Firefox Users
A while back I passed a tip on to everyone about how to do various Google searches. One such tip was on how to search for a topic on a specific website.
Let's say you are interested in articles on "nutrition" in US News and World Report magazine. You could go to US New's website and do a search there. Another option is to type in the Google search prompt:
site:www.usnews.com "nutrition"
(The full newsletter on Google search tips, by the way, is available at: http://www.avantguardsystems.com/secIss.php?id=80&sVer=77&sOS=76)
Well, there's a way to create shortcut for doing the same search through Firefox. You would only want to set this up only for those sites that you do searches on often.
In this case, I'm going to choose Wikipedia.
Open Firefox and go to www.wikipedia.com
Now right click on the search panel for Wikipedia and choose "Add a Keyword for this Search...."
A dialog box will pop up. Enter a name for the site (I entered "Wikipedia"), then enter for the keyword something that will be easy for you. I chose "wiki".
From now on instead of typing www.wikipedia.com in the address bar, I can just type wiki and then my keyword search. So for example, if I want to do a search on airplanes. I just type "wiki airplanes" (without the quotes) in the address bar and voila! wikipedia pops up with the results. Or I could type "wiki Emily Dickinsen" and there's the Wikipedia entry on Emily.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Windows updates
Windows Users
Last Tuesday was "Patch Tuesday." All Microsoft Windows users need to up date your computer and Office suite.
Microsoft issued 3 critical patches and 4 important ones. All three critical patches addressed remote code execution vulnerabilities - if exploited, a hacker would be able to take complete control of a system running with administrative privileges, whether that be viewing and deleting data, or installing new malicious or unwanted programs.
Also, for those users of Office 2007 Service Pack 1 was released as well.
Please be sure that your Windows system is being updated. If you're not sure you can always run the update utility manually to check.
Last Tuesday was "Patch Tuesday." All Microsoft Windows users need to up date your computer and Office suite.
Microsoft issued 3 critical patches and 4 important ones. All three critical patches addressed remote code execution vulnerabilities - if exploited, a hacker would be able to take complete control of a system running with administrative privileges, whether that be viewing and deleting data, or installing new malicious or unwanted programs.
Also, for those users of Office 2007 Service Pack 1 was released as well.
Please be sure that your Windows system is being updated. If you're not sure you can always run the update utility manually to check.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Spyware, Malware, Viruses - oh my!
While computer viruses have been in our lexicon for some time, spyware and malware are recent additions. Disregarding the differences between these three terminologies, the fact is unless your computer is protected against all three, your computer is open to infection.
In my line of work I have found that most users believe that so long as they have some program that protects them from something, then their computer is safe. Not only is it important to have a solution(s) that provides protection on all three fronts, but a solution(s) that is continually updated. Numerous times I have come across systems that had the trial version of some anti-virus program on it, that had, of course, expired some 3 years ago.
Now, assuming your computer is protected on all three fronts, there is still one other major point of entry. New viruses, spyware and malware! Between the moment of the last update for your protection solution(s) and the next, there is a period during which new viruses, spyware and malware are being disseminated. It is important that you solution(s) also be able to detected possible infection by unknown contagia.
In a recent study, AVIEWS (Anti-Virus Information and Early Warning System - www.aviews.org) subjected numerous anti-malware solutions to a four-month analysis. The point of the study was well these products detected unknown malware. The results are quite interesting.
Sophos beat out the competition by far by proactively detecting 80% of all unknown malware reported to AVIEWS's mailing list. Compare that to 50% for Microsoft, 35% for Symantec (Norton) and 30% for McAfee!

In another study by Cascadia Labs (www.cascadialabs.com) again Sophos outperformed Symantec and McAfree in detection of unknown viruses, spyware and malware. According to the report Sophos successfully intercepted 86% of the malware tested against prior execution, compared to 43% for McAfee and 51% for Symantec.
Admittedly as an authorized retailer of Sophos products, AvantGuard Systems may appear biased in this matter. However, the point of this newsletter is not to convince subscribers to switch to Sophos. All the more so as Sophos is for small businesses and enterprises. It is not available to home users (unless you want to buy at least five licenses).
Taking all things into consideration, however, I would definitely consider a solution that provides the best possible protection on all fronts. Considering the fact the AVG (which is available for free to home users) outperformed McAfee and Symantec, a combination of AVG and Windows Defender would provide a home computer with a pretty good level of defense. Some people make take issue with Windows Defender, but I defend it (pun intended - sorry) because
In my line of work I have found that most users believe that so long as they have some program that protects them from something, then their computer is safe. Not only is it important to have a solution(s) that provides protection on all three fronts, but a solution(s) that is continually updated. Numerous times I have come across systems that had the trial version of some anti-virus program on it, that had, of course, expired some 3 years ago.
Now, assuming your computer is protected on all three fronts, there is still one other major point of entry. New viruses, spyware and malware! Between the moment of the last update for your protection solution(s) and the next, there is a period during which new viruses, spyware and malware are being disseminated. It is important that you solution(s) also be able to detected possible infection by unknown contagia.
In a recent study, AVIEWS (Anti-Virus Information and Early Warning System - www.aviews.org) subjected numerous anti-malware solutions to a four-month analysis. The point of the study was well these products detected unknown malware. The results are quite interesting.
Sophos beat out the competition by far by proactively detecting 80% of all unknown malware reported to AVIEWS's mailing list. Compare that to 50% for Microsoft, 35% for Symantec (Norton) and 30% for McAfee!

In another study by Cascadia Labs (www.cascadialabs.com) again Sophos outperformed Symantec and McAfree in detection of unknown viruses, spyware and malware. According to the report Sophos successfully intercepted 86% of the malware tested against prior execution, compared to 43% for McAfee and 51% for Symantec.
Admittedly as an authorized retailer of Sophos products, AvantGuard Systems may appear biased in this matter. However, the point of this newsletter is not to convince subscribers to switch to Sophos. All the more so as Sophos is for small businesses and enterprises. It is not available to home users (unless you want to buy at least five licenses).
Taking all things into consideration, however, I would definitely consider a solution that provides the best possible protection on all fronts. Considering the fact the AVG (which is available for free to home users) outperformed McAfee and Symantec, a combination of AVG and Windows Defender would provide a home computer with a pretty good level of defense. Some people make take issue with Windows Defender, but I defend it (pun intended - sorry) because
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