Sunbelt MVP!

A Huge congrats to our very own technician Tim Gardner for being nominated as Sunbelt Software's MVP!!!

Nick Hallin, a Tier III Customer Support Technical at Sunbelt, has nominated Tim Gardner for their MVP program.

"We greatly appreciate all the time you spend volunteering on our forum helping others and would like to reward you .... As a MVP on the Sunbelt Support Forum, Tim will have the title “MVP” beneath his author icon and a MVP icon added to his signature."

Another outstanding reason why ODI's technicians are the best at what they do! Call us today to find out for yourself!

Rogue Antivirus'

Thank you to our friends at Sunbelt:

All antivirus companies are being hit with the next wave of malware: Rogue antivirus tools like Antivirus 2010. This code throws messages on the user's screen that they are infected, and "download here to get rid of the malware". Sure enough, that gets the Trojan installed.

The reality is that no AV vendor, ESET, McAfee, Sunbelt, Sophos, Symantec, etc. can give you 100% coverage against it.These new fake antivirus variants are some of the most vicious, polymorphic Trojans this industry has seen. They use extremely complex obfuscation techniques which make detection quite challenging by even the best antivirus engine. Many of these rogues are also service-side polymorphic. That means every time an exe is downloaded, it's recompiled on the server-side into a different piece of code.

There are about 75,000 new tier-1 pieces of malware coming out every day. Educate yourself! The vast majority of infections these days are caused by social engineering. A user will get a funny video link on Facebook or some other social networking site, click on it, and it will say that they need to "install a special codec", or "update Flash". Or they will be doing a Google search and a malware site will have attached itself to an innocent keyword. The user will click and start getting crazy warnings that their machine is infected. This is the malware trying to get the user to install. If something does not look right, it probably is not right - DON'T CLICK ON IT!

Be sure you have a current version of your AV program installed or updated. If you’re not sure what you have, throw caution to the wind and consult an ODI rep. Too often we’ve found clients have not 1, but 2 AV programs installed and more times than not, they either hog up space on your computer- slowing it down something terrible, or they conflict with each other! Give us a call today!

PC Clean Up

Does it feel like your computer is dragging?

There can be several reasons for this, but if you've recently purchased a computer with Vista or Windows 7, then more likely it could be related to memory.

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, if you look at your task manager under the performance tab you will see a graph labeled Memory. This is how much memory your PC is using at that moment. Sometimes that number is larger than the amount of RAM you have in your system. The "overflow" is stored on your hard disk drive for (not so) quick access.

For example, let's say your computer has 512MB of RAM. If you look at your memory graph in Task Manager, chances are your computer is using more than 512MB of memory. If that number in the graph is 768MB, this means that the PC is using all 512MB of RAM, plus it is storing 256MB worth of commands on your hard disk drive (virtual memory).

The solution is either add more memory or clean up some of those unnecessary commands. Give us a call. We can log into your PC and clean up programs that aren't needed which will bring that number down. We will also provide you a quick overview of the hardware you’re using and it's capacity. Is it an acceptable amount of storage, or do you need to upgrade?

Computer Registry Cleaners

Often, clients who thought they were doing a good thing by installing a registry cleaner find out they’ve possibly made a small problem bigger! They install a Registry Cleaner program, run it, and then problems start; Bootup errors, missing .dll errors, etc. This happens because the registry cleaner removes a key that it shouldn't have.

When you boot up your computer, the registry is loaded into your RAM not the hard disk. This means the performance you gain from cleaning the registry is so small that you will probably not notice any difference.

Running a registry cleaner may clean up 75-150 keys - not worth the risk of the registry cleaner removing something it shouldn't.

Call or email one of our certified technicians for assistance or more information!

FREE Security Consultation - VIPRE Premium!

If you are a client of ODI and/or if you have been following our blog, you may have heard us talk about VIPRE. VIPRE is an Antivirus and Antispyware program developed by Sunbelt Software in Clearwater FL. If you are already using the system, you know why we swear by it.

Recently Sunbelt released an all new version called VIPRE Premium. This version incorporates new technologies and additional layers of security to offer you unsurpassed protection --keep your computer system(s) safe and secure from malicious software and internet-borne threats. Some of these new features include an enhanced firewall, web filtering with the ability to block known bad sites, and intrusion detection and prevention.

In an upcoming blog, we will talk more about these different points of protection and why they are essential. At ODI we are committed to enhancing our client’s security and are here to help ensure that your computers and network remain safe from outside intrusion. ODI has partnered with Sunbelt Software to be able to provide our clients with this cutting edge technology. Don’t wait until your system(s) and data have been compromised! Contact us for a FREE Security Consultation for your computer or network, to verify that your current security solutions are doing the job.

Sunbelt offers a wide range of security products for home users, as well as small to large businesses—all of which are extremely competitively priced. Contact us today for a free quote.

ODI is offering a special promotion now through April – receive a FREE copy of this software with your next security-related service call. Simply call or email our office (info@odiconsulting.com ) to book an ODI technician and mention the Vipre Promo*. Your technician will install this software FREE of charge!

*Vipre Promo valid with any billable system service call. Promo must be requested at time of service call booking.

Kids in Manatee and around world log on for World Math Day

Check out this news article from the Bradenton Herald!
~Kids in Manatee and around world log on for World Math Day~

Math x millions = fun - Education - BradentonHerald.com

What a great way to encourage our children to look past generations of boundries and meet and learn with other children from across the world!

A little good news for small businesses?

A little good news on the ‘small business’ front!!! (See article about employment figures for small business).
Written and posted originally from Chris Crum of Smallbusinessnewz:

Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Intuit, the software vendor responsible for such popular financial software like Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax, has released its monthly report, the Small Business Employment Index. The main finding of this month's report is that small businesses are showing signs of an economic rebound. The findings were based on data from businesses with fewer than 20 employees (87% of the total US private employer base). Do you think employment is turning around? "Employment for these small businesses began trending upward in mid-2009, a good sign for the overall economy," said Dr. Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the index.

"This index is an indicator that the small business employment situation may be getting better," she added. "Small businesses generally recover faster than larger businesses because they begin hiring sooner than big businesses. To see these figures showing a rise in employment at small businesses is very heartening at a time when good news is scarce."

Employment among these businesses has declined overall since December 2007, but the most recent month-over-month change was up 0.2% (on a "seasonally adjusted basis"). It is only the latest in an upward trend since mid-2009. According to Intuit's findings, employment grew nearly 0.8% over the past eight months, which is 1.1% at an annual rate, translating into nearly 40,000 new jobs for February and about 150,000 new jobs since June 2009.

Intuit also found that monthly average compensation per employee has been flat since September 2008, and it remained relatively flat in February at $2,559, down by 0.1% compared to January. Hourly employees worked an average of 101.4 hours in February. Intuit surveyed about 50,000 small businesses to obtain this information.