Fix My Broke PC!

Have you ever been on vacation, or at work, or even over at a friends house, and wished you had access to your computer for any reason? There are numerous simple programs that you can use to accomplish this task, and each with their own features. Today we are going to go over, non-commercial use, features of a few of my personal favorites; Logmein and TeamViewer. (I included GoToMyPC Features and a quick blurb on why I did not trial their service.)

Here is my scenario for what I was looking for: I have multiple computers that I use. I have multiple Windows machines ranging from Windows XP to Windows 7 and I have one Macbook. So I was looking for something that worked with both the Mac and the PC. I also have a few friends that I wanted to support that use Windows and Linux, so I wanted to research how I would be able to assist them as well with this. All three of these platforms are compatible with the PC and Mac. Now there are other programs you can use, like VNC, but they usually require some sort of tweaking in firewalls or routers to get them to work from outside internet access. This post is looking at simple, easy to install and use remote access. One of the three remote access program even covers Linux! LogMeIn has a free version and a paid version that increases the amount of benefits you can get from the program. So here goes!

LogMeIn has, by far, been my favorite. You sign up for an account at LogMeIn’s website and click on Add Computer. When you initially start, it automatically installs the Pro version under a 30 day trial. You can try the extra features out for a bit if you would like to, then to change it over to the free version you click on Properties next to the computer name, go to Subscription and change the subscription in the drop down box to free. Okay, back to the review! After installing I was able to log in to my LogMeIn account (first set of login credentials needed). Then when I went to remote access my computer, I was asked for my computers credentials (second set of login credentials). The speed was very reasonable and I was able to remote access my computer from a Mac and from a PC. I looked at the Security settings in the Program and found that I could also set a “computer” password (third set of login credentials). After verifying your second set of login credentials, you would be prompted with Random characters from your “computer” password that you have to select from a drop down box. I found this to be an awesome addition to the already double credential login. (Plus it helps prevent hacks from key loggers as you are not typing keys but selecting from a drop down box. Meaning, if you HAD to remote into your computer from a cyber cafe, or a public computer, you could feel a little better about doing so.) The Free service allows you to install the service on as many computers as you want, so if you want to be able to “assist” friends and family, you can get their permission to install it so you can. To top it all off, for a $29.99 fee, you could purchase the LogMeIn iPhone app to remote control your computers from your iPhone. So far this has been the best service I have found. Their service provided quality speed, good service, and has been reliable.

GoToMyPC is the priciest, and thus because of the cost, I did not review their services adequately. The Citrix online company is the only one that did not have a “free” service for consumers. They also won’t allow you to test drive their software without putting in your Credit Card data. I have heard a lot of people speak well about the speed and functionality of GoToMyPC, but we’ll have to leave that one to someone who has more money on their hands and wants to play with something different. I prefer more features for a lesser cost.

TeamViewer is the only simple remote access program that also covers Linux. Once installed, it assigns an arbitrary number and a random password. The number you will have to memorize, because that is the number you will need when trying to access your computer using another TeamViewer. Unless of course, you use their online web application. It is optional and you can sign up for it from their website, input your number, and assign a description to simplify the access to your computer. The random password can be regenerated at will, or after each connection. You can also assign a static password so that you won’t have to worry about not having the next random password in the list. The random password is helpful when desktop sharing with other friends and family or providing remote support. Remote connecting into a computer requires that either you have the logon credentials for the optional web app, and then the password to connect to the remote computer. Or, you can just download the TeamViewer application and type in the arbitrarily assigned login and either the set password or random password to login. Using the web app, you still have 2 credentials to verify, however, with the TeamViewer application there is only 1. Unless of course you already have your computer password protected, which you should, and as long as it is locked. If you are using it at the time when you remote in, you come in right where you are at. They also have an iPhone app that is free, and you can put your arbitrary number and password in to connect to your remote computer. I was not impressed with the screen refresh rate (set at Auto) within TeamViewer while remote controlling another computer. We were both connected via DSL and it just seemed to crawl.

