The End of XP

As of April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. This means that if you have XP installed on your computer, over time your operating system will be less and less secure.

When Microsoft [MS] says they're no longer supporting XP, it means that the OS won't be getting regular security or driver updates through Windows update. It also means that MS will no longer support Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP beyond virus definition files. [3TG will continue to carry the XP install file for MSE]

In short, Microsoft will no longer address security issues for Windows XP, and bad guys will be able to find bugs/holes that won't be fixed.

It's debatable whether this is a good idea. XP was one of (if not the) most popular versions of Windows Microsoft ever made and there's still a large number of people using it. However, XP is 12 years old, and at a certain point Microsoft can't devote resources to updating an operating system that old. They've already supported the OS far longer than they'd expected to. To contrast, support for Windows 98 - which came out only three years before XP - ended eight years ago in 2006. At a certain point they have to decide when they should stop supporting their old products and urge users to upgrade.

Here are the options for Windows XP users going forward:

1. Continue using your computer, which will become less and less secure
2. Upgrade your operating system to a newer version
3. Upgrade to a new computer

Option #1 is, of course, very risky and not advised for the reasons discussed above.

Option #2 is a great option if you don't like Windows 8 (which many people don't). You can purchase a copy of Windows 7 instead. The only problem with upgrading a Windows XP computer is that it isn't possible to do an in-place upgrade. This means you can't keep all your programs, settings, and files intact and just install the new version on top of the old one. All your data must be backed up, the computer wiped clean, the new OS installed, your programs reinstalled and your files moved back. The upside is that this is often still less expensive than buying a brand new computer. 3TG can perform the upgrade for you, starting at $330 (not including the Windows 7 installation disc). If you drop your computer off, the cost is $220 (not including software). Windows 7 Home Premium usually costs around $99.

Option #3 is clearly a good one for many XP users who might have old computers. If you're worried about using Windows 8, there are a few brand new systems shipping from HP that still have Windows 7 installed on them. On the other hand, if you don't mind trying out Windows 8, my favorite desktop is this Dell. 3TG can help get your new computer set up with all your data transferred from the old computer. This process usually takes about three hours for a total of $330. Again, if you drop off the old and new computers, there's a reduced price of $220. If you'd like to switch to a Mac, 3TG can help with that too. The cost to transfer everything over is the same.

If you decide on either upgrade, there's one more thing to keep in mind: compatibility. Your current software or hardware might not work on the newer operating system. You may also need a new version of Microsoft Office if you don't have installation discs for the version you're using. Most monitors will work with any version of Windows, but many old printers lose support in later versions. If you're interested in making a change, call 3TG for some free advice.

Remember, April 8th is the day that XP gets cut off. It's a good idea to start thinking about an upgrade so you can stay safe.

Picking a Web Browser

Credit: shoze.blogspot.com

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) enjoyed a long run as the king of the web browsers, a position it obtained mostly due to the fact that it has come installed with every version of Windows from Windows 98 onward (it was first released as a add-on for Windows 95).

The past decade, however, has seen some tremendous competition for IE from browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. This competition has fortunately resulted in some great innovation and choice for users. If you're using a Windows desktop of laptop, the following is a list of the most popular web browsers, in order of popularity*:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Opera

All of these browsers are completely free to download, install, and use. They also have very similar base features. Why, then, should you consider using one browser over the other? In particular, why should you bother to install another browser at all when Internet Explorer already comes installed on your computer? There are a few reasons, and some of them are subjective. There's also a lot that could be said about each of these browsers but that would take quite some time. Instead, I'm going to talk about why I prefer and recommend Google Chrome.

First I'll throw a little curveball and talk about Firefox. I want to give Mozilla's browser some love because it really did a lot for the idea of alternative browsers. In Firefox's heyday, it popularized several key ideas that were completely absent from Internet Explorer, like tabbed browsing, extensions, and even the search box. IE eventually added all of these features in some way or another, but by the time they did, Firefox already had 33% of the market.

