BoxAid Blog

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Online PC Support Phone Scam

April 23rd, 2012 Posted in BoxAid Blog
Apr, 23 2012
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Phone scams are nothing new and have been around for years.  We even get scammers calling BoxAid trying to get us to sign up for something at least once a day.  But we can spot a scammer a mile a way.  Unfortunately, there are many people who can not.  In the past few weeks we have had several customers call in to BoxAid Online PC Support with some disturbing details about how they were attempting to get scammed.

They receive a random phone call from someone stating they are working for an online PC support company.  Sometimes they reference Microsoft, Jupiter, or iYogi.  They then proceed to tell the customer that their computer is infected with a virus and begin naming items on the PC that you could only know if you were the one who put the virus there.  They are able to name installed programs, word documents and other items that make them very believable.  While this could be coincidence, its unlikely.  It may very well be the case that the person making the phone call was involved in somehow getting a virus on to the PC to collect this data.  They then tell the customer that in order to remove the infection they need to give them their credit card number and they will remove the virus for a price ranging from $60 to $200.

Well clearly this is a scam.  The second anyone asks for your credit card number you can rest assured that there is something fishy about the call.  Luckily most of our customers are able to pick up on this and hang up immediately.  Sure enough when they called us at BoxAid we were able to find a rootkit or virus on all the suspected machines.  Once again these threats are much more stealthy than they used to be able to get by the tradition anti-virus software names without a problem.  So keep an eye out and make sure anyone that calls you claiming that they know your PC is infected should be taken with a grain of salt.  Here them out, get their details and tell them you will call them back.  Then give the PC experts at BoxAid a call.

 

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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Online Computer Support in USA

January 8th, 2012 Posted in BoxAid Blog
Jan, 08 2012
1 Comment »

This is a tumultuous time in the United States where our economy has suffered significantly in the past few years.  We have seen the real estate bubble burst, our stock market suffer, and our debt go up over 10 trillion dollars.  There are so many factors that contribute to this downturn that can not be ignored.  One of the common trends we have heard about is off-shoring our labor to a cheaper work force outside the United States.  This trend started slowly over 10 years ago with big companies like Dell and IBM realizing that developing countries like India offered a large technical workforce that was willing to work for 70% less than what American workers get paid.  Well it would make sense that moving their workforce to other countries would save significant money for that company.  Read the rest of this entry »

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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How To Fix Computer Remotely

January 2nd, 2012 Posted in BoxAid Blog
Jan, 02 2012
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At BoxAid IT Support we get hundreds of calls per week and amazingly there are still people shocked by the power remote PC control.  Many people are used to it if they have ever used their company helpdesk to resolve a problem.  Nevertheless, remote controlling a computer as if you were right in front of it has changed technology drastically.  We still get callers who say “I just got back from Geek Squad where they had my computer for two weeks and worst of all it was a nightmare to pack it up”  Yes, the physical PC repair store still has it’s place for hardware repairs but when it comes to software repairs then remote PC repair is the way to go.

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About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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How to Choose a Backup Solution for your Computer

December 29th, 2011 Posted in Tips and Tricks
Dec, 29 2011
4 Comments »

The most common thing that will fail on your computer eventually is your hard drive.  Hard drives simply don’t last forever.  The average hard drive life span is between 3 and 5 years.  But at BoxAid IT repair we have seen them fail at 18 months and last as long as 8 years.  The BoxAid IT support service is great at handling software problems but unfortunately we can’t fix a dead hard drive.  That’s why you need a good backup strategy.  There are three common backup scenarios that will fit any budget and need depending on the data you want to protect.

