Home DSL and Cable Internet Providers

The most common Internet providers, at least in the Houston area, are Comcast’s cable Internet and AT&T’s DSL service. Besides purchasing computers for your network, your first step would be to establish Internet service in your home. Both of the services listed above have their pros and cons, but either would work fine for wireless networking. Once you have your Internet service turned on, you can directly connect a computer to the cable or DSL modem with a network cable to test your Internet service. If all works well, you can disconnect the computer and connect a router. Your cable or DSL modem usually allows for one computer connected to it directly, so this is why we use a router which allows for multiple devices to use the same Internet access.

The Basics of Home Routers Setup

On Sale: Wireless Routers

Routers are probably the most difficult part of this setup process and not because they are complicated, but because some people feel intimidated and unsure of their technical abilities when dealing with routers. We will have a future post dedicated to router set up in the next week or two. For now, you can connect your router to your cable or DSL modem with the network cable and then power them both up to allow the modem to pass along an IP address to the router.

Wireless Network Adapter Card Setup for Home Computers

Find Wireless USB Adapters On Sale

Now that the router has been established on the network, we can focus on the computers. We still have some work to do, as far securing the network, but we will handle that later in this guide and the next. Each computer or laptop needs to have a wireless adapter card, either built into the machine, or added on. Most laptops these days come with wireless adapter chips preinstalled. Desktops, however, may not come with a wireless network card and will need to be installed before you can access the network and the Internet. We have found that the easiest network adapter cards for home installations are the USB wireless adapter cards. They are considered easy because you just install the software from the CD and plug-in the adapter into a USB port and your pc or laptop and it installs the needed drivers.

Securing your Home Wireless Network

At this point, we haven’t secured the router, so anyone within range could access your wireless network, and that is fine for now but we will handle this later. Now that your network wireless adapter cards are installed, we should be able to see some wireless activity. If you look at the icons to the bottom right of the screen by your clock, you should see some sort of wireless connection icon which will vary based on the adapter installed. Your next step is to click on this icon, open the wireless utility and select the network you wish to connect to, which should be your network. Since we haven’t configured the router yet, your network name may be something generic like Netgear, Linksys, 2Wire444 or something like that. For now just click the connect button and make sure your Internet access works.

You have now set up your home wireless network, and you could begin using it the way it is, but it’s best to log into the router and configure its security settings. For this guide, were mainly focused on the wireless security and administration settings. To start router configuration, we need to first log into your router using a web browser. So, start Internet Explorer or chrome or Firefox and clear out the address in the address bar. Here you want to type in your default gateway, which is the address of your router or typically 192.168.1.1. I will go into this in more detail in my next post on router configurations, but for now you need to login and go to the admin area and change the password to a secure password. Secure passwords are at least eight characters long, using a combination of numbers, letters, symbols, and a mixture of upper and lowercase letters.

Finally, look in your router settings for the wireless settings area, and you’ll notice that it is probably set to “open”, meaning that anyone with a wireless adapter can access your network. There are a few options here to choose from, which include WEP, WPA, and others. WPA has become the most common, but we still see people using WEP as well. From here you can choose a setting, pick a passphrase, and then connect your computers and laptops using the selected passphrase.

Setting up a wireless network in your home really isn’t a very difficult task, especially once you have done it once or twice. Get to learn your devices so that you can easily make changes or change passwords if you need to. Once a router is set up though, you rarely will need to make changes.

If you need help configuring or fixing problems with your home computer network, please give us a call or shoot us and email and we would be happy to help you get the issue resolved. We also handle home computer repairs as well as virus and malware removal.

Starting a Computer Repair Business – Home PC Repairs vs. Small Business PC Repairs

When your just starting out with your business, you might want to stick to in home PC repair as the work is simpler and a few months of this type of work will give you the confidence for you to move up to small businesses. Home computer setups rarely have difficult to manage components like servers, top of the line firewalls or complex networks. You should be able to learn on the job with the typical home network. I do advise that you have some knowledge of computers and networks before stepping foot in a customer’s home. You should have at least worked on your own computer and some friends or families computers to gain some much needed hands-on experience. For a great, inexpensive book to help you start your own business, check out:

