What Is RAM?

RAM which stands for Random Access Memory is one of the needed items for your computer it is also one of the most overlooked item however it is one of the best for increasing computer speed. So I will break down what RAM is why we need it and why you might need more of it.

What Is RAM

As I said in the little introduction RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Your computers memory is another type of storage. It simply works by writing information to the RAM so that it is able to run. For a process to work it needs to go to the RAM and store that information to run. Now since every program requires a certain amount of RAM to run the more you have the more programs that you can use at 1 time. Did you ever see the option of a 32-bit software and a 64-bit software and it asks which type your system is there is a reason for that. A 32-bit operating system can't use more than 4gb of RAM regardless of the actual amount that you may have. You also download those specific types because they can each access that RAM differently.

So basically you can think of RAM as another type of storage for your computer. Instead of something being written to the RAM it is changing dependent on the items that are running. This is why it is called Random Access Memory. While it could be made to sound more complicated this is the idea in a Nut Shell.

How Much Do I Need

This depends on most modern operating systems you should be using 4-8gb depending on what you do. If you are a gamer then 8+ is recommended. However if you use your computer for web browsing and using Microsoft Office then you will only need 4gb. Don't go over board and buy a ton of RAM because the amount you have is dependent on your mother board. Now while the more RAM you have the better your computer will run you don't need an astronomical amount.

Were Do I Buy RAM?

Well you can go to most tech stores such as Best Buy or Frys Electronics to find it but most people prefer to order it online. For instance below I have a couple of highly rated RAM from customers on Amazon. They are also 2gb so you can use multiple to get you 4gb for your basic home computer. Also remember you don't need to use all of the same kind of RAM you can use different brands but they both have to be the same speed. Also the Brand does not matter as long as it is from a reliable company and has a good review. While an item can be good if it is cheap and breaks right away or doesn't work then it becomes more of an issue for you.

Since this one is 667mhz then you can only use RAM with that same speed.


Those are just a couple of examples. I recommend that you buy the same brand and type just so that it is easier on you and it reduces chances of incompatibility.

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Understanding Types Of Hackers

One of the main misconceptions is that all hackers are bad and that they are all out to steal our information for personal gain. The truth is that most hackers are not evil, and there are organizations of hackers that are Good, Bad, Neutral all of which exist for their own purposes. They have their own names that classify these groups, and I will go into these and explain what their purposes are. Just keep an open mind while reading this article.

Types Of Hackers

Black Hat   Simple Answer - Bad

There are 3 types of hackers all that have their own purpose those groups are White, Black, and Grey Hat. These groups operate for their own purposes, and we only know of the Black Hat group which would be Anonymous. A black hat group is a group of hackers that hack for personal gain and have no real morals to doing it. They are doing it for personal gain, and they don't do anything constructive. For instance anonymous takes down important sites for NO reason. While they think it is fair for their own gain they do it for the wrong reason. They do it in a protesting manner which puts them under the Black Hat group. To make it simple these are the bad guys.

Grey Hat  Simple Answer- Neutral

The Grey Hat group is a group of hackers who generally hack for sport and do it for fun. They don't generally work with other hackers because their goals are very modest like checking the safety of their site. They might also hack a game on their computer to give them unlimited everything. The thing to remember about this group is that they don't hack for gain but for sport this is what separate them from the other two groups.

White Hat Simple Answer- Good

The Third and final group of hackers are the White Hat Hackers these are the ones who work and find exploits in software and hardware to report to companies to make them better. These are not well known, and it is a very large group that is growing in this era because of the growth in technology. They are also paid very handsomely to find exploits in servers and websites to protect the company from many forms of hackers. Because thousands of accounts, websites, computers are hacked daily.  

Then There Are Those People

There is the group of people who claim to be hacker because someone did not log out of a computer and they got onto their Facebook account. THIS IS NOT HACKING. This is the reason the term "hacker" is so misused.

Hacker is defined as:
Noun


An enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.
A person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data.

Getting into your friends facebook account is not hacking. Anyone can do that now if you created a keylogger and captured their keystrokes and logged on from your computer, that is hacking. That is not legal but that is hacking. The term hacking is being misrepresented and it gives a lot of "hackers" bad names because they are the one who actually hack you just did a simple task to get into their Facebook account.

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List Of Second Opinon Malware Scanners

Why Do I Need A Secondary Malware Scanner?
You want a secondary scanner because no 1 antivirus program can keep you safe from every threat it is completely impossible. You can't expect a company to do that either it would be insane we would need thousands of technicians and programs scanning every website every IP, and it would be chaos. To make an example out of this. Does a sports team ever go in without a reserve? NO they always carry a reserve why? Because if one gets injured then they are out. The same thing applies to malware scanners you need more than one.

