Pre Windows 10 Upgrade Recommendations

Backup, Backup, Backup

Before you even think about upgrading to Windows 10 make sure you have a good valid backup. The two important parts here are BACKUP, make sure you have one, and VALID, make sure its works, its current, and actually has all the data you want and need including new stuff you may have installed since you last ran your backup. Often, new programs place new data  in directories other than MY DOCUMENTS and that data may not be backed up.

I always recommend having two (2) complete backups and so before doing an upgrade it may be a good time to purchase an external Hard Drive to do a brand new backup. You may opt for a full system backup so you can recover your system to its current state if the Windows 10 upgrade goes completely awry. You should also do a manual second backup copying all you data; MY DOCUMENTS, PICS, VIDS, FAVORITES, MAIL, SIGNATURES, CONTACTS and anything else you have including any folders that may have data files like the usual special folders people create in the root of C: Drive including files on your DESKTOP.

Of all the steps, even if you do nothing below, this is what you do want to do. Also, the warning goes here. Even if you completely follow what I recommend all hell may brake loose (so you have been warned) and you may need your backup.

Corrupt Systems Fail

Of all the things that can make your Windows 10 upgrade screw up is having a system that already has problems. If your computer is not working correctly now, DO NOT UPGRADE. Upgrading will NOT fix problems, they will make matters worse and will most probably screw up the upgrade!

Anything that is not right needs to be fixed. Existing updates not working? MSIE not working so you use Chrome instead? System crashes all the time? Do you think your system is haunted? Perhaps a Virus or Malware? These are all reasons NOT to upgrade.

Spring Cleaning

Another aspect of having a clean system is removing all old and un-necessary programs. NO, not deleting file folders but rather un-installing all old programs and utilities you do not use. Some programs do not install according to standards and can cause problems because they sometimes change system files. This can also be disastrous to the upgrade to Windows 10. You have no way of knowing except that most major software companies do comply. Some of the FREE small utilities and games companies do not.

So, before doing the upgrade, remove all old programs and games and utilities you no longer use. If your not sure, remove it and re-install it later if you need it. Make sure however that you have any required serial numbers.

Clean House

After you have removed anything you no longer want, you may want to do some house cleaning. Using a utility like CCleaner (Read the warning below) you can clean up of files that are no longer used by your system including Temp System Files and Temp Internet files.

Once the file cleanup is done you can do a Registry Cleanup also with CCleaner (Read the warning below) or with a similar program. Having a clean registry file can fix problems and can speed up your computer.

WARNING: Using utilities like CCleaner, Glary Tools or System Mechanic can damage your computer. Only use these tools if you understand what you are doing and only if you have backups. Note that there are a lot of SCAM cleaning utilities that will infect your system with other malware or viruses. use the free CCleaner from www.PiriForm.com, Glary Tools or the Pay For System Mechanic. All good choices.

Viruses and Malware

This also fits in the corrupt systems fail category. Viruses are intrusive and often make changes to your system files. Most often when these viruses are removed damage to important system files may not be fixed. Even though the virus has been disabled, damaged or changed files may cause your system to continue to act 'funny' with occasional lock ups.

If your system had a bad virus and if you currently are having issues with your system, Do NOT upgrade. Upgrading will not fix problems and the problems may cause the upgrade to fail. However, even if your system is running well I would recommend that you run a full Virus Scan (which ever AV program you are using) and a full Malware Scan like MalwareBytes from MalwareBytes.org before doing the upgrade.

Updates

Make sure your system is up to date. If you have received the Windows 10 Logo at the bottom right of the screen (Notifications Area in Taskbar) then you are probably good to go.

Important Programs and Deadlines

Do you have any mission critical programs? Perhaps an accounting package or some custom application for work? Before upgrade to Windows 10 make sure that these programs will work in windows 10. Confirm with your software vendors that their apps work in Windows 10.

Connected to your office via VPN? Perhaps confirm with your IT department if you should upgrade at this time.

Have some important work you need to get done before next week or the end of the month? Perhaps wait until you know you will have a few days to fix things if you run into problems.

Restore

So everything is clean, everything is in place, all you software is supposed to work. Don't update yet. What if the worst happens? What if the update fails and your system is rendered un-usable? What will you do... (BTW I know two people that have had this happen.)

