PC Technologies - On-site Maryland Computer Repair Service

Does your cell phone service get worse when contract is about to expire??

PC Technologies — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:54:51 GMT

So, our ATT phones have been acting up the past few months....our two
year contract is almost over. I really believe they reduce signal to
people about to expire their contracts. Then they can say it's the
phone, not the service. Then when you get a new phone they throttle
your signal back up. Amazing that it's been bad service for two
months, then I called yesterday and yelled at them for a hour and was
cancelling my service when the rep offered me $40/month off my bill
for three months. So I said OK. Now today, both of our phones are
working perfectly!

I have been told, by a valid source, that utility companies to
throttle down your signal when your contract is close to expiration!!
Notice how they always offer you an "early upgrade option" to get a
new phone. Something to think about.....

Maximizing Internet Explorer when opening

PC Technologies — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:39:00 GMT

Do you ever get frustrated opening internet explorer and having to click on the maximize button each time? Here is one fix that will help you out! Open IE, hold down the control key and don't let go! Maximize the program, then close the program. Let go of the control key. Open IE as you normally would.....and ta-da your window should open maximized!!

Comcast - How to block those annoying telemarketing calls

PC Technologies — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:51:00 GMT

If you subscribe to Comcast Voice, there maybe a feature you have and don't even know about - Call Filter. Simply dial *60 from your home phone and activate the service, which is free. Follow the voice prompts to add numbers to the list. Do not dial "1", but must use a 10 digit number. If you dial a "1" the system will not accept the number. When you are done, all those numbers you entered will never bother you again

Google 411 - Google's new information service

PC Technologies — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:40:00 GMT

1-800-GOOG411

Call this number for toll free information service. It's like having the Yellow Pages wherever you go! Call connect is free as well!

How to change the default shutdown option on Windows Vista

PC Technologies — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:47:00 GMT

How many people are tired of clicking the shutdown menu on Vista and have "standby" come up instead "shutdown"? If you're like me this starts to get annoying. Here's an easy way to change it!!

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click on System and Maintenance
3. Click on Power Options
4. Click on Change Plan Settings for the power plan you have selected
5. Click on Change advanced power settings
6. Click on Power buttons
7. Click on Start Menu power button

Relay for Life Donations

PC Technologies — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:40:00 GMT

Click here to donate a gift to the American Cancer Society

Click above to enter site. From there you can click underneath of the "thermometer" to donate a gift. This is in memory of my fiance's mother who passed away from cancer about 5 years ago. Thank you everyone for your support! PC Technologies is involved with this foundation year round. If you are interested in joining the team, please feel free to email us anytime!

Windows 7 - We want to hear from you!

PC Technologies — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:21:00 GMT

So, now it's your turn! Those of you lucky enough to try the beta version, we would love to hear your experiences with Windows 7. The good and the bad.

Conficker Worm - April Fools Day Joke?

PC Technologies — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:18:00 GMT

Computer experts watched warily today as a virus infecting millions of PCs activated itself as predicted on April 1.

But fears of internet chaos have proved unfounded – so far – as machines infected with the "Conficker" worm tried to establish a link to command servers as expected from midnight to no ill effect.

With April Fool's Day already nearly over in the Far East, where the majority of infected computers are located, internet security experts reported that no new instructions have been detected from the virus's creators.

Fear of what the virus might do next has spread round the world as April 1 approached – the date when Conficker was scheduled to use local time clocks to change programming. No one knows who created the virus or what they intend to do with the vast network of infected machines they, in theory, now control.

The Conficker virus started spreading late last year. At first it was a relatively simple worm but its creators issued updates turning it into a more sophisticated and resilient virus that has found new ways to spread. It has also gained the ability to shut down a computer's defences.

The programming on the latest version of Conficker tells infected machines from today to generate 50,000 new internet addresses each day that they can try and "phone home" for instructions. Previously, they had been looking for commands from just 250 sites each day. The point of the change is to make it harder for the security community to pre-register those addresses and block them.

Conficker infects machines by exploiting a weakness in Windows, the software that runs on most computers. At its peak it had compromised about 12 million PCs, although that may have fallen to about two million thanks to new security measures.

Once the worm is on a computer, that PC becomes part of a “botnet” – a network of computers that can be controlled by the virus's creator.

In the past year the virus has spread to computers in schools, hospitals and government departments. It has got into the defence forces of Britain, Germany and France, grounding the French Navy's fighter jets for a time. A leaked House of Commons memorandum revealed that the parliamentary IT network had also been infected.

One popular theory is that the makers are setting up a “computing-for-hire” scheme, where time on infected PCs is rented out. Others warn that the makers could try to steal identity data such as credit card details.

Despite lurid headlines, few security experts expected anything major to happen on April 1, speculating that the creators would probably wait until some of the attention had died down before making another move.

"These guys have been pretty smart until now — the worm is unfortunately very well done," said Patrik Runald, chief security advisor for F-Secure. "So far they haven't been stupid. So why should they start on April 1?"

Paul Ferguson, of Trend Micro, an internet security company, said that the best guess as to who was behind Conficker was a gang based in Ukraine – the first version of the virus was designed not to infect computers there.

