I just heard words I never expected to hear from my mother: “Well, why don’t you just email it to me as an attachment?” This is a woman who owned, and presumably used, her computer for 3 years before she discovered she could minimize a window! Now, lo and behold, she’s almost, dare I say, becoming comfortable with using that amazing machine in her study.
Like my mother, more and more senior citizens are utilizing their computers beyond playing their favorite card games. They are discovering that the Internet can connect them, cheaply and easily, to friends old and new. Grandparents can stay more in tune with little Josh’s first steps or Hannah’s piano recital when proud parents send pictures and video clips. Far-flung families can post regular updates and accomplishments on personal blogs or websites (made simple and almost professional looking with a free application like WordPress). Voice Over Internet Providers and cell phone packages have made even the simple act of keeping in touch by phone much cheaper.
In addition to staying connected with family, seniors are discovering that the Internet can open them up to new acquaintances. Last summer, thousands mourned the death of Australian Olive Riley, whom they had grown to love through her posts. Readers from around the world regularly logged on to share her thoughts and memories. Olive started blogging at the age of 107.
No matter what their interests, senior citizens can discover plenty of others to share them. Just a quick perusal of a WordPress gallery shows websites dedicated to people’s dogs, hobbies, recipes or neighborhoods. At a time when age slows a person down and prevents one from venturing out very often, it’s a wonderful boon to be able to connect with others from the comfort of home. Whether checking Lorna’s post to discover what’s new in her retirement village in Florida or discovering that new friend Harold is a great partner for online bridge games, seniors find their world opening rather than closing.
While I don’t expect (or even hope!) to find videos of my mother popping up on YouTube anytime soon, I’m happy for her and her fellow senior citizens that the wonders of technology can open her world wider even as physical constraints might be making it narrower.
Selasa, 28 Juli 2009
The Senior Citizen Embraces the Internet
7 Must Have Online Data Recovery Tools
The entry of a virus, malfunctioning software or a plagued operating system may cost you some important files. Below is a narrowed down list of some helpful online data recovery tools, which you can use to retrieve your important files.
TestDisk
TestDisk complements Windows, Mac and Linux data recovery needs. It is a powerful open-source tool that can ‘undelete’ suddenly lost and accidentally deleted files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 file systems. It also hosts other useful functionality. It helps recover the damaged boot sector from a backup, rebuild that boot sector and find lost partitions in dozens in format to locate the lost data and copy deleted files from partitions.
Recuva
Recuva is a Window-based tool that holds the power to resurrect missing files via its file-recovery wizard or application manual mode. When you are not quite sure of where your files are located or lost, the file-recovery wizard proves to be handy not only in retrieving missing files but also locating long forgotten files. Its manual user mode is helpful in file location.
PhotoRec
This program is a perfect complement to the TestDisk applications. It may not hold GUI capabilities but is certainly is one powerful online data recovery tool. Among its great features is that it does not mess with your computer partitions as it does not tend to rebuild your master boot record. This application is more focused on file types and operating-system agnostic. It offers help in quickly and safely copying all your suddenly lost files to another disk.
Restoration
Restoration could be the most helpful addition to your Windows-based USB toolkit. Not only does it help restore missing USB files but also your personal computer files. While it lacks the advanced functionality of most online data recovery tools, it is a very effective and generally reliable. Despite its meager 406k size, it outweighs any other data recovery tools out there when it simple applications.
Undelete Plus
Undelete Plus is a data recovery application that works on all versions of Windows as well as incarnations of FAT and NTFS file systems. It works by assigning recovery probability to searched files, depending on the severity of the damage. It allows easy file sorting by type and easy setting of filters, which will help sift through every deleted file in locating your missing files.
GetDataBack
This software helps recover lost data from your hard drive’s partition table, boot record, FAT/MFT or root directory. With the use of advanced algorithms, it ensures that all directories and subdirectories are put together and reconstructed properly. Perhaps the greatest GetDataBack feature is its capacity to enable regular users to conduct his own data recovery by guiding him in every step while giving the advanced users the leeway to interfere with the recovery operations to improve data search and retrieval results.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
This software will provide you with the complete solution to all your data recovery needs. It works great in retrieving all the data lost after operating system corruption, file system damage, accidental deletion and damage to the USB flash drive. With its improved recovery applications for FAT and NTFS file systems, it helps recover lost logical drives, do hard drive cloning and imaging and recover photo, music and video files from your system.