Make sure you have your System Recovery CDs. Systems used to come with a set of recovery CDs. So you may be good once you find them. Today however, most systems come with no recovery CDs and no manual. It is up to you to create the Recovery CDs (or recovery media). Did you ever do that? You were probably also bugged by your computer to create The Recovery Media and also probably a Repair CD. Note that the Repair CD is not the Recovery Media. To create the Recovery Media there will be an app on your computer for you to do that. Either in the Utilities folder under All Programs or perhaps in a Lenovo, or Samsung folder or whatever folder you have for you Brand Name Computer.

Don't have a brand name computer? Then make sure you have your original Windows OS CD like Windows7 or a Windows8 CD along with a Registry Key. You will need this to re-install if all hell breaks loose.

Bottom line is make sure you can get your system back up from either the Recovery Media, the Original OS Install Disks or from your full system Backups. again, note that most software including Microsoft Backup does NOT create full system backups. You would need to re-install say Windows7, then restore from the backup. You've been warned!

Serial Numbers

So even if you do not need to re-install your OS, you may be required to re-install some of your apps. many have reported that both Lightroom and Photoshop have needed to be re-installed after upgrading to Windows 10. Doing so requires you to have your original Serial Numbers or your login information for Adobe CC. There may be other programs that may require re-installation and ALL your programs will need if you had to do a factory restore or a clean install of the original OS.

Passwords

Often when clean installing an OS or when upgrading the Caches can get cleared so that 'remembere' passwords may no longer be re-membered. Also, cookies can be reset when you connect to a web site because of the new OS and you may be asked to log in again. Make sure you know all your passwords.

Mail

Windows 10 has a new Mail program built in. Its fairly good but it is different than what you have been using. It will need to be setup and will require your mail settings and your account details. Jot them down before upgrading.

You may also want to create a full backup of all your mail, contacts and such at this time and it may be a good idea to export all the mail and data to an external drive.

Last Question

What is your computer NOT doing that requires you to upgrade to Windows 10? In other words, do you really need to upgrade to Windows 10? Don't fix it if it ain't broke!

(C) 2015 Francois Cleroux
Aug 30, 2015

Google endangers 900 million Android smartphones, by refusing to patch WebView

Do you have an Android smartphone or tablet?

Because if you are running Android 4.3 (aka Jellybean) or earlier I’m afraid there’s some bad news: you’re not going to be receiving any security updates from Google for WebView, a core component of the Android operating system used to render webpages.

What's worse, is you may have just bought a new Android Phone this week and its already outdated and may not get updates! Yes, phones are still being sold today with this older OS that Google will no longer update.

Read more here:  http://www.hotforsecurity.com/


 

Top iPad Apps

Every once in a while the best technology rises to the top. I have had my iPad now since the iPad Gen 3 was launched on March 17th, 2012. I have used this iPad for personal reasons, for work and for photography. The iPad itself, the technology behind it, the build quality and even the OS is exceptional. Don't get me wrong, it does have its quirks, and its problems but it is excellent. I may post on these issues at some other date but this post is about app, utilities and services for the iPad, at least some of the good ones I have found.

The tablet itself is great but without software it would be useless. The things I like the most about the iPad is the Apple App Store, the Apps themselves and the cost of the apps. I particularlay like the cost of the apps. Many are Free, many are $0.99 cents to $4.99. What a great deal, specially if the apps are useful for you. Some larger commercial business apps are more expensive and can run into the $50.00 range and some can get into the hundreds. If they are great business tools that can help your business processes out or safe you tons of money, they are probably worth it.

This post is about the apps available for the iPad that I have found to be excellent. The iPad comes with some excellent built in Apps, but here I will blog on General Apps, Photography Specific Apps and on Technology/IT related Apps in three separate posts. My years of working, using, servicing and teaching technology gives me the ability to recognize well written software and shortcomings. I have found some apps lacking and in some cases I have contacted the developers making some suggestions to improve their products. In one case my suggestions were implemented within the next upgrade that was released and then thanked in an e-mail. Nice to see some companies listening to their customers.

Apps need to be easy to use or intuitive, you know, that perverbial 'user friendly'. Personally I have never liked the term. For me, I find that almost all software is 'user friendly' as I have used so many different programs over the years, good and bad, that I just have the intuition to know, based on design, layout and workflow, what I should do and how I should do something. For beginners, or those new to technology, what may be a user friendly program to use for many, may be very challenging for them. When I rate a program, I judge it partly on how intuitive it is to use, ie. does it make sense, on how well it does its job, no matter how easy or difficult the job is, the cost and the overall look and feel of the program.

Here are some recommended general use applications for the iPad. Please note that some of these great apps also work on the iPhone but I have no first hand experiance on the iPhone and so will not make any recommendations.

