Welcome to my newly redesigned site.   I am still working on adding a few things, editing and tweaking, so don’t be too hard on me if you notice some issues, errors.  Just to busy helping my loyal customers!

The new design is based on the popular windows 8 metro theme.    My goal as always is to give you the info you want right up front, easy to find easy to read and with as little clicking and waiting as possible.  The world has changed.  No longer is everyone surfing the net from there desktop or laptop.  Touch screens, telephones and tablets are running rampant.  This design ensures that the site is usable no matter what you are using to get here.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to connect with via, phone, email, facebook or smoke signals…hopefully the smoke is not from your computer.  On that note, it’s not just websites anymore, it’s “web presence”.  You can have the prettiest site in the world, but if no one can find and connect with you…they way they want to, you will miss out on many opportunities.

Thanks for visiting.

Chris Varga

The 3 most important things you can do to protect your data.

Backup!

Backup!

Backup!

BUT SERIOUSLY, DO YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR DATA?  The one thing I like to ask my customers to ask themselves: “If your computer just DIED (including but not limited to: dropped, run over by a truck, stolen, burst into flames), how bad would that be?

If you answered “not so bad or doesn’t matter, I can live without everything I had on my computer”…great.

If you answered “that would be really bad or I would cry or I would DIE”, then you should absolutely stop what you are doing right now and seek to find a backup solution that works for you. Let me know if you need my help to develop an effective, easy to use backup strategy.

For about the 10th time recently I have been sent info from a good bunch of friends and Facebook followers about the new Cryptolocker virus, so I thought I would mention it so we can all be in the know.

First of all, the standard practice of safe surfing, doing your software updates (not just antivirus) and backing up everything, is the best defence.

Viruses have been “getting past” , antivirus (or being invited in) for a while now. Yup this one is new, but to me it’s the same old same old.

Back up your stuff…..NOW!
Don’t pirate stuff.
Don’t install 50 million games and “fun stuff” from unknown internet entities.
Even then there will be issues.

Just like life, the internet ain’t perfect. The honest truth is, I have been attacked more than once….and expect to get attacked again! Just recently some jerk hacked my website and used it (with other hijacked sites) to attack a major online company. One thing you might find interesting is that at least 2 people who I would consider much more experienced than I, don’t have antivirus on their computers! They don’t get many viruses because they don’t download and install a lot of junk. They ALWAYS do their internet updates and they backup their important data (just in case).

If you want more info on CryptoLocker, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

or do a Google search on the subject.

While your at it, do a Google search on how to be safe on the internet. There is lot’s of good info out there.

Good luck.

DID I “CAPTCHA” YOUR ATTENTION? 😉

You may ask, “WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE ANNOYING BOXES OF TWISTED, MESSED UP WORDS THAT SHOW UP WHEN WE CREATE AN ACCOUNT OR SIGN UP FOR SOMETHING…OR WANT TO POST A COMMENT????”

Below is an example of a Captcha form

Captcha

Well it’s called Capcha, and like our beloved, fifty million passwords to remember, it is a good thing….or better than the alternative! Of course, it never made any of us like it more when mom used to say “eat it, it’s good for you”, but she was right….I think. Just like cherry cough syrup, it leaves almost as bad a taste in our mouths… but captcha is “good for us”!….honest!

Why is it good and more importantly, what the heck is it?

Captcha protects internet stuff from Spam, cyber attacks, the creation of fake online accounts and more!

What??????

At this point many people just look at me funny, or make a comment that clearly indicates they don’t care!

OK, so here’s ONE example:

The “bad guys” create a fake email account and then they start using it to send fake messages to you to trick you into an assortment of things, or just to flood the internet with traffic and slow things down terribly for the rest of us. The truth is it’s usually not some stereo-typical “pimple faced geek” locked away in his room just being a trouble making kid. Most of the time the “bad guys” create a program to do it automatically for them. This works a million times faster and is referred to as a “bot“. Click the word “bot” to learn more about….”bots“. 😉

This is a very simplified example and overall explanation. If you want to learn more about it check out this link: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/captcha or just google it.

Who are these “bad guys” anyway?

I assure you it’s not the teenager down the road! This kind of thing comes from many sources for many reasons. Some examples are pretty darn scary: Cyer-criminals including HUGE world wide crime syndicates like the Russian mob and Japanese Yakuza, corporate espionage, terrorists, and even whole countries waging war on other countries!!!! Whoaaaa!!!!

Want to get edumacated and learn more? Click this link and follow the rabbit hole:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime

For the record

I am not a super duper expert on all these things. I know some stuff though, and I feel it’s important to share. My goal is to bridge the gap. To provide a starting point for learning and further investigation. I blogged about, as I have with other things because I get asked about it regularly.

I hope you found some value in it.

Thanks for listening.

