it on my XP laptops and also on my wife’s computers. With all those copies of Windows running, it would be a small fortune to pay for anti-virus upgrades every year!

I realize that there are other free antivirus solutions available, but my thinking is that Microsoft is in the best position to understand how to best protect it’s products.

My experience so far has been excellent. Back in my Norton, Trend Micro and McAfee days (I have tried them all) I found that although the protection was great, they all slowed my system down to one degree or another. I’ve experienced no noticeable slow downs and I have had ZERO infections of spyware, virus or other malware since I installed the software. So, if your antivirus software is up for renewal, you might want to consider checking out Microsoft Security Essentials.

The other tool that I find indispensable on my Windows machines is CCLeaner. I’ve been using this little gem since it was called “Crap Cleaner”. As it gained a larger following, the folks at Piriform decided to clean up their image and changed the name to CCleaner!

Its job is to scan your hard drive and remove all of the unnecessary junk files that Windows creates and then carelessly leaves all over your hard drive. And it does it very well.

You down load it, install it and then run it. You do have to periodically remember to run it, but the actual scanning and cleaning time is measured in minutes. It’s smart to check for updates each time you run it so that you can be sure that you are using the latest information to check your computer. From the Piriform web site:

Features

CCleaner is our system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Cleans the following:

Internet Explorer:Temporary files, history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
Firefox: Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
Google Chrome: Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
Opera: Temporary files, history, cookies.
Safari: Temporary files, history, cookies, form history.
Windows: Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
Registry Cleaner: Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
Third-party applications: Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Microsoft Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…
100% Spyware FREE: This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

Both sites have extensive documentation via videos and/or screenshots and PDFs to show you how to use them, so you should have no trouble in using them

Between these two programs, (and Windows Firewall) I have had ZERO issues with my Windows computers over the past few years, which is a miracle of the highest order in my book!

What are you using to stay safe and efficient with Windows?

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Stay safe with Windows…for free!

I had a minor disaster at my casa last week in which I lost all access to a VMWare Fusion Windows XP machine. Fortunately it was quickly resolved by using a backup. That started me thinking about what I have that is NOT backed up.

All of my computers use backup drives that are physically connected to my computer. They run continuous backups and are available to move my data to another machine if I need to do so. Or, they can be used to restore missing or corrupt data.

I also use MozyHome as another way to back up data. So in theory I am covered, right?

Not so quick. What about my social sites like Twitter and Facebook? It turns out that I have not been backing those up. What if my account at either site got trashed or even worse, cancelled? How could I recover my friends lists or pictures or the content that I have posted?

To put that in perspective, at Twitter I am following over 4500 people and over 4300 are following me. Trying to restore those lists without having a back up file would be impossible. The same holds true for my Facebook account where I have over 600 friends, many Notes, a few pictures and so on.

In my research to solve this problem I ran across a service that I am using and thought that you might like to know about it too.

This is a cloud based backup service that will use your login information to go to your Twitter, Google Docs, WordPress, GMail, Facebook, Zoho, Delicious, Flickr, Basecamp or Photobucket accounts and perform daily or weekly backups of your data.

The service acts as backup program and does not actually store your data on their servers. Instead, the data is stored on the Amazon S3 Web Services Cloud, which in my opinion was a really smart move on their part. To understand why I say this, click here to read more about Amazon S3 web services.

You can also download your data to your local computer once it has been backed up. This now gives you 3 copies of your data. The original is on Twitter, Facebook, etc. But, you also have a copy on the S3 cloud and the one on your hard drive. The chance of all three failing at once are very, very small.

Finally, until January 31st, you can get an account for free. Hmmm, sounds like a good deal to me. Better click on the backupify logo in this post or just click http://www.backupify.com and sign up.