1) DropBox (Free) - So DropBox is not so much an App as it is a Service. Using you computer go on-line and sign up for this free service that gives you storage on the Internet, or the 'cloud' as some people call it nowadays. The Free option gives you 2 Gigs of memory to store any file you want. Whats nice about using this type of service is that it makes your files or documents available to you anywher in the world as long as you have internet access. It can also be a great way to Backup important files. I will be doing a review of On-Line Backup Solutions for your PC's and Macs in the Fall. If you require more space than the Free 2 Gigs of memory, you can pay a small monthly or yearly fee to get more storage. There are other companies offering similar services, including some that offer more free space but I like DropBox for several reasons the biggest being its acceptance in the industry as being the most standard. This means that some other apps now intergrate seamlessly with DropBox. I have such an app next on the list. Other companies that offer free space includes Microsoft, Google and others.

A warning about using such products; One, make sure you read all the licensing and agreement terms. Are your posted files and images always yours, even if you die or do some rights get turned over to the provider? Two, are your files private or are they being screened by the hosting company for valuable private information? Just because all your friends use a service doesn't mean its safe to use. China for example has state sponsored hackers actively trying to hack into most businesses and personal computers in North America as we speak. Proof of this has already been reported by various security companies and confirmed more recently when Google warned many large businesses that Chinese sites and IP adddresses were trying to hack into their (or more politely worded as 'were interested') in their sites. This infuriated the Chineses Government and caused them to pronounce a bunch of denials and then attack Google about their claims.

The sad part about all this was NOT that Google told these companies that China was 'interested in their sites' but rather that these companies IT departments did not already know that China was trying to hack into them. Four months before the first word of this comming out, I already was actively preventing Chinese hackers at 6 different IP's (two of which were MS Server 2008 Boxes??) from hacking into my clients site. Why would these IT departments of the very large companies not know this was going on?? It's their job to know. More heads should have roled over this.

Anyways, back to where we were... Some tech companies have developed some free programs and services that are meant to do nothing more than to get access to your data. Be leary of off shore companies. Do you really want to store your personal and private information in China, Russia, or some other Eastern Block countries. Having said that, some of these mob-esque companies have now opened up shops developing programs here in Canada and the U.S. just to make themselves look more legitimate. Google and Microsoft, i'll trust them, others, not so much.

Another big warning! It is very important knowing where these companies are for another reason. Not necessarely where their headquarters are but where the physical data is stored. Many Provinces, States and Countries have Privacy Laws. In British Columbia where I live, it is illegal for companies to store private and confidential information outside of Canada. So Law Firms, Accounting Companies, Doctors and anyone else that stores any identifiable client information, so almost all companies, should never use these services unless they know their Data is actually stored in Canada.

2) CloudOn (Free) - Ok, I must rate this as the best free app out there! The first application I looked for when I aquired my iPad was something to view and compose Microsoft Office Documents like Word and Excel files. Microsoft in their not so wise reasoning have never created Office for the iPad which I would gladly have paid their big buck demands for as Office is a business tool I use all the time. A no choice option for me. But loh, it's not available. So the search was on and the best program I found as a replacement was QuickOffice. A good program which I review below. CloudOn however is free. This program runs on the Cloud and so requires an Internet connection. To connect to the Internet it requires a place to save files. This is where DropBox comes in. It will look at your DropBox files and will opn up a Word/Excel/Power Point like interface that will allow you to edit or even create new Office documents without owning Microsoft Office. If you have a PDF file in DropBox it will show you those files also. CloudOn's newest update also allows you to use the Free Google Drive. Google Drive is like Drop Box except i allows you to store 5 Gigs of data for free. Oh, wait, if I use both free services I can get 7 Gigs of free space. CloudOn will access both of these.

3) QuickOffice Pro HD (19.99) - Quick Office Pro is probably the best MS office replacement available that is a standalone product that lets you work on local files or create new files. It is also integrated into the built in iPad mail app and is also a SaveBack program. It supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 formats and also lets you view PDF files. This works great with DropBox and other Cloud apps and is a cleaner experience than using CloudOn. The Apps are not as sofisticated as CloudOn in what they do in the way of features but they do handle all the basics that most users need or require. And, unlike CloudOn, it does not require Internet access, but it does cost $20.00.

4) Document Manager Pro (2.99) - This great file manager will alow you to transfer files to and from the iPad to your PC or the Internet (think Drop Box) using a nice friendly interface. It supports file transfers using Wi-Fi, USB and iTunes.