Below Is the list that you are looking for.

1. HitmanPro- http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro/
2. Panda Active Scan- http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/
3. Malwarebytes- http://www.malwarebytes.org/
4. Super AntiSpyware- http://www.superantispyware.com/
5. Bitdefender Quick Scan- http://quickscan.bitdefender.com/
6. Norton Power Eraser- http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/npe.aspx
7. Kaspersky TDSSKiller- http://kaspersky-tdsskiller.en.softonic.com/
8. McAfee Stinger- http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx
9. Trend Micro House Call- http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
10. Eset Onlne Scanner- http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/
11. Dr.Web CureIt! - http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/

All of these are working as of the time of this post.

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What Is A Second Opinon Malware Scanner?

A second opinion malware scanner is one of your best friends in the world. No but seriously a second opinion malware scanner is something that everyone should use but most don't. Many people believe that since they an antivirus program that they are safe from malware completely without question. Then they end up on the phone with Geek Squad asking "how do I remove this virus"? To which the Geek Squad member replied "you need to buy the newest Microsoft office". The only way to stop malware is to avoid bad sites, but having some already and not knowing is the worst thing that you can do to your computer.

What Is A Second Opinion Malware Scanner?

This is basically a scanner that you have on your computer that offers no protection, but scans for malware to try and find what others miss. These are so crucial especially when there is such as spike in malware distribution you need to make sure your computer is safe. Now these scanners don't replace an antivirus program but they are crucial to have around for the safety of your computer. The amount of malware in the world increase by thousand's daily whether it is a different variation or an entirely new type of malware all of them are bad.

Why Do I Need A Secondary Malware Scanner?

You want a secondary scanner because no 1 antivirus program can keep you safe from every threat it is completely impossible. You can't expect a company to do that either it would be insane we would need thousands of technicians and programs scanning every website every IP, and it would be chaos. To make an example out of this. Does a sports team ever go in without a reserve? NO they always carry a reserve why? Because if one gets injured then they are out. The same thing applies to malware scanners you need more than one.

How Many Should I Use?

Well I say use 2 in conjunction with your main antivirus. This will reduce your chances of getting controlled by malware and possible destruction of the computer. You could lose everything if you don't get rid of the malware then it causes Windows to crash at launch, and this is something that you don't want. You should run them weekly or daily depending on how active you are on the computer and what it is you do. Run them if your computer has a strange slow down or there is an unusual slowdown of your computer.

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Does A Home User Need To Pay For Antivirus?

There are a lot of people out there who think that it is necessary to pay for an antivirus program, but the sad truth is that is not true at all. While paid programs do offer more protection the average user won't do anything that a free program like Avast, or Ad Aware couldn't handle. If you are business then yes pay for the extra protection because there is a lot of vital information on those computers, but the home user does not need it. People think that if it is free it is not effective but the sad truth is on tests the paid version does score slightly better sometimes but most of the time they are EQUAL.

Why Is Free Antivirus Good

To make it simple when it comes to protecting your computer from malware such as viruses and trojans a free program is effective to keep you safe. You also don't have to shell out the money to pay for the license of the paid version. To make it simple when an antivirus program scans your computer is looks at what the file is doing and sees if it is in the database. A paid program and a free program still have access to the exact same database so why pay. While malware is evolving and becoming more complex there are a lot of free programs for your computer that save you money and are just as good.

Paid Comes With More Features

That is true a paid program does come with more secure features, but let me ask you. Do you know how to use those features? If yes then the offer might entice you. But if you don't you are taking their word thinking it is more secure even though you have no clue how it works. While the features are nice you don't need them for a home user. When will you need to configure your own custom firewall and block ports? Most people don't know what that means or how to set it up. So it is not necessary for you so don't waste your money on it.

What Should I Do Then?

You need a good combination of firewall and antivirus. So I have a guide that can be found here on that but below I will give you a basic set up that I recommend.

Avast Free Antivirus- Really good protection simple and comes great right out of the box.
Online Armor Free Firewall- One of the best firewalls in the industry and comes with a lot of nice features to protect your computer.
Spyware Blaster- Does not provide protection, but they update the program to add unsafe sites to your block list.