Given this chance to look over the few notable online data recovery tools, you can now pinpoint which application(s) will assure the recovery of your missing files.
Minggu, 26 Juli 2009
10 Tips for Capturing e-Learning Audio
Using audio in your online course is an extremely important factor in engaging your audience. Studies have shown that courses without audio are less compelling and memorable than courses with audio. Either used as a narration or for directions, audio – done the right way – can greatly enhance your e-learning materials.
Help with Audio for Online Course Developers
Audio engineering and the knowledge it takes to adequately capture, edit, and clean up audio to achieve a quality output is a task that is typically beyond the skill set of most online course developers. The average course developer has little if any knowledge of sampling rates, frequencies, modulation, compression schemes and other audio engineering concepts.
The goal of this article is to provide you information on how to get the audio in a format suitable for an e-learning course-authoring tool. The article will focus on capturing and editing audio at the basic level and certainly, the 10 tips listed below should help get you moving in the right direction.
1. Microphones
For narration, you’ll need to use a microphone to capture the voiceover. Sure, your laptop or PC might have a built-in microphone, but you probably don’t want to end up sounding like the broken drive-thru speaker at your local fast food restaurant. There are several microphones to choose from and they are made specifically for different purposes.
Dynamic Microphones are the ones you commonly see being used by rock stars in concerts. They have a ball-like shape as the head. These mics are omni-directional, meaning that they can pick up sound from a wide area. The Shure SM-58 microphone is an example of a dynamic microphone and has a consistent quality and dynamic range that makes it useful for all types of applications.
Condenser Microphones, unlike dynamic microphones, have a capacitor inside that requires them to be powered by a source – either battery or A/C. These microphones are often found in recording studios, used in live concerts, and are commonly found in lavalier mics (the kind you attach to a shirt or lapel). These mics are uni-directional, meaning that they capture a more narrow area of sound. Because of their power requirements, their voltage output can vary. The Neumann KMS-105 is an example of a condenser mic.
You may also find a Headset Microphone, which plugs directly into your computer’s input source and output source, so you can hear what you say as you are recording. Most of the microphones on these headsets have a noise cancellation function built into them. This causes unnatural sounding silences between phrases. The audio quality from these types of microphones tends also to sound blown out as the microphone position is very close to the mouth. That makes higher frequencies tend to sound noisy and lower frequencies sound poorly.
Built-In Microphones have the tendency to pick up any noise generated by your computer during use. This means any hard-drive motion, cooling fans, operating system sounds, and room ambience. These microphones are usually engineered to pick up the widest area of sound for situations like web conferencing and chat room sessions. The audio quality is usually poor and the microphones do not have sophisticated features like noise canceling or balancing. If at all possible, you should avoid using the built-in microphone for your audio input source.
2. Distance from Microphone
I’m sure you’ve all seen the rock videos or American Idol, where the rock stars have the microphone jammed up against their mouths as they are singing. So most people feel they need to do the same when recording narration. What the rock stars have to their advantage is a sound limiter that cuts off frequencies above a certain range. The maximum output is policed by this device to prevent any unwanted feedback or squelch, because the frequency is automatically limited. Most likely, your simple setup won’t have this capability.
One thing you can do to prevent any unwanted sounds in your narration, is to position your mouth about 6 to 12 inches away from the microphone and speak directly into the microphone, not away from it, to either side, nor in front of it. The best audio signal will be a direct path from your mouth to the microphone. If you start speaking into the microphone and then tilt your head downwards to read from a script, you’ll be able to notice the drop in the audio signal. If needed, hold your script up next to the microphone. Another tip: when reading from a script, don’t read across pages that you are turning or moving from one hand to another. Most microphones are sensitive enough to pick up all of that paper moving. If possible, have each page of the script segmented and keep them separated, not stapled or kept together with paper clips.