In 2008, Google decided to release their own web browser, Chrome. Between 2010 and 2013, Chrome soared to becoming the #1 web browser with 40% of web users opting for Google's application. Firefox has kept its share, so IE has really seen a decline recently.

There are several reasons Chrome has appealed to so many computer users. The first is the visual look. Much like the simplicity of Google home page its self, when Chrome is first installed, you're presented collection of five buttons and a bar to put text in. This bar is colloquially referred to as the "omnibox" because it can be used to enter URLs and web searches. This very basic idea simplifies web browsing. You just type whatever you want into that bar, and don't have to worry if you're typing in the right place.

Chrome is also designed with two things as a priority: speed and security. Google has gone to great lengths to make sure that the Chrome app is as fast as possible and that web content is delivered and rendered on your computer as quickly as it can be. Chrome also has many security features. It "sandboxes" your browser tabs, keeping malicious code in one tab from infecting or spying on another. Users are also warned when try to navigate to a site that Google has detected as containing malware. Lastly, Chrome updates its self automatically in the background without any user interaction, making sure that security holes are fixed the next time your browser is opened.

These are reasons enough for me to recommend Chrome to any Windows or Mac user. However, if you happen to use and Google products already, there are some other benefits to using Chrome. If you use GMail, for example, that means you already have a Google account. You can use this Google account to log into the browser its self. Doing this will synchronize your bookmarks and extensions, so if you log into Chrome on another computer, these things will automatically be synced there too. You can keep the exact same user experience on your home and work computers, for example. If you use the mobile Chrome browser on your Android phone or iPhone, your bookmarks will be synced there too.

As much as I prefer Chrome, I also recommend Firefox and Opera. They're excellent browsers with great features, and if you're not invested in the Google ecosystem (or even if you are), they're very good programs. My least favorite/recommended browsers are Internet Explorer and Safari. I'm just not a fan of those products, IE in particular. IE has always been a pain and always had a lot of issues. I think the following graph says it all:

* as of 2013, according to StatCounter

The Number One Rule

I can't stress just how important this is: YOU NEED TO BACK UP YOUR DATA!

I don't normally insist that my clients do anything. I won't insist that you to use a smartphone, or to switch to a Mac, or to buy a new computer/TV/printer (I'll often recommend, not insist). But there's one thing that every computer user absolutely must do, and that's back up data that can't be easily replaced.

In the tech industry we say "there are two types of people: those who have lost data and those who will." It's a sad fact that hard drives die, thieves steal, nature happens. When that happens, is there any information on your computer that can't be replaced? Photos of loved ones? That 50-page document you were working on? Important client files? Records you scanned and threw away? If there's anything on your computer that you can't replace in a couple hours (or ever), you need to back up.

Here's the good news: backing up is easy, and it can be very inexpensive or even free!

First, there are several ways you can back up:

1. To another folder on your computer - this saves you in case you make a bad change to a file, but if that hard drive fails you still lose everything.
2. To another hard drive in your computer - this is the minimum I recommend, because you're protected if either drive fails, but you're not protected if that computer is stolen or lost.
3. To an external hard drive elsewhere in your home or business - even better, but you're still vulnerable if someone gains access to your workspace, or if a fire or flood claims the area.
4. To off-site storage (including - but is not limited to - the cloud) - in my opinion, this is the best solution because you are safe from all possible local issues.

At this point I'd like to offer a few horror stories:

• Several years ago, Francis Ford Coppola lost 15 years of work and family photos to burglary. Some of it was backed up, but not everything.
  
  

• A client of mine walked into his office one morning to discover that a pipe had burst above his office space. The water completely drenched a laptop containing a great deal of client data. Fortunately, he had just had me out a couple weeks earlier to set up a cloud backup solution for him, and no data was lost. Sadly, I've had other clients come to me too late.
  
  

• I had a hard drive fail that contained all my photos from the past 10 years, including all my wedding photos and videos. I didn't worry, though, because it was all backed up. I bought a new drive and was back up and running in a day.