Feature Chart:

My recommendation is to look over the list and see what best fits your needs. I like TeamViewers ability to provide remote support, without installation, for free. I am not keen on the security of allowing TeamViewer run 24/7 on my computer with the current lack of security features it has. For providing needed remote support, the security is fine, just make sure you close out the program when done. LogMeIn’s additional security features give me a “warm fuzzy” feeling, and thus I don’t feel as bad running it on my computer 24/7. If you have any other services like the above mentioned, please provide your own review and if possible compare some of the features to the services provided.

It’s been a while since I posted to Fix My Broke PC! I have been working on advancing my knowledge of Information Technology. I just finished a Data Communications and Networking class as well as a Discrete Mathematics course. I passed both courses and have decided to try doing one course per semester instead of two so that I can have more time to focus on Church and hobbies. Needless to say I am behind on the times and a lot of new or neat stuff has come out. I am back to start sharing some of it.

My first order of duty is to brag about an antivirus suite that I am highly recommending to all of my clients. The cost of this antivirus is, FREE! Normally I do not promote free antivirus suites, especially after running both AVG and Avast antivirus on my home computers. I have had more calls from clients running those two free antiviruses and getting infections than any other problem. This new software is supported and developed by Microsoft and is called Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).

Here is how I tested this software. During the beta phases I signed up (prior to starting classes in August which was the reason I had not posted during that time) and started testing it on my personal machine. After a while of running it and testing stability I decided to put it to the test and created a virtual Windows XP Machine. I fully patched the machine (if you don’t keep your machine patched you might as well just install the trojans and viruses yourself) and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). I then tested the machine using Secunia PSI to make sure I had no vulnerabilities.

I then researched on the Internet about known malware sites and came across a database of sites at MalwareURL. Using these known malware sites I attempted to infect my virtual machine over and over with Malware. Internet Explorer allowed the install to start and MSE blocked the installation. Firefox allowed the download of about 4/5ths and blocked 1/5ths and MSE blocked the installation of the ones that got through. Amazingly, Google Chrome allowed the download of about 1/5th of the programs and the others were blocked by Google Chrome itself.

I am unable to verify the sites that supposedly had keyloggers or viruses that I attempted to install but “supposedly” they were legit. I had a bunch of blocked notices from MSE so maybe they were. Either way I have been completely happy with the program and have replaced using ESET’s Nod32 Antivirus for this free application (not because I would cheap out on security either). So head on over and try it out before renewing your antivirus software again. Also I highly recommend everyone trying out Secunia before I blog about it.

Microsoft Security Essentials

As some of you might know from following our Facebook page, I have been previewing Office 2010 and have done an “At First Glance” analysis comparison to Office 2007. At first glance is just a comparison of the bare bone upfront features looking at Office 2010 and Office 2007 to compare differences between the interfaces and features available to the users. Here are my results:

Office 2010 visually changed a few buttons which is to be expected. I did not attempt to dig deep into any changes, I clicked a few buttons to see if there were additional features or settings that could be different between the two.

• Word 2010 and 2007 functions are identical.
• Excel 2010 and 2007 functions are also identical.
• PowerPoint 2010 now has a new tab on top for “Transitions”. They are the same transitions found in 2007, but I guess they found a reason to add that as its own tab.
• Outlook 2010 now has a “Suggested Contacts” feature that was not found in 2007 and also sports the 2007 “tabs”.
• Onenote 2010 now has a revisions button when sharing and also a Onenote recycle bin built in. Onenote is also sporting the new Tab bar which I find convenient when used on a Tablet PC.

Disappointments:

• I was still unable to sync up a Onenote 2010 notebook with anything other than Sharepoint or a Shared Folder.
• I was unable to give any good information about performance because the preview is a Virtual program to protect the computer from any negative affects it could have on the O/S but this made it impossible to tell how it will perform come release day.

Overall, I won’t be rushing out to purchase 2010 as of this moment. The additional features are few and does not appear to be anything worth spending the couple hundred dollars for the upgrade. If Microsoft can complete the task of allowing Onenote sync on Office Live Workspaces or through Skydrive I would be more inclined to rush out and purchase the upgrade. As I continue the testing process I will post any more in depth findings.