5) RoboForm (19.99/yr) - In this day and age of a trillion apps, web services and on-line retailers, passwords become a big issue. RoboForm is a great password management tool. It is also a long time favorite. It is available for you PC, Mac and On-line also. On-Line and non on-line Password management tools have proliferated in the past two years. Like other apps mentioned above this can be a big security risk. Make sre that you completely check out what company you setup with and who the owners are and what contries they are based out of. Tuff to do but unfortunately I can't mention which companies may be bad as I could get sued. Just know RoboForm can be trusted and that I do not get paid for saying this. This great CNet 5 Star rated app (free for the iPad but you pay for a yearly service) is currently on sale for 9.99 for the first year.

So, all the warnings I said about using services like DropBox from other companies is doubly so here. There is also a risk involded that by using an infected PC or a system with a Keylogger on it that you may inadvertently give out your Master Password thus giving out ALL your passwords. Think twice about using these types of utilities. What you can do is allow a company like RoboForm to remember all your non important, non confedential, non secure web site information which is probaly the majority of your passwords and not allow it to remember things like Banking Information, PayPal accounts and so on. Play it safe.

6) Bamboo Paper Notebook (Free) - From the creators of the Bamboo and Intuos Tablets comes this great Sketching, Doodling, Note making pad. Create lists or just about anything. Draw with your fingures or use a Stylus. I do recommend the Bamboo Stylus for the iPad. Works great. The nice thing wth this is you can import a photo, or a map and then draw or write overtop of the images. Greate for creative thinking and hashing out projects. Makes a great napkin replacement.

7) Quick Sale Professional (29.00) - So this is mostly business app but a great one it is. This app will allow you to create quotes, invoices, oreders and other forms on the fly. It can automatically create and e-mail PDF versons of these while you are on site with clients to get Quote Approvals or Invoice Payments. It can litterally transform your business. It has a bit of an Inventory system built in but as of this moment it does not tie into other programs and would not be suitable for keeping track of inventory for more than one sales person. It is loaded with a multitude of great features and is very customizable. There is a Free Lite version available but it is somewhat limited.

8) Onavo Extend (Free, for a limited time) - This app is all about saving money and based on my tests Onavo Extend will do that for you. Most iPads are 3G/4G enabled as data is important specially in todays workforce. The Data plans we purchace are limited and/or capped and once we go over the plans limits it can start costing a lot of money. This is where Onavo comes in. When you request data, say from the Internet, the Onavo servers will gatehr the data and will then compress it. Once compressed, their servers will send your iPad the compressed data and the Onavo App on your iPad will decompress it. This is all on the fly and very seemless and the speed decrees is neglegable.What happens is that by compressing all this data you can end us using 2 to 5 times less data depending on what you are doing. This can add up to a lot of savings. Currently Onavo has a few limitations and will not Stream Video for example but that will be available soon. The Pad app has great built in reporting and it will show you how much of your data plan you have saved with breakdowns on what services saved what. All very well done. I am guessing that once this product is complete and streaming is available that this may become a $10 or $20 dollar app. It is free right now but would well be worth it even at $20 per year as a service as this can save you $20 to $50 per month depending on how much data you currently use. Brilliant.

This app makes you wonder why not all apps do this, or rather why the OSes or Web Browsers do not all do this automatcally. Imagine if all the worlds web traffic was cut by 2 to 5 times!! I find it odd that years ago ALL modems used compression to save data transfer times and costs and that now years later we do not do this at all. Perhaps its something Onavo should look at doing.

So back on the security track for a moment. I'm not saying this app does this, but rather that it could do what I'm about to suggest. If all the data you request from your Data Provider like mail, web pages, even secure corporate data, (think, you are logged into your personal corporate web site) and videos and such all get collected by the Onavo servers, compressed and then sent to you, what would stop them from seeing, reading, copying or extracting all that information? So the question becomes who is Onavo? If you log into your Canadian corporate site, download data garnered by Onavo outside of Canada and then download it onto your device, are you breaking the Law? At some point during the transaction you have sent all your information outside Canada. Just something to think about.

09) Epicurious (Free) - Although one can simply use Safari to get to Epicurious.com, this app makes browsing and finding recipes much nicer. Add the fact that Epicurious is the best source for recipes on the net and you have a winner.

10) USA Today (Free) - USA today is a great U.S. newspaper. Thir iPad version is concise with great articles and covers many sections including the headline news, sports, technology, entertainment, the arts and others. It gets updated throughout the day and posts breaking news. A great deal for free.