Links

Avast- http://www.avast.com/en-us/index

Online Armor- http://www.online-armor.com/products-online-armor-free.php

Spyware Blaster- http://www.brightfort.com/spywareblaster.html

My Article - http://thedailyexposition.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-secure-my-computer-for-free.html

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What Is Ransomware

Ransomware is another form of malware that is one of the hardest forms of malware to remove. One of the worst things about ransomware is that it can come with other forms of malware such as viruses, trojans, and many other forms of malware. The main thing that you must keep in mind with ransomware is that antivirus software has a hard time detecting it. That and you will have a hard time removing it, so below I will go into ransomeware into great detail. I will also give you some tricks that you can do to try and remove it.

What Is Ransomware

Ransomware is a form of malware that is disguised as a legitimate program such as an antivirus program. This is why a lot of people tend to fall for these programs but what makes them worse is that they bring more malware with them to put your system in danger. You could say ransomware is some form of double agent that gets into your computer and looks like a friend but is really working for the enemy. It is pretty easy to notice ransoware once it is on the computer and it is infected but it may not be so easy when you are searching around on the web. The big hit for your computer is some weird fine or cost to use the program or in the case of the money pack scam  a way to unlock the computer.

What Is It Meant To Do

Ransomware is meant to steal credit card information and to take your money. This is a form of scam that people have been making millions of dollars from. The above example is what is known as the money pack scam which is where the person gets that message and it blocks them from connecting to the internet. The worst part is even if someone does "pay to unlock their computer" it will still be locked.

What To Do If I Have Ransomware Removal Guide

If you suspect that you have a ransomware program then you will need to determine your situation. Can I connect to the internet? Can I use a system restore? Generally your best bet is to try a system restore and if that does not work then you will need to try some other tools.

1. Use the AVG rescue CD. This nice tool is very nice for detecting malware and removing malware that is preventing your computer from starting up. It can be downloaded here. Download from another computer and burn it to a dvd like they show on the site.

2. After you have run the tool and you launch your computer determine the situation. Can you connect to the internet? If so then continue with the steps with the letter A marked. If not then follow the numbers with the letter B attached to it.

3A. So now you can connect to the internet you will need to go to another site and scan your computer for malware I recommend using Hit Man Pro which can be downloaded here.

3B. So you can't connect to the internet which means that you still have malware attached to your computer. So instead of you trying to go into the registry right away lets try to use another tool to remove the malware. I recommend that you try the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to try and remove more malware. You can use a Disk or a USB for this scanner. This disk can be downloaded here.  

4A. After you have removed any remnants of the malware I recommend that you download some sort of antivirus. I have created a guide on securing your computer which you can see here.

4B. Alright now that you have used both of those rescue disks your computer should be able to connect to the computer but lets just say that it does not below I will give you some more tips.

5A. After you have selected your choice of antivirus and firewall then you should be good just remember to not download anything that seems suspicious unless you are in a testing environment.

5B. You can try one last rescue tool and if that does not work we will need to find the files manually. The last tool that I recommend using is the Hitman Pro Kick-start which will scan everything on boot up and remove it. The best thing is that this tool can remove the money pack scam. You can download that here.

6A. You have concluded this part of the removal and protection process.

6B. After all of that you should be able to boot up the computer and log into the internet. After that follow my guide on protecting your computer from malware and you should be safe. That guide can be found here.

**If that does not work still then please try getting a friend to help you remove the files by hand**

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What Is A Keylogger?

A keylogger is another form of malware that is specifically created to steal your passwords for malicious intent. There are a lot of keyloggers, and they are also one of the easiest forms of malware to create and they are very easy to spread. Now they are generally able to hide themselves from your detection, and this is why they are such a threat to you and your security. If you think that you have a keylogger please go to the bottom of this post and use the malware scanners and see if they find it.



In the video above I give you the basic over view of a keylogger and common ways to detect this form of malware. There are a lot of easy ways to prevent key loggers, and you can easily avoid them if you stick to sites that you know are safe, and you don't download any unknown programs. At the bottom of this post I will give you common software that you can use to scan and detect for malware. You can use any of them for free, and they are only a secondary scanner if you are looking for a free antivirus software. Go here to download Ad Aware Free Antivirus +

What Does It Do?

The name really gives it away, but a Keylogger is able to log the keys that you hit and the application that it is used in. They are used for stealing passwords or used to help remember passwords. Now you will be wondering what do you mean "helps remember passwords" this is very simple anyone can create their own keylogger, and they can use it monitor their own passwords so they do not need to rely on the browser or risk the chance of forgetting them.

The worst part about Keyloggers are that they are generally un detectable by the task manager and that makes it very hard to catch them. The longer you can find it the more passwords that the person mining this information has. Now you might be able to configure your firewall or see were the information is being sent but that is a big if and the general users will not be able to find or block the connection.

