Category Archives: Home Users

So you finally acquiesce to the nagging prompt that the Java runtime needs to be updated.  You click OK and the download starts.  You wait a few minutes and the installation begins.  You click the Next button repeatedly, because you just want to be done with this update.

Unfortunately, you just installed the Ask toolbar in your browser and changed your homepage and search provider to Ask.  And you never meant to.

But, if you paid careful enough attention during the installation, there was the tiny – pre-checked – mark that “asked” if you wanted to install the Ask toolbar and all of its attendant changes.

Over the years, I have seen Internet Explorer browser windows with more than five toolbars:  Yahoo, Google, Ask, and others.  Why would you need all of those?  Most people don’t have any explanation.  Still others figure it is all part of what they are supposed to have when they use IE (as if Microsoft had decided to update something for them).  Even fewer know how to remove them.

One major problem with all these toolbars is that they slow down your web browser.  In addition, they add clutter to your screen.  Some increase the risk of virus and spyware infections.  Of course some toolbars are the result of spyware, so it is not always your fault.

With the Java update, Oracle gets paid by Ask for each user that gets this toolbar and uses it.  You, as the “victim,” need to jump through hoops to get your settings back to the way they were before the installation.  Unfortunately, even the Windows Restore feature may not work well enough to make things right.

So, what can you do?

For one, you simply have to pay attention during the installation.  Different vendors insert this “permission” step at different points.  Simply clicking the Next button is a lazy approach.  Take your time.  Make sure you read each window carefully.  Uncheck the box that was filled in for you about any toolbar you don’t need.

By the way, my SPF+ and SHADE subscribers do not encounter this problem – the installation is handled automatically, and no toolbar is installed!

Have a lot of toolbars in your web browser?  Send me a screen shot and I’ll post the best entries.

 

I just came back from a very, very, short client visit – and I feel bad about it.  Not because I couldn’t solve the problem that he called about (I did).  I feel bad because I could not arrange to get to see him for more than a day and a half, and the problem identification and resolution took less than one minute.  To make matters worse, he had spent most of the day waiting for a Time Warner Cable technician to come to fix the problem with his modem, after having spent almost one hour on the phone with their technical support the day before.  The issue he was experiencing:  no Internet connectivity.

My client called me on Tuesday, right after the July 4th holiday weekend, and said that he could not connect to the Internet.  He’s a businessperson who works out of his home office, and I know that getting his email and the attached documents is extremely important to him.  He told me that he thought the problem started sometime on Sunday evening, but that he waited until after the holiday to call me.

He said that the lights on the modem were not all lit, and asked if that could be the problem.  I told him that it sounded like a bad modem.  I also explained that I was booked with appointments for the entire day, but that if he had the patience, he should call Time Warner Cable to see if the problem was on their end.  He was willing to do that.

During a brief follow-up phone call later in the day, he told me that he spent almost an hour on the phone with a support representative, who after exhausting her script, told him that she would dispatch a technician the following day.  Good for him, right?  No, not really – the appointment could not be narrowed down to anything other than between 9 am and 7 pm.  My client was going to be a captive in his office with nothing to do but wait.

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In the March/April 2011 issue of the AAA North Jersey Traveler magazine, author Jim Grey wrote an article entitled, “Preventative maintenance helps the life of your vehicle.”  While I won’t reprint the article in its entirety, I do want to highlight a few of the statements he uses to describe how to take care of your car, and apply them to the care of your computer network.

“Consumers may think it’s the luck of the draw when a car reaches 200,000 miles and another bites the dust at 100,000, [while] it really comes down to preventative maintenance.

Scheduling regular trips to your mechanic can mean the difference in tens of thousands of miles in your car’s life.”

Well, most small business owners know that their computer networks can last anywhere from two years to ten.  But very few of them contact a technician to take care of them until something breaks.  Most people don’t know (and even fewer even care) about the common maintenance techniques necessary to keep their computer networks running properly.
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I am pleased that I was able to provide computer support to a larger client base during 2010.  Because Heliotropic Systems specializes in home computer users and small businesses (5 to 10 PCs), it was difficult to gain traction against the overwhelming forces of the economy – but I did.  And so, I would like to take a moment to say, “Thank you!” to my client base, for helping me achieve growth during a difficult time.

Now that the overall economy appears to be settling down, I look forward to 2011 as a year in which I can make a greater improvement in my support of all things computer-related.

The other day, I was reading an article by Harry Brelsford in a recent issue of SMB Partner Community.  Here is an excerpt:

Have you ever worked with a client who insisted on doing too much of their own IT?  Maybe they buy their own computers (from whatever’s on sale at Costco) and try to add them to the network themselves, maybe they pick security applications from magazine ads and do their own installations, maybe they spend hours on the phone with Dell tech support trying to figure out a server issue.  What’s the result?  In my experience they usually wind up paying a lot more for a real IT pro to come in later and clean up their mess.  In fact many of us use the same sales pitch with those types of clients, something like “You have your own work to do.  Why don’t you save money, time, and frustration by letting a professional handle this for you?”

It is quite obvious that Harry knows some of my clients and what I say to them.  And it is true – you don’t need to know about computers.  All you have to do is let me do my job so that you can do yours.

In the coming year, I hope more of you will contact Heliotropic Systems when you need a professional to take care of your computer systems.