The backup service I recommend comes from a company called Crashplan, which is a cloud backup service. Their business is in selling their off-site server storage space to back up your files. There are some who find this a little scary, and are concerned about their files being stored on someone else's system. What I stress is that Crashplan encrypts your data before it ever leaves your computer. This prevents anyone from seeing your data even if they gain access to Crashplan's very secure facilities. I've been trusting my family's data to their connection for years now, and have every confidence that it is secure.

However, you can still store your data off site and not trust it to Crashplan. Their software allows you to back up your data to another computer running their software. If you have a work computer and a home computer, you can have each computer back up to the other one. If you don't have enough room you can purchase external hard drives to provide the storage. Crashplan lets you back up to another computer or to an external hard drive for free. They only charge for their cloud storage service.

Another reason I recommend services/software like Crashplan is because they back up your data automatically. That means that you never have to bother with the chore of plugging in that thumb drive or external hard drive and running backup software yourself. I've had many clients who kept a hard drive on a shelf for backing up, but didn't do it regularly. A year old backup isn't very useful if you lose everything newer than 12 months ago.

I leave you with one last piece of information: if you don't have a backup and your hard drive dies, most of the time you'll need to hand it off to a hard drive recovery company. They will take the drive apart in a clean room and do their best to retrieve your data, but recovery isn't guaranteed and is often impossible. Either way, they'll charge you an average of about $1,000 for the effort.

That's why I urge you to back up!

If you would like help setting up a backup plan, contact 3TG.

Save Money with a Phone Call

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you pay a company for access to the internet. The question I pose to you today is: when was the last time you looked at that bill?

ISPs (Internet Service Providers) often change their plans and their pricing because competing ISPs will often keep their prices the same, but offer faster speeds for your dollar to make themselves more attractive. The problem for existing customers is that your ISP will almost never alert you to these changes. This means that if you haven't checked in with them for a few years, you might be paying too much for what you're getting, or you can get the same amount for less money.

Here's an example: Lets say you signed up with Cox Cable in 2010, and the internet portion of your bill cost $50/month for 20Mbps down and 3Mbps up (usually shortened to 20/3). Three years later, Cox may have improved their services in order to compete with Verizon Fios. Now they offer 50/10 for $50/month, and there's a new level of 25/5 for $30. They aren't obligated to tell you about these changes or alter your plan for you, but as you can see, someone in this position could save $240/year with a single phone call to Cox.

Here's a real-world example: I recently downgraded our home's internet connection from 50/15Mbps on Fios to 15/5Mbps. For two people, 15Mbps is going to be more than enough for current online content. In the process, we saved at least $25/month, which will add up to a lot of savings over the year.

Pick an evening or a lunch hour to call your internet service provider (Cox, Comcast, Fios, etc) and talk to their billing department to compare your plan with their current offerings. Your call is going to result in one of three possible scenarios:

1. Nothing has changed
2. You save money for what you already get
3. You get better services and don't pay anything more

Here are some phone numbers for common ISPs in the area:

Verizon: 1-800-837-4966
Cox: 703-378-8422
Comcast: 1-800-266-2278

You may be wondering how much bandwidth you need. The most bandwidth-intensive online activity is streaming video. The average single, good quality HD video feed is going to take up around 4-6Mbps of downstream bandwidth (which is, coincidentally, equivalent to the national average broadband speed). My advice is usually to multiply 6Mbps by the number of people in your household. If you're a family of three, try to get at least 15-20Mbps, and if you have frequent house guests you may want more than that. The reason I use this calculation is that if everyone in your house is on a TV or mobile device streaming HD Netflix or Youtube, you should have enough bandwidth to support it.

By the way, while you're at it, you should perform an audit of the TV packages you're paying for. Some of these companies let you compare the TV packages on their sites. I also downgraded our TV package to save another $10/month, because there none of the TV stations we would lose were stations we watch.

Give it a try and let me know if you save any dough!