I got a Super tricky fraud email today. It was from someone in my contact list, but the email was different. The email was actually giving reasonably good advice about protecting against email fraud! It seemed odd though so I contacted the sender by other confirmed means (NEVER REPLY DIRECTLY). That way I found out it was false and worked to reduce the damage.
One GREAT point this fraud email made was, when sending mass emails, NEVER, put all your contacts in the “To” section. Instead put them in the “Bcc” section and just put your own email address in the “To” section. The funny thing was that in this fraudulent email they put all the contacts in the “to” section!!!

If you suspect fraud it is important to do the following:

Contact the sender (if you know them) via other means. Phone is best, but if you get an email, try connecting with them via Facebook, and vice verse …but phone is the sure thing. Perhaps the other accounts were compromised as well.
Find out if the emails came from the senders actual email address or if they just used their name and created another email address.
Check the “To” line and see if the other recipients are legit. Ask the account holder to confirm them. It is important to see if a contact database has been stolen.
CHANGE PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY If the email account is legit.
Notify all your contacts one way or another about the situation. Give as much info as possible.
Like it said in the Fraud email, NEVER put multiple contact addresses in the “To” line. Put them in the “Bcc” line (Blind Carbon Copy). Protects your contact list from being stolen.
Don’t forget to delete that Fraud email. Never reply. Never forward.
If you see a great email that you wish to share, cut and paste it into another NEW email message and follow step 6 to share it….or post it on your blog and link to it, like I did below!
Most of the above steps can work nicely for other types of account theft. Facebook, twitter….
Here is a link to another great blog about the topic: http://www.pcworld.com/article/253305/minimize_your_exposure_to_email_spoofing.html

Here is the email that was sent in the first place. Lots of good info actually!!!

E-Mail Tracker Programs — very interesting and a must read!
The man that sent this information is a computer tech. He spends a lot of time clearing the junk off computers for people and listens to complaints about speed. All forwards are not bad, just some. Be sure you read the very last paragraph.
_________________________________________
He wrote:
By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with snopes.comand/ortruthorfiction.com for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites.

Advice from snopes.com VERY IMPORTANT!!

1) Any time you see an email that says “forward this on to ’10′ (or however many) of your friends”, “sign this petition”, or “you’ll get bad luck” or “you’ll get good luck” or “you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it” or whatever — it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other Spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus — that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses – just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease “how would you feel if that was your child” — email tracking. Ignore them and don’t participate!

2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and Spammers — to validate active email accounts for their ownprofitable purposes.

You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them. You will be providing a service to your friends. And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future!
Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you don’t! It’s all about getting email addresses and nothing more.

You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT!

Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, we are helping the Spammers get rich! Let’s not make it easy for them!

ALSO: Email petitions are NOT acceptable to government or any other organization – e.g. Social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a “signed signature” and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers.

And another important point is to delete all previous names from your emails before forwarding!!! Send emails to your entire address list BCC then everyone after you doesn’t get your friend’s email address.
Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work!!(1)The three little words are: ‘Hold On, Please…’

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘beep-beep-beep’ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialled the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get ads enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ads with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.When you get those ‘pre-approved’ letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular postage, ‘IF’ and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney’s (60 minutes) ideas.

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn’t on anything you send them.You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 60 cents.The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let’s let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they’re paying for it…Twice!

Let’s help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that’s why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

Cable? DSL? Wireless? Satellite?

Click here if you just want to see Wireless Internet Providers in Muskoka

Cable: If you get tv through a cable (not a satellite dish) then you may be able to get cable internet. This would be the best option (or least bad!). It can provide the fastest and most reliable physical connection…which doesn’t say anything about the provider itself though. If you can get cable then you have many choices in internet providers. Search for internet providers in Ontario on Google.

DSL is internet through your phone line. DSL is different than dial-up internet. Although it is over your phone line, it does not tie up your phone line. Meaning you can use your phone at the same time. It is the second fastest and second most reliable service….again, not taking into consideration how the individual provider is.

Wireless lumps a few differnet products together. Generally, if there is no physical connection from the provider hardware to your home, it is considered wireless. The signal is beamed from a tower somewhere in your area to your home. The unit you purchase is a wireless receiver for this signal. This does not necessarily mean you now can connect wirelessly to the unit from your computer. It is just wireless from the tower to the unit. However some units (modems) do have to cabability to re-broadcast the signal within your home and allow you to connect wirelessly.

Satellite: A dish similar to a satellite TV dish is mounted outside ( the difference is the signal goes 2 ways. Up and down). The cable runs inside. Service is better than dialup but slower than the other products and it can be affected significantly by weather. Consider that a signal is actually being beamed from a Satellite up in low earth orbit and there is a lot in between here and there. Then your little dish has to beam a reply back to space. Unlike TV, this is a 2 way system. Usually it’s your tiny dish on earth that is the weak link in this system. Cost is about the highest too.