free and functional software

i think i blogged about this before, but it was a long time ago in an operating system far far away (windows ME). i've had enough friends come up with problems and thought i would just make mention of a few great FREE products that might help get your PC clean and help it stay that way.

the links listed below are all directly to the software owner's websites, but always be careful when searching for free products. many times you'll find that the good products will have clones, imitations and fakers just waiting for someone to come along and download the wrong thing, almost always causing more problems than they promise to solve. if you're just not sure, cnet.com has been a very good website for me. they verify all software that is hosted on their server and i have yet to download anything through them that caused me any problems.

before installing alot of new software, i would recommend that you go into your system restore and manually create a restore point. this is supposed to be automatic, but during the last infection of my PC, the virus managed to disable this making it impossible for me to restore my computer to a previous point. meaning, it's not a must, but it sure couldn't hurt.

on most XP computers (sorry, no windows 7 yet), you can get there from the start menu, by bringing up the help program. if there's another way, i haven't found it yet. i use the search bar to find system restore. i select 'system restore' and the option to create a new point will be there. click on 'create new system restore point' and follow the prompts and you're done.



AVG Antivirus
i've been using this little booger for going on 10 years from the advice of a rather technicalogically endowed friend (geek for short) and it has always worked better for us than norton or mcaffee and there's no purchase fee or any fees for updates or license renewals. it's only failed me a couple of times with some rather pesky and unrelenting viruses.
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free



Ad-Aware Free
this is a great program to run weekly or monthly or whatever you like in addition to your anitvirus to find trojans and hijackers and get them off your computer. the license is completely free. i've been using it for nearly 10 years and i think it's a terrific product.
http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php



Spybot Search & Destroy
another good free trojan removal tool. it doesn't often find something that avg or adaware didn't catch, so it's probably not really necessary, but i like to keep my bases covered.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html



Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
this is a new acquisition. i'm not as familiar with its abilities to do the job, but it's reputed to be one of the best by all the geek forums and by another good (geek) friend of mine.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/



Zone Alarm Firewall
this little booger is great. XP has one of these built in, but the reason i like zone alarm is the interaction between the user and the PC. if something on your computer tries to communicate with the web, you get prompted. you can either block or allow one time, or you can choose to do the action 'always'. the windows built in, only allows the 'always' option. this extra feature by zone alarm comes in handy, when you don't know exactly what it is trying to talk to the web. sometimes something will pop up and you'll think you want to block it, because you don't recognize the name and you'll block it which might cause your newly installed software not to function properly. if you're using windows firewall, you have to go into the firewall and find the setting and change it back, but with zone alarm you can just block it once and then when the program fails, you can restart the failed program and zone alarm will prompt you again at which time you can allow it. you can also choose to only allow connectivity as a one time only option for certain web connections to prevent anyone hijacking on the connection later. i've only had one problem with it. hubby likes to play on a certain game server which is incompatible. i have to turn it off when he's there, otherwise, this little gem works like a charm.
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/free-upgrade-security-suite-zonealarm-firewall.htm



CCleaner
this handy little tool includes an ADD/REMOVE programs and a disc cleanup function just like windows, but in my opinion it's more efficient and easier to use. many times when ADD/REMOVE wasn't working properly, this software was able to get the job done.

it also has another handy feature. it will clean up the leftovers from your registry that are often missed during an uninstall.

all of these features can really help to improve the efficiency and speed of your PC and keep the memory clean for future storage as well.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

new low

i get scam emails all the time and a friend of mine was even taken in by one, a long time ago. wound up costing around $5000 and the threat of prosecution for fraud.

the email I received today hits an all new low, but it works the same way...

Dear Brother in Christ,

I am Rev Greg Mark.Unfortunately, we are unable to help you. Our church states that we can
only do business with other members. If you were a member that would be one thing but since
you are not, there is nothing that I or anyone can do here. Sorry about that.

If you wanted to become a member, there may be a great many opportunities to do something
together, including helping you with your affairs.