How to Start a Small Computer Repair Business – Solo or you and a Buddy

Unless you have loads of cash, starting small is the way to go and you can do this on a very small budget. Sure, it would be nice to get an LLC, set up a partnership or even a sole-proprietorship but all you really need is a bank account in your name to deposit the checks. Here in Houston, a DBA (Doing Business As – Assumed Name) only costs $12 so you could get one and open a checking account in the businesses name so you look more professional. Next, you will need some cheap business cards. Start out with 100 to 500 plain black and white business cards to keep costs down. If you’re in business for more that 6 months, then maybe you can get a logo and make the cards look more professional. Having a set of computer tools will be handy and you should have a small USB pen drive where you can store software utilities for use on computers you are repairing. Since you are just starting out, I wouldn’t get too fancy on the invoices so maybe just pick up a pack of blank invoices from an office supply store. At this point, you’re ready to go out and be a computer repair guy. Oh wait, where do you get work from?

How to Build Clients for your Home Computer Repair Business

One problem you WILL run into over the course of your computer repair business career is having enough work to do. If you are doing your job right, you are fixing things and you will no longer be needed for a while or until the next issue or upgrade comes along. So, how do you get new business or keep current business flowing? First and foremost, there is word of mouth which is the most powerful form of gaining new business. The person passing on your name is pleased with your work and they tell a person close to them and that helps the new client gain immediate trust in you for the work that they need done. Word of mouth is a beautiful thing. What to do if clients just aren’t spreading the word? Well, you could offer incentives for referrals, you could blanket the neighborhood of your current client with business cards and explain that you just recently helped a person on the next street over. The problem with this method is that its very time consuming and you can’t drum up new business and work at the same time. You need a way to pull in new business while you are making money. The answer is advertising, but the low-budget advertising will be fine.

Taking your Home PC Repair Business from Start-up to Superstar

When we first started our Houston Computer Repair business way back in 1998, we thought word of mouth would be enough to live off of but we soon found out that we needed to get the word out to the masses that we were available and ready to work our butts of for our clients. I laugh now, but we used the Greensheet, the Chronicle, SW News and other small local newspapers to build our business but the advertising cost was much more than the money we made from the work we got. Somehow we survived the rough start and built a website to explain the services we provided and pricing. Now, when we talked to someone and give them a card, they could go learn a little more about what we can offer via our website. Most people don’t have time for you to explain your business to them, but when they need the service, there is your card and your website.

We didn’t learn until later that having a website also brought in new business on its own from the search engines. Now, Google was barely a month old when we first started so search wasn’t a big way to get business in the first couple years of our existence.

For the new person starting up their own computer repair business, I would tell them to get a website up as soon as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just build one that explains your passion, your services, your rates and anything else you really want to talk about. Again, I want to stress that building a website and hosting it can be done very cheaply and can keep your small computer repair business running on a very slim budget. No need to hire someone to build your site either as there are plenty of platforms out there that are very simple to manage. It just takes a little courage to step up and want your business to succeed.

Good luck with your dream to start your own business and I hope this article has helped in some way.

Troy

Protect Your PC – Step 1: Anti-Virus and Firewall Programs

The first step you should take in avoiding getting a virus is to make sure your computer has an antivirus program, and a firewall program and these programs need to be continually updated with the most current versions and/or definitions. There are many companies that make antivirus and firewall programs packaged together and these are fine. Some that come to mind that are considered the best virus protection are Norton, Kaspersky, ESET and others. There are also free programs like avast and AVG which will provide very good antivirus protection from viruses for free. If you go with a standalone antivirus program, then you need to make sure that you also install a firewall program like Zonealarm. No matter what you install, you may not be completely protected because these programs need to be used in conjunction with an aware user. You can’t just install these programs and go clicking on everything and not expect to get a virus.

Protect Your PC – Step 2: Keep programs and OS updated

The next step in protecting your PC is to make sure that your operating system is up to date, whether that is a Windows operating system or a Mac. With Windows, you need to make sure that your version of Windows has the most current service pack installed. Currently, Windows XP is at service pack 3, Vista is at service pack 2, Windows 7 is at service pack 1. Once your service pack is updated. You need to make sure you have all the security updates installed through the Windows update site. As Microsoft finds flaws in their operating system, they make these patches to help keep your computer safe from intruders, but you can’t stop there, as there are other programs that need updating as well. It is a good idea to keep any program that uses the Internet updated at all times, these include programs like Java, flash, Internet browsers, and others.

