Virus' Infection Troubleshooting

Computer Viruses can harm software, data stored in computers, and even hardware. Therefore, all computer users hate Viruses, Trojans, and Malwares. To protect their computers from all such incoming threats via Internet, mail attachments, or other removable devices, people use Antivirus software and Firewalls. However, what to do if a computer gets some kind of virus infection even after implementing all protection mechanisms?

This article can help you to deal with such situations:

First, try to figure out which Virus is infecting your computer. Because, it is impossible to cure a disease until you know the name. Normally all antivirus (with updates virus definitions) can track the virus. If your existing antivirus in not able to find out the virus, try using some other antivirus software. Most of the time, it happens that one antivirus is not able to figure out the type of virus infecting your computer, whereas other does the same. If this does not help, take help of internet and search for the type of virus infecting your computer based on the problems or symptoms you are facing.

Half of battle is already won if you know the name of virus. You can download a virus removal tool from the website of Antivirus Manufacturers. Some companies like Symantec keep a track of all known viruses and provides removal tools for the same. You can download it, and run it on your system according to the instruction provided with the virus removal tools. Normally it requires rebooting your system and running virus removal tool in safe mode.

In case of recent viruses, you may not find any removal tool. You have to wait until a virus removal tool release from Antivirus maker companies. However, in urgent cases you should take backup of your data and reinstall Operating System after formatting the hard disk completely. A majority of Viruses affect Operating System, programs and executables. So, you do not need to format whole hard disk in every case. Formatting the primary partition containing Operating System and programs will solve the problem.

However, you should try to avoid such problems. For that you need to ensure update of your antivirus software on regular basis, and be extra careful while downloading and opening mail attachments. P2P clients, torrents websites, and removable storage devices are major source of viruses. Because the data coming in your system through these sources travels from many location and there may be some place from where they get Virus infection.

At the end point of this article, I would like to suggest something for the reader :) 

Make sure you have proper scanning before processing any removable media and you could also try to turn off the autorun which is usually used by computer virus to auto execute itself. If you surfing the internet and willing to download something, make sure you have firewall installed and an antivirus software that scan any file that you're downloading. Since preventing something is usually easier than fixing it, so pay attention when needing to access removable media or downloading from internet.

[reference]

Sphere: Related Content

StatCounter - Free Hits Counter for Your Website

Many people who manage to do blogging or web site building would usually need to know how much visitor that has come to their blog / site. They could just attach simple hits counter to their page which iterates on every page load and its result would become irrelevant when that page is reloaded multiple time without any purpose of reading or even viewing the site. Moreover, this simple counter doesn't have log feature that provide statistical data of pageload.

If you want to accomodate both features you could use hits counter script and I will write a guide to make one, using the hits counter script from StatCounter, a free and easy to make web counter. You can see the example of this script in my blog, look at right section and you sould see StatCounter logo right there. When making this script, you can choose to whether displaying a counter or a logo.

To have access to the script, you should register in StatCounter Website and it will took less than 5 minutes. Then you could directly log in without doing any vericiation from your registered email.

Then add new project to your account, and you are free to customize your counter. Modify at as your need and after you finished with the customization, just make the script and follow the instruction given to add the script to your page.

Finished with making and attaching the script, now you can examine the traffic of your site. The statistic provided is clear and complete enough. There are page load, unique visitor and returning visitor statistic served in a nice bar chart. You can choose to view statistic daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even yearly.

Here's a screenshot on how StatCounter performs.

Sphere: Related Content

Backup Data with 4 Simple Ways

Data loss is a big problem for anyone who uses a computer to work. Fires happen, computers crash (with alarming frequency), and virus programmers have become more advanced than ever before.  Each of these situations presents its own uniques threat, but there is one way to deal with the most devastating outcome- file backup.

We can easily summarize the backup method into four major kinds, namely

1. Backup by OS Backup System
   
2. Backup by Optical Drive (CD/DVD)
   
3. Backup by External HDD
   
4. Backup by Online Backup Service

Some operating systems come with a backup utility that allows you to create backup copies of your entire hard drive (or folders that you select) automatically.  The two most popular operating systems, Windows Vista and Mac OS X both come with backup utilities.  After a certain point, though, backing up files on the same computer that has the potential for crash can end up devastating your system.

Backing up files on CD or DVD is a viable option for anyone who has that capability and backs up once in a while.  The one major advantage to this method is that the CD or DVD is an external storage media, and it can be kept safe outside of the computer, or even the room the computer is in.  Many large companies do routine backups of important data and keep those disks in a fire-proof safe off site. This can still be a time consuming method, and each disk can only hold a fraction of the entire contents of a hard drive.

External hard drives offer the easiest and most reliable method of local backup storage, as they are available in very large capacities, connect easily, and can be physically isolated from the computer at any time.  Unless you keep your external hard drive locked up in a safe as well, it too can be destroyed by fire, flood, or storm should a disaster strike.  They are also prone to the same failure problems that plague internal drives.  

A solution for how to backup files is growing in popularity among home users as well as office IT managers and that solution is online backup.  This relatively new method of file backup is done online with a company that is physically miles away, yet the data is always available at the touch of a few keystrokes.  For a nominal fee, there are several companies that will store your data in heavily protected servers, often automatically as well.

Choosing a backup method is simply a matter of determining how much capacity and security you need.  Most people find that external hard drives and online services offer the best protection for the cost.

[reference]

Sphere: Related Content