Pop-Ups are web pages that open without being intentionally opened. Often times when a visitor opens a site, and one or more additional windows open blocking your view of the site you intended to view. These are pop-ups. There are also "pop-unders", which are similar, except they open behind the window you want instead of in front it. Pop-ups often contain advertisements or "free" special offers.
Security Warning
This is an example of a legitimate security warning that
you could click "Yes" to:
If you notice; the name of the company distributed by is "Macromedia, Inc."
Also important to note is that "Verisign" has signed the certificate, not
Macromedia. You
should always be suspicious of companies who sign their own security
certificates.
"Spy-Ware" is software that is installed on a users computer, usually without their knowledge, designed to record the users internet surfing habits or worse. By recording your internet surfing habits advertisements can be more specifically targeted toward the user. Spy-ware can also be used to steal passwords and email addresses from your computer, or even use computer, while connected to the internet, as a "hop" for delivering viruses, hacking or sending spam.
Search Bar Companions example location:*
Notice the location of the "Yahoo! search companion" Just under
the address bar. Other toolbars will
appear next to the address bar or above the address bar. These toolbars
tend to be the source of pop-ups
and can generally cause internet slowness as well as general computer slowness.
For specific reasons why
they cause general slowness (particularly for dial-up users) please give us
a call.
* This picture was cropped from Yahoo!'s website and is not property of Next
Generation Computer Consulting, Inc.
Defragmenting your hard drive will ensure good use of your computers available storage space. A little background; I will use an analogy to make it easy to understand for beginners. Your Hard Drive is were everything on your PC is stored (semi-permanently). Picture your Hard Drive as a bookshelf full of reference books. Each time you buy a book for your library (software) you put it on the shelves (install it). If you simply put the books on as you get them, you may have books about cars, trees and animals next to each other. For example two car books next to one tree book followed by one car book next to four animal books and so on. Once the book shelf starts filling up the books are all intermingled, this is the way software is installed. Defragmenting your hard drive would be like putting all of the car books together as well ass all of the tree books together and so on. Making it easy to access each category of books without shuffling through other books first. Similarly, your programs will be more easily accessed by your computer after Defragmenting.
Windows Update is a FREE service offered by Microsoft for users of Windows. This update is used for supplying critical and recommended add-ons to Windows. We recommend that people use this monthly or weekly.
Scandisk is a utility in Windows that looks at the files on your Hard Drive and makes sure that system files and registry files are in proper shape. Running a scandisk can sometimes fix problems before and/or after they start.
Viruses are software written with the intentions of abusing your computer, whether it is crashing your system or using it's resources to attack other systems, viruses can cost you data and money.
Lock your computer this is accomplished by
pressing the CTRL + ALT + DEL keys at the same time and choosing the "Lock
Computer" button. This will force a user to enter your password to gain
access to the PC again.
Firewalls - are either software or hardware devices designed to prevent un-authorized access to your computer by internet abusers. The Symantec company offers a "Norton Personal Firewall" software that does a good job. Windows XP has a built in firewall that can be enabled (for instructions please contact us 570.501.2581). Hardware firewalls are also available from many companies such as Linksys and Netgear.
Hacking - is when an un-authorized user attempts to view information on a computer for their own personal knowledge. Sometimes this knowledge can be used in a bad way such as; stealing passwords, delivering viruses and distributing spam or other un-wanted junk to other PCs across the Internet.
Screen Savers are used to prolong the life of a monitor. If a monitor stays on for too long with the same stationary picture on it, eventually the monitor look hazy, shadowed and illegible. Screen Savers are sometimes entertaining and can be personalized to display the time or a message that you choose.