About the Author: Jerry is a 23 year veteran of the real estate industry and has done it all from listing and selling, to managing single and multiple offices.  He has been the IT Director for a major SF Bay Area company, and has also been the Training Director for another major SF Bay Area company.  In addition to writing this blog, Jerry is the Principal of Jerry Kidd Training and Consulting, specializing in showing real estate professionals how to utilize today’s exciting social tools to create and nurture relationships with home buyers and sellers.  Visit http://www.JerryKidd.com to learn more about the training and consulting services offered.

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

backupify your social content

Real estate agents are called upon to provide many services to their buyers and sellers.  The services can range from finding that perfect property for their buyers to marketing a home for their sellers.  At the end of both processes there is an escrow to manage (Hopefully!) with all of the attendant inspections, reports, issues and negotiations that go along with a successful close of escrow.

Finding buyers and sellers to work with is perhaps the most important part of a real estate agents daily life because without clients to work with, there is no need for the agent’s skill and knowledge.

Both aspects of what a successful agent does benefit from the proper use of technology tools.  Because I am a licensed broker (and am married to one) and because of my strong technology interest and background, I am often asked what tools an agent should have in their arsenal.  This post is going to look at the Top Ten Tools that I think every agent should not only have, but have mastered the use of as well.  I am going to split this into two parts, looking at 5 this week and 5 next week.

1. SmartPhones

There is no question (at least in my mind) that the telephone has been and continues to be, the most important tool that any real estate agent can have,  Today, that really means that you need to have a SmartPhone.  By that I mean a phone that can not only make and receive phone calls wherever you are, but also send and receive email and text messages.  It also needs to be able to browse the web and open common documents associated with our business, like PDF files, Word docs and photos.

According to a Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey from December 2008, (The Future of the Internet III) “The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world in 2020″.  If this is true, then your clients will not only be using this technology in their lives, they will have the same expectation of you.  It’s now time to get rid of that old cell phone that only makes calls.

2. Laptop or Netbook

Our society is one given to an on the run lifestyle, we real estate agents have to be able to match the needs of our clients.  Gone are the days when we could always meet our clients in our offices so that we could access computers, files, phones and fax machines.  Today we need to be prepared to meet with our clients on their schedules, even if that means meeting them at their work, a coffee shop, the gym or even at their son or daughter’s soccer game.

Today’s laptop computers can pack the punch of a desktop computer and can do so very affordably.  A quick check of the ad flyers in the Sunday papers turns up a number of great laptops under $2,000.00.  For information on what to look for, see my previous article http://realtytechbytes.com/what-laptop-should-i-buy-in-2008/.

A new class of portable computer has come on the scene.  This new machine is typically less than 3 pounds with a maximum screen size of 10 inches.  They are known as netbooks and are capable of handling light weight computing chores like browsing the web, updating a blog, and sending and receiving email.  Typically they are equipped with Windows XP Home, 1 Gigabyte of RAM and 80 ~ 160 Gigabyte Hard drives.  Most have built in WiFi and web cams which allow you to connect to the Internet from public WiFi spots.  The webcams will allow you to create video messages to send to clients.  One of these would serve very well for the mobile real estate agent as they would perform most necessary tasks.  I wouldn’t attempt to edit videos or do much work with photo manipulation as they are generally running hardware that is not up to the task.  The good news about these machines is that they are in the $300 to $600 price range!

3. Scanning and faxing

We live in a sea of documents.  There are contracts, reports, flyers, brochures, email and more that often have to be provided to clients for their signatures.  This works pretty well in our offices as most offices now have copy machines that can scan documents to email and or fax.  But, what do you do from the road or at your home?  This is where portable scanners come into play.

