FACTS & ANSWERS

Table of Contents

Hardware?

How hardware can cause issues?

What is a virus?

What is Spyware?

 Hardware

Hardware is best described as a device that is physically connected to your computer. A Monitor, Hard Drive, CD ROM, and Printer are all examples of computer hardware.

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How Hardware can cause issues?

The number one enemy to any computer is heat.  Heat causes components to fail.  In many cases these components are modular and replaceable.  It will be our mission to find the most cost effective way to correct for the failed components.  Some common points of failure are:

Hard Drive problems

Power Supply failures

Ram errors.

Monitor failures

Keyboard/Mouse post errors

Motherboard failures

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What is a Virus?

Viruses are programs or scripts designed to subversively infiltrate your PCs normal operation.  Not all Viruses are malicious but many are.   Recently there have been an abundant of viruses created to launch attacks on web sites and servers.  This may sound relatively harmless but because of the way these are written they utilize large amounts of bandwidth by self propagation and mission deployment.  Home and Business users loose productivity and experience poor PC performance when infected with these types of viruses.

How do you protect yourself?  There are several solutions that should be implemented to protect yourself.  Conundrum Consulting can develop a low cost custom solution to protect yourself.

If you suspect a PC to be infected by a virus.  First steps are to isolate it,  Quarantine means disconnecting it from your network or internet. 

Second step is to call us.

What is Spyware?

The differences between spyware and viruses are blurred.  Viruses tend to arrive on our systems uninvited however in many cases we give permission to allow spyware to reside on our systems.  The permission to vendors/software developers to collect information about our internet surfing habits or any other type of content (information) on our systems.  The permission we give can usually be found when we install new software  and is described in the many pages of  legaleaze of the software's ULA (User License Agreement).  Because the software developers and creators of spyware inform us in the cryptic ULA of its existence some people argue its not a virus.  Spyware and Viruses can be parasitic.  

In most cases a series of cleanings can rid your PC of the spyware code.  Many people see a dramatic increase in there PC performance once the parasites are removed. 

For people using modems permanently connected to a phone line.  There is a nasty piece of spyware out there that will dial out to 1-900 number that resides on a small island some ware in Indonesia.  This happens periodically but the result is a very expensive phone bill at the end of the month.  Bell is not so co-operative in cost sharing and many people have been have been stuck with bills well over $1000 dollars.

How do you protect yourself?  There are several solutions that should be implemented to protect yourself.  Conundrum Consulting can help teach you how to protect yourself against spyware.

If you suspect a PC to be infected by spyware call us.  

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