Hi everyone

I asked my computer-repairperson (who incidentally is an ex-pastor) what ten pieces of advice he would give to non-techo computer users… (Any more/ any modifications?)

1. Be systematic. Remember the file system in a computer is just like a paper filing cabinet. If you put everything under miscellaneous then you are going to have terrible job finding things. Work in years. Put all your work into a major directory with the year at the top. Create as many directories as you need. You can then store emails as well. Clean up at the end of each year. Remember in 10 years’ time how hard it will be to look something up if you haven’t been careful. (My comment: how about the Google desktop search facility?)

2. Computers fail. Parchment/paper lasted thousands of years. Whilst we produce more material than any generation most of it will be irrecoverable in 10 years. If you don’t backup you will live to regret it. One day out of the blue, nothing. Backing up is hard work, and seems useless at the time. So you put it off. Unfortunately Microsoft’s backup is difficult to automate. And if you use Outlook Express, there is no easy backup internally. Remember the address book is one of your most precious possessions. Do you even know where it is located? Think about how you would cope losing the last 6 months’ worth of work. External hard disk drives are the best. They have the capacity to hold all the content of your drive, are cheap and reliable. DVD burnt images have a shelf life. How long that is I don’t know but it could be as short as one year. But a set of DVD’s neatly packed residing at someone else’s house, replaced yearly, might be a final resort. There is one great utility wizard with XP: Files and Settings Transfer wizard. This will store a single users files and settings to a single folder. It is then easy to restore on a new pc.

3. Ghost. As a backup software it isn’t ideal, but Norton Ghost produces compact images of a hard-drive that can be restored in minutes. Most backup software requires an existing installation. Here is what I do with a new computer. First I partition the drive or install a second drive. Try and keep your working drive to around 40GB.

For most people this will be more than adequate working space for one year. It makes backups and virus checks much simpler. With 200GB drives and more now standard, one partition can be dedicated to backups and another partition downloaded files, pictures videos music etc. The is a subset of 1: being systematic. You can then ghost from one partition to another. It takes around 30 minutes for a full image, and produces a stack of compressed images that can be neatly burnt onto a DVD. Once I load the Operating System, all the updates, all the drivers, Office suite, AntiVirus, Adobe Reader, and whatever programs you consider essential, make a Ghost Image of it. Title it Genesis. This is the beginning, your fall-back position. If something goes wrong, in a matter of half hour you can have a working pc again. Ghost is available on ebay for around $45-50. (BTW don’t be a pirate, buying ‘education’ software for church workers is acceptable. Some denominations have made special deals but the price isn’t much different to education prices.)

4. Anti-Virus. This is essential software today due to weakness of the Microsoft OS. That MS also want to sell AV must be one of the greatest ironies of a computer monopoly. Arguments on forums about which one is best are endless. I have to admit I dislike Symantec (known as Norton) products (with the exception of Ghost.) I have cleaned too many computers that had Norton running and it wasn’t up to the task. But what to recommend? Ones that I used in the past have changed for the worse. I currently use a free one, AVAST, which works very well. Next time around I may buy it. Far smaller footprint and less resource hungry than Norton. Automatically updates daily. Does a neat trick, command line boot check, that finds more nasties than most other AV out there. Others use AVG and like it. It works pretty well. Of paid ones NOD32 is reasonably cheap and has a good cleaning record. I used to use VET but now don’t like it. Others??

5. Anti Spy-Ware. Spyware is not classed as a virus as it does nothing to your pc, but it keeps track of you. This can be anything from fairly innocent to Big-Brother, Big-Business and Big-Mafia. The main thing is, it slows down your pc. I have seen pc’s that have had hundreds of spyware running that the pc was no longer able to access the internet. All the spyware is using your bandwidth to call home. The normal cleaners are free and are also now being included in the AV packages. Adaware is the nicest of the packages and still has a free version. Grab it now because they seem to want money. Spybot is also well known. I only run it once a month or so; it picks up 20-40 items. Don’t run it continuously – wastes computer power. You can check a day after you run it, and cookies etc are part of the way the internet works and will be back. Don’t worry.

6. Security. Again people put their trust in Symantec products but the trouble is, generally people download a trojan infected email deliberately albeit unknowingly. And the firewall won’t help you. Firewalls cause more issues than they solve most of the time. The built-in firewall of XP sp2 causes very few issues, perhaps indicating its uselessness. I recommend you never have a direct connection to the internet, ie. a bridged adsl modem or cable modem. That gives your pc a directly accessible IP on the internet. It makes you a target. Use a router. A router works by a conversion of the public IP to a private IP address. In that conversion called NAT (network address translation) your pc has no public exposure. It is not addressable from the internet. NAT and a decent up-to-date AV are the key to security. It is hard to find sense in this area. Please read this article by a software engineer about Billion routers but is applicable to all. http://www.billion.com.au/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=1226 If you find some anti-spyware program that suddenly starts blinking across your screen, don’t install it. Please don’t! It is spyware. People are their own enemies. Do not download and install any internet software you find or that comes into your email box. Some of it is brilliant and you will need the Genesis disks to remove them, and maybe a complete format of the pc. Spammers want your pc, and they want your address book. Don’t allow it by opening unsolicited emails. If you get loads of spam ask your ISP if they have a spam cleaning service. And if your late Nigerian uncle you never heard of won the lottery, and you are next in line for the inheritance, well, how stupid are you!!! Taking sugar pills will not lengthen, broaden, increase or do anything to any body appendage.

