Computer Repair Resources
Want a faster PC?
Everyone wants a fast computer. Here are the top three hardware upgrades and top five Windows tweaks that we recommend most often:
Hardware Top Three:
Spot 1 - RAM
Conventional wisdom has always held that upgrading your system's RAM will give it an instant boost. The upgrade is easy to perform, and it makes sense because RAM is cheap. But, if your PC already has even a moderate amount of RAM, you likely won't see much of a speed increase from adding more. For example, when bumping a 2GB system up to 4GB, you can expect a 1.3% improvement on general apps and virtually no improvement on games. Similarly, a move from 4GB to 8GB increases performance by just 3% in most cases.
Phishing - The new Threat
What Is Phishing? Well, according to legislation, phishing refers to a person or a group of cyber-criminals who create an imitation or copy of an existing legitimate Web page to trick users into providing sensitive personal information. Responding to "phishing" emails put your accounts at risk.
Usually, a phishing-attack is done in combination with email spam. Spamming is simply to send millions of emails with one mouse click. This way phishers can reach a huge target population very fast. Hence it’s name, “fishing” from the big internet ocean.
The spammer doesn’t know his victim, so the emails sent out are general, impersonal, and often focused on the big popular banks or companies with a large customer base.
To increase the number of responses, cyber-criminals include upsetting or exciting statements in their emails. They want people to react immediately and respond with the desired information without thinking.
How to Avoid Getting a Computer Virus
Following the next steps will lower the likelihood of getting infected with a computer virus.- Never click on a link or attachment in an email that you are not positive is from a trusted source.
If you think the e-mail looks suspicious, it probably is. It never hurts to send an email to verify that this is legitimate. - Be careful about using Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to Virus and Spyware infections than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virus programs running. There are many other free e-mail programs available that you can use, or a web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo to avoid these problems. You may also try Outlook anti-spam addons freely available on Microsoft's Web site.