Protect Your PC – Step 3: Use Anti-virus programs that pre-scan webpages

The third way to protect your PC could have been included along with step one, but I figured it was important enough to be on its own. Antivirus programs these days have built-in webpage scanners to scan pages before you even visit. I would make sure my antivirus program had this feature. One of the most common ways of getting a virus or malware on your computer these days is from browsing over to an infected webpage. Now these pre-scanning antivirus programs, will check the website before you go there and block it if it is infected. A very nice and valuable feature to have.

Protect Your PC – Step 4: Watch out for pop-ups

The fourth way I suggest you to protect your PC is to pay very close attention to the pop-ups and suspicious Windows that appear on your screen. The problem with these types of pop-ups is that they can be programmed to install a script when you click anywhere on the pop up or window. If it seems out of place and is awfully suspicious than the best thing to do would be to open up task manager by press control-alt-delete and ending the process or application associated with the pop up or window that is suspicious. You can also right-click the program on the taskbar and select close. Usually, you will not have this problem if you follow my first three steps in securing your computer, but sometimes these pop-ups slip in there and you just need to be cautious. A click happy user is more vulnerable to viruses than a cautious user.

Protect Your PC – Step 5: Only browse the internet with a standard user account

The fifth and probably best way to protect your computer from falling prey to viruses and malware is to simply create a standard user account on your computer and only use this account when connecting to the Internet. Most home computer users log into their computer with an administrator account so they can install programs and make changes to their PC easily, but if a program infiltrates their system then they also have administrator rights as well. On the other hand, a standard user typically isn’t able to install software. If malware or a virus attacks your PC, then they are limited to the rights of the account that you’re logged into currently.

5 Ways to Protect your PC – Conclusion

To sum up, make sure you have an updated antivirus program and firewall, keep your operating system and Internet-based programs updated at all times, make sure your antivirus program pre-scans websites for you before you visit them, be very cautious of pop-ups, and make sure you use a standard user account when accessing the Internet.

If your computer is infected with a computer virus, malware or spyware and you are having trouble removing it, give us a call and we can help you with you computer virus removal.

If these alerts are not the normal messages you see with your current anti-virus and firewall programs then DON’T ClICK ANYTHING. It’s best to save your work, then press “Alt-F4″ to close those windows or pop-ups. If that doesn’t close the window, then press ctrl+alt+delete to go into the Task Manager and end your browser program to avoid having to click on the pop-ups or just restart your computer. If your task manager will not open, then your pc is most likely already infected. You should restart your computer in safemode and try to use your anti-virus program to scan your computer for infections.

photo credit: Robbert van der Steeg

Why is this Rogue Program bothering you?

Typically, this type of program gets installed on your pc from visiting a porn related website or an illegal file sharing site but any site could be infected. The best way to protect your computer, and to be certain that it is fully protected, is to follow these steps:

1. Make sure your anti-virus is automatically update often and it runs regular scans of your computer.
2. Install a good firewall program and make sure it stays active.
3. Make sure to update other programs to block any possible security issues.
4. Surf the net safely. Don’t click on boxes and windows that seem out of place.
5. Log into your computer with a regular user account.

To expand on these steps:

Most anti-virus programs allow you to automatically update the virus definitions so make sure this option is selected and it should update your computer every morning when you turn it on.

Windows comes with a built in firewall program but it isn’t as robust as some of the other available firewalls and Microsoft is a target of many attacks so I would preferred to have another firewall to help protect my system.

Windows has security holes so make sure you have your pc set to automatically update windows and office so these holes get plugged as they are found or exploited. Microsoft products aren’t the only programs you should worry about though. You should also update your browsers, flash players, movie players, itunes and any other program that accesses the internet, just to be safe.

Sometimes we get in a hurry and just start clicking. Be very careful and pay attention to what you are clicking.

Most of us, when we buy a new computer, only set up one account on the pc to do everything. This account is an admin account so it can install programs, delete files and make system changes. If a virus gets control of your pc with this log in, then they have full rights to do as they please. It’s a VERY good idea to set up a user account to do your daily work from so that you have to log into your admin account to do installations and make other changes. It can be a bit of a hassle, but as least you stop “scareware” and other malware from infecting your pc.