Fujitsu makes two versions of scanners that I really like.  The first is the S500 series of scanners that sit on your desktop and connect to your computer via a USB connection.  The device is capable of having 50 sheets of paper loaded into its input.  When you press the green button on the machine it connects with the computer and starts feeding each sheet of paper through it’s two-sided scan head.  The resulting file turns up in your computer’s My Documents folder as an Adobe PDF file.  If the originals are double sided, then both sides are scanned in one pass.  And, the machine also scans in color as well.  This is perfect for taking your documents and getting them into PDF format for emailing.  Fujitsu also makes a portable model, the S300 series, which has all of the same features (The input tray can only handle 10 documents at a time) yet will also fit into a briefcase making it the perfect companion to your laptop or netbook.  (There is no reason why you couldn’t use the S300 series at home as well as on the road…it is at home in either role)

This is great for getting documents to your clients that have email.  But what about those clients who only have fax?  How can you get documents form your computer to a client who wants a fax?  The answer is simple.  Use one of the online fax services like MyFax, JFax, eFax and so on.  I use MyFax and heartily recommend them.  They all work in a similar fashion.  You connect to the Internet, and then navigate to their website.  Once there you log in to your account and select send a fax.  The service allows you to create a cover sheet and then select any document on your hard drive to fax.  A few clicks and the document is on its way.  You can also get a permanent incoming fax number that your clients can use to send faxes to you.  Once a fax arrives you receive an email with a PDF attachment of what was sent.  No more tyranny of the fax machine!  For more information on the ScanSnap and MyFax, please see a previous post that goes into greater detail: http://realtytechbytes.com/your-gift-to-you/

4.  Portable printers

Occasionally you just have to print something while you are out and about.  Some clients feel better having a printed document in hand rather than just an email.  Many times I am more comfortable in reading a printed document instead of reading it on the screen.  For that reason, I believe that a printer that fits into your briefcase is a necessity.

I have been using a Canon i80 printer for about 4 years now.  It produces photo quality color prints (on photo paper) but does a very good job on documents using plain paper.  It is no speed demon, and the ink tanks are small and expensive, but it has saved my bacon on many occasions.  It is also tough enough to handle the rigors of being transported around.  It got dropped one day and exploded into a pile of printer parts.  I scooped them up and painstakingly assembled them back into a printer and when I turned it on, it worked and has ever since!  The new model is the i90.  Hewlett-Packard also makes a highly regarded portable printer, the Officejet H470wbt Mobile Printer.  It comes in 3 models.  The base model, one with battery, and one with battery and a wireless connection.  For more information, please see my previous post at:
http://realtytechbytes.com/powerful-personal-portable-printing/

5.  AirCards

Although you can find WiFi in many places these days, it is not always available in some of the places that we find ourselves needing to work. Like your client’s home!  Even if they have WiFi, do you really want to connect your computer to their network?  Attaching your computer to someone’s personal network carries the risk of catching a virus from an infected computer on their network, or worse, you delivering a virus to their computers!  You really don’t want to connect to their network and have a problem turn up for them later that they might blame you for either.

The solution is to obtain an AirCard.  This is essentially a “cell phone” for your computer.  It has its own phone number (although you will never dial it up) and it connects to a cell carrier’s digital data network.  It acts like a modem for the laptop or netbook.  Some carriers allow your SmartPhone to act like a modem (Notably AT&T does not allow the iPhone to do this) so check with your carrier to see if your phone can do this and if so what the extra data plan (if needed, as your current data plan may cover this use) will cost.

All of the major carriers offer AirCards and in most cases they are simply USB “sticks” that plug into your computer’s USB port.  They all come with software that you install and configure so that getting connected is easy once the device is set up.  From that point on you will have Internet access anywhere there is a cell signal.  It’s worth noting that the connection speed drops off rapidly in areas with weak signals, so choose your carrier based on their service area.  Some carriers offer discounts if you already have your cellular service with them, so be sure to start your investigation with your current carrier.  And take your laptop or netbook to the store with you.  Most carriers are happy to set up the AirCard for you so that it is ready to go when you leave the store.

*******

That’s it for this week.  Next week we’ll take a look at the final five Tech Tools that make the list.

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Top Ten Realtor® Tech Tools

Recently subscribers to facebook have been receiving emails from people in their networks that at first glance appear to be legitimate invitations. However, if you should click on the link in the email it will take you to a site that will attempt to install a Trojan horse program on your computer.