How To Prevent It

You can prevent this by downloading an antivirus software and by only using trusted website that you know are safe or by using a website scanner. How ever it is hard to tell the difference between safe software and unsafe software. To make it simple don't download any unsafe software and these programs can be usually found if the program is not from a safe or well trusted company.

Scanners

HitmanPro: http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro/

Panda Active Scan: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/

Malwarebytes: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Super AntiSpyware: http://www.superantispyware.com/
Bitdefender Quick Scan: http://quickscan.bitdefender.com/

Norton Power Eraser: http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/npe.aspx

When you use the Norton Power Eraser please be careful so that you don't delete any important files that are necessary for your computer.

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How Often Should I Defragment My System?

The question that I get a lot from my friends and the answer has no real answer and here is why. Every time you use a file it can be misplaced which means that you would need to defragment again, but they will not affect your system in any major way. So I will be discussing my rule of thumb on my own computer and I will give you a good defragmenter that is really fast, free, and optimizes the files so that they are going to speed up your computer faster.

What Does Defragmenting My Hardrive Do?

To put it in simple terms if puts your misplaced files in their correct positions. So they will not affect your documents but the files that you download such as those that are in Google Chrome. Now when it optimizes your files is where it gets kind of complicated, but I will make it simple. Now when your program defragments the files it will detect when they are most used. Now optimization will take the most used files and put them first in the list so to speak. So if I use Google Chrome daily, but I never use League of Legends. Then League of Legends will be put behind it so to speak. Meaning that chrome will load even faster and while League of Legends will load faster it is not a main priority. This will not make League Of Legends load slowly in any way so don't fear optimization embrace it.

How Often Do I Need To Defragment? 

You should defragment your system once a week to a month. The more often it is done the faster it will be, but I recommend once a week if you download a lot of programs like I do. The reason is the more you download without defragmenting the slower your system will get and you don't want to do this. So do it once a week if you download a lot or once a month if you don't do a lot on your computer. Now what I do is I do it daily because my computer can do it in roughly 5 to 10 minutes which is pretty good, but this varies depending on how much I have downloaded that day.

So do it daily, weekly, or monthly any of them and your computer will be running smoother.

What Program Should I Use?

Now many people like to use the default windows program however I like to use other programs that give me more information and they are A LOT faster than the default windows one. So I recommend using Iobit Smart Defrag or their full system speed up tool program Advanced System Care.  Either of these programs will practically do it all by themselves, and they do it faster than any other program I have seen. Not to mention the fact that they automatically give you the files that needed to be defragmented and give a lot of useful information, but that is just something that I like. But these are the programs that I recommend you using for defragmenting your computer.

I HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH IOBIT I JUST THINK THEY MAKE GREAT PRODUCTS.

Links

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.php

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Google Removes All Adblocks From Play Store

As of 3/13/13 Google took a bold stand against ad blockers and removed any ad blocking ad from the Google Play store. So for publishers this is a great plus because they should in theory have a revenue increase. While publishers are happy many users are getting angry, but the real question is ad blockers morally correct, and to a greater extent where the ad blockers allowed in the store from the terms of service.

Why Did Google Remove Them?

Google removed them because they broke the terms of service by interfering with advertisements thus limiting publishers' income. People are in an uproar about this, but the sad truth is ad blockers are not wrong but I don't care whether or not people use them. I am going to get a lot of hate comments for this I just know it.

Are Ad blockers Morally Right

According to any company that is using ads no they are not and I personally don't think that they are because they interfere with business. Google also agrees with this statement since they removed all of the ad blockers down. Now as you can see I have 3 ads on this website and as the name goes it will block the ads so they are not displayed. Now let me give you some information my ads are not intrusive and are from Google. Now the arguments that people make are ads take up your bandwidth and slow down your browser. Now the ironic truth is ad blockers slow down the web page even faster, and they don't take up that much bandwidth i mean kilobytes that is not much. I want the comments to continue this debate so go to the comments section and debate the question above.

Will Google Return The Ad Blockers?

As it stands right now it does not appear to be so and Google has not made any comments about this at the current time. However, there are still ways to get the program, and that is to download it from the ad block.org website which will be posted below. I will say this Google will NOT go after anyone using this but for their revenue sake and that of their investors they needed to remove it from the store which any business man would understand.

How To Download Ad Block From Their Website

1. Go to your phone and enter the system settings.
2. Go to Security and Screen Lock
3. Go down to where it says. Unkown Sources.
4. Tap the button so that their is a check mark.
5. Go to this website http://adblockplus.org/en/android
6. Download the file.
7. Follow the installation settings.

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