Getting rid of “Scareware”

It isn’t easy to get rid of “scareware” and sometimes it’s hard to determine if it’s completely gone. If you’re having issues with the removal process, give our computer virus removal team a call and we can assist you.

When searching for your computer guy, you should be aware of what really makes this guy a good computer guy and the first question you should ask is how much experience does he have? Did this guy or this pc company just start a few months ago or have they been helping clients for years? This person or company is someone you will need to interact with on a regular basis so you want to find individuals that have a good personality and are friendly. The last thing you want to do is hire someone that considers your calls for help as a hassle to them. When choosing a computer tech, you will want to pick experience over certifications. One guy may have a certification but only 6 months of experience while another guy has been in the trenches doing the work for 20 years but hasn’t picked up all the “paper” certificates. A great way to find out if this guy can be trusted, and if he will work well with others, is to check up on him by calling and talking with his contacts from other clients. Ask them about response times, computer knowledge and friendliness to start.

The days of the phonebook are just about gone but you can still lug one out of the pantry and look up your computer guy the old fashion way. Today, most people find their computer guy through word of mouth. You can ask your neighbor or the office next door who they use and give them a try. If you don’t like your computer guy, you can move on to another one until you find one that fits well with what you are trying to accomplish. Another way to find computer help is to do a search using a search engine like Google or Yahoo. Try doing a search for “computer repair” or narrow it down to your area by searching for service in your city like “Houston computer repair“. Searches on Google will typically turn up advertisers at the top of the listing followed by a map showing computer repair companies near you, then will come the organic search after the map which will show you the companies that are probably the most trusted as they are ranked high in the search results.

Once you have located a repair company, you should give them a call and try them out at first. Maybe give them a small job to do at first and see if you like the person that is sent out to you home or office and were they able to fix the issue. You really want to establish some trust with your computer person as they will have access to your important documents or your files on a server if you are in an office environment. It takes time to establish this trust, so it’s best to determine if the person or company is a good fit based on personality, friendliness and computer knowledge before you give them full access. Trust can take years to develop, but when you find a good computer guy that you can trust then you can focus on your business or your home life and not worry about the trust issues.

When first starting out looking for the right computer guy, I would suggest you ask friend, family, co-workers or a businesses you deal with first so you can get an opinion about the computer person or company instead of making calls blindly and bringing in the first person to respond. Most computer companies get the majority of their business from referals so they know the best way to get more customers is to provide a great service for their existing customers.

Tip 1

How do they get your email in the first place? Well, one way they get your email is when you sign up for something online and plug in your email on a form. They usually say they don’t sell or distribute your email but can you really expect a spammer to tell the truth? Be very cautious about where you give your information. The best thing to do for sign up forms is to use an alternate email address. Let’s say your main email is bob@yourbusiness.com, you would use this for your bank, your friends and family, and websites that you trust but you shouldn’t use it when signing up for a social network or when applying for a loan, for instance. The smart thing to do is sign up for a Google, Yahoo or Hotmail account and use this email as your junk mail account, that way all junk or spam will go here instead of your main email. It’s a real pain when you set up your phone to receive emails from your main account and you have to sift through 50 junk emails a day. Avoid that. Set up a secondary email account today.

Tip 2

Another way the spammers can get a hold of your email address is when you have your email displayed on a website. Spammers have web crawlers that go out and search the net for email addresses and the crawler pulls these emails in and establishes lists. If you have a website or your company does, they usually have a staff section of the website with email addresses displayed for the crawlers to grab. To avoid this issue, your webmaster should have a link for each staff member pointing to a form to fill out on another page and that form gets sent to your email address. This way, they don’t get the opportunity to grab up your email addresses.

Tip 3

The third way the spammers can get a hold of your email address and add it to a spam list is from emails. Have you ever received a joke or political email that was forwarded to you and asked you to forward it to 10 others? Ah, yes! This is a spammers dream! These emails can generate 100′s or 1000′s of email addresses and will eventually fall into the hands of someone that knows how to extract these emails and sell the list. There is hope though. If you must pass along a great joke or a funny video, then clean up the email. Delete out all of the forwarding emails in the body of the email so that it is just the actual joke instead of 100′s of forward messages in the body of the email. It will actually be much cleaner and easier to read.