11) The National Post (Free) - Probably Canada's best written and informative newspaper. Again, like USA Today, the National Post has various sections and its free.

12) TED (Free) - "Riveting Talks by Remarkable People, Free to the World," is the slogan for TED. This creative and worthy project brings great lectures to the masses for free. See some incredible lectures from some of the best talet from around the world. The App has a great interface that is free to use. Most lectures are short and make it easy to fit into a busy life schedule. Your never to old to lear.

13) Linda (Pay Service) - Linda.com is an on-line school with great class offerings that are mostly technology related. Need to learn Excel or Word, Programming, PhotoShop or just about anything else. A great offering of classes. So pay by the month or year and take all the classes you want.

14) W.E.L.D.E.R. (Free) - So what list would be complete without a pastime game on it. W.E.L.D.E.R. is a Scrabble like game with a board layout, tiles, and word creation. Fun to play and very educational.

This is the first iteration of my Best General iPad Apps List. There are other great apps I use that have some major flaws and so they are not on my list. Perhaps, as the apps evolve and are updated, they may make it on the list. As mentioned before, many of the built in apps like 'Maps' are excellent and free.

If this has helped you find a good product, please let me know. Have a better product or a great app not on the list? Let me know. Don't agree with my pics, let me know why.

In the comming weeks (Months?) I will be posting a similar list with IT/Technology related and/or specific apps. I hope you find this helpfull. If you know of any apps you think should be on this list, please let me know. I will check them out and report back to you and if worthy, I will add it to the list.

© 2012 François Cléroux

(Version 1.01 - August 2012)

Please feel free to leave comments, corrections, ideas, thoughts or suggestions.

Skyrimming

So I have been a little lax in my blogging duties as of late. Partly, or perhaps in large part because of some blasted game called Skyrim. You see, as a Techno-geek I have always been a game player. My favorite game types are first person fantasy adventure games that are not on-line. When a new game is released I always check them out on the web and look at reviews. There is nothing worse than a poorly created game with poor graphics and worse, a poor story line. The last game I played was fairly good but had a horrible ending and the game was too short. I finished the game in three days. For $60.00 it wasn't worth it.

I had checked out Skyrim but I skipped on it mainly because I had played its predecessor, Oblivion, and I had not like it. The graphics was great, the story was good but it was very slow and time consuming to get the smallest tasks completed.

Over the Christmas holidays some nephews suggested that I play skyrim because it was excellent. After some discussions on the why's of it being so great, I decided I would give it a try. Another reason was because I had not played a good game in almost three or four years. I had tinkered with one other game of a different genre but after a few days I had given up on it. I had also been feverishly waiting on the release of a new installement of one of my all time favorite games, Diablo III which has been promissed but a no show for many many years now. Diablo II was released in 2000 and by 2005 we had heard rummors of III being release. The wait was on. In 2008, it was officially announced that Diablo III would be released and so it was expected, rightly or wrongly, for Christmas of 2008. Again I and many others waited in 2009, 2010 and again before christmas this past year in 2011. As of this writing it is in fact supposed top be released on May 15th of this year. Only two weeks away.

Back to Skyrim; let me just say that Skyrim is by far the best Fantasy Adventure game I have ever played. Period. Exceptional graphics, an incredible story line, or rather several storylines with hundreds of smaller stories or side quests. Phenomenal combat and magic systems, great playability and what seems to be a never ending story. This is by far the longest game I have ever played. Usually I finish a game within a month. Here we are 5 months later and over 300 hours played and I am still not finished.

Usually, games that have lasted longer than a month became borring and often ended up un-finished. Skyrim is anything but that. Just when you think is getting the slightes bit dull, a new twist or some great new part of a story line is thrown your way. Oh, and the dragons are incredible! An excellent, no, "the best" Fantasy Adventure game I have ever played and the best $50.00 ever spent. Oh wait, it was a gift, but it would still be the best money I ever spent on a game.

I am now almost finished, although not sure as this game seems to take the weirdest twists but if indeed I am at the end of the game it will be just in time. Post a few blogs, work on a few projects, then on to Diablo III.

Francois Cleroux

(Version 1.01 - May 2012)

Please feel free to leave comments, corrections, ideas, thoughts or suggestions.

Android, iPad, webOS and Flash!

