FREE AntiVirus and Malware Protection and Removal Tools

Posted on by
Reply

Getting rid of a nasty virus or pesky malware on your system can be a real headache, especially if you aren’t armed with the right tools.  Here are a few utilities that I’ve found to be very effective at identifying and removing viruses and malware – and best of all, they are all FREE!

All of these items, and more can be found in the links section here: http://eriqstern.com/more-links/

For more information about these utilities and more including reviews and comparisons, check out PCMag.com’s article “The Best Free Antivirus for 2013″ here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp

If you know of other FREE antivirus utilities, please share them here!

Researching Products and Finding the Best Prices Online

Posted on by
1

Some people love shopping.  Maybe it’s the thrill of the hunt for that perfect item, or the excitement of scoring a great deal – but some people are born to shop.  I, on the other hand, am not one of those people.  Sure, I enjoy going to the mall every now and then – mainly just for the ‘people watching’.  But I would much rather do my shopping from the comfort of my own home and never question if I am choosing the right product, or getting the best deal.  Online shopping is just one more way I make technology work for me, and I’m going to share a few tips with you.  I’m sure you are familiar with some of these, and there are always new sites and tools becoming available – so please share your tips as well.

Shopping Frenzy

Shopping Frenzy

First of all, I have to come right out of the gate and say that if you are looking for a good place to compare thousands (if not millions) of products with competitive pricing -  Amazon.com should be your first (and possibly only) stop.  Some people think of Amazon as only a book store, but it has evolved into much more.  Amazon is now the largest online retailer in the world, and provides access to everything from candy bars to furniture.  Many of the products are supplied by and shipped directly from Amazon, but there are also many merchants who offer their products via the Amazon Marketplace which results in highly competitive pricing.  Of course, Amazon holds these merchants responsible for conducting business honestly and professionally, which protects shoppers from being tricked into buying knock offs and replicas without recourse.  Amazon also features more consumer reviews than just about any other site you might find, and although some of the reviews are worthless, because there are more reviews, you are usually able to get a pretty good feel for the average public opinion of the product.  The merchants also get feedback which results in star ratings much like eBay.  Overall, Amazon.com is pretty much a one stop shop.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.com is a great place to find products online, but if you are like me sometimes you just can’t wait a whole 3-5 business days for your new toy to be shipped across the world to you.  This is where Google Shopping comes in handy.  With Google Shopping, you still have access to pricing and reviews from thousands of merchants, but you can also use the ‘Show Only In Stock Nearby’ filter to find local pricing and availability so you can find the best price on the item you want, and go pick it up the same day.  You can even view the results and prices on a Google map to find the closest location to you.  Some merchants will even allow you to pay online to ensure your product is waiting for you and ready to be picked up.  One downside to Google Shopping is that the merchants don’t answer to Google (unless they are a Google Trusted Store), so you have to be more careful about who you do business with.  Google Shopping is actually search driven, the merchants don’t necessarily pay Google to advertise their products – the results that are displayed to you are all based on a standard web search, the results are just customized to make it a more user friendly experience for shopping.  Now you can create ‘Shortlists‘ which allow you to shop online with friends, or view catalogs online, plus Google is always adding new features so be sure to check out Google Shopping.

Another great site that is very well known, but still worth mentioning is Craigslist.com which has been around since 1995, and continues to maintain is popularity – in part because of it’s simplicity.  Craigslist is much like an interactive version of a classified ad section in a newspaper.  It’s not a fancy site with a bunch of web 2.0 bling, it’s very basic which makes it very simple.  You will be amazed at what you can find on Craigslist for cheap, or sometimes even FREE – but there are also plenty of things you probably don’t want at all.  Be very careful of any electronics, especially cell phones and other devices that require activation – if these devices are stolen, you may not be able to activate them or you could potentially be held responsible for possessing stolen property.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with others on Craigslist.  Never give someone your address, always insist on meeting in public.  Never take large amounts of cash with you to meet, ask if they will take a check or meet at a bank where you can get cash in a secure location after you have inspected the product.  As long as you are careful, and use common sense, you can find great deals on hidden treasures all day every day on Craigslist.

craigslist

craigslist

Another oldie-but-goodie is eBay.  Most people are familiar with eBay, and many have either bought and/or sold products at one time or another.  Because it is so well known, I won’t get into it too much – but eBay offers many of the same features of the other online retailers, but the main differences are the ability to bid in product auctions, and the fact that you may be buying from a large corporation in California, or from an individual seller in China.  Businesses use eBay to reach a larger market, and individuals use it because it is easy.  eBay is always a good place to look for obscure or rare items that you might not be able to find in a retail store.

ebay

ebay

Most of the sites I’ve mentioned so far carry all types of products, but if you are after a specific type of product, a specialty store may be the best place to look.  For example, if you are looking for electronics or computers and accessories, Newegg.com and Tigerdirect.com have some of the most competitive prices, as well as the most product reviews.  If you are looking for musical equipment, MusiciansFriend.com is a great resource and they generally have the same products and prices as Guitar Center, so you might be able to pick up the items in a local store once you have decided what you want.  Remember, you don’t necessarily have to buy from these online stores – but you can still use them to compare products, check out consumer reviews, and find the best prices.

