When we need help fixing our computer, we need to know what’s wrong first so we can order the proper
solution. We need to know if the problem is hardware related or if it is software related. We need to know which part is the problematic one and we need the solution to that problem.

There are automatic tools, that can perform such tasks. There are online support companies that can give your online assistance and help you fix your computer. Let’s go over some of the solutions out there for such occasions.

PC Matic – This program contains a collection of applications that can provide you the information you need from your computer to understand the problems. This program delivers scanning engines and solution programs that will help fix your computer. (Windows 7, XP, Vista).

• Optimize – Optimize will make your computer go faster – This program will help boost your computer speed, and resolve issues you might experience.
• Disk MD – This program will keep your hard-disk intact and in good health. It includes defrag scans, and disk file use analysis.
• Driver alert – This tool will automatically download suitable drivers for you and install them. Since the connection between hardware & software are the drivers, it is most important to have the correct driver. Having the correct driver, helps to keep the system stable, and have the best performance our of the device.
• Exterminate – This tool includes Anti-Virus, Anti-Spy-ware, Anti-Mal-ware engines. It job is to keep all of those nasty programs, that disturb the computer from working properly.
• Overdrive – This program will create a comprehensive report of your computer performance, security, software, drivers and more.
• Erase – This application will erase any information that is being left as you are working, like cookies, temp files etc…

Check out this package, you might find the help you need to fix the computer.

Other Solutions:

•    MyComputerWorks – This company offers online web support 24/7,  so you will get a trained support technician online, which can assist you in finding your problem and offer a solution. You can also lease their services for a price, according to different support packages.

•    PCDocPro – This pc doctor program, can give you the whole package for discovering and repairing your computer. Check this product out, it might be the solution you need to fix your computer problems.

•    Registry Fix – There are many issues in the Windows operating system that can be solved by fixing the registry. Now registry is pretty dangerous since the whole Windows operating system is built upon it, and if you damage it in any way or remove an item that is crucial for the operating system your computer will not work properly or not work at all. There are automatic tools that know how to fix registry problems. Still, I would recommend backing up the registry before taking any action, automatic or otherwise.

•    Spyware Doctor – Spy-ware doctor is one of the famous programs out there. It is considered one of the best spyware removal programs. Check it out, it might remove those annoying programs that are slowing down your computer.

Computer performance issues are a well-known fact that many computer users experience from time to time, especially with the Windows operating systems. The Windows operating systems work in such a way that in order to enable it to work smoother and faster (Without going too deep into it), it uses temp files to store information to enable quicker responses. An example for it is the browser, holding pages you have visited, so that the next time you load a similar page, it will load faster. Now there are certain files that do not get deleted.

Now the problematic issue with that technique is that the temp folder is getting filled with more and more files, and eventually the amount of files is so huge, that even the operating system needs to take a short while to locate the temp files it needs from the huge amount of temp files. Eventually, that slows down the system. There are more issues similar to that which are not temp files related, but the overall picture is the same or nearly the same only with different sections of the Windows operating system.

Let’s go over some of the main issues that affect Windows performance:

• [] Hard-Disk Errors:  [once a week]

the hard disks get written many times, every day and such hectic actions tend in time to affect the structure of the hard-disk, like the de-fragmentation and errors on the hard-disk. In order to keep those issues in the order you can do the following at least once a week:

* (This will be done on the next reboot of the system).

• Start –> My Computer
• Right-click the “c:\” drive and select properties
• Choose the “Tools tab”, and click the “Check Now” in the error-checking.
• Tag both checkboxes – and let it run
• Then reboot the system, and the check will occur on startup

• [] Removing temp files: [ once a week ]

* (This will be done on the next reboot of the system).

• Start –> My Computer
• Right-click the “c:\” drive and select properties
• On the “General tab”, and click the “Disk Cleanup”.
• From the window that opens – Tag the check-boxes which are relevant for you – and let it run.
• Many forget to empty the “Recycle Bin” – so please do it often.

• [] Rearranging files on the hard-disks – “Defragmentation”: [ once a month ]

* This process rearranges the files, so the same files will be arranged at the same blocks of data, which boosts the performance since there is no need to jump from block to block to collect the full info needed.

• Start –> My Computer
• Right-click the “c:\” drive and select properties
• Choose the “Tools tab”, and click the “Defragment Now”
• Do “Analyze Disk” – then you will be able to “Defragment Disk”.

• [] Spy-ware Free – You need to keep your computer spy-ware free, spy-ware spying around on your computer will slow it down.

• You can perform a free scan by Microsoft at: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
• Spy-Sweeper – is considered a really good spyware removal/prevention program, but it is shareware and will cost around 25$.
• SpyBot Search & destroy – A completely free anti-spyware program, try it out.
• Windows Defender – Freeware by Microsoft, to keep your computer spy-ware safe.
• Ad-Aware – Ad-Aware is one of the oldest, and a well known one, you can download a free trial will give some protection, but the Plus version will give better coverage for extra pay.
• Spy-ware Terminator – This one gives fair protection for free, check it out.
• Spy-ware Blaster – Another free option, check it out and see how it works for you.

These are basic tools anyone can use, in order to assist your computer to go a bit quicker, and more efficient.

When you want to protect your internal network, either your business network or your home network and you want to install the firewall yourself, there is an option to use a Linux firewall application. Linux has many benefits about installing applications by yourself, of course you need to learn some Linux to do so, but that is one of the reasons why it might be a good idea to get to know Linux. You can install almost anything that you might need, and it’s free.