3. Use a Windscreen
A consistent frequency helps to produce the best audio. If you are looking at an audio waveform for the first time, you won’t be able to decipher it, but the peaks and valleys of each frequency can visually tell a lot about that sound. One thing that often happens, especially during narration recording, are pops that occur when saying words that begin with P or B. These pops go above the dynamic range and therefore, don’t sound anything like a P or a B but more like a popping sound.
A simple solution to this problem is a windscreen. Some engineers will wrap a wire clothes hanger with nylon stockings and place them in front of the mics in order to act as a low budget windscreen, but you can also buy them for less than ten dollars at your local music store. These are constructed out of a foam material and fit over your microphone.
4. Interfaces
So far, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about microphones but a majority of the mics recommended here won’t even plug in to your computers without adapters. Professional mics have an XLR connector, which has three pins. Most computers are made with eighth inch connectors. You can use Dynamic Microphones with an adapter connected to your computer without much of a problem. Condenser Mics, since they require power, won’t work even with an adapter.
There are interfaces specifically built for this purpose and they come in two flavors: USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394). Most PC manufacturers are including either USB 1.0 or 2.0 ports on their hardware. Firewire is more commonly found on Apple computers however, you can purchase Firewire cards for PCs. Firewire is faster than USB in certain applications and therefore is more desirable for audio input. There’s less latency on a Firewire connection than on a USB connection because of the performance speed.
Firewire comes in two flavors, there’s Firewire 400, which can transfer data at a rate of 400 MB per second, and Firewire 800, which doubles the speed to 800 MB per second. There are a wide range of musical digital interfaces out on the market today, and you can use either of these technologies to interface with a computer. M‐Audio has a line of both types including the ProFire 610 and the FastTrack USB.
These devices can run off of their intended connections and act as an audio input/output source for your computer to provide a professional recording result. At SyberWorks, we use an M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface connected to two Shure-SM 58s for all of our narration. The 410 is a powerful choice because it offers multiple inputs and all of the audio controls necessary for level/gain and limiter/compressor. It also has XLR inputs and quarter inch inputs for microphones and instruments, and two headphone outputs. Connected to the 410 are two M-Audio BX8a monitors, which offer a much higher quality output sound than any built-in computer speaker.
5. Software
There are so many options for audio editing software, from the simple shareware/freeware to the professional level, that the determination of what to use might lie somewhere within your budget constraints. The basic audio recording tools that come with any Windows-based machine do not generate quality audio. Any Apple computer comes with GarageBand which is an excellent mid-level audio recording application. GarageBand is the step child of Apple’s Logic Studio and offers some pretty sophisticated tools for recording, editing, and delivering audio recordings on any platform.
Adobe has an audio recording/editing application called SoundBooth, which offers a variety of tools for cleaning up audio files and saving them in different formats. SoundBooth comes with the Creative Suite Production Premium or Master Collection. I recently used SoundBooth to record old cassette tape tracks as MP3 files so that I can burn the files to CD. I was able to use SoundBooth to clean up all of hissing sound on tapes and the audio quality was excellent.
Bias, Inc. has been in the audio production area for over a decade now and their flagship audio editing software, Peak Pro, is an award winning application. With a simple interface and a variety of effects and controls, Peak makes audio editing simple. I’m a long time user of Peak Pro and can say that it’s a stable, professional application that offers all of the tools that I need to edit the audio that I record. Combined with SoundSoap Pro, an audio cleaning application, Peak Pro can reduce noise, hiss, rumble, cracks and pops, and other unwanted sounds from any audio recording.
Here at SyberWorks, we use Peak Pro to record any narration for podcasts or courses and GarageBand to stitch together podcasts and teasers. GarageBand comes with some preset stingers and effects which are great for podcasts. It’s ridiculously easy to use. Once the file has been put together, it’s output as an AIFF file to iTunes. I then use iTunes to convert the sound to the MP3 format for delivery.
6. Normalize
During recording, audio levels can be mismatched creating undesirable results during playback. For example, recording from two different sources might produce two different volume levels. When played back, one source sounds softer and the other might sound louder, even though they were recorded in the same room on the same computer with the same hardware. This can be attributed to vocal style or audio input levels not being properly monitored.
