After evaluating the current pricing for technical services in the Charleston, SC area and comparing them with my local and nationwide competition, I have come to an increase of $10 an hour starting on July 1st, 2008 to make the rate $85.00 an hour. It was a tough decision, but with the cost of doing business and the cost of living increasing so much this year, I was left with no other choice. I am happy to report that Charleston Tech Support is still one of the most affordable technical support solutions with no hidden fees and no product up-selling. More importantly, Charleston Tech Support has resolved thousands of service calls for the Charleston area since I started the business three years ago, and through that service I have met a lot of great and inspiring people as well as made some excellent friends.

As I look to the future of Charleston Tech Support, I hope to keep that number of satisfied customers growing, and I am excited about the friendships that await! I hope you have a great summer.

Joseph Nienstedt
Owner
Charleston Tech Support

Let’s all help the best web browser in the world break a Guinness World Record on June 17th, 2008. Head on over to spreadfirefox.com (or click on the graphic above) to pledge to download the software, and don’t forget to go back on Tuesday to get it! If you just can’t wait to try out the latest version of Firefox, go here to download the latest release candidate.

Well, the day has finally come for anybody who has been paying attention to the gadget world. Apple announced the iPhone 3G at their world-wide developer conference today. Here is a quick summary of what is new in the iPhone 3G:

Twice the speed? The 3G in iPhone 3G means that you now have 3G data network access which offers 2x the data speeds of the current EDGE network. But, this means nothing to us Charlestonians - you would have to go to Myrtle Beach or Columbia because the 3G network is not offered in our area. Check the AT&T Coverage map.

Half the Price? Not really though. AT&T rained all over the Apple parade today stating that the iPhone 3G pricing plans will fall in line with the rest of their phones. In other words, you will be paying $10.00 more than current iPhone owners for your monthly plan. You do the math - over a 2 year period the iPhone 3G is the same price as the original.

True GPS. The old one used cell tower information and known WiFi hotspots to estimate your position (and it works really well), but now the iPhone can find your exact location as well as geotag photos taken from its camera. It looks like my favorite GPS maker, TomTom is ready to release its version of their GPS software on the iPhone, which is huge deal!

Slightly different case design - from the front it looks the same, but the back is now all plastic and a little more curvy. They went with plastic to help boost the radio signals, and they went curvy to compensate for the slightly thicker body that houses that extra 3G radio.

White! There is a rather feminine looking white 16GB model available now. I think we will eventually see a range of different iPhone colors in the future, but for now it is just black or white.

No more recessed headphone jack. You will no longer need an adapter for non-Apple headphones for the iPhone 3G.

Improved audio quality all around. I don’t have any complaints about the audio quality of the current iPhone’s iPod feature, but the phone’s audio quality is nothing to brag about. I use a Jawbone Bluetooth headset during work hours, and the difference is amazing when compared to using the phone without it - the current iPhone’s built-in phone audio stinks (but sounds fine with the headphones or a Bluetooth device).

It will ship with the iPhone 2.0 software. Current iPhone owners will get the same software as a free update in July when the new iPhone ships. iPod Touch owners can get the new software as well, but will have to pay $9.95 for it.

Overall, you can see that current iPhone users in the Charleston area would be silly to upgrade, as AT&T is way behind other carriers in their 3G network roll-out and the biggest difference between the old and new iPhones is the faster network access. The other updates are nice, but in no way warrant a higher monthly bill. I would wait until AT&T gets their act together before even considering upgrading your existing iPhone. Apple was very smart to make the iPhone a software platform, because current iPhones will run the exact same software as the new ones. That means you will not have to worry about feeling like your phone is out-dated. Kudos to Apple for making a truly smart phone.

As for people wanting to buy an iPhone for the first time, I say go ahead and get one after they are released on July 11th. The first version of the iPhone already saw a hardware revision when they released the 16GB version, and the new one has surely ironed out most of the bugs of the first generation. I have used numerous Blackberry devices, Palm Treos, and Windows Mobile devices, and for the average person who wants a phone that does more than just make a phone call, than the iPhone is the king of simplicity, elegance, and usability. And with the coming of the App Store in the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade, the usability will be enhanced by thousands of third-party applications and games.