I am specifying a couple of good ones, but there are many more. I set a link at the bottom of this article, that links to a very long list of firewall options 🙂

Firestarter – When you’re using a desktop version of the Linux operating system, you can use this graphic firewall application.
•    Easy to use graphic interface (might ease configuration if you have some basic understanding of how firewalls work).
•    This application is of course an open source application, and free.
•    The firewall enables more than one station to be connected to it and of course be protected.
•    You can easily define inbound and outbound traffic – which are of course the core of firewall designation – defining who can exit and who can access the services from the internet.
•    The firewall includes – white-list & black-list traffic – who is allowed and who isn’t
•    You can monitor the traffic, see what is passing through your firewall and online events.

Endian Firewall – This firewall is based on the open source most common command line Linux firewall called IPCOP, This firewall includes web filtering (Web Proxy), SIP Proxy (for Switchboards), VPN, Content Filtering, Mail gateway, Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, Anti-fishing etc…
Some of it features are:
•    There is an easy to use web interface – web management service to configure it.
•    It supports Routing and NAT (for configuring what is allowed and disallow to pass through the firewall.
•    Port forwarding
•    Network traffic logs, Reporting system.
•    IPSec VPN – for VPN secured access from outside the network.
•    Anti -Virus is based on the Clam AV mechanism.
•    Traffic monitoring is by using the nTop.
•    SPAM Protection using pyzor
•    Dynamic DNS support
•    Dnsmasq – is used for the DHCP and DNS.
•    There is also Windows based support – Samba, LDAP, RADIUS.

SmoothWall Express – This firewall offers a good security firewall, for minimal hardware, which can be fitted well on old computers with old slow configurations. This firewall is being configured using a web based management console. You can configure ADSL, ISDN, Web Proxy, DHCP configurations.
There is a nice video that shows and explains about the Smooth-Wall.

There are many other options which you can read on at this link 🙂

Even though we thought Linux operating systems didn’t need Virus protection, it seems the precaution is being taken. There was a belief that since Microsoft
operating systems where the most used operating systems at the public, the virus developers will produce windows designated viruses. But as the Linux operating systems are starting to grab more and more users, who choose to use the open-source version of the operating system, which are also free. Linux operating systems are bringing almost all of the features that are included in the Microsoft operating systems. Even though they are not as smooth as Windows, they are pretty close.

Anyway, since Linux operating systems are being used by more and more clients, it seems the risk of viruses on a Linux system might be imminent. So, some Anti-Virus applications for Linux are popping up now.

Some of those Anti-Virus applications for Linux are:
Panda – The antivirus is suitable for servers and desktop versions of the Linux operating system. You can manage it from a command line (as it is the most usable interface on a Linux OS). The Panda anti-virus for Linux is intended to protect the Linux and Windows operating systems in an environment altogether.

ClamAV – This anti-virus application is designed basically for scanning e-mails on mail gateways. It has a couple of utilities and daemons, command line control, and database storage of automatic updates. This anti-virus seems to be a very common engine for anti-virus scanning on Linux.

RAV – This application is designed for the Linux desktop version. It has a graphic user interface that enables a change of anti-virus scanning settings. You can use it to schedule scans and has a control center that warns and manage the prevention options of anti-virus outbreak.

Vexira – It is mostly an anti-virus that is designed to protect file servers and samba servers. So it mostly protects files in a shared folder environment. It provides real-time protection for e-mails, files, and download operations.

Sophos – This anti-virus application is protecting all of the different interfaces in Linux, both desktop and server operating system versions. It has good

performance stability and reliability for scanning Linux systems and covers most of the known Linux distributions.

Kaspersky – The Kaspersky Linux version, has a module that interacts with the operating system to protect Linux files, monitor changes and modifications that are made
on files, this module is the on-access feature, which enables real-time protection. Another module is the on-demand scanner which will protect any added devices, removable devices (USB, Media, etc…).

There are many security risks while we use our computers. Since the internet becomes a common and most usable interface, as we use the internet on a daily basis, we are open to risks that are just out there on the web. We continuously either receive e-mails, browse the web visit different websites, download files, play movies, press publicity banners, etc… We might connect a USB device that might contain an infected file.

All of those subjects I have reviewed in that last paragraph are risks to our computers, there are different type of risks on the internet, some are while just browsing a risky virus-infected website that might try to install a spy type of application onto your computer, or install plug-in into your browser. You might receive e-mails that if opened might install a damaging application into your computer and you might just want to copy a file from someone’s USB memory stick, and that memory stick might have some infected files on it, that might infect your computer.

So to avoid, or at least minimize the risk to your computer there are some basic rules to maintain. The basic one is a Firewall, which yo

u might use a router that you might know how to configure to enable its a firewall and by that build the Firewall WALL that will guard your computer against outside threats. You can also use a software firewall, that will be as a default in the operating system (like the Windows OS offers a built-in firewall), or just install an external firewall software, which there are many types out there, you just need to make sure you choose a well known one, that, of course, gets daily updates, so it will be always updated with the newest threats and update its guarding mechanism against those threats.

The idea behind the firewall is a separation between the WAN (wide area network) and the LAN (local area network), so external sources can’t access your local network.

The other risk prevention way is to install Anti-Virus software on your computer, that will guard any changes or harmful software that might try to install itself onto your computer. The anti-virus software needs to get daily updates and be most updated against the newest risks that might appear, and there are many viruses that are being built on

a daily basis, and the updated system will be able to guard your computer for those viruses. The anti-virus system can either prevent the virus from installing itself automatically, or you might just choose to get a warning and enable you to choose the steps you want to take with the anti-virus warning (if you trust the software you’re trying to install which might get a warning from the anti-virus system you will be able to enable it to install).

Basically, if you have those two basic features, the Firewall and the Anti-Virus on your computer, you will be protected against dangerous occurrences that might occur on your computer, and prevent them from spreading and damaging your computer, and your important information that you would like to keep safe :-).

Be aware of the warning I have specified above, and keep your computer safe.