To adjust audio levels across the board so that the volume is relatively consistent, most audio editing software offers some normalization option in which the audio levels are examined and a maximum and minimum range are then determined. Softer sounds are increased and louder sounds are decreased so that the overall sound level is more consistent.
If there is a stark contrast between the two input sources, then sound normalization might work against you. Softer sounds might have more sound introduced in them when the gain is increased. Be sure to check your audio input levels before recording. Try to get both sources to come up to the same decibel level prior to recording. If possible, show the input meter in your audio software to the speakers and try to get them to speak at a gain level about ‐5 decibels.
7. Ahh’s and Uhm’s
For some people, speaking into a microphone can be a little intimidating. You might hear a lot of Ahhh’s and Uhmm’s during a recording session. Some people naturally put these in their phrases because they are thinking about what they are going to say next. Others put them in out of nervousness. Others have lisp’s or emphasize S’s and Z’s. Still others smack their lips or breath heavy before talking.
When editing audio, the tendency might be to remove all instances of Ahh’s and Uhm’s. When separated from the rest of a passage, this is easy to do and is an effective way to make the entire sound file shorter. However, there are times when the Ahh’s and Uhm’s are rolled into other phrases and are difficult to separate.
The rule of thumb when editing audio is to remove whatever is bothersome, but keep the tempo of the original sound source and make it sound as natural as possible. Some people also take deep breaths between passages or have nasal sounds that are picked up by the microphones. Sometimes these can be removed and other times they can’t. Remove what you can, but try as much as possible to make the overall recording natural.
8. Cleaning Audio
Depending on how clean your input source is, you may have an audio track that is laced with hum or noise coming from a variety of sources, like an overhead fluorescent light, A/C noise, and other ambient sounds. SoundBooth and Peak Pro both have tools for eliminating these types of sounds from your audio input sources. As mentioned above, the rule of thumb still applies.
Some of these tools can end up making your audio sound very metallic and unnatural, more like a computerized version of the original. When using SoundSoap Pro, for example, the default settings for removing noise keeps all of the highs recognizable, while the mids and lows suffer from a dense computerized sounding quality. SoundBooth’s noise correction tools have the same issue, so if too much is applied, the result isn’t worth the effort.
There’s a balance to how much correction is applied to a sound versus the quality of the output. Sometimes, here at SyberWorks, we have to record voices over the phone. Sound quality from a phone line is always problematic, so invariably that sound will need to be cleaned up. Too much correction though, and the integrity of the voice is compromised. On the other hand, no correction will keep a lot of hiss and noise in the sound, which is undesirable.
9. Audio Formats
Depending on which authoring tools you are using and which platform you are on, you’ll need to know which audio formats to use. The major audio format for the PC platform is .wav, on the Mac platform it’s .aiff. Adobe Captivate and Microsoft PowerPoint both use the .wav format.
The most popular internet audio format now is .mp3, which has greater compression and better sound quality than other internet formats. Captivate uses MP3 compression in sound files for the final output. This makes the files smaller but they can suffer in quality, depending on the settings in Captivate. Native .wav files embedded in PowerPoint files can make those files enormous. Using iSpring, a PowerPoint to Flash converter, you can significantly reduce the file size of presentations and course materials intended for internet delivery.
SyberWorks Web Author has an additional tool called SyberWorks Web Audio which allows you to add streaming audio to courses that anyone can hear using just a web browser. Playback is accomplished through a small Sun Java applet that downloads automatically and quickly. It requires no additional plug-ins or server software. It has no firewall issues and can play in the background, without any visible controls on course pages, or with a small set of basic audio controls displayed.
SyberWorks Web Audio tool takes an audio file of the format .wav and compresses it into the SyberWorks audio format (.sa). It is then easily inserted into the word document by using the Add SyberWorks Audio template.
10. Compression
Depending on which tool you used during recording, you probably have an original audio source with a near CD quality (44 KHz) output. That quality is diminished as soon as the file is compressed. Too much compression and the sound quality is something like R2-D2 behind a large, metal door. Too little compression and the sound files become too large to transfer and play.