Apple also announce the upgrade of their outdated .Mac service. It will now be branded as “MobileMe“, and Apple has registered me.com to host it’s shiny new internet service. You will basically get everything .Mac had to offer before, but now iPhone and iPod Touch users will get wireless syncing with their computers. Anyone who has used a Blackberry in a corporate environment with a Blackberry Enterprise Server knows how great mobile synchronization is. Basically, you get your email instantly, and your Calendar and Address Book changes get synced almost instantly between your phone and computer. At $99.00 a year, the once over-priced .Mac service is a steal as MobileMe. Click here to see all of the features of the service, and also check out the guided tour.

Some roses from Amy’s rose bush. Happy Mother’s Day to all the great moms out there!

Internet payment giant PayPal (which is who we use here at Charleston Tech Support to process credit card payments) has said it will block “unsafe browsers” from using its service as part of wider anti-phishing efforts.

According to this article at the BBC, Paypal said it was “an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers such as Internet Explorer 4″. Paypal said some users were still using Internet Explorer 3 , released more than 10 years ago. It lacks many of the security and safety features needed to protect users from phishing and other online attacks.

As explained in Wikipedia, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.

Paypal said customers will first be warned that a browser is unsafe but could then be blocked if they continue using it.

What should you do? Well according to PayPal, you should be using the latest version of Internet Explorer because it supports EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it with an add-on but Apple’s Safari browser for Mac and PCs does not. I personally think that any version of Internet Explorer is absolute garbage, you are better off with FireFox. If you would like to install the EV SSL plugin from Verisign, you can get it here.. The next version of FireFox, version 3, will have this built in, as well as Opera 9.5.

“Will you take the train or bus to work? Start washing your laundry in cold water? Just turn off a few more lights?”

Internet search giant Google is promoting Earth Day ‘08 by asking people from around the globe to pledge to do something green for this year’s Earth Day on April 22nd. They have also used the promotion to advertise a cool new feature of Google’s called Google Transit, which helps you plan trips using public transportation.

What was my pledge? I’m planning to finish converting the lights in my home to energy efficient ones!

On March 18th, Microsoft finally released Windows Vista SP1. It took a year to become official, and this is the milestone a lot of corporate users wait for to start migrating their businesses to a new operating system. The question is, does this service pack make up for the shortcomings of the most hated Windows version since the quickly forgotten Windows Millennium Edition? The short easy answer is no.

Here is the issue I still see with Vista for business users. When Vista was being developed years ago it marked a huge change from the Windows NT based systems we have grown to love such as Windows NT, 2000, and XP. It was supposed to have a fancy new file system, and a lot of bells and whistles that never quite panned out. Back in those days, Vista was called Longhorn, and a lot of technical folks were genuinely excited. We love new stuff, to a point. When Longhorn started dropping its promised features and reverted back to the old NTFS file system we have been using for well over a decade, the fear, uncertainty, and doubt started to fester in our geeky bones. After years of delays (yes, YEARS), Vista was a dud. It did the same things that XP did, only slower and with more clicks. To take advantage of the new Aero interface, you needed to have what amounts to a graphics workstation to make it work fluidly. Folders were needlessly moved around and permissions on them changed drastically in the name of security, while a new foe to usability was born by the name of UAC (User Access Control). Gone were the days of clicking on something and it just doing what you intended. Now the whole computing world you live in turns gray and the computer screams at you (also known as the system beep) as you are asked if you are sure you wanted to do what you did in the first place. Remember how you changed your network settings in XP in just a couple of clicks of the mouse? Vista made sure that something that every road warrior must do, even if they are not networking experts, even more confusing and difficult to do. And what about that program that has run on every Windows version since 1995 and has been running your business since you first opened your doors? Well, it might run if you run it in compatibility mode, but most likely it won’t. You might have to disable every singe security feature and log in as the computer administrator, but even then it might not work. At that point you have to download the freely available Virtual PC and run a licensed version of Windows XP in a virtual machine on your Vista computer. Confused yet? No wonder Apple’s market share has grown so much in the last year.

The truth is, Vista is a great OS if you’ve never owned a Windows based computer before. The needless moving around of menus, settings, and folder structures makes it more of a headache for users who have been so comfortable in the XP environment. The other problem is that most of the reported crashes in the first year of Vista’s life were not because of Microsoft errors, but because of third party software and hardware vendor’s issues. For example, I have found in my experience that Dell Vista machines run really well, while HP’s are very unstable. The reason is most likely that Dell favors Intel chipsets, while Nvidia chipsets are common in HP computers. Nvidia has been reported to be responsible for almost 20% of all reported Vista crashes since its release.