Bonus Tips

One thing I like to do when sending an email to multiple recipients is to put my junk mail email in the To: spot and then put all the recipients in the Bcc: spot which sends them the email anonymously so that the others don’t know that they got the email. This isn’t being sneaky, its just a way to avoid exposing your friends, co-workers and family to a spam list. Now, if you send a joke to 50 people, they may send it on to someone else but now if your email is collected, it’s just your junk mail and your list of 50 people is safe.

Avoid getting on a spam list. Watch what you sign up for online and use a secondary email addresses. If you have a website, don’t put your email on the site, use forms instead. If you belong to social networks and it’s open to the public to see your information, then use a secondary email instead of your main. Clean up forwarded emails before passing them along. They are messy emails and hard to read so its a good thing to do and use the Bcc: feature to prevent spammers from getting email address of your friends and family,

The computer technician that arrived, saw the same things that Bill did so he rebooted the pc and inserted his “Squad” CD to run some diagnostics and check it for viruses. During the virus scan, he removed an infected system driver file that needed to be removed or cleaned but the computer rebooted with the “Blue Screen of Death”. The error message was right there for the tech to copy and research for a solution, but instead he decided to call it a day and return the next day to see if he can work it out. After about 30 mins, he decided he couldn’t fix the problem and let Bill know that he would have to format the computer, reinstall all the programs and that Bill would lose everything. Bill wasn’t too excited about the idea of formatting the computer since it was really Sandy’s computer (his wife) and she worked on it every day and hadn’t backed up in a while. Luckily for Bill, he couldn’t find his Windows CDs, so he would have to check with his wife to find the CDs and get the “Squad” tech back out the next day.

Monday rolls around and my friend calls me and tells me the situation that Bill is getting charged $300 to format his hard drive and recover NO data. I met Bill at his office and picked up his home pc, which he brought in that day, and took it back to my lab for analysis. The first thing I did was pulled his hard drive out of his computer, connected it to one of my computers via a USB converter cable, scanned it for viruses and checked it for errors. I then put it back in Bill’s pc and attacked the Blue Screen issue. Once I fixed the Blue Screen issue, it was smooth sailing. I fixed the computer, performed regular maintenance, saved all the data and had it working better than ever.

To recap, before you let computer technicians format your computer and sign you up for computer maintenance contracts, make sure he has tried everything he can think of to retrieve your data. Some computer repair companies only allow their techs to work on a pc for an allotted amount of time so its just quicker for them to format if they can’t solve the issue. If the hard drive is still spinning and still partially booting, then you can still get your data off the drive. Most computer repair technicians are on a schedule, so formatting can sometimes be the quickest solution. Don’t Format, until your data is safe and off the drive.

Pros and Cons for the Computer Firm Providing the Service Agreement

When running a small IT business that you plan on running for many years to come, it is a good idea to establish good relationships and IT Support contracts with your customers.  Having a computer contract with your customers will get you consistent paychecks and allow you to run your business without having the stress associated with having to find new customers every week.  You could probably make more money without the contracts but consistent paychecks are a good thing.  Some customers will shy away from a contract which is fine too because its great to have a good mix of computer service contracts and some hourly work or retainer clients.

I know from experience that contracts are a good thing because my customers are a mix of both hourly rate for computer repair and computer repair contracts.  During slow times, if you have a contact the client can always find things for you to do but with no contract they will put repair work off when their budget is low.  This could mean a month or two with no work from this client.  Once again a plus for the contracts.

If you’re just starting out your computer repair business, you may find it hard to get contracts since the client doesn’t know you too well.  Work on the relationship with the client, provide good reliable service and you should have no problem getting a contract with them in a few months or so. It may also be a good idea to look around for a good example of computer maintenance contract template to “base” your contracts around. Make sure you have someone review your contracts as well.

Pro and Cons of Computer Support Contracts for the Business Owner

Being the business owner, you should sit down with your computer support company to take inventory of your current computer network, the computers, servers, firewalls, cabling and software and decided if your office is ahead or behind in technology. If your office is ahead, then you can probably just go hourly or on retainer with your computer repair firm and just call when something comes up. If your office is behind, there could be a ton of work in the months ahead that may require your computer guys to be on hand often and in that case, a Computer Maintenance Contract would be ideal.

Cheers,

Troy