The factors involved in compression include bit rate and quality. The bit rate is the data stream target for your intended audience. The typical internet connection these days is at least DSL speed (128 KBps), but there still may be users at modem speeds of 56 KBps. Tools like Captivate will allow you to set the bit rate and quality for all the audio in your course. Therefore, when you save your files out of SoundBooth or Peak Pro, never add any compression. Let Captivate or your other e‐Learning tool do the compression for you.
Quality settings can also alter the file size. Lower quality files have higher compression and therefore are smaller, but sound worse. Higher quality files have less compression, sound better, but are larger in file size.
One tip is to try different compression levels and settings and listen to each output to find the one that is just right. It may be time consuming, but in the end, your e-learning product will be better for it.
Summary
We touched on a number of technical concepts in this article and there’s a lot more. Whatever tools you decide to use, incorporating better-sounding audio in your e-learning development is a great way to take them to the next level. Recording high quality audio can be challenging and fun. It may take some time to get used to, but it’s a skill that’s worth looking into.
If Your Computer Needs Help Fast Use the XP Recovery Tool
THE PROBLEM
Life can be wonderful if your computer is working well and it can be a torment if it's not. There can be all sorts of problems but some are really disasters
One of the following events indicates that your computer needs major repair.
- your computer won't boot
- BSODs (blue screen of death) keep coming up or come up at the worst time
- you have a major virus infestation that is crippling your computer
- computer performance is the pits and/or you get all sorts of weird errors
ANALYZE THE PROBLEM
The first thing you need to do is to check if the problem is due to hardware failures.
If you are experiencing BSODs, Techmetica's BSOD list will tell you which ones are due to hardware problems. They suggest what to do to repair the particular hardware problem.
If a hard disk problem seems likely, you can use the UBCD (ultimate boot CD) available at UltimateBootCD to diagnose your hard drive and possibly fix it.
SOFTWARE REPAIR YOU MIGHT CONSIDER
You can try to do a repair install which will use your XP installation CD to repair your problem. If successful, it will leave your programs and data intact.
This method is somewhat complicated and techy and not for the faint of heart. The best write up on this is provided by Michael Stevens Tech
You might also try an 8 step repair from a Geek squad veteran found at the Icrontic site.
AN AUTOMATIC METHOD
There is software available that will automatically repair your computer and can do this even if you can't boot. It will cost you a small amount of money but it is much less than what a repair shop would charge and it will save you hours of time. This approach makes the most sense for the majority of computer users.
Good luck with your recovery.THE PROBLEM
Life can be wonderful if your computer is working well and it can be a torment if it's not. There can be all sorts of problems but some are really disasters
One of the following events indicates that your computer needs major repair.
- your computer won't boot
- BSODs (blue screen of death) keep coming up or come up at the worst time
- you have a major virus infestation that is crippling your computer
- computer performance is the pits and/or you get all sorts of weird errors
ANALYZE THE PROBLEM
The first thing you need to do is to check if the problem is due to hardware failures.
If you are experiencing BSODs, Techmetica's BSOD list will tell you which ones are due to hardware problems. They suggest what to do to repair the particular hardware problem.
If a hard disk problem seems likely, you can use the UBCD (ultimate boot CD) available at UltimateBootCD to diagnose your hard drive and possibly fix it.
SOFTWARE REPAIR YOU MIGHT CONSIDER
You can try to do a repair install which will use your XP installation CD to repair your problem. If successful, it will leave your programs and data intact.
This method is somewhat complicated and techy and not for the faint of heart. The best write up on this is provided by Michael Stevens Tech
You might also try an 8 step repair from a Geek squad veteran found at the Icrontic site.
AN AUTOMATIC METHOD
There is software available that will automatically repair your computer and can do this even if you can't boot. It will cost you a small amount of money but it is much less than what a repair shop would charge and it will save you hours of time. This approach makes the most sense for the majority of computer users.
Good luck with your recovery.
7 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing A Web Hosting Provider
If you are relatively new to the world of Internet development and are thinking about purchasing a web hosting package for the first time it can be hard to know where to start. By avoiding the following common mistakes that many beginners make you can increase your chances of choosing the right web hosting provider.
