News from Geek Girls IT Services - Geek Girls IT Services

What to do about Conficker (Downadup)

by Roberta | Mar 30, 2009 | Cybersecurity, What's New at Geek Girls IT Services

By now you've probably heard about the Conficker (aka Downadup) virus that is supposed to start wreaking havoc some time after April 1st hits. It's been on 60 Minutes and in the NY Times. What should you do to protect yourself? First, take a deep breath. 54% of the...

Surge Protectors

by Roberta | Mar 25, 2009 | IT for Small Business, Tech Tips for Small Business

It's very important to keep all electronic equipment, not just your computer, plugged into a surge protector to protect it from surges and spikes on the line. I'm not an electrician, but my residential clients always assume I know about surge protectors and ask me...

Genie-Soft Backup Manager How-To Videos

by Roberta | Mar 15, 2009 | Tech Tips for Small Business

Many of our clients are using Genie Soft Backup Manager to automatically back up their computers to an external hard drive or ftp site. Most of them are not interested in learning how to use the software; they just want to know that it works and that their data is...

How (and Why) to Delete your Internet Explorer Browser Cache

by Roberta | Mar 7, 2009 | Tech Tips for Small Business

A client asks whether it's necessary to delete her browser cache after an online banking session, as her bank encourages her to do this. The reason the bank suggests deleting your browser cache is propably to make sure that personally identifying information isn't...

How to Run an Online Virus Scan

by Roberta | Mar 2, 2009 | Tech Tips for Small Business

Suppose you’re not 100% confident in your anti-virus software. You’d like to run another company’s anti-virus scan but you know from speaking with your friendly Geek Girl that you should NEVER install two AV programs on your computer at the same time. They will conflict with each other and cause performance problems. Instead, consider running an online virus scan from your web browser. One of the best is Bit Defender online scanner.

Dangerous web sites found using Google search

by Roberta | Feb 3, 2009 | Cybersecurity

A while back I wrote about the "XP Anti=-virus" rogue malware which many of my clients have accidentally installed by visiting an innocent-looking web site. I want to reiterate that you need to be careful what web site you visit, no matter what the source of the link...

My internet travails

by Roberta | Feb 2, 2009 | Tech Tips for Small Business

As I mentioned in a previous post and mailing, I just moved to Teaneck NJ. I thought it would be a simple matter to move my Verizon DSL service from Brooklyn to Teaneck, but boy was I wrong! Here's a summary: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=48049 I finally...

Limewire – magnet for spyware

by Roberta | Feb 2, 2009 | Cybersecurity

I want to warn all my clients not to use Limewire. If you must download (uncopyrighted!) material through a file-sharing program, use a bit torrent program such as Bit Comet. The reason bit torrents are safer is that Limewire distributes the file from one source,...

From the Times: “Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide”

by Roberta | Jan 23, 2009 | Cybersecurity

Some of you may have seen this article in the Times yesterday. http://tinyurl.com/ckhllt There are always worms, trojans, and viruses on the net, so I don't believe there's a particular cause for panic or alarm in this case. As always, please make sure you allow all...

Happy New Year

by Roberta | Jan 14, 2009 | What's New at Geek Girls IT Services

Happy New Year! I’d like to thank all the talented and cool people I am honored to call my clients for your business. I I wanted to share some interesting developments in our geeky world. Some of the following may save you money and/or time, so please read on. ...