Sometimes you get what you pay for (copyright Mark Weinstein @ http://prometheuscomic.wordpress.com/2007/10/ )

We have recently had a customer that had a friend help him out with some minor computers problems. This friend that is a tech guy for his company said, lets just save your data and wipe the computer and start over fresh and clean. While most of the time this is an extreme approach, but often does fix misc software issues. However, the friend bailed after that and didn’t load much of the needed software, and also messed up numerous important settings.
So the person that would become our customer, called his tech friend seeking additional help. However, the tech friend is now nowhere to be found. Thus we received a call asking for true professional assistance. We of course were able to get his computer repaired and completely back up and running after a reversing some of the damage or incomplete work that had been done. If we had been the first call and not the friend, we may have been able to get the computer repaired with less work.

And while we are on the subject, sometimes you get what you pay for when it comes to free software vs paid for software. A customer recently required viral cleaning assistance after her computer became infected with a dreaded rouge fake antivirus. We had helped her with a similar infection about a year before. At that time, we encouraged her to purchase and install Vipre antivirus. She politely declined and opted for the protection of a very popular free antivirus program. Perhaps if Vipre was protecting her, she may not have had this second infection. Moreover, $30 for Vipre may have saved her not only from needing our assistance, but the headaches and downtime associated with another infection.

Now the last thing we want to encourage is inaction or panic on the part of our readers and customers. We highly encourage you all to experiment with potential software, and if you think you might be able to repair something the go for it! We are here for you if you need us and in most cases there is nothing you can mess up that we can’t fix. But perhaps you may want to have give us a call before hand in case we have any advice for you. In both of these cases, our customers have learned a valuable lesson, sometimes free costs more!

Check out our very own Chief of Computer Medicine’s interview with local NBC news 12′s Gray Hall.

see the full news article on NBC new 12′s site

“I want to thank Gray and NBC 12 for the opportunity to share vital information with the good people of Richmond. In addition to what was mentioned in the story and what Irony mentioned, it is also very important to make sure your windows security updates, adobe flash and acrobat reader and your java plug-in are up to date. These are critical weak points that need stay updated. ”

Thank you
Kevin Boynton
Chief of Computer Medicine
The Computer Doctor of Richmond

Be sure to tune into NBC 12 news at 6pm on Wednesday the 16th and see our very own Chief of Computer Medicine, Kevin Boynton talk about scare-ware infections.  He was interviewed for a news piece on fake anti-virus infections, scare-ware tactics and methods to try an protect yourself.

We have just built a new link for all the software we recommend on a regular basis. We will be updating this often as we discover new tools to help make your computer life easier and less stressful. You can find great links to the industry leading antivirus software Vipre and excellent data back up software, Mozy. Just hit the Software link at the top of this page to learn more. And as always, if you have questions, just hit us up with a quick email. We’re always happy to help!

Earlier this week the top google listing when you searched for “dancing with the starts 2010 line up” was a hostile site that would try and infect you with a fake antivirus.  We’ve of course talked about these nasty things before and service computers with them all the time.  This is just another prime example of how these infections get out into the wild.  It also goes to show you that the bad guys are very good at search engine optimization.

These fake anti virus (rogue infections as they are properly known) try to hold your computer hostage and scare you into buying protection when they tell you that your system is infected with numerous viruses.  Cleaning these virus infections are actually one of the most common type of services we are now performing at The Computer Doctor of Richmond.  We typically see about half a dozen per week.  They can infect your computer a multitude of ways.  For instance, you google something innocent like Dancing with the Stars and next thing you know you’re getting a box popping up saying you’re infected.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to realize that you MUST have good antvirus protection.  However, that is not always enough.  In fact, many of the computers we clean, the users had current protection.  They often have either Norton or McAfee.  However, we have found that neither of those do a very good job anymore.  If you’re looking for a good antivirus, we recommend Vipre.  However, we also recommend installing Web Of Trust.  WOT is one more layer of great protection that is free.  Read more about it here.

Bottom line, be careful with your googling and let us know if we can help.