Mistake 1 - Buying A Web Hosting Package From A Domain Registrar.
Don't fall in to the trap of immediately hosting with a domain registrar as many of these companies provide overpriced web hosting packages that are stripped of the most essential features for building a web site. Many of these companies skim the market with their web hosting packages and prey on uninformed clients who ultimately end up with a web hosting package that does not fulfill their needs. I am not saying all domain registrars do this, some do not, but make an informed decision.
Mistake 2 - Choosing A Web Hosting Package With No Refund Guarantee.
Some web hosting companies do not provide a refund guarantee for their starter packages. If you are starting out and only require a moderately sized web hosting deal ensure you do not end up paying for a web hosting package that does not fulfill the requirements of your web site with no option for a refund.
Mistake 3 - Choosing A Shared Web Hosting Package When You Require Dedicated, Or Vice Versa.
The two main types of web hosting packages you can select is shared or dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is best for web sites that are reasonably small or web sites that are only starting out. Purchasing a dedicated server is only required for web sites with really high traffic. You can always switch to a dedicated server later on if required, many companies will do this for you free of charge, and you can save money in the mean time.
Mistake 4 - Selecting A Package With Inadequate Features.
If you are only starting out you don't need every feature under the sun yet there are some essential features that some web hosting companies do not provide on their starter packages. PHP, MYSQL, Webmail and a handful of email accounts is the very least that you will require for even the most basic website. Your web designer will love you and it prevents having to change web hosts unnecessarily later on down the track if you require these features for simple things such as a contact form, news section, database of customers and so on.
Mistake 5 - Not Choosing A Package With Free Support.
If you end up with the right web hosting provider you usually wont encounter too many problems. It's better to be safe than sorry, however, and you should have the freedom to contact the support department of your web hosting provider whenever you encounter a problem or have a question and not have to worry about a hefty fee.
Mistake 6 - Choosing A Package With No Simple Back Up Solution.
Many web hosts do not provide a free back up solution. This may seem unreasonable but it because it would be impossible for the web hosts to back up every single time their clients modified their web sites. This means it is your responsibility to ensure you retrieve regular up to date back ups of your web site and if this is a feature of your web hosting package it will help you out a great deal.
Mistake 7 - Paying The Wrong Price.
The many different prices that web hosting providers use for their products can be quite confusing for the beginner. It is common practise in the industry for companies to advertise a monthly price yet expect you to pay for at least a years worth of hosting. If you keep this in mind and steer clear of the mistakes mentioned in this article you will be well on your way to choosing the right web hosting provider.
I hope my advice has been helpful. If you are about to be involved in creating an Internet presence for the first time it can be a very rewarding experience. Try not to get too overwhelmed by the many things to worry about and give something creative and different to the Internet - your visitors will love you for it. Good luck!
Senin, 20 Juli 2009
Five Tips For Staying Safe On The Internet
For this article, I thought I would give 5 tips on ways to stay safe while on the internet. These are some very simple tips, but you would be surprised how many people fail to do these things. Anyway, let's get right to them.
-First off, never give your passwords out to anyone. I don't care if someone instant messages you claiming to be from AOL, you shouldn't give your password out. You also should be careful of websites that look like official websites that ask for your password. If you are uncertain about the website, just type in the regular homepage address. That way you are sure you are on the actual homepage.
-Make your passwords difficult for people to guess. This is such a simple tip, but you would be surprised how many people forget to do this. It's usually recommended to pick a password that has letters AND numbers in it. If you just pick a word in the dictionary, it is easier for someone to guess. Putting letters and numbers together makes it much more difficult. Also, putting special characters in your password is also good.
-Do not download software from pop-up boxes. I'm talking about those boxes that sometimes come up when you go to a website. Often times they will pretend to be a warning message that says your computer is infected with Spyware. Don't download those software programs! They are most likely Spyware. If you want to know some legitimate Spyware removers, check out my blog where I have some listed. My blog address is at the bottom of this article.
