Category Archives: Software

Virgin Media Customers Get F-Secure Antivirus

F-Secure

 

We’ve recently changed our ISP to Virgin Media and were kindly surprised when we found that we could get the industry renound antivirus softare “F-Secure SAFE” for free to install on up to 5 computers (PC and Mac versions available) for one year.  After this it is available at a reduced price of £25pa.

Virgin’s explanation and more details on this are available at the following link: http://store.virginmedia.com/discover/broadband/security/f-secure-safe.html

It is also good to see that Virgin discuss the fact Macs aren’t susceptible to attack, and have further useful information on how to keep your computer safe when connected to the Internet on this page. Well worth a read!

We are not affiliated with Virgin Media in any way or form and this post is for informational purposes only.

 

Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 Support Ends April 8, 2014

Security, Software, , , , , , , ,
XP Background
XP Background

If you haven’t already heard the news Microsoft is ceasing to support Windows XP and Office 2003 after April 8th 2014 – essentially both will go End of Life (EOL) after this date.

In brief what this means is that Microsoft will no longer be providing new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.

Essentially, although your PC will continue to run, it’d be wide open and vulnerable to attacks. Your current Antivirus software will only be able to assist so much before hackers find loopholes in the operating system to get through.

Frantik are currently providing deals on new PCs. We can provide a high spec AMD system running Windows 7, with 8GB RAM and 1TB hard disk for £450, or for £475 we’ll even copy the data from your old system. Microsoft Office will be extra cost.

If you’re interested in upgrading and wish to remain secure please call us now on 01462 888147.

 

 

You’re better off with IMAP

Software, , , ,

Why IMAP?

POP3 was great when you only checked your email on one computer. It’s easy to set up and you can be up and running within a few minutes.

But in the new age where you have a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, as well as another desktop computer somehwhere else many people want to be able to see what they’ve sent and replied to on all their devices.

That’s where IMAP comes into play.

IMAP synchronises live data with your email server so what you see on any of your devices is what is sitting on your email server.

Which services can you use it with?

All the popular email services let you configure an IMAP email account over POP3 (although you may need to enable this in the settings).

The only service I know of that doesn’t allow this is Outlook.com (which is odd).

To enable IMAP with GMail you can follow the guide: click here

To enable IMAP with Yahoo! you can follow the guide: click here

Running Mavericks with Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac

IT, Software, , , , , , ,

osx_hero_2xI made it my aim this week to set up Mavericks, the new release of OS X, within a Parallels VM.

Firstly, I was trying to get it running without the newly announced client.

I had read the KBs on the Parallels web site which announced that you couldn’t install the new OS from a DMG directly but you had to have a VM with OS X 10.8 to then upgrade before going ahead (you can find that KB here).

Below are the steps I took.

1. Downloaded the NEW Parallels client designed to support Mavericks. This was version

Build 8.0.18494 / (Revision 886912; June 17, 2013).

Download Here.

2. Install OS X Mountain Lion. You can do this quite easily using the Parallels wizard (it uses the installer from the recovery partition). Make sure all updates are installed.

3. Download the Mavericks 10.9 Developer Preview and copy this to the Mountain Lion VM.

4. Very Important -> Move the Mavericks installer app to the ApplicaMavericks in Parallelstions folder on the Mountain Lion VM.

5. Run the Mavericks installer app from Applications in your Mountain Lion VM; run through the installer, selecting Macintosh HD as the disk to install to. It will begin the installation and will restart. This takes some time. It took me about an hour.

6. That should be it, your OS X VM should have now restarted and updated correctly to Mavericks.

Please do leave comments and I will try my best to help where possible.

 

ProTip: Remove malware with ComboFix

Malware, Security, Software, , , ,
ComboFix Icon
ComboFix Icon

ComboFix is a pretty nifty bit of of software provided by the guys over at BleepingComputer (we love the name!).

Described by them as ‘a program that scans your computer for known malware, and when found, attempts to clean these infections automatically. In addition to being able to remove a large amount of the most common and current malware‘.

Note: this is more an informative post than to guide the average user. It makes non-reversible changes to the computer by removing data from the foll0wing locations automatically:

  • Windows Recycle Bin
  • Temporary Internet Files
  • Temp Folder

Anyone in the IT field may like to take a look at the software and include it in their ‘toolkit’.

If you have any queries let me know.