Should that happen your computer could be disabled, it could be used to further transmit bogus invitations, it could be searched for sensitive information, it could become a relay for spam or many other nefarious activities.

One of the joys of sites like facebook is that they allow you to connect and keep up with your networks. In an active facebook network you might expect to get several of these requests a week. More if you have a large and active network.

So, the question is how can I tell what is a legitimate request and what isn’t? And then the next question is what happens if I accidentally click on one of these links?

Let’s tackle the first question. Here is a picture of a recent Facebook invitation that leads to a Trojan site. (It’s only a picture; none of the links will work) I’ll discuss how you can use this as a model to determine what is real and what is dangerous.

Item 1: This is a legitimate Facebook sender. The problem with these Facebook invites is that the user account of some poor soul on Facebook has been hacked and is being used to send these emails directly from Facebook.

Item 2: It is coming from someone that you know so you think it’s safe to take action on the contents. This is nothing new and has been used for years by virus senders, so you should already know to be cautious when opening ANY email. Right?

Item 3: Here is where the first clue comes in to play. Notice the mis-spellings. Are you really subject to a spy camera? Probably not. This should set off your spider sense that something is wrong.

Item 4: Here is the giveaway. Starting from the left and reading to the right, we see: http://www.facebook.com/1.php?u= so far so good, but then it continues with another http://adreeanalin… This link makes you think that it goes to Facebook but it actually wants to redirect you to another web site. You should make it a practice to look at the links in these emails. If there is more than one http in a link you would be best served to NOT click on it. Instead call the sender and ask them if they sent you an invitation. You need to call your sphere more often anyway!

Items 5 an 6: These may be legitimate links, but since we have already identified this as a dangerous email, there is no reason to go experimenting. Delete the email and empty your Deleted Items Folder. Next, log in to Facebook and Open your Inbox and delete the Invitation from there as well.

But, you say, what if I mis-read this and click on it anyway?

Here is where I will answer the second question. If you have kept your computer up to date with all of the Microsoft updates, and if you have installed a modern Anti-Virus platform that also monitors your surfing activities, chances are good that you will either be warned that you are attempting to visit a dangerous web site and you will prevented form completing the action. Older Antivirus software that is kept current with updates may not warn you that you are visiting a dangerous site, but they will probably not allow the Trojan to infect your computer.

So, keep your software updated. And pay attention to what you click on. You are the best first line of defense when it comes to safe computing. By the way, be sure to have current backups of your data, if your computer does manage to get infected, sometime the only sure remedy to effect a repair is wipe off your hard drive (Or even install a new hard drive). If your data isn’t backed up, you will lose it all, which could be a real disaster.

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

facebook virus prevention tips

Lately it seems like my money runs out before the month runs out and I have been looking for ways to economize.  Being the geek that I am, I turned to the web and did some searching.  Here are some interesting web sites that I think will help you save money and maybe even put a few bucks into your pocket.

Since Halloween just happened, can Christmas be far behind?  Normally that would be good news for all of us, but this year it could be a bit tight.  Wouldn’t it be great to know about all of the coupons and rebates available at our favorite stores?  When I heard about this next site I got very excited as I have two grandsons looking for some pretty expensive gifts this year.

Check out RetailMeNot to search a database of over 20,000 online stores.  You can search by the store’s web address or by keywords.  You’ll get back a listing of any available discount codes that you can apply at the checkout page for an instant discount.

They also have print coupons that you can print out and take to a retail store.

This one is called BillShrink and this is also very exciting.  They will analyze your cell phone bill and help you make the right choices when it comes to which plan you should be using.  They also help you pick the right phone.  I started by allowing the site to upload my bill from AT&T (which they did once I gave them my login and password to the AT&T site).  30 seconds later they were showing me how to save over $700 a year based on the usage that my bill showed!  They also offer a similar service for your credit cards.

