The Computer Repair Podcast – 005 – Ways to get help for a computer repair
No Comments 
In this episode of The Computer Repair Podcast;
Ways to get help for a computer repair.
Subscribe to this Show
Download Episode: Click here
Ben’s Monolog
AT&T U-verse failed for the first time and my experience with tech support, billing, and the repair guy.
Computer Repair Related News
SMS text massages making its way into Malware
Malware researchers are looking at a new strain of Ransomware this week hiting mobile phones though SMS. What happens is a victim installs the ransomware, In order to remove it from a PC, the victim must send an SMS message to a premium number controlled by an attacker, typically at the cost of $10.
In some variations of the ransomware, victims see a nasty/dirty image in a pop-up window, which says its imposable to remove until the SMS message is sent. Some of the scams also require victims to send two separate messages, totaling whopping $20. Other variations tell the victims that a Microsoft Windows license is invalid and they must send an SMS to re-activate it. In all cases, the machine essentially becomes unusable until the payment is made. that is until a computer tech gets to the home to disinfect the computer.
Go Norton Go
This week Norton launched Norton DNS. You might be asking why is Norton getting into DNS? Well they maybe Norton thought OpenDNS and Google’s own DNS program was insufficient. From my perspective Norton is trying to be like WOT.
Malware posting to web
Almost every tech should know what pastebin.com and pastebin.ca is, Well some time last week, security experts at BitDefender discovered a continuing stream of new entries, that included text that was laid out in a fashion typically used by key logging malware. Why pastebin? According to Malwarecity.com “Conventional keyloggers use classic log transfer approaches and send the data packets via e-mail or FTP; this dramatically increases the possibility for the law enforcers to find out who the remote attacker is and to ultimately get him. Furthermore, the e-mail approach is extremely “noisy”: it is easy for a system administrator to spot the traffic, not to mention that antimalware utilities usually let users know when an e-mail leaves the system. Other times, the e-mail ports (usually set to 25, 465 or 578) may be either secured or blocked, which would make the keylogger “cargo” fail on dry shore.”
Software Updates
Wireshark 1.2.9
- 32 Pluged Flows a lot more than Microsoft had patched last Tuesday.
- Eight of the flaws are fixed in this update. Labelled as ‘high risk’, while the remaining three are listed as ‘medium’ risk.
- Vulnerabilities range from memory corruption and cross site scripting flaws, to keystroke redirection risks.
Apple Safari 5 for Mac and Windows
-
I would have let you all know about this last week as it was updated 10 min after I had posted the show grrr.
- Updated UBCD FreeDOS to V1.38. Fixed support for ZIP and 7Z archive formats.
- Fixed wording of success status messages in ubcd2iso.cmd/ubcd2usb.cmd.
- Fixed wrong image file for DFT in V5.0.1.
- Fixed wrong image file for IBM Feature Tool in V5.0.1.
- Fixed missing fjerase.cab
- uTP performance and TCP rate control have been greatly improved!
- BEP22 (BitTorrent Local Tracker Discovery Protocol) has been fixed
- Access denied problems should be virtually non-existent
NoVirusThanks Malware Remover v2.7.0
- Updated Russian, Chinese, and Romanian translation
- Added Estonian translation
- Updated DB to 381
- Improves the performance of indexing messages and accessing profiles stored on a network.
- Improved unread email notification.
- Fixes to the user interface.
- To many changes to list. Please review the release notes for more details.
- To many changes to list. Please review the release notes for more details.
Tech Tip
My tech tip for this show is about the BIOS. For those who arnt in the know a bios is a pre-installed program on computers that used to start it up, but with the exception of the Apple Mac it uses an EFI. The CPU accesses the BIOS before the operating system is loaded and the BIOS then checks all hardware connections and locates all of the devices. If everything is OK, the BIOS loads the operating system into the computer’s memory and finishes the boot-up process.
Today I’m going to tell you the many ways to access the BIOS. The most common way to access the BIOS is with the single key command: F1, F2, ESC and DEL.
But some times you get the odd computer that has combinations: CTRL+ALT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+DEL, or CTRL+ALT+INS.
Each computer and BIOS manufacturer can use a different key or combination of keys in order to enter the System BIOS. Sometimes during system boot when the screen is blank, and you will see some text in the bottom middle or bottom right of the screen that will tell you what the key sequence is. But sometimes, you may need to consult your computer manual, or contact the manufacturer of your computer to find out what the key or key combination is.
Here is a list of some key or combination of keys to get into the BIOS.
ALR Advanced Logic Research, Inc. ® PC / PCI // F2
ALR PC non / PCI //CTRL+ALT+ESC
AMD® (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.) BIOS //F1
AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) BIOS //DEL
Award™ BIOS //CTRL+ALT+ESC
Award BIOS //DEL
DTK® (Datatech Enterprises Co.) BIOS //ESC
Phoenix™ BIOS //CTRL+ALT+ESC
Phoenix BIOS //CTRL+ALT+S
Phoenix BIOS //CTRL+ALT+INS
Acer® //F1, F2, CTRL+ALT+ESC
ARI® //CTRL+ALT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+DEL
AST® //CTRL+ALT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+DEL
Compaq® 8700 //F10
CompUSA® //DEL
Cybermax® //ESC
Dell 400 //F3, F1
Dell 4400 //F12
Dell Dimension® //F2 or DEL
Dell Inspiron® //F2
Dell Latitude //Fn+F1 (while booted)
Dell Latitude //F2 (on boot)
Dell Optiplex //DEL
Dell Optiplex //F2
Dell Precision™ //F2
eMachine® //DEL , F 2
Gateway® 2000 1440 //F1
Gateway 2000 Solo™ //F2
HP® (Hewlett-Packard) //F1, F2 (Laptop, ESC)
IBM® //F1
E-pro Laptop //F2
IBM PS/2® //CTRL+ALT+INS after CTRL+ALT+DEL
Intel® Tangent //DEL
Micron® //F1, F2, or DEL
Packard Bell® //F1, F2, Del
Seanix //DEL
Sony® VAIO //F2
Sony VAIO //F3
Tiger //DEL
Toshiba® 335 CDS //ESC
Toshiba Protege //ESC
Toshiba Satellite 205 CDS //F1
Toshiba Tecra //ESC then F1 or F2
Tech Talk
Links for the Tech Talk
4chan.org
Podnutz.com/Forums
Podnutz.com/Lounge
Technibble.com/Forum
Computing.net/Forums/
BleepingComputer.com/Forums
Forums.MajorGeeks.com
Experts Exchange/a>
Neowin.net/Forum
Tech Guy Forums
Your Feedback
Hey man, I was re-listening to Ep. 1 and want to share a website I use for finding good prices on computer hardware, PriceWatch.com.
James from Chicago
The audio feed is not compatible with Opera. Is that an easy fix or not?
Vic
I have to say, good show, I like the direction, keep it up
The software I would like to see added to the list is
SandboxIE
Threatfire
MyWOT – plugin (I guess not needed, but I would let the listeners know
about plugincheck (btw it works on all browsers)I would let people know about updates to this, if/when they happen
Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility
Stephen McLaughlin the DoorToDoorGeek
Next time on The Computer Repair Podcast. The Tech Talk is going to be about Locking down a clients computer
So if you have any feedback or questions you can always send me an email at feedback@qetuo.me or call the feedback line @ +1 304-449-4335