-Do not click on links in spam e-mails you receive! I cannot stress this enough. There is absolutely no reason that you should click on a link in an e-mail from someone you don't know. What is the worst that could happen if you do? Well, the link could take you to a website that will infect your computer with a virus through a security hole. That can happen just by visiting a website. Seriously, there is no reason to click on a link from someone you don't know. If you've got an e-mail from someone claiming to be from eBay wanting your password, then log in from the main website. If eBay really needs you to log in so bad that they are e-mailing you, I'm sure there will be a big notice right on your account when you do log in through the actual website.
-And finally, be careful with what personal information you put on the internet. Unless you are ordering something, you should not need to give out your last name, home address, or home phone number. If I sign up for a website and they need something like my phone number, I just give them my cell phone number. Even that though I don't generally recommend.
Like I've said, there are a lot of people that are taken advantage of through the internet. If you make sure to follow these tips, you should have no problem.
Stay safe!
Five Signs Your Computer May Have A Spyware Infection
For this article, I thought I would go ahead and give you five signs that your computer may have some type of spyware infection.
These days, spyware is everywhere. As Anti-Spyware programs get stronger, spyware continues to become trickier. Because of this, in my opinion, you simply cannot rely on running a spyware scanner to tell you if you have a spyware infection or not. You need to be able to notice other signs that you may have a spyware infection. Because let's face it, unless you have some type of spyware guard that runs 24/7, it's possible you will get an infection between scans with whichever spyware scanner you use. And if you go weeks between scans, the spyware could really harm your computer.
Now, just because you may notice one of these signs doesn't mean for sure that your computer has a spyware infection. It is still possible it doesn't. However, in my opinion, noticing any of these signs is enough reason to run a scan as soon as possible. Anyway, let's get right to the signs. Here they are, in no particular order.
1. IExplore.Exe
Try looking at the list of running processes on your computer. (Ctrl+Alt+Del - Processes (On Windows Xp) ). Do you see IExplore.Exe running? Well, if you are viewing this article in Internet Explorer or have Internet Explorer open in the background, then you shouldn't worry about seeing IEXplore.EXE in your process list. However, if you close out of Internet Explorer or you restart the computer and IEXplore.Exe or IEXplorer.exe is running when you clearly don't have Internet Explorer running, then this is a sign that you may be infected with Spyware. Many types of Spyware and Virus will run as IExplore.exe in the process list to confuse you with Internet Explorer. I have seen this happen many times when fixing computers.
2. Unexplainable Pop-Ups?
Pop-Ups can still be a problem for some internet users who don't use pop-up blockers. It can be common to go to websites and experience many pop-ups. However, if you are getting pop-up windows at times that you don't think you should be any, that may be a sign of an infection. This could be when you aren't surfing the web, when you first turn on the computer, etc. If you are experiencing this, run a scan!
3. Infection Warnings?
Are you receiving numerous warnings of an infection on your computer? If so, the warnings may be the infection in itself! Spyware programs displaying fake warnings to get you to download more spyware is becoming a lot more common these days. Many times they will use pop up boxes from your windows tray to warn you. They do this because these boxes look legitamate and look like they come from Windows. They don't! I can't think of a scenario where you would get any type of box like that unless it is from a spyware scanner you already use. Even if you feel this box may be from your scanner, play it safe and don't click the box. Just open up your scanner regularly and do a scan.
4. Start-Up Items
Another quick way to look for a possible infection is to look at a list of items set to run on startup. Now, you can do this without downloading any programs. But I recommend downloading a program like StartUp Manager that will easily show you a list of what is running at startup.
Anyway, look at the list of items running at startup. Has anything been added since the last time you checked what is running at startup? If there are new items and you don't recognize them, this may be a sign of a spyware infection that is set to run when you turn your computer on.
5. Different Browser Home Page?
And finally, if you open your internet browser and your homepage has changed, this is definitely a sign that you may have a spyware infection. Changing your browser homepage is one of the oldest tricks in the book for a Spyware Infection. If your homepage has changed and you didn't change it, run a scan!
If you remember to look for these signs, you just may spot a spyware infection before you find out from your spyware scanner. Remember though, before running a spyware scan, ALWAYS update it first!
Stay safe!