Page 1 - 1905

MAY 11, MEETING

TBD
JUNE 15,MEETING
TBD

By Dick Maybach, Brookdale Computer Users Group, NJ

www.bcug.com

n2nd (at) att.net

If you are known as a computer enthusiast, your less-experienced friends probably come to you
for help when they run into problems. However, you should consider the risks before you agree.
While you have a lot of computer experience, most of it is probably limited to your own system,
which you are careful to maintain and back up regularly. You also are aware of the risks and
avoid suspicious Internet sites, are alert to e-mail scams, and have installed protection against
malware. This may not be true of the owner of a PC you are asked to repair.

I once agreed to help a friend who was complaining about his laptop being slow. My first clue
that I was in over my head was when I saw the missing keys on the keyboard, but by then I was
already committed. I did what I could to clean things up, but the slow processor, full disk, and
inadequate RAM remained, and my several hours of work produced little improvement. Another
experience was more successful. A PC was thoroughly infected with malware when a teen-age
son downloaded pirate music. I cloned the disk, mounted it on another PC, and deleted the
problem files. The owner used the restoration partition to put the disk back to its condition when
the PC was purchased, after which I loaded their files from the sanitized clone disk. This too
took several hours. Contents
Phil’s Ramblings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Your friends may have unrealistic expectations. If the problem Home routers are open to attacks . . . 6
appears to be a full disk or inadequate RAM, the money
spent on the parts may not result in a dramatic performance Ready for a new iPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
improvement. If you suspect malware and recommend they A Great Photoshop Alternative . . . . . . 7

purchase anti-virus software, it may not fix the problem, and Historian, Membership Birthday’s . . . .9
may even slow their PC. You’ve cost them money without fix-
ing the computer to the degree they expected. And once

(Continued on page 4)