Recently, our church was all set to begin an expansion into West Africa, Nigeria to be
exact. A member of only one month had promised to help us start a new congregation in Lagos.
He had completed all of the necessary steps to begin and was about to receive an initial
$5,000.000.00 to get started. Then, without warning, we never heard from him again. This was a great disappointment for us. If you wanted to take his place, we would be very eager to talk to you about that.

Let me know if this would be something that you would be interested in send me an email or call me through my cell phone - 17183548913.

Best regards,

Rev Greg Mark.

for anyone who has never seen this sort of thing, the methods used by this particular scam are very tempting. they offer to send you money and they really do in the form of a check. then they ask you to send them money for some contrived reason...to forward to a clerk or pay for services rendered or whatever, but it's usually only a portion of what they send you. so you wind up with money in your pocket and they get some cash from you...the catch is...it's a bad check and you're stuck holding the bag for cashing a fraudulent check and the sender (usually out of country and untraceable) has your cash. this friend of mine cashed at least 3 checks via this method before the bank put a stop to it.

some of these letters are more obvious than others, but they all amount to the same sort of thievery and should be filtered, ignored and/or sent to the authorities whenever possible.

if you, or someone you know has ever been taken in by something of this nature, you can contact the FBI internet fraud division to make a claim. this is a good step to take to be sure the victim is not made the criminal.

e-card scam

I received this email today. my email client and antivirus found a virus attached.

Hallmark.comShop OnlineHallmark MagazineE-Cards & MoreAt Gold Crown
You have recieved A Hallmark E-Card.

Hello!

You have recieved a Hallmark E-Card from your friend.

To see it, check the attachment.

There's something special about that E-Card feeling. We invite you to make a friend's day and send one.

Hope to see you soon,
Your friends at Hallmark

Your privacy is our priority. Click the "Privacy and Security" link at the bottom of this E-mail to view our policy.

Hallmark.com | Privacy & Security | Customer Service | Store Locator



Viruses found in the attached files.
The file postcard.zip: Trojan horse SpamTool.BZK. The attachment was removed from the mail.

Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.12/1597 - Release Date: 8/7/2008 5:54 AM

Xanga Archives 11/08/2006

Have They NO Shame?

I received the following email this morning. I get these things all the time. I stand amazed at how little shame people in our world have today. Everyone is a scam artist and noone cares about anyone but themselves and how they can benefit from the loss or expense of another. I wanted to post this just to give everyone a heads up in case you've received something similar and were not sure of it's validity. I know someone who was taken in by a similar scam using a foreign internet lottery as their bait. They could've been charged with felony theft, but were blessed enough to have a fraud claim instead; however, they were still responsible to make good on all monies taken to the tune of $3000. If you receive an email and it seems to good to be true - IT IS. The Lord can make miracles happen, but they won't come in the shape of lottery or a scam artist.

NOTE: All typos were pasted from my email directly as typed. I made no changes.

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Email - dated 11/08/2006

From: Mrs dominic walker
E-mail: dominicwalker_0@yahoo.com

Dear Friend,

My name is Mrs dominic walk am 75yrs old of age, i stay in new york city, USA.I am a good merchant, I have several industrial companies
and good share in various banks in the world.I spend all my life on investment and coporate business. all the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occur in November 5th 2003.

I am a very greedy woman with all cost i dont know much and care about people, since when I have an experience of my it difficult to sleep and give rest. later in the year 2004 Febuary i was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal Doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon.I found it uneasy to survive myself, because a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again. I quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.He minister to me to share my properties ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that need money/ business woman and man for their investment and for future rising. So i am writing this letter to people who really need help from me both student in college, to contact me urgently. so that i can make available preparation on that.especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding theirself. please contact me and stop weeping. probably let me now what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orhanages homes near your town. now am so much with
God, am now born again. May you be blessed, as you reach me,please to remind you, dont belongs to scammers or any act of fraudlent on
internet. I will give more information to you as i await your response immediately.

Respond to me throught this email address dominicwalker_0@yahoo.com
Best Regards

Mrs dominic walker

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Everyone Be Blessed.