Getting Your Computer Out Of Trouble

...and keeping it that way.  This is a presentation I did for the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club (LIMARC) last night.  Here are links to many of the utilities I spoke about and a link to download the presentation and handouts.

CONTACT INFO

• My email address: neil(at)neilgoldstein(dot)com
• Landing page for all of my blogs: www.neilgoldstein.com

HANDOUT AND PRESENTATION LINKS

• PDF of Handout:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8320427/Getting%20Your%20Computer%20Out%20Of%20Trouble.pdf
• PPTX File of PowerPoint presentation: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8320427/Getting%20Your%20Computer%20Out%20Of%20Trouble.pptx

ANTIVIRUS

• Avira Anti-Vir Free: http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus
• AVG Antivirus Free: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
• Avast! Free Antivirus: http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download
• Kaspersky Antivirus ($$$, but has free online scanning tool) http://usa.kaspersky.com/
• F-Prot Antivirus ($$$.  Many techs swear by F-Prot)  http://www.f-prot.com/

OTHER ANTI MALWARE

• AdAware Free (adware blocker):   http://free.lavasoft.com/products.aspx
• Spyware Terminator (also has clam antivirus plug-in):  http://www.spywareterminator.com/
• Threatfire (useful, effective, and QUIET. they call this zero-day malware protection): http://www.threatfire.com/ 
• HiJackThis (useful but can be dangerous. use with help sites like bleeping computer.com, or an analyzer site like hijackthis.de:  http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/
• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (one of the best for trojans, and ransomware):  http://www.malwarebytes.org/
• Combofix (very effective but can also be dangerous. frequently used with custom scripts from helper sites like bleepingcomputer):   http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofi

HIREN'S BOOT CD

• Download CD images (current and old versions) http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
• Hiren's web site (for information about what is on the disk, instructions for creating a bootable USB stick, and how to add custom software): http://www.hiren.info

LINUX INFO

• Distrowatch (great site about all of the popular Linux distributions) http://www.distrowatch.com
• Linux Mint LXDE (my current favorite Linux distro)  http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=87

SOFTWARE ALTERNATIVES

• Microsoft Alternatives: http://alternatives.rzero.com/
• The GIMP: (Photoshop alternative):  http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
• AbiWord: (MS Word Alternative):   http://www.abisource.com/
• LibreOffice: (MS Office alternative. new all-free project forked from OpenOffice.org)  http://www.libreoffice.org/download
• Google Docs: (cloud-based MS Office alternative from Google) http://docs.google.com

PHILOSOPHY

• Paul’s rule of software licensing: NEVER RELY ON SOFTWARE YOU DO NOT OWN!
• Irwin’s rule of discounting: BEWARE OF DISCOUNT PARACHUTES!
• Neil’s fat-finger rule: Computers do not make mistakes. THEY AMPLIFY THEM!
• Jill's helpdesk rule: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!