For those times when you are out shopping and come across what seems like a great deal on a product that you haven’t done much research on, there are tons of apps for your smartphone that can help you gather all the details you need to know if the deal is as good as it looks, or too good to be true.  For example, the Amazon Price Check app is available for iOS and Android devices, and allows you to quickly pull up details, reviews, and pricing on specific products by simply scanning their bar code.  This is also great for quickly comparing multiple products when you are at the store with only your mobile device.

Amazon Price Check

Amazon Price Check

Recently, a new type of shopping has been gaining popularity.  It’s generally referred to as ‘Daily Deals‘, and it is basically when online retailers offer a ‘product of the day’ at a ridiculously low price in an attempt to sell a large quantity all at once.  Sometimes you can find great deals, but other times you might find yourself pulling out your credit card to pay for something you have no use for just because it is a great deal.  Some of the more popular daily deal sites are Woot.com, Moolala.com, and DailyDeals.com, but this trend is starting to pop up everywhere including many of the previously mentioned shopping sites like Amazon, eBay, and Google.  You will also notice that many of these sites have ‘local’ deals that are only available in specific markets.

Another shopping trend that is as popular online as it is in retail stores is coupons.  Coupons have been around for ages, and are basically a way for manufacturers and retailers to get you to spend money by saving money.  In other words, they are counting on the fact that you will buy something you might not normally buy just because you can get 10% off or similar.  In most cases this works out for everyone because the consumer feels like they got a good deal, and the seller is able to make a sale with only a minor reduction in profit margin which is often reimbursed by the manufacturers.  Obvious facts aside, coupons are extremely popular and are very easy to find online.  However, as always, you must be cautious of any coupons, especially those found online.  Sometimes the coupons are counterfeit, or require registration to some type of mailing list that you want nothing to do with or similar.  Be careful of these types of coupons, and as a general rule of thumb you should never enter your email address or any other personal details on any site you are not familiar with and comfortable receiving dozens of emails from each month.  Groupon.com is a decent site where you can subscribe to emails about coupons for products or services in your area.  RetailMeNot.com is a great site for finding coupon and promotional codes for many online stores – I recommend checking this site before you complete your checkout on any online store, you might find a coupon code for FREE shipping or other discounts.  You can also simply search on Google.com for ‘coupon code’ or ‘promo code’ along with the name of the site you are on and you might find some good ones.  For example, try searching for ‘Best Buy Coupon Code‘ and see what you find.

One thing I’ve mentioned several times already is online reviews.  Some people have mixed feelings about online reviews, and for good reason – the simple fact is that many (if not most) of them are fake.  Time Magazine published an article about this very subject.  Although it is true that many online reviews are fake, not all of them are – and the ratio of fake to real reviews varies greatly depending on the site you are using.  For example, a large portion of the reviews on Amazon.com are fake, as discussed in this article in Forbes magazine.  However, because there is such a large number of reviews, it tends to balance out the fake ones.  If a product only has a handful of reviews, the best you can do is read them carefully and use your best judgement to try and determine if they are legitimate.  However, if there are thousands of reviews, it is fairly safe to assume that at-least half of them are real – so if the product has a ‘score’ of 50% or higher (3+ stars), you should be safe.  Always read as many of the reviews as you can, and learn to spot the fakes.

Don’t forget that many retail stores like Walmart offer price match guarantees which means if you bring them an ad for a product at a lower price than they currently offer, they will match the price right there at the register.  Sometimes they will even let you show them the price on your mobile device so you can use some of the sites listed above to find the best price and request that they match it.  Also utilize the ‘site to store‘ feature from Walmart and other retailers where you can order products online, and then pick up in a store – often on the same day.  This often eliminates the shipping costs, and allows you to get your products faster.

