Ten Commandments of Home Computing. 7

[GlenJohnson]

One of the things we should be doing to help clients is to give them something that will allow them to remember us, and possibly help them. I was thinking about creating The Ten Commandments of Home Computing. When I visit a client at home who has a personal pc problem, when done I would give them a framed copy of this they could hang by there pc to help them remember me and things like running live update on a weekly basis. I'm going to post what I've started, and it's an open forum. If anybody has suggestions, problems etc., let us know. This will be open for anybody running a small business to pass out to clients. I realize some of the business people out here are programmers, some work on security, etc. My specialty currently is giving low cost home pc repair, where I can make money on quantity and not cost. I'm probably the lowest priced, so I get plenty of calls and most of the problems are fixed within a couple of hours. One lady called today that told me I worked on her pc 2 years ago, and she needed help again. Anyway, here's the startof the 10 Commandments.

1) Always have anti-virus software installed, running and up to date.
A good anti-virus program should be able to scan incoming e-mails, delete the infected e-mails and then notify you what the program has done. On a weekly basis, you should connect to the company and run a live-update to make sure the anti-virus program has the latest protection for the latest viruses.
2) Allow critical updates to be down-loaded from Microsoft. As the internet gets more and more complex, more and more ways of attacking a computer via the internet are being created. Microsoft now has an option to download any fixes to vulnerabilities which they call Critical Updates.
3) Run a program that hunts down spy’s on your hard drive. There are programs that are invisibly downloaded on your computer that will monitor what internet sites you are visiting and send the information back to the company that installed them. This is called spy-ware.

Feel free to pitch in.




Glen A. Johnson
If you're from Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin feel free to join the Tek-Tips in Chicago, Illinois Forum.

TTinChicago
Johnson Computers

 

[gpalmer711]

Glen,
This is a great idea, I'm just in the process of starting a business and am looking at ways of promoting the business. This is just the sort of thing I was looking for.

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[GlenJohnson]

Those of you who work as technical support have of course heard of PEBCAM and ID 10 T.

Problem Exists Between Chair And Monitor is the way I heard it also.


Glen A. Johnson
If you're from Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin feel free to join the Tek-Tips in Chicago, Illinois Forum.
TTinChicago
Johnson Computers

 

[skiflyer]

I'm way late here... but let me toss in something I've been trying to get my friends and family on lately.

If you have a broadband connection... spend the $40 and get a linksys/d-link/whatever router. Even if you only have one computer. Have someone set it up for you if you don't know what you're doing.

It's simple put effective protection, can be used to block ports when the next new virus comes out and works as a basic firewall.

I know it's nothing serious in the realm of protecting yourself, but it makes you one notch harder to attack than a good chunk of users out there, so why not? It's cheap and it's effective... and it'll make the life of professional easier if they can just plug their laptop into your network once and awhile too.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Just edited the faq on this subject, thanking all of you that helped. (Should have put it in the faq to start with, but I'm a little slow.)

Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL