My
Maintenance
(Click for short print version)
What
maintenance? Why? Well, you maintain your car, your house, your
body, your boat, your pets, your children, your yard ..or someone does, right?
But some of us think we should be able to buy this ugly little machine, stick a
phone cord into it and sail off in a happy-ever-after cyber life, right?
Well, ha ..most of you know better ..these machines come closer to getting
pitched off balconies or into swimming pools than any other appliance. So
when it just locks up or goes black and you finally call someone (me?) the
mysteries of maintenance are revealed! You've never defragged? Your
Anti-Virus program no longer reminds you to update? Windows update?
What's that? Here's a weekly check list with detailed How To's. If
you're doing these things, then when there's a problem, the troubleshooting is
quicker and cleaner and that saves you in tech fees.
Most of what I have to say about an
Anti-Virus program is on this page. If you
print this as your maintenance reminder list remember this:
Your anti-virus program must be updated every 10 days or so. Then, your computer must be left on so it can do an automatic scan of your hard drive. If one or both of these aren't happening you are at risk. If you are keeping both up to date, and you are still suspicious, you can run the free online scan from Trend PCillan. If you are online most of the time, you might consider a software firewall. Windows XP has one you can turn on, Norton has a good one, Trend PCillan has one . and you can click here for free anti-virus and firewall links. For an office there is also a hardware setup that protects your network from Internet intrusion. Also, I've included a page with the WBlaster Worm Fix & Patch. Remember if you are still using Windows 98 or ME you are NOT vulnerable to this particular cyber-pest!
Links for Free Anti-Virus
and Firewall Software!
Microsoft
gets blamed for hacker successes ..so they have programmers working around the
clock to find and close security holes in Windows. Your computer might be
reminding you regularly to download and install these "updates".
DEFINITELY DO IT .. it can run in the background while you do other things. If
it's not happening automatically, you can probably find a
Windows Update
link in your favorites or on your start menu. Sometimes it just comes up
to remind you when you open a browser. Again ..keeping these service packs
and security patches updated is essential for a well-maintained machine.
If
you have Windows ME, you may find your computer crashes a lot and when it tries
to recover after a boot, it takes hours trying to put your hard drive back in
order with a Scan Disk. It IS important to get through this successfully
so you might want to consider upgrading to Windows XP to eliminate the problem.
In Windows 98 scan disk problems could be related to a faulty or failing hard
drive so getting an upgrade evaluation is recommended. For the rest of us
with healthy systems, a defrag should be performed every other week, more often
if you like to install and uninstall various programs. This keeps your
hard drive from working too hard jumping all over to find scattered pieces-parts
of software programs and their data files. You'll find defrag in your
Accessories/System Tools menu. I recommend copying that shortcut to the
clipboard and placing it on the desktop for a reminder and easy access.
Dave
was halfway through his extended warranty on his Dell P4 system when on a Friday
evening the screensaver locked up. With his Windows ME operating system he
did the usual reboot ..but nothing happened. That was three weeks ago.
He's still without a computer. Dell has sent it's contract technician out
3 times with replacement parts and he's now waiting for a replacement computer.
So much for "next business day" support. The worst part is he had some
things backed up. Quicken. Some old Word Pro (Lotus) files.
And he waits to find out if the hard drive failed along with the motherboard,
CPU and memory. Not only must we back up, but we must do it often.
Once he's back up and running we'll have a lesson and set up a routine for
writing all of his data files to CD weekly. DO backup. If you're not
sure what to back up or how to do it, hire someone to get you started.
We're all at risk ..between power surges, fluctuations, lightening and just
flawed or worn out componants, any thing can go wrong at any time. Backup,
backup and backup. You'll be glad you did!
Indian River
Computer
& Internet Training
By Faith Mitchell