Bonus Tip:  Anyone who travels often, or has ever vacationed on a budget knows about all of the travel sites that allow you to compare and consolidate pricing for hotels, airfare, and rental cars from numerous websites at once.  Some of the more popular ones are Kayak.com, Expedia.com, Hotwire.com, and there are even sites where you can ‘Name Your Own Price‘ like Priceline.com.  But hidden deep within the sub-menus of Microsoft’s Bing search engine is a very handy tool called the ‘Price Predictor’.  Bing Travel lets you compare multiple travel sites at once just like the rest, but their secret weapon is their Price Predictor which also helps you determine when the best time to travel will be, and when the best time to book will be based on current trends.  This is a great way to save money on your flight, so you have more to spend on your trip.

Bing Travel

Bing Travel

Obviously online shopping is the future, and it won’t be long before online mega stores put all of the small local establishments out of business.  This is a sad reality, but luckily many small businesses are beginning to realize that there is no future for them without an online presence, and this creates even more options for online shoppers across the globe.  As always, be sure to protect yourself online, and if you would like to learn about more ways you can save money online, contact me for a consultation.

Managing Your Finances Online

Posted on by
Reply

Online banking simplifies managing your finances online, and has gained popularity over the last decade or so.  These days just about every financial institution offers some type of online banking services.  Many also have apps for mobile platforms in addition to browser based services which are customized for mobile devices for managing your finances on the go.  Some people don’t like the idea of online banking for fear of their personal information being ‘out there’ on the internet.  But the fact is that if you have an account with a financial institution which offers online banking services, your information is ‘out there’ whether you utilize those services or not, so you might as well embrace it and use it to your benefit.  Check to see what type of services your financial institution offers, and find out if they offer a mobile app for your device.  Often these apps allow you to go beyond checking your balances, and offer conveniences such as balance notifications, budgeting tools, funds transfers, and some even allow you to make deposits by taking photos of checks.  Online bill payment is another helpful feature that is offered by many institutions which allows you to schedule payments to be mailed or transferred electronically at whatever intervals you specify.  This is not only a convenience, but can save you money by avoiding fees for late or missed payments.

Because online and mobile banking have become so popular, there are now many banks that operate exclusively online and do not have any physical locations.  It might seem like it would be difficult to work with a bank that has no branch offices, but as long as they have a good website and/or mobile apps, you can do anything you would at a branch from anyplace with an internet connection without waiting in line or having to rush to get there before they close.  Most of these banks offer free accounts and/or lower fee’s than the big banks primarily because they do-not have the overhead costs of maintaining numerous facilities, and paying countless employees.  If you are interested in an online bank, consider trying USAA which is one of the original online banks, and offers a ton of services on their robust website and mobile apps.

If you don’t already have a financial account of some kind and you are interested in opening one, but you want the convenience of having local branches, you should definitely do some research before deciding on an institution.  Ask lots of questions when opening an account, and be sure you understand the fee structure.  Often times a ‘free checking‘ account can end up costing you more than you can imagine once you rack up a few fees.  Sometimes there are fees for not maintaining a certain balance, or for making too many withdrawals or too few transactions.  Also be sure you understand the ATM fees.  Many banks offer ‘no ATM fees‘, but this usually just means that they don’t charge you another fee on top of the fee that the owner of the ATM charges (which can be up to $5 in some locations).  Others will offer to ‘refund your ATM fees’, but usually only up to a certain amount, or if you meet certain other criteria.  Make sure that there are free ATM’s in your network near your home, office, and any areas of town that you frequent.  Always read the fine print before you hand over your hard earned money.  If you are looking for a good financial institution, and don’t want to be subject to the big banks hidden fees and charges, try joining a credit union.  Credit unions are much like banks, but the main difference is that credit unions are ‘not-for-profit‘ organizations while the big banks primary goal is to make as much profit off of their members as possible.  Generally credit union membership requires meeting a certain criteria such as being employed by certain companies or agencies, or being a member of some type of organization.  However, some credit unions simply require that you live within a certain radius of their locations.

Another thing that many banks are doing now which is pretty smart is offering discounts for going ‘paperless‘.  This basically means that they will no longer send you monthly statements which are often nothing more than several pages of personal information that just gets discarded without being shredded to protect your privacy.  I’m sure some people still use a check register, and balance their check book every month – but once again, this generally results in more paper that either takes up space or gets improperly disposed.  Going paperless not only eliminates all of this confidential waste, it also cuts down the costs of paper, ink, printing, postage, and labor to get all of that waste to you (savings which many institutions will pass along to you).  Additionally, there are many environmental benefits such as reducing the amount of trees that are needed to produce all of the paper, and reducing the amount of waste.  If you simply must receive paper statements from your financial institution (and other accounts), please consider recycling the paper after it has been thoroughly shredded to protect your sensitive information.

