I’ve been getting emails and Facebook messages asking about a topic that is currently in the news.  There is a story circulating that claims hundreds of thousands of people could lose their internet connection in July.  A story like that might sound a lot like the typical “forward this email to all your friends” hoax.  But in this case, it’s true.  Today I’ll give you the full scoop, and tell you how you can make sure you don’t lose your internet when that day arrives.

Background:

It all started when a bunch of bad guys created a Trojan called DNSChanger.  If a computer is infected with DNSChanger, you will have trouble getting to the websites you intend to visit.

For example, if you try to go to your favorite news website, you might be instead redirected to a site that looks similar to your news site, but in fact is filled with malware and spam advertisements.  This just adds more infection to your computer, and when anyone clicks on those ads, the bad guys make money.

And they made a lot of money – millions – until the FBI arrested a bunch of them back in November of last year.  The FBI confiscated their servers.  But, that meant that all of the hundreds of thousands of people that were infected with DNSChanger would no longer have ANY internet access, since their computers used the criminal’s servers.

So, the FBI set up temporary, clean servers in order to keep that big blackout from happening.  Key word: temporary.

The FBI originally planned to shut down those temporary servers on March 8.  However, there were still a LOT of computers that were infected.  So they delayed the shutdown – and now it is scheduled to happen on July 9.  It has been estimated that over half of the major corporations in the US as well as government agencies are still infected.  That’s in addition to over 500,000 individual users.  This is big!

How to check your computer:

If you use the security software that I recommend, you almost certainly don’t have a problem with this infection.

Checking your computer is easy.  Go to this website:

http://www.dns-ok.us

That site will automatically check your DNS settings.  If you’re okay, you will see a green image like this:

If your computer is infected, you will see this image:

If your computer comes up with the red image, you need to get this taken care of as soon as possible.  There will be a link to some of the removal tools/software that have been found to be effective.

If you prefer, I can take care of this for you.  This is handled only through my Remote Support service.  Once you have that set up, we can connect and get this problem resolved.  I can also fix this in person, if you are local to me.

In the past, I have written about the value of being able to send a screenshot. A screenshot is just a picture of your screen, and many times it tells me what is going on or what problem you might be having. It’s much better than just telling me, “My email won’t work” – that could mean a million different things.

Now there’s a free service that is even better (and I know my friend Lynn, owner of a bed and breakfast in Maine, is going to want to try it out!). With this service, you don’t just send a picture of your screen – you send an actual video of it. The service is called Show Me What’s Wrong.

Here’s how it works:

You go to this website: http://tinyurl.com/yj6kbm2 (you can bookmark it if you want)

At that site, you will see a place to enter your full name, and a button that says “Start Recording”. When you push that button, you will see some big numbers on your screen counting down 3 – 2 – 1 and then you are recording whatever happens on your screen. If what you are trying to show me has to do with going to a website, open a new browser window to do that.

You get 5 minutes of recording time, so you can click on things, make error messages pop up, open programs, whatever you feel demonstrates whatever problem your computer is having. You can even include audio – just connect a microphone to your computer, and you can talk while you are recording the screen. This way you can explain the problem verbally while showing it visually.

When you are finished, just click the big red STOP sign in the lower right corner. When you do that, the recording stops, and the video is processed and sent to me by email. It couldn’t be any easier!

Keep in mind a couple of things:

1. When I get this video, all I receive is your name and the video itself. Don’t assume I know your email address, even if we have communicated by email in the past. In the “Name” field, you can type your first and last name, and your email address. At least I can then reply to you.

2. I wish I could invite everyone to just send me your screen videos and I will diagnose and fix your problem, but there are not enough hours in the day to do that as a free service. I am available for hire though! You can buy an hour of my time and then use it in chunks whenever you need help – it doesn’t necessarily have to be for a PC Tuneup.

This week’s video: How would you react if you thought a spider was crawling on you? Maybe like these people did:

I just created this 3-minute video to promote my computer repair service:

If you live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, and you have a problem with your computer, I can fix it. Check out my new Computer Repair page for more details.

The Recycle Bin…that ever-present repository that is ready to receive all of the computer’s data that you no longer need. Is yours using more space than it needs to?

Do a right-click on the Recycle Bin icon, and choose Properties. You should see an indication of the maximum size allowed for the amount of data being held in the Bin. In Windows Vista, I generally set mine to about 1000 mb (1 gb). If you use XP, you have a slide bar that allows you to set it to be a certain percentage of the hard drive. 5% is probably fine, and it should never be more than 10%.

By limiting the amount of data that can be stored in the Recycle Bin, you are freeing up hard drive space. For older computers with smaller hard drives, this can be an important factor.

If your computer has a problem, what do you do? Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a family member or close friend that is good with computers and has time to fix it. Or perhaps someone like that can walk you through a repair over the phone.

Because of a big advertising campaign, the first choice for some people is the repair guys at the local “box store”. I am talking about the Geek Squad, which is part of Best Buy. This is not always the worst choice, but the problem is that these guys just work for an hourly wage. They don’t usually get to know the customer very well, and they don’t necessarily have the customer’s best interests at heart. Here’s a good example of this.

I have repaired hundreds of computers with all kinds of different problems. Before I do anything, I want to get a good idea of exactly what the problem is. I also want to make sure that the customer’s data will never be at risk, so I determine that all important data is already backed up (or I back it up). Then, I completely analyze the computer and determine what the problem is and how long I believe it will take to fix it. If, during the course of the repair, it gets more complicated and will take longer than I estimated, I contact the customer to explain the situation and get permission to proceed.

My point is that when you deal with me, you get personal service. You are not just one of thousands of machines that I am working on. I understand your dependence on your computer and my job is to make sure it is working correctly. I don’t want my customers to be satisfied; I want them to be raving fans!