Online Backup

If you have only a few gigs’ worth of files to protect, you can back up your data using an Internet-based service. Xdrive gives Windows users 5GB of free storage (a Mac version is in the works) using a secure link to Xdrive’s downloadable automatic backup application. Alternately, Mozy offers 2GB of free storage to both Windows and Macintosh users, or unlimited storage for $4.95 per month.  Then there is Carbonite which has been around for a while and is extremely popular due to their easy to use interface. Regardless of service, be aware that online backup requires a fast broadband connection and we recommend a newer computer as well since the software will be moving a significant amount of data over the Internet while you are working so there may be some mild slow down on your PC.  You can check out a more detailed review of the top 5 online backup providers here.   The key things we like and dislike about online backup are:

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About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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What to Do If Your Computer Does Not Turn On

December 15th, 2011 Posted in Common PC Errors
Dec, 15 2011
3 Comments »

We have gotten thousands of phone calls here at BoxAid IT Support Service and inevitably several of them are questions like “My Computer will not turn on, can you help me?” or “I dont see anything on my screen, what should I do?” Unfortunately, if your computer is not turning on at all then we can not connect to it over the Internet to try to fix it.  This article covers what you should do if this is the situation you are in.

There is a big difference between your computer does not turn on and your computer is on but don’t see anything on your screen.  If your computer does not turn on at all then you should NOT be hearing the fan or any noises coming from it.  There should be no lights at all on it,  and when you hit the caps lock key on your keyboard it should NOT light up.  In this situation you should try the following items in order. Read the rest of this entry »

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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How To Troubleshoot BlueScreen and Lock Ups in Windows

December 3rd, 2011 Posted in Common PC Errors
Dec, 03 2011
3 Comments »

We have all seen or at least heard of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows.  It’s the dreaded screen that pops up while you are working on an important doc or listening to music or playing your favorite game.  It leaves you with a cryptic error message that no human can understand and usually reboots your PC immediately afterwards.

Blue Screen of Death

Well these are one of the hardest errors to troubleshoot on a Windows PC.  The BSOD was much more popular in Windows XP but with Windows 7, Microsoft has done a much better job of handling critical errors in a nicer way.  Nevertheless, when you get them what should you do?  Well we get this type of call at BoxAid computer repair all the time and they can be difficult to troubleshoot.  If your PC was running fine for a long period of time and the BSOD appeared out of no where then you may want to look at the last major software change you made to your computer.  Whatever it was such as updating a driver or installing a new piece of software, you may want to revert it back to the way it used to be.  Then use your PC for a few days to see if the error comes back.  If it doesn’t then you know that last piece of software you installed was the culprit.  Read the rest of this entry »

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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How to Remove Clean This Virus

March 26th, 2011 Posted in BoxAid Blog, Viruses and Malware
Mar, 26 2011
7 Comments »

In the past few weeks we have been seeing some very crafty new fakealert viruses that make it very difficult to remove them.  Of notable mention is the “Clean This” Virus and the “PC Security Tool” virus.  If you are not aware, the fakealert family of viruses are a PC infection with one goal in mind;  they want to trick you into paying them your hard earned money in return for cleaning a virus off your PC.  The ironic part…..they are the virus.  They will use every tactic imaginable to to make you think they are a legitimate program by using Microsoft Logos, McAfee logos and popular terminology you have heard before.  So normally, your only savior is rebooting into safe mode which allows you to run a cleaning program like Malware Bytes but in this case, this virus is able to run in safe mode which is not common. Read the rest of this entry »

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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iYogi Software Slowing Down Your PC

March 20th, 2011 Posted in BoxAid Blog, Speeding Up Your PC
Mar, 20 2011
1 Comment »

We get hundreds of phone calls at BoxAid on a daily basis and of course one of the most common calls is “my PC is running slowly, can you speed it up?” Well we got this exact phone call the other day and while we were looking around to see the cause of the problem we found the normal bogged down PC with dozens of junky spyware programs installed.  But interestingly enough we found this odd program called iYogi Support dock installed that was slowing down the PC in addition to the normal junk.  If you are not aware, iYogi is one of our competitors providing tech support based out of India.  We are not affiliated with them in any way.  We asked the customer if they used iYogi in the past and sure enough they had.  We asked if she was aware that this software was installed by them and she had no clue.  This software claims to of course speed up your PC, clean your registry, optimize your PC (whatever that means) and make it “green”.