recycle shredding

recycle shredding

If you are one of the many consumers who likes to utilize online banking services to manage your money, there are many tools that go beyond the functionality of your banks website and apps.  These tools are available in many flavors – some are websites, others have mobile apps, and some are installed on your computer.  Regardless of the method of delivery, most of these apps connect directly to your accounts through the internet and download your balances and transactions.  Many of these services are designed to analyze the transactions and attempt to categorize them which enables reporting of trends, and tracking of budgets.  For example, a transaction from Kroger will most likely be automatically categorized as ‘Groceries’, while a transaction from Shell would be categorized as ‘Gas’.  You can typically go back and re-categorize the transactions as you wish, and some applications like Pageonce will even let you create rules that automatically categorize transactions based on criteria you specify.  Some applications like Mint.com take it even a step further and let you split transactions into multiple categories and apply tags.  For example, if you take a family trip to Walmart, you might end up spending $50 on groceries, $30 on household products, and $20 on DVD’s.  Mint.com allows you to split the single transaction into several smaller transactions which can be individually categorized and tagged allowing you to more accurately monitor your budgets and track your spending.

Mint.com is only one of many great financial services offered by by Intuit, a company out of California which has been making financial software since 1983.  Some of their most well known and widely used software is QuickBooks which is generally used for managing business finances, and Quicken which is geared towards personal finances.  All of these products are great for managing money, and come in different versions for everyone from the individual trying to balance their checkbook to large corporations who need to manage payments and taxes for countless employees and assets.

Intuit Products for Managing Finances

Intuit Products

BONUS TIP:  Another excellent service that is offered by Intuit is TurboTax which is a simple service that helps you prepare and file your federal income tax returns with the IRS (as well as state taxes where applicable).  Like most of the other Intuit products, TurboTax is available in different versions that can be used online, on your computer, or on your mobile devices.  If you have a single W2, and do-not have any special deductions or circumstances, filing your taxes may be as easy as uploading a picture of your W2 from your mobile device.  TurboTax is free to use to prepare your taxes, but you may have to pay to file.  However, their prices are very reasonable – especially compared to many of the tax preparation services out there.  The cost depends on the features and support you need.  Currently the prices range from $20 for the Basic version to $75 for the Home and Business version.  There is a Free Edition if you only need the simple 1040EZ form.  Another great thing about TurboTax is that it will remember your information when you return the next year to file, so you wont have to enter the same information a second time unless your information has changed.  Filing your taxes online is another great way to manage your finances online, and maximize your return.

As always, it is wise to use caution and be careful about how you use online banking services, and you should always take all the necessary precautionary measures to keep yourself safe online.  But if you select the right financial institution, and tools to meet your needs, online banking can help you keep more of the money you have worked so hard to earn without ever needing to sit in the drive through line 5 minutes before closing time.

If you would like to learn more about how to securely manage your finances online, contact me for a consultation.

Protecting Yourself Online

Posted on by
2

Many of you have probably been hearing about the recent surge of cyber attacks, and may be wondering what you can do to protect yourself online. These types of attacks are nothing new, but recent media coverage has everyone in a frenzy. Here are a few tips to help keep yourself safe and secure online.

  • Change passwords frequently.
    • Using the same password for long periods of time makes the password more susceptible to being compromised.  Best practices generally call for changing passwords every 90-180 days, especially for accounts that contain sensitive information.  Be sure to update all accounts that use the same password, especially if you suspect that any of them have been compromised.
  • Use complex passwords.
    • Your password should always be something that could not be guessed, even by someone who knows you well.  This includes names of family or pets, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, and company or school names – these are some of the most commonly used passwords, and are therefore more likely to be compromised.  You can still use words or phrases that are easy to remember, but they should be as random as possible, and spelled out using both uppercase and lowercase letters, and symbols in place of some letters wherever possible.  For example, instead of using “ILikeBananas”, you could use “1L1k3B@n@n@$”.  Although this looks at a glance like a string of random characters, it actually spells out a familiar phrase in a more creative and complex way.  Microsoft considers this to be a ‘strong’ password.  Check out Microsoft’s free password checker to see how strong your password is, and read Microsoft’s guide to creating strong passwords for tips on setting up a strong unique password for yourself.
  • Don’t use the same password for everything.
    • Another common mistake that leaves your accounts vulnerable is using the same password for all of your accounts, especially when combined with the previous two points.  It is a good idea to have different passwords for your accounts.  Any accounts that contain or have access to personal or financial information should have unique secure passwords, and any other accounts that don’t contain sensitive information should use different passwords that don’t necessarily need to be as secure.  Once again, be sure to update all accounts that use the same password, especially if you suspect that any of them have been compromised.
  • Protect your passwords and personal info.
    • Under most circumstances, there is no reason to ever share or send your password to anyone.  This includes family, friends, and even co-workers, bosses, or administrators within your organization.  Most support professionals will never ask you for your password, as they can generally use administrative access to get what they need without your password.  Sharing with co-workers is never a good idea not only because it compromises your password, but it also could result in being held responsible for mistakes made by others while logged in to your account.  You should never write your passwords down, especially not anywhere close to your computer or that is not kept under lock and key.  If you keep your password on a post-it note attached to your computer screen, you might as well not have a password.  Obviously, it can be hard to remember all of your passwords – especially if you have a lot of accounts.  Luckily, there are many free utilities out there that can help you keep track of your passwords in one convenient place.  Many smart phones now have these applications built-in, and there are also many apps available such as Keepass which also has a mobile version, as well as versions for other platforms.

