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WWW now dead?

Reno Computer Repair - www change
Reno Computer Repair – www change

Google has announced that in the next version of the chrome web browser, they will start automatically truncating the “www” out of typed addresses in the address bar. While this may seem a trivial change to many that are already use to skipping typing the full address of a website into their web browser. For some it may turn out to be confusing as it is a visual cue that you are at the correct website.

While I doubt that this will turn into a major issue. For some it could be problematic if they confuse where they wanted to be for something else and then go retyping the now wrong address or even get tricked into going to a lookalike fake website to take advantage of this confusion.

In addition it could be a headache for webmasters that are hosted with companies that consider www.myplace.com and myplace.com as really two different domains. Google did not say if this would also affect SEO efforts made by webmasters that might still be using the www format to link back to their domains.

UPDATE 9/17/18:

Google, after a large amount of online debate has said they will delay these changes at least until ver 70 comes out. And after more input from the public.

 

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Avast Antivirus update causing issues

It seems that the newest version of Avast (ver 18.6.2349) has been having issues with Malwarebytes. And the WebShield component of Avast maybe blocking all websites or at least causing connectivity issues that seem (to the end user) that their connections are down when trying to access websites.

The malwarebytes/avast issue has been reported to cause malwarebytes to crash when malwarebytes is running in “Real Time” protection mode.

At first Avast tried to blame the problem on Malwarebytes, but reversed their statements after the Malwarebytes team issued this statement…

  “Upon first discovering the conflict between Malwarebytes and Avast, Malwarebytes reached out to a product manager at Avast, who put us in contact with one of their Real Site feature developers. This developer initially indicated that there was a problem with Malwarebytes Web Protection driver implementation. After cooperation and receiving detailed analysis from our lead driver developer, Avast determined there was a flaw in their driver implementation. They have indicated they have a fix and plan to release an update, but they did not provide any timing. In the meantime any Malwarebytes users experiencing these issues are advised to disable Avast’s Real Site feature.”
And with my own customer base… I have a system in the shop that crashed one customers laptop after he ran the update and his issue was resolved after removal of Avast.

I found the recommend fix to turn off the Avast webshield component or Malwarebytes real time protection, to be a useless workaround because in essence they are telling their customers to turn off their antivirus products.  So what’s the point of having an antivirus program?

While some long time fans of Avast may wish to wait it out and see if they can fix the problem. RenoGeek recommends that Avast be removed from systems having these issues and be replaced with a stable antivirus product.

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New wave of fake anti-virus company calls hit’s Reno

Reno computer repair - fake antivirus warning
Reno computer repair – fake antivirus warning

Over the last few days the number of client’s either infected by or cold called by fake antivirus companies has increased by about 300 percent. While I have talked about these fakes for years now. It seems that more people get fooled with each new wave of attacks.

If anybody ever cold calls you about ANYTHING having to do with your computer hang up right away. It’s not a legitimate company trying to help you out.

If you get a popup on your computer telling you to call a toll free phone number to clean your computer, turn off your computer, wait a few minutes and restart it. If the popup does not come back you came across a infected website and may be okay.

If it comes back after restarting your system then you probably have an infection and you should call a computer technician ASAP for help.

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T-mobile announces they have been hacked

Reno Computer Repair - T-mobile logo
Reno Computer Repair – T-mobile Hacked

It is being reported that on Aug 20th T-mobile was hacked and some customer information was compromised.

Quoting from their announcement…

“Our cyber-security team discovered and shut down an unauthorized access to certain information, including yours, and we promptly reported it to authorities. None of your financial data (including credit card information) or social security numbers were involved, and no passwords were compromised. However, you should know that some of your personal information may have been exposed, which may have included one or more of the following: name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number and account type (prepaid or postpaid).”

While claiming some of their customers “Important” data did not get hacked, it’s pretty obvious that the information that they did loose in the breach is more than enough to reset user accounts (email addresses and phone numbers) which would let even an unskilled hacker get access to many users accounts.

T-mobile claims that this breach affected less than 3% of its 77 million customers. But as always Renogeek recommends that ALL T-mobile users change their passwords to be on the safe side.

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Windows 10 version 1809 comes out next month

reno computer repair windows updates
reno computer repair windows updates

Microsoft has announced that the new update to Windows 10 will be coming out in September.