There is a great debate amongst photographers about which tool, or Tablet is the best for Photographers specifically. This is a tough one and there are several choices and some great pros and cons no matter what fence you sit on.
I have been sitting back and like others, waiting. During that time I have checked out several Android Tablets, the HP webOS Tablet and the iPad. Love the iPad and love the Photographers Apps that are available for for the iPad. The Android Tablets like the Motorola Xoom or the Asus Transformer rock, they are fast and there are also some great apps. The new pricing on the Transformer with the Dock Keyboard also rocks. Thinking about the HP Tablet using the Palm webOS, its dead. HP has officially dropped the product. So whats the problem, the problem is the the iPad has no Flash!!

Flash is almost a must for Photographers. Most photographers web sites use Flash, many apps for doing ROES (on-line ordering of Prints, Books and such use Flash (some are Java Based)). Want to check out Yosuf Karsh's website at www.karsh.org, sorry, you need Flash. The list goes on. Want to check out your own site? Most ready made photographers sites including and many plugin modules for doing your own site use Flash. Oh, check out a great Video on YouTube that a coleague did on their 5D MkII, oh wait, you need Flash.

So, if you want a great tool that you can work with and tether to your camera, have great Photographers apps, and have Flash, the best way to go is a MacBook Pro (it has flash!!) or any good PC Laptop like an HP or a Lenovo ThinkPad. Ok, so they are a little bulkier than a Tablet, but the MacBook Pro is not huge and neither are Lenovo's newest ultralites. You get anywhere from 250GB to 1TB hard drive space versus the Tablets 16, 32 or 64GB storage which is great for backing up your memory cards. And unlike the Tablets you can run Adobe Lightroom and CS5!! Can't do that with a tablet.

So Jobs hates Flash yet he leaves it on his Macs??? He apparently hates Adobe and Microsoft yet without them the MAC and Apple would be dead! Yes, you heard me right. Years ago when the MAC was nothing and alsost dead the only people that bought them were Photo and Video people and even then only because of the great A D O B E products they needed to run!! Yes lots of schools had Macs but they were mostly given away for almost free. When things started getting very bad for Apple (before the iPod revolution) on August 6th, 1997, Microsoft bailled out Apple to the tune of $150 million dollars. This boost and with some other help from Microsoft and continued support from he Photo and Video community helped see them through to the iPod days when they finally flourished.

Jobs wants to kill Flash because he states there are other and better technologies out there? Several problems here: Where are they? Why is no-one using them? And Jobs doesn't tell you he has millions invested in the competing products and stands to benefit if Flash dies! Is he really looking after his customers? Think not.

Get a Mac or PC laptop, have your Flash and watch it to!

Not a Photographer but just have IT needs, either the iPad or an Android Tablet is a great way to go. If you need VPN access however, do your homework first before buying a Tablet!
© 2011 François Cléroux

(Version 1.00 - August 2011)

Please feel free to leave comments, corrections, ideas, thoughts or suggestions.

Anti-Virus Issues

I spent the weekend working on a badly infected Virus infected PC. This PC, was recently infected with several Viruses and it had an updated Anti-Virus program on it.

Worse, when the user suspected the Virus because of a specific Pop-Up and then because of how the system was behaving, or rather misbehaving, they did a manual update, which is the right thing to do, and did a full system scan, again the right thing to do, and nothing was found! No Virus. They used the system for a few more days until their system would no longer boot. That was when they called me instead of their usual IT person.

As the machine would not boot, I removed the drive and did a full image of it, making sure we had a full data backup in case of the worst case scenario. Then from another PC I scanned the drive with an updated ESET Nod32 Anti-Virus program. Several Viruses were found, four actually, and removed. I also did a quick ScanDisk to check the drive file structure and all was OK.

I put the drive back into the machine and it booted. Great! I then went on and found further traces of the Viruses and some Malware using other tools.

The first thing I always do when I can launch a Virus infected computer is to check the installed Anti-Virus software. In this case it was the newest Symantec home product, Norton Internet Security 2011 and it was indeed updated. But how could that be? Why would it have not found the Viruses on the system?

I must say at this point that I specialize in Virus issues and I do Virus removal work for other IT companies when they run into problems and cannot remove the Viruses from their client?s computers.

The two Anti-Virus programs that I have seen on 'infected' systems the most in the last year and a half, are Norton Internet Security, the last two versions, and AVG Free. Now, granted, these are both popular products, but here is why I mention all this in a blog.

Usually, if a system boots and I do not have to remove the drive, I usually run MalwareBytes and SuperAntiSpyware as the first pass to remove the Viruses and inevitably, both these free* products find several Viruses and other Malware on the infected systems that Norton and AVG did not find and worse actually allowed onto the systems.

