Summary

While the rule of thumb is that any computer can get infected with a virus, no matter what the protection or how careful the user, there are some things you can do to further protect yourself against infection.

The basics

You must always keep your virus protection up to date.  That means both the virus definitions and the "engine" or software that runs the protection.  For instance if you have up to date definitions but you are running Norton Antivirus 2005 (it is now 2011), you are putting yourself at risk because the program itself is out of date.  We at iSTAM recommend only updating your annual definitions subscription 1 time.  The next year you should just buy the new program.

Never trust "free" anti-virus programs.  Many third party vendors such as AVG and Avast have offered such "entry level" programs for years, but we had to ask ourselves, "what motivation do they have to keep up with the latest definitions".  iSTAM recommended Panda for years because they were very aggressive at releasing patches for new viruses - sometimes several times a day.  However, we stopped supporting them because their technical support was horrible.  Now we recommend Norton AV Protection for home and business users.  The only exception we've made on the free home protection is for Microsoft Security Essentials because Microsoft is the only company with real motivation to protect you from viruses - because of the marketing battle they wage with Apple. 

It has come to our attention that some models of Brother printers use a sensor to determine when it is time to change toner cartridges.  However, the sensor is designed in such a way that it often indicates that the toner must be replaced before it is actually empty.  While some might argue a conspiracy theory we will assume that the intentions were good.  Not only does the printer issue a warning that the toner has reached it's "End of Life", but the printer refuses to keep printing until you replace the toner cartridge.

As a work around to this issue and to get as much use out of each toner cartridge as possible, you can trick the printer into thinking that there is plenty of toner in the cartridge by simply covering the sensor with a piece of black electrical tape.  The sensor shines light through one of two holes, one on each side of the toner cartridge and if the light is received on the other end then the error is produced.  Simply cover one or both of the holes on the sides of the toner cartridge with a piece of black electrical tape and you will be able to continue to use the toner cartridge until it is "really" out of toner.

We have tested this procedure in house and have determined that it does work.

Fake Facebook Friend Requests

Recently we've seen a large number of fake Facebook friend requests come through our SPAM filter.  We just want to warn our customers about these and suggest that unless you recognize the name you should delete the email message and go to www.facebook.com directly to check for new friend requests. 

If you mouse over the confirmation button in the email, you will see the resulting domain to which the button will take you to.  Generally, it is pretty obvious whether the link actually takes you to facebook or not.  However, if you are not sure, just delete the message and browse to facebook directly to check for new friend requests.

iSTAM Support Team