• Service in the home takes a lot more time. Convenience costs more.
   Running the tools that scan your computer for viruses and Spyware requires a lot of time. My fees are based on time in the home.  Time spent Waiting in the home on a diagnostic tool is costly.
  • Service in the shop takes more clock time but requires a lot less hands on time by me. Typical turn around time is 24 hours.
   Running the scans in the shop environment allows me to work on other machines and perform other tasks that get billed to someone else.  You do not pay for the wait time required for the scan to complete.
  • Your cost for shop service will be substantially less than for service in your home.
   I work on other machines or personal things while waiting for your scan to complete.  Every scan type requires a reboot to check it out. That takes time, too. (Typical service calls require 8 - 15 reboots.)
  • Time charged does not include my "learning time". If I have to research a problem, it is on my time.
   When I find a virus or spyware that is so new that I am not familiar with it yet, that is my problem, not yours.  I appreciate all new learning experiences. I do not charge for that time.
  • Although I have lots of standard parts, I can't bring them on house calls.
   Also, consider that 90% of computers found in the home are "retail boxes" and contain many proprietary parts.  Replacement parts are available only from that company. eg. Dell, Compaq, HP, etc.
  • If I need to take your computer to the shop, Item 3 above explains why it will save you money.
   You may be without your machine for a day (or longer if I have to order parts from the company.) Your fee will be less than if I did all the work in your home or office.
  • Be prepared for my suggestions and recommendations after I get you rcomputer repaired.
   90% or more of the viruses and spyware are made less effective by Sea Monkey, Netscape and Firefox browsers. Appropriate defense software is required in today's world.

Q.What is "Spyware".

A. Spyware is a "marketing" tool that tracks your browsing habits, shopping interests, and sometimes captures your personal information.  Business driven spyware is not intended to be malicious... but with so many busineses each trying to play in the same sand box, they often slow down your machine and step on each other's castles (crashing your machine).

If all you ever got was one piece of spyware (or two or three), it probably would not be noticed and would not be troublesome.  Even if you have a machine that you think is okay, it is likely that you have an infection. There are many infections that can not be detected by software. It takes a verrrry experienced technician.

So many companies are installing spyware on our computers, all of them together consume most of the horsepower of your machine... and they sometimes step on each other, or "collide" and crash your machine.

Q. What can I do to protect myself?

A. Abandon Microsoft Internet Explorer and Install

Sea Monkey (Mozilla product, the newest 'netscape' and is free) or any other browser like Firefox and Eudora).  It will be a new learning experience, but it helps because most of the viruses and spyware require Internet Explorer (AOL, Juno, Earthlink, Roadrunner, etc. use a customized internet Explorer.) Eudora and Firefox are the leaders, usually ahead of Micorosft by a year or two in features and defenses. Firefox is free and Eudora costs.

Q. AOL advertises that they protect me.  Why do I still have trouble?

A. AOL and several other ISPs do an outstanding job of filtering these pests.  Every pest has a "New" or "Introduction" time.  The filters don't know about the new ones for 2-3 days; sometimes longer.

I do not service AOL customers if I know ahead of time.  AOL owns you. That makes it very difficult to use some of my service procedures.  AOL forces you (or me) to call them for service.

Q. What is a "trojan"? ...sometimes called a "parasite."

A. Trojan is a generic term for a program that quietly sneaks into your computer and runs itself.  It is restarted every time you boot your computer. Trojans are never your friend and they compete with each other. Trojan can apply to both spyware and viruses Often called parasites.

Q. So what is the difference between a virus and spyware?

A. You don't care.  Both are stealing the use of your machine.  Viruses usually have a destructive intent to harm you, or a different remote computer.  Spyware is simply a marketing tool invading your privacy and "calling home" regularly to get updates.  Primary purpose is to track your browsing and buying patterns to determine in what you might be interested (to pop appropriate ads.) If spyware (key stroke logging) steals personal information useful for fraud or theft of your identity and money, it is a virus or trojan.