Whenever I teach my “Technology Tools for Realtors®” class and do the show and tell of all the tech tools that I have accumulated someone invariably asks if they can attend my next yard sale!  The problem is that I have never held one and my cupboards are overflowing with gear that I once used, but don’t use anymore.  This is where Gazelle comes to my rescue.

Gazelle will give you an instant quote on any tech gear that you want to sell.  If the gear qualifies (in other words they really want it) they will ship you a box to send your gear in and they will pay the shipping costs.  Once they receive it and it is in the condition that that you said it is, they pay you.

I realize that you could put the stuff on eBay or Craigslist and sell it, but this is so much easier!  I  found out that the T-Mobile Dash that I retired in favor of the iPhone is worth $73.00.  Now that is a tempting offer!

Who knows, if I sell all my old gear to Gazelle and let BillShrink save me some money on my credit cards and cell phone bills, maybe I can use RetailMeNot to save some money on my Christmas shopping this year!

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

3 money saving web sites that you have never heard of…

I’ve been on vacation since Friday afternoon. Actually, I spent all of Friday afternoon and part of Friday evening driving the 482 miles from Orinda, California to Newport Coast, California down the El Camino Real, otherwise known as US Hwy 101.

During the 7, almost 8, hour drive I had plenty of time to reflect on this week’s blog post and what I would talk about. I had several good ideas, but the most compelling idea was to recap what I have talked about to date.

When I started out to do this blog my main purpose was to show real estate agents how they could use tech tools to enhance their businesses and along the way provide better service to their clients. According to the WordPress dashboard, I have made 34 posts in 8 Categories in the 4 months that I have been blogging, and if I may be so bold as to say this, think that I have been true to my purpose.

The Categories are:

If you look through these categories, you may notice that a dominant theme is working remotely or working while mobile. This is no accident, as I believe that the future of our business lies outside of our bricks and mortar offices. The agent of tomorrow will need to bring the transaction, from end to end to the client…no matter where that may be. I have written many of my posts on that topic and you will learn about the tools that I use to work from wherever I happen to be that has an Internet connection.

So, take a few minutes and look through the categories to remind yourself of where the goodies are while I go sit by the pool!

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Technology tools for real estate agents…redux

Let’s talk about phishing.  No, not fishing with a rod, reel and some bait, but phishing where hackers try to get you to give up some personal information by exploiting a weakness in your browser or email service.

Here is how it works:

This weakness allows malicious coders to create Web sites that look exactly like legitimate sites, credit card companies, or online merchants, and ‘spoof’ the web addresses. When a user is at one of these sites and looks in the address section of IE, it will appear as if they are at that company’s site. Everything from the https:// to the little yellow padlock at the bottom of the ‘secure’ page can appear complete with the spoofed company’s web address or URL (Universal Resource Locator) in the proper places.

This means that you can no longer trust what you see in the address bar, especially if you are clicking on a link from an e-mail message or from another web site. The possibilities are endless and very dangerous for the less technical Internet going public.  The opportunity for identity theft is enormous and you should take steps to protect yourself.
Because of this latest method of tricking users into divulging personal and financial information, it is important that you do not click on any links in e-mail that supposedly come from your bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon.com or any online merchant or financial institution.

If you receive what you think is a legitimate e-mail message from one of your financial or merchant Web sites, do not click on any link in the e- mail, especially if it is asking you to update your information.

Always go to the company’s Web site manually by opening your browser yourself and typing in the actual address for the company. If the information sent in the e-mail is legitimate, then you should be able to access it through the companies Web site when you sign-in or login to your account.

If you have set up your computer to automatically download and install the weekly updates from Microsoft, then your browser has been patched so that it will show the actual address of the website that you are viewing…but the patches can’t help you if you travel to one of those sites and give up the information that are asking you to provide.

The best advice is to NOT click on links contained in emails that purport to be from you lender or financial institute.  It’s ALWAYS best to manually type in the link into your browser.

Stay safe out there!