The new version “1809”, will have a number of improvements and security fixes. One of the new promises from Microsoft is that after this update, future updates will be much smaller then in the past.

Quoting from Microsoft…
“We’ll be bringing a new design for quality updates to the next major versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server,” wrote Maliha Qureshi, a Microsoft program manager. This design creates a compact update package for easier and faster deployment.”

As we all know Microsoft has a habit of falling behind on update releases. But even if they miss the reported date, it seems a safe bet that consumers should be seeing this update sometime this fall.

Update: 9/3/18

Seems as par for the course that Microsoft has pushed the date back for this update till Mid October at least.

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Evidence the repeal of net neutrality is already hurting consumers

reno computer repair verizon-calfire
reno computer repair verizon-calfire

When the FCC ignored millions of comments and decided to repeal net neutrality, many thought that a floodgate of abuse would start by the major telcos and other communications companies.

While it seems they were smart enough not to hit everybody at once with higher rates and less service, there is a slow trickle of events that seem to point out how right consumer advocates were for being alarmed in the first place.

One case in point is Verizon’s throttling of the Santa Clara County Fire department during this summer’s Mendocino Complex Fire. California’s largest wildfire ever.

The fire department found that while an emergency response vehicle was deployed at the Mendocino Complex Fire, data rates were being throttled by Verizon to speeds that made the service unusable.

While this throttling may be just a minor headache on a weekend at a home trying to watch Netflix. I think anybody with average intelligence would be able to understand that being throttled in the middle of fighting a wildfire could turn deadly or at the very least cause widespread damage to property.

So as stated during the FCC hearings, net neutrality is not just an issue of convenience. In the 21st century where almost everything has to be connected to the Internet, it can be a matter of life and death.

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New Intel chip flaws found

Reno Computer Repair Intel logo
Reno Computer Repair Intel logo

Intel’s CPU’s  have been discovered to have yet another hardware flaw that exposes them to a major new vulnerability.

The flaw being called Foreshadow, has been identified by security researchers that claim all Intel CPU’s released after 2015 may be affected. This new flaw may also affect cloud based systems (aka servers). And even extends to virtual machines. A new first for this kind of  issue.

The flaw may let third parties or hackers access information on a Intel based CPU. The included list of affected CPUS include the company’s high-end Core and Xeon CPUs.

 

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Google Tracks Your Location Even If You’ve Opted Out

Reno Computer Repair - Google Tracking
Reno Computer Repair – Google Tracking

The Associated Press is reporting that Google keeps tracking you even after you have turned off location history on your devices…

This report, confirmed by computer researchers at Princeton, have found privacy issues with Google’s Location History settings affecting most Android devices and even a large percentage of iOS devices (aka Apple) for consumers that use Google Maps or Google search. The investigation found that even when users “paused” Location History  on mobile devices, Google services will continued to save user data.

 

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Facebook is placing autoplay video ads inside Messenger

Reno Computer Repair - Cambridge Analytica
Reno Computer Repair – Facebook Messenger

In another move to try and monetize every microsecond you spend on their platforms. Facebook has announced that they will now start placing video ads inside your private messages with others.

It would seem the big “Z” does not care that this would create a lag in most conversations. Making the whole idea behind a “instant” chat program useless. But I guess when you can’t sell ad space to Russian sock puppets you have to start turning over the cushions for a few lose million.

While still popular with the over 35 crowd, moves like this are just fresh examples of a slow downhill decline of it’s under 35 user base.  Reminiscent of the falls of Compuserve, Prodigy, Aol, Friendster and MySpace.

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Twitter announces it’s time to play password roulette

Reno computer repair - twitter
Reno computer repair – twitter

Twitter posted yesterday that it has been storing your password in plain text on their servers. Which means anybody could have your password right now. Now if your smart and have been reading this blog for awhile you already know never to use the same password on all your accounts. And it should be an easy fix to log back into twitter and change that password.

If like most people I encounter, you use the same password on every account this means ALL your accounts could be compromised.  So it’s even more important to change your password. Hopefully you will use a DIFFERENT password on each account so that no security flaw will ever leave all your accounts in jeopardy in the future.