I have been running Vista on my PC’s since its release and have struggled through a lot of its issues on a personal level as well as a professional one. What SP1 brings to the table is stability and a bit more zip to the interface. For those of you who have diligently updated your computer with Windows Update, you probably will not notice a huge difference. The update’s size will vary if you download it through Windows Update, but if you download the full update, it comes in at 434.5 whopping megabytes!

Installation can take up to an hour for the full upgrade, which is surprising because Vista itself installs in about 20 minutes on a decent machine. The process is simple, as it does not ask you anything once it gets going, so you can just set it and go out for some coffee while it does its work. The majority of guinea pigs like me have had success with the upgrade, so I am happy to report that the upgrade is safe for everybody to do.

For those of you who remember Windows XP’s Service Pack 1, this is on par with it as far as it makes the OS better, but not different. XP SP2 on the other hand made a lot of changes, so it makes me hopeful that better things are on the horizon for Vista.

We at Charleston Tech Support have been been getting some prank calls from a local number recently. This evening I got curious and decided to do a reverse phone lookup of the number after receiving two in a row. The number in question was listed as private, but showed it originated from the telecommunications company Nuvox and the caller was in Mount Pleasant. Unfortunately, because you can now port your number to other carriers, that info may be incorrect. I tried the next step in finding out who owns a number and searched it on Google. There was only one result, and it shocked me. The lone result pointed to this craigslist ad. A local independent computer technician? Why was he pranking me with strange sound effects?

I decided to pick up the phone and call back. A young sounding guy answered the phone quite nervously. I told him who I was and that I was returning his two phone calls he just made, and asked him if he needed some computer service. He fumbled around with his words and muttered that he called by mistake. I asked him why he was calling me if he was a computer technician (now revealing that I knew who he was) and if he possibly needed some advice or help. At that point he panicked and hung up. I realized that he was indeed prank phone calling my business, but I can’t understand his gain. There are a lot of professional technicians out there, and the pros all have a sense of camaraderie. I have no problem sending my customers to my competition whom I trust to do good work for things I don’t support or in emergency situations where I can’t get to a customer in time. On the flip side, there is no place in the IT world for deceptive and unprofessional tactics. We have a term for how we deal with bad technicians, and it’s called “Blacklisting”.

This leads me to the subject of this article, and that is how to hire a computer tech. In SC, there are no licenses or certifications required to do computer work. So how do you know you’re getting the right service person? The answer is simple and as old as can be. Ask for professional referrals. A real professional will be happy to give up that information. The real trick is to ask for technical referrals as well ones from their customers. A computer service business will have various other service companies that they use and refer on a regular basis such telecommunications vendors and national service dispatchers.

Another red flag is price. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is just that. An established computer service business is going to have an overhead and will cost more than an independent technician. That does not mean that all independent technicians are bad, but you need to do more background checking with them as anybody can pose as a technician due to the lack of regulation. The other thing to think about is experience in customer service. An established service business will return your phone calls, provide receipts, and track your service history. They will also know how to talk to you in a way that you can understand and not try and swindle you by speaking over your head in jargon.

Keep in mind that you may also run into trouble with some of the computer service companies attached to the big chain retail stores. The reports of shady practices in the news such as breaching your privacy and misdiagnoses are usually attached to these larger companies. In at least one of these big name companies that I won’t mention, the technicians are historically forced to be salespeople above service people. They are also usually less experienced as it is usually their first technical job.

To wrap this all up, until South Carolina enforces a licensing program for computer service professionals, the job of choosing the right tech is entirely in your hands. Make sure to ask for the following information:

Professional referrals

Length of time or personal history in the industry

Education

Industry Certifications

If someone is still in the stage of their life where they make prank phone calls, can you really trust them with your private data?

Amy & I would like to wish all of our business partners, clients, & students a sincerely happy and healthy holiday season.

We hope 2008 brings everyone a prosperous and productive year, and we can’t wait to be a part of your continued success.

We would also like to thank you for making 2007 a great success for us!

Warm wishes,

Joseph & Amy Nienstedt

It seems that the most popular malicious computer infections I run across lately here in the Low Country comes in the form of spyware that has been classified as “SmitFraud”. SmitFraud has many variants - it seems like a new variant has been popping up every couple of weeks lately and it makes preventing infections a test in diligence. The worst part of this infection is that it blackmails you into buying fake security software to remove it.