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Let’s (not) go phishing!

Here is the Cliff Notes version for those of you in a hurry: You need one. Go get one. Stop arguing.

Now for the rest of you, we’ll start with a little trip back through time.

Back in the days when desk top computers were just starting out, they were stand alone computers connected to nothing. The only way that one computer could talk to another computer was through what came to be known as “sneaker net”. Sneaker net got its name because if I wanted to get a file from my computer to yours, I had to copy the file to a floppy and then walk it over to your machine and put the floppy in your machine and then copy the file from my floppy to your hard drive. Hence the term sneaker net. This was great from a security point of view, since my machine was isolated from yours, no harm could come to it…unless it came via floppy disks! Guess what, the juvenile minded idiots that write viruses figured out that they could disrupt my computer by getting me to use a floppy that had a virus on it. Since sneaker net was slow and limited by its very nature, the propagation of these viruses was limited.

The next evolution was modems and what came to be known as BBS or Bulletin Board Systems. In this case you would use your modem to call the modem of the BBS computer and you could read and leave messages for other computer users. The drawback here was that the popular BBS often delivered busy signals instead of the connection that we were looking for. The hackers soon found these systems and pretty soon it became possible to catch a computer virus by downloading infected files from the BBS. Propagation was faster than by sneaker net, but still very slow by today’s standards because not many people were equipped with modems, nor did they even know about the BBS in most cases, or they got busy signals when they called in.

Fast forward to today. Most American households have a computer. The majority of them are connected to the Internet via high speed access through cable or DSL. One of the things that the hackers discovered was that when people got high speed access, they often left their computers on all the time. This was a major discovery, because if a computer is on all the time and it is constantly connected to the Internet, it becomes a sitting duck for hackers to attack. If you recall the old movie about the teenager who discovered that he could get into a Pentagon computer from his bed room, you may recall that he used a computer program to sequentially dial phone numbers until he found a modem that answered. Guess what? That is a real scenario. Today hackers use a software program called a scanner that will “dial” a series of IP addresses until it finds one that is responsive. Then they switch to something called a “port scanner”. Your computer has over 65,000 Ports built into the IP protocol stack. By sequentially trying each one of them, the hacker hopes to find one that is open and responsive. Once a port is found, the hacker then tries to crack the password (if there even is one) by using dictionaries…also run by computer.

Once the hacker has access to your system, he then installs a “back door” program on your computer. The back door, rootkit, or Trojan, sits quietly waiting, listening on its port for the hacker to come calling. The Trojan allows the hacker to run scanners from your computer to attack some one else’s computer. If he is successful, the attack looks like it comes from you. Whoopee. He has the fun, and if the attacked person can successfully trace the attack back to where it came from, you are the one left holding the bag. The Trojan also has the ability to allow the hacker to do anything they want on your computer including stealing information (Quicken, banking, etc.). They could also trash your hard drive if they wished.

How do you stop this sort of thing? By installing a firewall. Firewalls come in several flavors…hardware and software, internal and external. I use both an external, hardware firewall and an internal, software firewall on my home network, and also have it installed on my wife’s network in her office.

I use a LinkSys Switch and router combination. These are under $100.00 if you shop around. In connection with the LinkSys, I use the FREE ZoneAlarm firewall from Zone Labs. I also use antivirus software as well. I update my virus signatures daily and run a virus scan several times a week, in addition to the real time virus scanning that occurs as I go about my daily business.

So, is all this necessary? Yes it is. I have examined the logs from both the LinkSys router and ZoneAlarm and have found about 5 to 10 external attacks each day! This just amazes me. I wonder what’s going on with your computer if you aren’t protected…don’t you?

One final note. The LinkSys will stop the bad guys from even seeing if there is a computer at my IP address. The ZoneAlarm will stop a Trojan from using my computer to reach out and touch someone.

So, if you don’t have a firewall and you are using DSL or Cable or T1 or other high speed access…stand by for trouble. You have been warned.