  • Protect your computer and mobile devices.
    • These days, most people use their computers and mobile devices to access everything from their email to their bank accounts online.  This makes it very convenient for you to access your personal information, but also increases the risk of others exploiting that convenience to get your sensitive information.  This is often done in the form of malware which is generally designed to collect personal information from and about you and your computer.  Malware can be installed in a number of ways, often without even realizing anything is being installed.  The best way to protect yourself from malware is to avoid visiting websites you don’t recognize, or clicking on anything you are unsure about.  But you can also help minimize the risk of being infected by installing security software on your devices.  Unfortunately, no security software can keep you completely safe because new viruses and malware are developed so rapidly – but most security software manufacturers provide frequent updates to keep their applications as current as possible.  There are countless companies making these types of apps, and some of the free ones do a pretty good job of keeping you safe like Microsoft Security Essentials (for real-time protection), SpyBot Search & Destroy (for proactive defense and malware removal), and Malwarebytes (for virus and malware removal).  There are also many apps available for mobile devices.
  • Stay alert.
    • It’s easy to get carried away by the wave of information that hits you the moment you open your favorite website, and this can often lead to clicking on link after link of funny videos, fascinating articles, and celebrity gossip.  But you always have to remember that not everyone online is there for the same reason you are.  You are probably just there to get the latest news updates and communicate with your friends and family – but others are there with more malicious intent.  Often, the links you click won’t take you where you expect and in many cases the owner of the page you found it on didn’t even post it – at least not knowingly.  You should always be cautious of phishing attempts which will attempt to acquire your passwords and personal information.  Always verify the URL in the address bar before entering your account information into websites that contain sensitive information.  Web pages are often disguised to look like other websites such as financial institutions or social media sites in an attempt to get you to enter your personal information.  It can sometimes be very difficult to tell the difference between a real website, and a phishing attempt – but one way to tell for sure is by verifying the URL in the address bar.  The URL should always show the actual domain that you are attempting to access.  In many cases, there may be additional information before or after the domain – but as long as the actual domain is there, it is generally safe.  For example, if you want to log-in to Twitter, make sure that the URL in the address bar contains twitter.com.  It may contain subdomains like secure.twitter.com, or sub directories like twitter.com/secure, but should not contain variations of the domain name like secure-twitter.com (in most cases).  Many websites that contain sensitive information also use a protocol called SSL to encrypt all of the data that is transmitted between your computer and the server, and to let you know that you are connected to a secure site.  The URL’s of these sites will begin with https:// instead of the typical http:// protocol used by most websites (the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’), and there is often a green indicator on the left side of the address bar indicating that the site is secure.  It is generally safe to trust websites which use SSL, however it is still a good idea to examine the full URL closely.
SSL Indicator

Browser Address Bar with Secure (SSL) Indicator

Bonus Tip: The best way to avoid becoming infected by malware is to prevent unknown websites from running scripts in your browser.  Many websites use different types of scripts (sometimes from 3rd parties) to create enhanced interfaces and dynamic content, but others have potentially malicious scripts hidden in their pages.  My secret weapon for preventing unwanted scripts from running is an add-on called NoScript which works in all Mozilla browsers.  By default, NoScript blocks all scripts on every page you visit.  This keeps you safe from any unwanted scripts, and although it can make browsing a little bit more difficult, it is worth it to keep your computer and yourself safe.  Once you tell NoScript to allow scripts on a site you trust, it will not block them when you visit that site in the future.

If you are concerned that your computer may be infected, or would like to learn more about protecting yourself online, contact me for a consultation.