The most common question I get from my customers is “How did I get it?”. This is a tricky one to answer as it can get installed in more than one way. The most common way is in the form of something that looks legitimate. Internet Explorer users are the most susceptible to infection, as it will use Internet Explorer’s plug-in architecture to install what you think is software to watch a movie or listen to music online through your browser (these are what is referred to as codecs). The problem is that you can just be browsing along on the internet and get infected without even knowing it happened.

How do you know your infected? Well, that’s an easy one - trust me, you will know. A common symptom is that your background wallpaper will be changed and it will have a message telling you that you are infected (some folks incorrectly refer to wallpaper as their screensaver - so to clarify, I’m talking about the picture or pattern on your desktop behind all the icons). Some later variants skip this as it was a little too obvious that something is amiss. Another common symptom is pop-up windows for fraudulent anti-virus software sites, but the most common symptom is a blinking yellow triangle with an exclamation point in your system tray (that area by the clock) that has a message bubble telling you to click there to download software to remove the infection. I have seen some slight variations in the blinking icon color and shape as well. This is a major nuisance because it mimics the Windows automatic update icon, which is something you would want to actually click on. If you are unfortunate enough to have actually clicked on the icon, it will install one of a handful of rogue false security software packages and perform a fake scan, which will of course say that you are infected and need to purchase the software to remove it. Here’s the kicker though - it never actually removes the real virus!

How can I get rid of it? Ah, the million dollar question (or at least $75.00 if I come out to do it). I have battled this beast in so many of it’s forms that I can honestly say that no one piece of software can definitively work to get rid of it. If you value your time and sanity, give a professional a call. If you are brave enough to take this on, here are some tips from what I have learned. HijackThis is an important starting point to see what is starting up on your computer and where it is starting from. Be aware though that if you don’t know what you are doing, you can seriously damage your PC with this. The reason this is so powerful is because it shows you things that are vital to the system as well as the malicious stuff, so if you make one wrong click and you wont be able to boot your machine again. That said, I use this to look for Browser Helper Objects (BHO’s) that do not belong as well as startup dll’s that shouldn’t be there and random false codecs. I also run of few different anti-spyware scanner applications, such as SuperAntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, and AVG Anti-Spyware. Another free tool that is powerful, but has not been as effective on the newest variants is a program called SmitFraudFix. This program works best in Safe Mode, and it works wonders with the older infections at getting rid of it. Some Anti-Virus programs will classify SmitFraudFix as a virus itself, so you need to disable your security software before downloading and running it. Other methods I have used involve monitoring the processes in the task manager for strangely named processes that are running (a quick Google search of an unknown process name will tell you what it is, and sometimes how to get rid of it). Cleaning your temporary files is a must-do step that will help prevent a re-infection - you can easily do this by running the disk cleanup tool that comes with Windows.

How do I prevent it? The majority of people I see infected with this are running a consumer version of a Norton Anti-Virus product. To be honest, I personally feel that Norton Internet Security is a such a huge burden on a PC that it is similar to having a virus! The fact is, Norton is the most popular security software out there and like Windows, it is a target that malicious software writers to overcome. Coupled with the fact that a lot of PC’s come with it installed already with a limited subscription that runs out and is left unchecked by the average consumer, it makes my job a lot more difficult. Do yourself a favor, if you are going to purchase security software, get the best - not the most popular. The reigning king of efficiency is Eset’s NOD32. It is not the easiest to install and configure (we can always help), but once set up, it is the best security software I have seen for the average consumer. It is fast, and updates very frequently. Another favorite of mine also happens to be free for home use - AVG Free Edition is an excellent piece of software and you certainly cannot beat its price. Make sure to keep your computer patched via Windows Update, and for goodness sake, stop using Internet Explorer for casual web browsing! I encourage you to switch to Firefox immediately. It is a great product that is far ahead of Internet Explorer in may ways, most importantly security. If you have to use IE, make sure to update to IE 7 as it has much better security features than IE 6, such as an anti-phishing filter. If you want a good free software firewall, Comodo is great. I personally think software firewalls are a pain in the butt and stick with the Windows firewall alongside a hardware firewall, but for those of you who surf in coffee houses and public WiFi hotspots, Comodo or something similar is a must.

I only touched the surface of how to deal with SmitFraud (as well as general security practices), and if you want more info, please check out these resources:

-Wikipedia
-Security Cadets
-Major Geeks