The second thing I usually do is to remove the installed Norton or AVG, and sometimes another AV program and I install Avira Free. This usually then picks up a few remaining Malware Items. Again, why would this free program find Malware when Norton or AVG is installed and running?

The last thing I do depending on if it?s a corporate computer or home computer, it to do a manual inspection of the computer using several tools that look at startup items, running services, used resources, registry entries, boot up sectors and I will usually also do a specific Rootkit scan. I will also often leave the computer on overnight, again running specific software, to monitor system activity and IP traffic while the system should actually be idle.

Removing Viruses can be a time consuming thing on home based PC's and on Laptops. In corporate environments it is usually easier and cheaper re-imaging the systems.

In the next few blog posts I will discuss Viruses and Malware and will mention the top Anti-Virus Programs for both personal use and for corporate use as rated by valid independent reviewers and based on my personal insights.

*MalwareBytes is now free to try for 30 days.

Note & Disclaimer: Any products that I do recommend are highlighted in Green and have direct links to the manufactures sites. ALLWAYS do backups before running any software. Use any recommended software and tools at your own risk.

Why Use Faster Switches?

A recent question from a client: "I have a question about upgrading the switches.  What side of the network are these switches located on?  If they are between the network and user, why would we need gigabit switches?  The users will never be sending data at that speed."

An interesting question. There are a lot of very good reasons actually.

So here is the breakdown of how you should be setup.

1) The Internet should connect to a high speed Gigabit connection Firewall. Note that this is 1 Gigabit and your existing Internet connection is lets say 5 Mbps. A lot slower. Your T1 line is 1.5 Mbps. Soon the Shaw Cable service will be available at 250 Mbps. Still a lot slower that the Gigabit Firewall Router (Firewall in Diagram). Actually the Firewall is the Firewall and Router. The Internet is “Outside” and everything else in inside.

2) The firewall should connect to an ultra-fast Layer 2 Switch (Layer 2 Switch in Diag.) also called a Baseline Switch. Most switches are layer 3 switches. I could write a whole chapter on Layer 2 Switches but in short they are ultra-fast because they can directly forward data to and from the intended recipient directly based on the MAC address of the hardware. It can also do this in parallel ie. Different ports at the same time. Level 3 Switches on the other hand would send packets to all the ports whether the packets were intended for that machine (MAC address) or not. This sends all sorts of data all over the office to all the computers and other devices that are attached. This completely slows down the network but this is how it’s done. Also, the Level 3 Switches can only do this 1 packet at a time. So if one machine needs a large file, it will slow all the others down. This can be made a little better with Quality of Service (QOS) enabled but then the person wanting the very large file will take much longer to get the file. (More on this shortly).

3) All the Servers and Backup Devices (NAS or iSCSI) should then connect to this fast Layer 2 Switch. Also, the other Layer 3 Switches should connect to this Layer 2 Switch. Now, all the servers, backup devices, switches and Internet connection are connected to the ultra-fast switch that can in essence multi-task. So, if the Backup is running a Backup Job from a server  to the NAS device, they will have a full Gigabit connection between them. If at the same time a user at a server requests a large file from another server, they will also have a full Gigabit connection between them. So at the same time there with be 2 Gigabits of information flowing through the Switch. If there are other active connections, this could even be way higher.

4) Now, if all these devices were connected to a Layer 3 Switch, they would all need to take turns sending bits of information at a time. Ie. If one connection between the Server and the NAS box was made, the connection would be at 1 Gigabits. When the second connection is made, the speed would effectively be cut in half, to 500 Mbps each. If a third connection is made, that would reduce the speed to 333 Mbps each and so on. Now, as mentioned before, things actually slow down a bit more because remember that the data being sent to one workstation and some other data being sent to the NAS box would actually be sent to all the servers, NAS boxes and computers, and in turn, they would all have to filter out the stuff they do not want. Also, the process of switching between the three connections actually takes some overhead so it would again be a little bit slower.

5) The Layer 3 Switches that are needed (we could actually use only Layer 2 Switches but that gets more expensive) to connect all the computers are connected to the fast Layer 2 Switches where the Servers and the Internet reside. The scenario mentioned just above this would happen between all the computers connected to the same Switches. Luckily, those computers usually never actually talk to each other but rather to the Servers and the Internet.