"It doesn't seem to be doing anything right now," he said as Conficker activation made its way to the western United States. "I hope April 1st comes and goes with no trouble. But, there is this loaded pistol looming large out there even if no one has pulled the trigger."

A task force assembled by Microsoft has been working to stamp out the worm, referred to as Conficker or DownAdUP, and the US software colossus has placed a bounty of $250,000 on the heads of those responsible for the threat.

The worm, a self-replicating program, takes advantage of networks or computers that have not kept up to date with Windows security patches. Microsoft has modified its free Malicious Software Removal Tool to detect and get rid of Conficker.

Among the ways one can tell if their machine is infected is that the worm will block efforts to connect with websites of security firms such as Trend Micro or Symantec where there are online tools for removing the virus.

Cyber-criminals have taken advantage of Conficker fears to lure internet users to websites loaded with malicious software with fake promises of security tools.

Is Windows XP showing wrong time?

PC Technologies — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:23:00 GMT

Have you updated your daylight savings time profile? If your Windows computer is showing the wrong time, follow this link for the Microsoft update.

www.pctechnologiesmd.com

FileFront.com is closing its doors

PC Technologies — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:20:00 GMT

If you have any files located at filefront.com please be sure to download them before 3/30/09. They are discontinuing their services for an un-explained reason.

Beware Conficker worm come April 1, 2009 (April Fools Day)

PC Technologies — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:13:00 GMT

In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.

Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.

Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.

Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

AGAIN--PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR ANTI-VIRUS, MALWARE AND INTERNET EXPLORER SERVICES ARE ALL UPDATED!!!!!

Why is wireless network security so important?

PC Technologies — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:22:00 GMT

Why is Wireless Security Important in the Home?

Wireless security is important in the home for the same reasons why it is important in corporations. If you have an unsecured wireless network in your home, anyone in close proximity can spy on your online activities. Depending on how your home network is configured, someone could even gain full access to your computer’s hard drive over an unsecured wireless network.

Even if no one is around that wants to spy on you or perform some malicious action against you, your neighbors could sponge off of your Internet connection. This would not only deprive you of bandwidth that you are paying for, but if your neighbor conducted some illegal activity while online, it could be traced back to your network.

Right now you might be wondering what the odds are of any of these things ever happening. If you have an unsecured wireless connection, the odds of it being exploited are pretty good.

About four years ago, I was asked by one of the companies that I was writing for at the time to do an experiment to see how many wireless networks I could detect and how many of those networks were insecure. To perform the experiment, I loaded a copy of Net Stumbler onto my laptop and had my wife drive me around while I tried to detect wireless networks. During my experiment I managed to detect seven networks and none of them were secure.

Seven wireless networks certainly aren’t many, but there are several things to keep in mind. First, I live in the middle of nowhere in a rural part of South Carolina, not in a densely populated place like New York City. Second, I was using a stock Wi-Fi card without any type of external antenna. Third, I was attempting to detect wireless networks from a moving vehicle, using a Wi-Fi card that had a relatively short range. Fourth, this was four years ago.

If I detected that many wireless networks, four years ago, in the middle of nowhere, under conditions that would give me poor reception, can you imagine how many wireless networks are in use today? Wireless networks are everywhere, and the vast majority of them are insecure. In fact, as of December 2004, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of all wireless networks did not use any type of encryption. My point is that wireless networks are everywhere and the majority of them are insecure, and the bad guys know this.

Hackers routinely engage in a practice called war walking. War walking is similar to my little experiment. It’s basically a trip on foot, by car, by airplane, or what ever to try to locate wireless networks.

At first it might not seem like a big deal if a hacker knows that you have a wireless network. After all, most of your neighbors probably have wireless networks too. Besides, wireless networks have a relatively short range and it would be easy to spot someone sitting in front of your house with a laptop. The problem is that although your wireless access point may have a short range, it is possible to make a homemade antenna that can receive your network’s signal from many miles away. In fact, if a direct line of sight is available, it is possible to make a Wi-Fi antenna out of a Pringles can that can intercept a Wi-Fi signal from up to ten miles away. Hackers no longer need to sit in a car in front of your house to hack your wireless network.

Written by Brien Posey

We at PC Technologies will secure your wireless network. Give us a call today! We would love to hear from you and good advice is always free www.pctechnologiesmd.com

Wireless Network Security Key Generator

PC Technologies — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:59:00 GMT

We came across this handy WEP Generator from our friends at Werewolf Labs. We liked it so much we even put a button on our website linking to it!!!

Don't forget to bookmark our website, PC Technologies

Happy St. Patty's Day

PC Technologies — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:21:00 GMT

Welcome to our new blog!!!! Please be sure to sign up and check back often. New entries will be published when time permits

We first off, want to thank all of our customers. This would not be possible without you. After numerous suggestions we have now expanded our on-site services to Harford County and Baltimore County.

Please visit our website PC Technologies for information on what we have to offer. But don't just stop there!! If there is a service needed that is not listed, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always welcome to new ideas!!

Thank you again for your time!