Preemptive Protection from Conficker

Thankfully April 1st has passed and there hasn’t been a peep out of the ominous Conficker Worm.  With close to 4% of the world’s PCs infected by the worm, it is important to take preemptive steps to insure that your PCs and/or networks are protected from the source of the spread, primarily rouge domain names which have a tendency to infect.  It is also imperative that you implement the critical patches that Microsoft has been releasing in order to combat the spread of Conficker, also referred to as Downadup.

Here are a few steps to help slow down the wave of Conficker infections:

1. Add the Conficker domain blocklist to your home or office network.  Simply add the blocklist domains to your router.  The most reliable block list can be found at F-Secure.
2. Make sure you are machine is applying critical updates to your Windows operating system.  If you are not sure than run Windows Update from your start menu and apply any critical patches.
3. If you are a network administrator implement security policies that disable auto run features for your users and try to keep memory stick usage to a minimum.  Many times your users will accidentally walk Conficker into the building without even knowing it.
4. Consistently run your Anti-Virus software and make sure your definitions are being updated regularly.

Implementing these four critical steps will reduce your Conficker susceptibility significantly.  No one knows for sure what the Conficker Worm will do in the end, but preemptive protection and prevention is really the best policy in the meantime.

Remedy for that Slow PC

There is nothing sweeter than a smooth running PC.  No crashes, fast access to files, and responsive internet browsing.  Inevitably, overtime your computer seems to lose its pep.  Everything slows down a bit or comes to grinding halt.  To keep your PC running smoothly it is best to proactively maintain your hard drive and registry.

When it comes your hard drive, make sure you run a periodic defrag.  Right click on the hard drive in My Computer and chose properties-tools-defrag.  Disk defrag will analyze your drive and let you know whether or not a defrag is necessary.  Running chkdsk periodically will also increase longevity and responsiveness.  Run windows update periodically as well and load the critical updates.

When it comes down to responsiveness, there is nothing more important than maintaining a healthy registry.  Your registry is the nuts and bolts of your operating system and the main culprit when it comes to a slow PC.  Every time you install an application that application gets embedded in your registry.  When you uninstall an application usually remnants of that app. remain in your registry and impact performance.  CCleaner is a great application for cleaning out those old remnants.  Just make sure you utilize the backup tab in cleaner before deleting registry components.  Once you’ve gotten rid of old registry values your PC will definitely run smoother.

Last, but not least, make sure you are consistent with virus and spyware scans and keep definition files up to date.  Proactively addressing your system before things get sluggish will keep you PC running like new and keep you out of the repair shop.  Happy Computing!

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Creating Quality Gmail™ Signatures

I was talking to a customer the other day about the monetary and logistical benefits of cloud computing and how Gmail™ is an incredible e-mail client for the workplace.  He agreed about the benefits of the cloud, but took issue with Gmail™.  He loves Gmail™, but the lack of e-mail signatures in the interface drove him from Google Apps™ entirely.  I must admit that quality e-mail signatures are a key component of business communications in this web 2.0 world of ours.  Long story short there is a solution to the signature dilemma,  Blank Canvas.

Blank Canvas has designed a phenomenal plugin for generating high quality HTML signatures for your GMAIL™.  You run 5 or 6 mail accounts through your GMAIL™ account?  No problem, this Firefox Plug-in allows you to create a unique signature each one of your accounts.  You need a a couple of different signatures for each account?  No problem, the plug-in allows you to generate up to 4 unique signatures for each account.  A job well done!  No more arguing about the lack of features in Gmail™.  Now its got ‘em all.

Features:

• Works for Compose Mail, Reply, and Forward
• Support for one or multiple email addresses
• Create a different signature for each email address you use in your Gmail account
• Supports up to four signatures per address
• Real-time signature preview while editing signature HTML
• Signature automatically inserted into message above (or optionally below) quoted text
• Support for special characters
• Easy setup and configuration interface

Free up some space on your hard drive and move on over to the cloud!