Introduction:

Is your computer or network misbehaving, or in need of upgrading?

Has your browser's homepage, or search page been hijacked and you can't reset it where you want?

Are you constantly getting popup, or popunder windows, with ads and messages, or strange popup "security alerts," from programs you did not knowingly install, requiring payment for removal of the items it claims are present, or other strange behavior on most web pages you visit?

Do you notice an unusually high amount of unexplainable network or Internet activity being shown on your modem, or in the Local Area Connection or Dialup Networking icon in your system tray, when you are not knowingly uploading or downloading anything? Does your computer become much less responsive, or do browser windows freeze up, when this activity occurs?

Are you tired of paying high retail store service rates for out-of-warranty repairs?

Do you require onsite or online servicing, or maintenance, but at reasonable hourly rates with flexible scheduling?

Do you need the services of a Webmaster-website designer, but only on an as-needed, or temporary basis?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, contact "Wiz" Feinberg to be your personal guru, to solve your troubleshooting, virus, backdoor and spyware removal, maintenance, upgrading, security and website development needs! And, be sure to read Wiz's Security Blog for the latest news about program vulnerabilities, threats in the wild, security program and Windows updates and patches.

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Quite a few of my service calls involve replacing failing hard drives. They always seem to die at the worst possible time. If you keep your checks, invoices and expenses on your computer and they are not backed up externally, and that hard drive seizes up... Prepare in advance for hard drive failures by creating image file backups of your entire hard drive, using Acronis True Image. It can store an "image" of everything on your C drive to another internal or external hard drive, or DVDs, or online storage location, and burn it back onto a fresh empty hard drive, if your current disk suddenly fails to spin. Using Acronis images to clone a working hard drive will save you countless hours that you would otherwise have to spend reinstalling the operating system and all of your applications, re-licensing and activating them, and updating your various programs to the current levels. Learn more about Acronis True Image here.

I personally use Acronis True Image to make daily and weekly backups of my entire C drive, saving them to an external drive. I have already used True Image to copy the entire contents of a failing hard drive to a new replacement drive, with higher capacity than the old one. The transfer went flawlessly and I consider it money well spent. Restoring a complete saved disk image to a new hard drive usually takes about an hour, including the physical installation process. Manually reinstalling (and re-activating) Windows and all of my programs, then updating everything, used to take over 5 hours.

My online consulting and on-site computer services include:

• Detection and removal of Viruses, Trojan Horses, Worms, Spyware, Dialers, Browser Hijackers and Popup Ad programs. More details
  • Virus, Trojan Horse, Backdoor, Worm and email relaying program detection and removal. These programs can invade your computer in many ways - details
    • Via unpatched vulnerability exploits, sent by maliciously crafted emails, or by being enticed to, or invisibly redirected to a website that has embedded hostile codes.
    • By opening or double-clicking on malicious email attachments containing Trojans.
    • By installing a program which has an infected file in it, whether inadvertently (lax security at the source), or by design (Trojan Horse).
    • Especially by not keeping up with malware definitions, critical patches and updates issued by software manufacturers, like Microsoft's Windows Updates. Even Mac operating systems have recently discovered critical vulnerabilities, which need to be patched to prevent system takeovers.
    • By operating your computer on the Internet without a firewall and regularly updated anti-spyware and anti-virus programs.
    • By inserting an infected disk, thumbdrive or memory card and reading it's contents, or installing an infected program from a compromised CD or DVD.
    • By the transmission of a network-aware virus, backdoor, Trojan or Worm over your home or office network (wired or wireless), from an infected computer on the LAN. Hide details
  • Detection and removal of spyware, browser start and search page hijackers, hostile browser plugins, phone dialers, adware, and other sleazy programs that can sneak into your computer without your knowledge or approval.
  • Anti-Spyware programs recommended, installed and configured to protect you and your computer from programs that send out your private personal information, track your web-surfing habits and cause popup and popunder ads and messages to appear on your computer desktop, or hijack your browser's home page or search page to unwanted websites, or which download dialers that cause your modem to dial out to pay per minute numbers, without your permission. Hide details
• Internet security awareness and defense measures explained, demonstrated, and set into action (Anti-virus & firewalls). More details
  • Anti-virus programs and software firewalls installed, configured and updated to deal with current and future threats.
  • Hardware firewalls/router-firewalls configured to protect your network from intrusion.
  • Internet TCP/IP security settings tested and made secure against hostile open-port scanners and Worms that can invade your computer simply by connecting to the Internet without having applied a critical patch to close a newly discovered vulnerability.
  • The importance of using the Windows Update feature is explained and demonstrated, and set to automatic if desired. Hide details
• Repairs to operating systems, browsers and programs, for slowdowns, crashes and damage caused by browser hijackers, hostile ActiveX controls, viruses, badly written or improperly installed/uninstalled software.
• Computer troubleshooting to correct hardware or software failures More details
  • Hardware device conflicts resolved; irq's and addresses reassigned.
  • Troubleshooting of Fatal Exceptions, and crashes in Windows operation systems.
  • Restoration of lost file-type associations, and file-opening actions.
  • Cleanup of unwanted programs and references to removed programs in the Windows Registry.
  • Cleanup of failed software installations or upgrades.
  • Control of which programs or processes are loaded at Windows startup.
  • Removal of unneeded files, and folders that are wasting disk space on small hard drives.
  • System clock problems resolved; BIOS batteries replaced. Hide details
• Windows operating system installation, reinstallation, de-installation, or upgrading. More details
  • Operating systems and basic drivers installed on new hard drives and setup for use
  • Older, or unsupported versions of Windows upgraded to a current, supported version
  • Setup of special boot-configuration files and software, to allow for dual or multi-booting into different operating systems
  • Windows reinstalled to restore proper functionality after loss due to corruption, virus attack, or accidental file deletions. Hide details
• Software and hardware installation, removal, and configuration. More details
  • DOS based business programs made to work on newer Windows platforms.
  • Programs and device drivers updated via internet downloads.
  • Installation and configuration of new hard-disks, zip-disks, CD and DVD drives.
  • Hard-drive formatting and partitioning, and copying contents from old to new.
  • Installation of upgrade CPUs, quality RAM, motherboards and new plug-in cards. Hide details