Well as we have discussed many times on our blog, there is no such software that optimizes your PC.  You can not “clean” a registry because it does not get “dirty”  If you want to improve performance you need to remove the programs that you don’t use through add/remove programs and remove unnecessary items that are starting up at boot time.  You don’t need any programs or software that promise to deliver these items for you.  These programs are nothing more then an easy way to make money from the unknowing, technical consumer.

So if you do use any tech support company, make sure they do NOT install anything on your PC that promises to deliver something that doesn’t exist.  Did we also mention that they left the remote control program that they used to access her machine on there as well?  Sure it may make it easier for them to get back into her PC if she calls back but you never know what that program may be doing in the background.  Even if it is only slowing down your PC at boot up time.  At BoxAid we NEVER leave anything installed on your PC when we are done with our remote control session.  Not only is it a security risk for you, the end user, it’s one more program that slows down your PC.  Take a look at how our remote control program works here.  The best thing about using Online Remote Tech Support is that you get to watch what the technician is doing, so make sure nothing new is installed after the work is complete.

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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Easy Download of Malware Bytes

January 3rd, 2011 Posted in BoxAid Blog
Jan, 03 2011
1 Comment »

Sometimes when you have a virus you need a copy of malware bytes fast and once infected, all the viruses nowadays block you from going to the normal malware bytes website, so we thought we would make it available to our readers and customers.  Just click the link below for a direct download of malware bytes.  No waiting, no searching and no fuss.  Please make sure you check out the BoxAid website while you are waiting for your download to complete.

Direct Download Link to Malware Bytes Version 1.50

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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If We Can’t Fix Your Computer You Don’t Pay

December 29th, 2010 Posted in BoxAid Blog
Dec, 29 2010
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At Boxaid Online Computer Repair we have some of the best technical experts in the United States.  Our technicians are always in the United States and we never outsource any of our calls to other countries.  One of our big promises and a core foundation of Boxaid is that if we can’t fix your problem then we simply don’t charge you.  With this guarantee in place it is always in our best interest to make sure we fix your problem or remove your virus otherwise we don’t make any money.  It’s a pretty simple concept.  Look at this way, if you knew you were getting paid no matter how hard (or little) you worked would you always go the extra mile at your job?  Would you show up early or leave later than usual?  Probably not.  Thats why we only get paid if we solve your computer problem.

Our success rate with fixing PC problems remotely is extremely high.  We have over a 90% success rate but of course there are problems we can’t solve over the Internet.  A good example is hardware problems like a failing hard drive or a video card.  In this case we unfortunately can’t help you.  In the case of a failing hard drive you have no choice but to replace your physical hard drive with a new one and reinstall your operating system.  We can help you diagnose an issue like this and there would be no charge to you.  The key point is that we don’t charge you unless the original problem you called about is fixed when we are done.  In addition, we don’t ask for your credit card information up front like all our competitors do.  We only ask for your credit card at the end of our phone call when you and the technician feel that the problem is resolved.  Finally, there is no upselling of software or services.  We offer three simple computer repair rates with no monthly fees.  We have heard countless horror stories from our customers who call other services before they call Boxaid such as hidden charges that show up on their credit card or ridiculous repair rates over $200 to fix simple problems.  Here are some of Boxaid’s key points to keep in mind if you are shopping around.

1.  No charge for diagnosis of your PC problem.
2.  No credit card information collected until your PC problem is resolved.
3.  No monthly fees for any of our service.
4.  No credit card data is stored in our systems.
5.  No upselling of software or services you don’t need.

About George Dover

George Dover is one of the Microsoft Certified Technicians that works at BoxAid.com. He is the primary blog contributor and has helped thousands of customers calling into BoxAid on a daily basis. Connect with me on Google+

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