6) Now we get a bit of extra speed here. If a workstation requests information from the Internet, it would broadcast that request to all the workstations on the Layer 3 Switch but one of the devices there is the faster Layer 2 Switch. This would then know what workstation wanted data from the Internet and would send the request out directly to the firewall. This request would go straight to the firewall and not the servers or other devices. This is in contrast to a normal Layer 3 Switch that would normally send the Internet request to all the devices on the network, all servers, printers, backup devices, and all the workstations. This greatly reduces traffic. Specially, when all this traffic would need to take turns sharing slower connections and reducing overall speeds as in item 4.

So I mention in item 3 that the speeds run in parralel and are direct and are not affected and in item 4 I mention that they get cut in half or thirds and so on, but think about your existing Network. All the Workstations, all the Network Printers, all the Servers including Virtual Servers, The Internet and lets not forget about the remote office and all the remote laptops and oh and all the Blackberries! On your existing network they all need to share the connections. So no cutting the speed in half or thirds but rather cutting the speeds by 50 or 70 times.

Now, what makes this worse on you network is the fact the the 3Com Switches are older, the switching is actually done at slower speeds and the actual throuput is actually 100 Mbps, 10 times slower than the Gigabit Switches.

There are other benefits to the Layer 2 Switch such as creating Virtual LANS and such and can help with securing things a little better but this gets very complex to explain. But there are other benefits.

On the same note though, simple tasks such as copying a large SQL Database, say the DB which is 71 Gigabytes, from one server to another or to a backup NAS box at your existing 100 Mbps would take roughly 1 Hour 41 Minutes 38.85 Seconds provided no one else was using the network. This would probably actually take two hours or more! If your IT people had to stand around to wait for the backup before they initiate repairs or cleanup scripts, this would be very costly. On the other hand, the same file on a Gigabit Layer 2 Switch would take 10 Minutes 9.89 Seconds to backup. Much faster and cheaper.

Also, as the switch is faster, even a layer 3 switch at 1 Gigabits versus 100 Mbps, the switch will finish a job of fetching a file much faster and in turn will be free to do other tasks much faster also. And, if two requests are made, the speed will be 500 Mbps instead of only 50 Mbps and so on.

Now the reason for all this is speed. Speed is time and money. The users wait all day for Data and running Reports on the slow network can be very time consuming. Over the course of a year, this ends up being very expensive.

In order to save that money people buy fast Internet connections, buy fast computers and fast servers and then they slow everything down to a gring by using a $30.00 Layer 3 Switch! Doesn’t make any sense.

Buying a 24 Port Layer 2 Switch and three 24 Port Layer 3 Switches costs only around $3,600.00 dollars (less if you want to save a little or more if you want slightly greater increases in speed). Cheap considering how much people spend trying to get their network faster. It can also be staged. You can buy the baseline switch for about $1,650.00 and still use the old switches. But, it is best to replace it all. Pricing is approximate and you may require 2 – 48 Port Switches or 4 – 24 Port Switches instead of only 3 – 24 Port Switches. This would add about $500.00.

Having said that, this kind of equipment/technology 5 years ago woud have cost around 20 Grand but the prices have now levelled. Also, think that buying a new server is 4K to 5K alone and that putting that new server on your existing slow network would not give you any extra speed because of the slow switches that create the bottlenecks!

One of the best deals in trying to speed up a network and as described above, it can save you some man hours over the year and can considerabbly save a lot in extra IT costs while IT people wait around. Remember that we IT people like to do backups before we do almost anything. The switches are warrantied for life but in real life terms they will probably need replacing in about 6 to 7 years. But by then they will have saved you more the the $3,600.00 over the cost of keeping the existing slow equipment!

Note also that we recommend 3 - 24 Port Layer 3 Switches and not 1 or 2 48 Port Switches? We recommend that you add up all the devices that you need to plug into the the Layer 3 Switches. Say it is 45 devices. This would require 2 -24 Port Switches or even 1 - 48 Port Switch. Heres the trick. Get 3 - 24 Port Switches instead. First, having fewer connections on each layer 3 switch reduces the workload on the switch itself. Switches that are fully loaded tend to die faster. They shouldn't, but they do. Second, having 15 devices on each switch will reduce the amount of traffic broadcast to all the devices within the switch reducing a lot of traffic and will help traffic flow though the Baseline Switch better. And third, if one of the switches dies including the baseline switch, you will have room to remove the dead switch and still connect all the devices up to the spare ports! If you had a single 48 Port Switch die all the machines would be down, no work would get done. The three 24 Port Switches are just a bit more cost than the single 48 Port Switch!

Hope this answers your question?