Last week I signed up for and started Beta testing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). I am currently running it on a live machine (I was going to do Virtual but was having an issue with hard drive space) so I haven’t been able to test it with live viruses or malware. I plan to overcome this hard drive space issue so that I can continue testing within a virtual environment.

The test that I did use was the Eicars test virus. It’s a known test virus string that is used to test how the antivirus will react to certain situations. So far I am impressed with the way the it reacts. I copied the text into Memory and before I could paste it into a text file MSE already recognized and cleaned the memory. I downloaded the string within a text file and it allowed the download, but upon opening before it would show the string on the screen MSE had already cleaned the file. The responses cleaned the file and left a message on the bottom right of the screen asking for a response to Clean the computer. Very easy to use and notification was sufficient for my use.

Downsides so far include not having the ability to schedule an update. There is a check box to check for updates before running “A” scan, but you can’t configure updates any other way. Also, it only has the ability schedule one scan, and by default that is a quick scan. I personally prefer having a quick scan done nightly and a full scan done weekly but at this time we are unable to configure both. It’s one or the other!

These downsides have already been submitted as feedback via Microsoft’s beta test site. I eagerly await the full release of MSE and feel that it will have a strong impact on the security of Microsoft’s software.

During my first few months working as an IT Professional I really started to see the need for backing up files. I never realized how hard a person took the fact that years of pictures were lost because of a hard drive failure. That really got me thinking about backup solutions and what would be best for us as a family. We currently keep on a digital form pictures, some term papers from schooling and most importantly all my work data. I thought about how devastating it would be to lose that data and what I would have to tell the customers or even my kids when they grew up what happened to their pictures growing up. So now that I realized that I had a need for a backup solution, now I started trying to figure out what I wanted.There are two different types of backup solutions that I’d like to cover for the home user. The first one is backing up to a second hard drive. The other is an online (cloud) backup that is usually done with a third party backup provider or a hosting account. I will try to go over the benefits and downfalls of each, and give a few recommendations.

Backing up to a second hard drive within the home has many benefits. First is the security aspect, you know at all times where the hard drive is, whether internal to the computer or external. The internal gives you the ability to save your PC from hard drive crashes and your files will be there for restoration. However, if someone steals your PC or your house burns down or is water damaged, you have the potential of losing all your data. The external gives you the same ability to save your data but you get extra security or safe measures because you can lock them up in fireproof safes or a safe deposit box between backups. This is one of the most secure methods, and is recommended if you do not have high speed internet or just have a large amount of files (10gb+) that need to be backed up regularly.

Online backups are awesome, if you have high speed internet, for three reasons. One, if something happens to your PC (fire, water, damage) your files are still accessible using any computer usually via a website. Two, your data is also backed up on someone else’s server so it’s potentially like having three backups. Three, usually it requires little to no intervention from the user and happens behind the scenes. Also for personal users, most of these backup hosting companies offer a small amount of space (usually around 2gb) free of charge. They do this in hopes to wrap you into backing up more files to purchase better plans.The down sides are that even with high speed internet, it can take a good amount of time and bandwidth to send the initial backup. Also, after a major crash, it could take hours to completely download your entire backup again. On the up side to this one, most backup companies now offer an overnight or 2-3 day shipping on DVD’s of your backup files. The most important downside is one that needs to be researched intensely beforehand, and that is, who is going to have access to the data while it is at the storage center.

For me, I found that my data that was important to backup (pictures) could easily be backed up using the first solution an external hard drive which a bought from Circuit City on sale for like $60. Since I don’t download the pictures to my PC but once or twice a month, it’s easy to keep the hard drive in a safe place until needed for updating. However, my business and school files were changed very consistently and required daily backups. Since I had high speed internet I researched a few companies and decided to go with Mozy’s free 2GB of storage plan. The files are encrypted from my PC with either a personal encryption key or Mozy’s patented Blowfish encryption to their servers. They also host a lot of reputable companies’ data, and they have an unlimited backup plan for less than $5 a month at the time of this writing.