7. ‘Computers are easy. I can fix my computer, setup adsl and run the network wireless.’ Bill Gates said it, I believe it, that settles it!! Unfortunately the myth of ‘computers are easy’ is everywhere. The reality is, they are not. Nobody on earth knows everything in an Operating System like XP. Even Bill! Things like wireless networking is closer to voodoo than science. Get out your beads and rattles. So what is the solution? Pay for help. If you enjoy playing around go for it. Spend a week setting up your wireless network and get a buzz from accomplishing something, fantastic. On the other hand, if you sit and become angry and frustrated, waste days and days of precious time, reading a manual in Egyptian hieroglyphics for all the sense they make… Stop! Think of the computer as a washing machine. If it goes bad, do you repair it or do you call the washing machine repairman? It might be harder to get computer help and more expensive, but check with people in your church, or the local paper. (Generally your brother’s, daughter’s latest boyfriend who knows about computers, is not suitable). When you pay you get what you pay for, or at least have some hope of that. I try to help people on forums and it is so frustrating because they do not understand the advice, let alone the problem. Eventually I say, stop! Buy some help. A computer tech could fix it in an hour. $100 perhaps and the problem goes away.

This doesn’t happen BTW if you go out and buy a piece of junky equipment on eBay which you got for the bargain price of $100 + $25 postage ($120 retail in any shop) which every technician avoids like the plague because they don’t work. If the tech recommends a piece of equipment that he knows works and has lots of experience setting up, costs $150, that is a lot cheaper than the $120 piece of junk (other words may be used) that you waste a week trying to get working…only to find out it is useless or damaged with no warranty, Cheap will lead to thin ice!!

8. New technologies like VOIP are worth a try. You can download and use Skype for free. And it works really well. VOIP phone technology is about to take off. If you are in the market to upgrade ADSL buy a voip router. You can plug in your phone and make calls to anywhere in Australia for 10-15c. Great for people with family in other capitals.

There is lots of great advice on Forums. We have the best in Australia, http://www.whirlpool.net.au (perhaps that is why I always use the washing machine illustration). Look carefully and ask questions. Many jump in and buy Internet from (Australian companies)Optus or Telstra because they should know how to do it. In point of fact every modem so far distributed by Telstra and most of Optus have blocked VOIP. Now that might be coincidence but I doubt it. Changing to VOIP is changing the whole of Telecommunications only they don’t want you to, my pretty little money pit!!

9. In the midst of typing this the power dipped and the lights and pc rebooted. It is 40 deg. in Melbourne. Power utilities now consider near enough power is good enough. Computer equipment doesn’t!! When I started typing this note, I saved. Thereafter the program autosaves the draft every couple of minutes. So very little is lost. Get a UPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply) for vital parts of your system: certainly ADSL modems, routers and switches. If you live in an area prone to lightning, networking and modems are extremely venerable. Protected outlets help a little bit if not too much power comes down them. Nothing can save you from direct strikes. But good quality UPS and power boards have insurance. Your house policy should also have some coverage. Make sure you know what you are covered for and give the details to the insurance company before it happens.

10. Protecting Children and me. The internet is the greatest information resource in human history. In a knowledge society and knowledge is power. But would you give your children an encyclopaedia where about 10-15% of the total was under the heading ‘Pornography’ (much of it of the very worst kind)? Then close the door and hope they don’t find it? (Human’s always build the most beautiful towers with sin in the foundations). It is said there only two profitable things on the internet, searching ie google and porn! Combine those two and you have a potent combination. High bandwidth usage after 10pm is due to downloading porn. Expect to see soon a rather porn-jaded generation. Infected computers are brought to me where the AV has failed and/or the computer hijacked; ie you open a web browser and it automatically takes you to a porno web site. This is caused by a user on the computer accessing porn. I have found porn in places least expected. It is often associated with crime, identity theft, trojan viruses, Russian mafia, extortion. These people have big money to spend on taking over your pc.

‘BAN IT!’ Easy to shout, governments write laws, but the internet is a cross-borders cross-nationalities, cross-everything. Every vice you every heard of and lots you haven’t are available at the tap of key. Guardian software is available: I don’t know enough to recommend but your ISP is under orders to help you. But kids learn from other kids how to defeat these things. If you have children be around. Keep track. That is the best safeguard. Doing the most innocent things can land you in a porn site without any warning. If you as an adult have a problem get some help. I have preached in churches on internet porn.

BTW no child should have administrator access on their pc. Do not let other users access your login. Almost nobody follows this simple rule. Business has learnt the hard way. No user should have admin access. If you need to change something that radically get the admin people to help. With XP it is easy to have everyone with their own login and password.

Anything else?

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Shalom! Rowland Croucher

January 2007