• Windows Peer to Peer networks and printers installed, configured, upgraded and maintained.
• Broadband wired and wireless routers setup and configured for home and small office networks.
• Wireless network security measures created and implemented.
• Dialup modems installed, configured, updated and tweaked for maximum performance.
• Dialup, DSL and Cable Internet accounts and email accounts setup and configured.
• Remote desktop control solutions recommended and setup.
• GoToMyPC is a fast, easy and secure way to access your PC from any Web browser or wireless device in real time, even if it is behind a NAT router or hardware firewall. Try it free for 30 days. Learn more about GoToMyPC here.
• Internet browsers and email clients installed, upgraded, reconfigured, and patched for security holes.
• Anti-Spam filters created for your e-mail client, or e-mail screening program, like Mailwasher Pro, which I use myself and recommend. I can teach you how to tell the difference between e-mail hoaxes and authentic warnings, as well as how to recognize and avoid contamination from e-mail borne vulnerability exploits, social engineering tricks, Phishing schemes, Nigerian 419 scams, viruses, worms and Trojan Horses. Read more on my Mailwasher Pro page.

Speaking of spam, do you have a list of e-mail contacts that you need to send a recurring newsletter or e-mail blast to? You may have tried sending out an e-mail blast to your "group" in one mass sending session, only to find that your ISP, or web host, had blocked you for exceeding their limit on how many recipients you were permitted to send to within a certain period of time, or at one time. Have you been accused of being a "spammer?" Stop wasting your efforts on homebrew email blasts and let the professionals handle your mailing lists and newsletters, including opt-in subscribes and properly handled un-subscribe requests.

Recommended personal PC security software:

My website services include:

• Website design and development and Webmaster services, including Domain name registration and web-hosting assistance.
• Websites uploaded and managed on very reasonably priced web hosting companies. For example, I use Bluehost for my websites. They sport these features: Unlimited disk space, Unlimited bandwidth, host Unlimited domains on 1 account, SSH (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL, Front Page Extensions, Shopping Carts and lots of installable scripts, all from only $6.95/mo! Visit BlueHost and get you some hosting!
• Secure, spammer-proof, Perl-based, comments submission forms installed, configured and updated on web servers.
• .htaccess controls created for Apache-based web servers to block unwanted or hostile bots or visitors, including those that spam your forms, blogs, guestbooks, or your access logs (referrer spammers).
• See my Nigerian Blocklist, Chinese Blocklist, Exploited Servers Blocklist, or Russian Blocklist, for examples of how entire countries, ISPs and exploited servers can be blocked from accessing your website or forums.
• Code cleanup to eliminate bloat, removal of proprietary non-standard html tags, broken links repaired.
• Conversion of FrontPage websites to standards compliant modern layouts that can be edited by modern text and WYSIWYG code editors and uploaded via FTP.
• Custom error pages created. Customized redirection conditions and rules applied to your .htaccess file to deal with deleted, renamed or relocated files.
• Read my Webmaster Services page for more details.

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Recommended security software:

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