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Firewalls ~ You really, really, really need them!

So one day you go up to your computer and it is doing something weird or it’s not doing what it should be doing or something is wrong and you just have no clue what to do. You’ve even rebooted, but the problem has not gone away.  It’s now time to call  tech support…or is it?

But wait! There are a few things that you can do first to make life a little easier. In fact, it’s best to do these things way in advance of ever having to call tech support, so why don’t you do them now before you need to make that call?
First of all, have or keep good records. Buy a small copybook for each computer that you own. On the first page record the date that you bought it and what it is, i.e. Pentium III, 866 Mhz, 128 Megs RAM, etc. Copy down any serial numbers and model numbers that you can find. It will be easier to look them up here than to chase through the paper work mess that most of have called our receipts file. Make note of tech support numbers and operating system and software versions as well.

Now, this part is key: anytime that you install software, write it down in the book. Date & Time installed and the name of the program installed. Also, record the source of the software and the company who wrote it. The reason for doing this is simple. Sometimes when you install software it breaks something.

So the second thing to do is try removing the last installed software and see if that fixes the problem. Sometimes it does, and once again you don’t have to call tech support!

But, if none of this works, you have no choice, so pick up the phone and give them a call.

When you finally get through to them try not to let them know how angry you are for being on hold for so long! 
Then clearly explain what your problem is as concisely as possible. Most of the folks you get at TS are called first level support. They often don’t know much more than you and many times they will try to solve your problems by reading from a script. Keep in mind that their understanding of your problem is only as good as YOUR ability to accurately state your problem. It will be helpful to know what you were doing with the computer just prior to the problem showing up. They will need to know what you did to try to fix it and they may be interested in knowing what software you have recently installed.

The techs on Level 1 support are there to catch the easy problems and they often do, but most of them are ill-equipped to fix the really nasty problems. For that you need to “escalate” the problem to the next level, often known as Level 2.

Here you can expect to find techs that have been on the job for a while and have a good understanding of the product. They will have known what the level 1 techs have asked you to do to solve the problem, but may ask you to do some of the same things over again anyway. Don’t argue with them or cop an attitude, just do it. The old adage of you can catch more flies with sugar…holds true here as well. These people have to field a great number of calls everyday, most of which are from angry and frustrated people. Be different, be kind and you will stand out from the crowd and will get better treatment as well.

The final level is Level 3. You will rarely get to this level because this is usually just a few people who are highly trained and experienced in what they do. They get the truly baffling problems. If they can’t fix the problem, then it’s usually pack up the equipment and ship it back time!

Here’s the trick. In many cases, the first level people have no real idea what to do if the problem is not on their script. This is why you may be told to “re-install Windows”. Being told that by first level techs is inappropriate in my opinion. If you are asked to do that, ask to be escalated to the next level or ask to speak to a supervisor. In my opinion, a re-install of an operating system is warranted when your computer is so “hosed” (technical term for it’s all screwed up) that an OS re-install is the only way out. But let a level 2 tech tell you that, not a level one tech.

So that’s pretty much it.

Reboot often. Keep good records. Run error checking and Disk Defrag periodically. Keep your antivirus software up to date and scan frequently. Always scan attachments before opening. Don’t ever open attachments that have .vbs or .exe as their file extensions, unless you are absolutely certain about their origin. Call the sender and ask them “Did you mean to send me xyz.vbs file?” “What is it?” and “What does it do?” are good questions to ask as well. If they didn’t send you those files then tell them that they are infected with a a virus or a Trojan and then go delete the file they sent to you. Even if it says that Jennifer Lopez or Ricky Martin is coming over!

If your computer is a toy or is just a hobby instead of a business machine used to help you earn income, then go ahead and ignore these posts! But, if you’re like most of us, your computer is a very valuable business tool that you can’t be without.

Protect it and maintain it and your downtime will be minimal instead of catastrophic.

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Help! My Computer Crashed!!! (Part 6)