Attack! Have You Heard of RansomWare – Wannacrypt?

What is ransomware? Malicious software that locks a device, such as a computer, tablet or smartphone and then demands a ransom to unlock it.

How can you protect yourself? Anti-virus software can protect your machine, although cybercriminals are constantly working on new ways to override such protection.
Updating the OS will take care of most vulnerabilities. Do not click on questionable links or open suspicious attachments as this can save headaches. This helps limit the spread of ransomware if hackers do get into your system.

How does it work?

1. The malicious Ransomeware software is normally contained within an attachment to an email that masquerades as something innocent. Once opened it encrypts the hard drive, making it impossible to access or retrieve anything stored on there – such as photographs, documents or music
2. Ransomware is a kind of cyber attack that involves hackers taking control of a computer system and blocking access to it until a ransom is paid.
3. It enters a computer when a user mistakingly clicks or downloads a malicious file
4. It can also spread via a worm, embedding itself within a network, this is instead of relying on humans to spread by clicking
5.  Experts warn that there is no guaranteed access given after payment

It is interesting to note that Microsoft have already taken measures to save the world from this menace. You can visit Microsoft blog post about this attack – Click here to view.

How to Add Page x of y in Microsoft Office Word

How to Add Page x of y in Microsoft Office Word

Your version of Word might be different from the one I will use to demonstrate here, but the steps are relatively the same.

1. On your Microsoft Office Word document, click the section of the footer or header you want the pagination (page x of y) to appear – e.g bottom right
2. Type Page and press space
3. With the cursor on this point, click Insert menu. Under Text category, choose Quick Parts and then click Field…
4. On the Field dialog box, under the Field names, choose Page and then click the number format you want, then Ok
5. Press space, enter of, and press space again
6. Go again to Insert menu > Quick parts > Field… > NumPages. Then click the number format you want
7. Click Ok
8. Congratulations!

You’re free to share with friends and relatives.

Allowing FTP Upload/Download Through ISA Server: step by step

1. Open ISA Management Console
2. Create a new Access rule, Right click Firewall Policy , then click on New then choose Access Rule ( If you already have a Firewall Policy for the FTP Protocol, then skip these steps and jump to step 13)
3. The New Access Rule Wizard will be launched, give a name to your new rule , in this example we will name it Allow FTP R/W (Read/ Write), then click Next
4. In the Rule Action page, we choose which action we want to grant for our users, in this example we want to grant them the FTP access, so we choose Allow, then click Next
   
5. In the Protocols page, From the drop down list of This Rule Applies To, choose Selected Protocols, click on Add button, the Add Protocol page will open,  Open All Protocols and choose the FTP protocol and click on Add , then click Close
   
6. The FTP Protocol will be selected , click Next
   
7. On the Access Rule Sources page, click the Add button. In the Add Network Entities dialog box, click on the Networks folder. Double click on the Internal network, then click the Close button in the Add Network Entities dialog box. Click Next in the Access Rule Sources dialog box.
8. Click the Add button on the Access Rule Destinations page. In the Add Network Entities dialog box, click the Networks folder. Double click the External entry and click Close in the Add Network Entities dialog box. Click Next on the Access Rule Destinations page.
9. On the User Sets page, accept the default setting of All Users.
10. Review your settings and click Finish on the Completing the New Access Rule Wizard page.
11. Click the Apply button to save the changes and update the firewall policy. This button is located at the top of the Details pane (the middle pane) of the console.
12. The rule you have just created will only permit you to download anything from the FTP sites you visit, but will not allow you to upload, in order to have the ability to upload, follow the following steps
13. Right click your FTP Rule, then click on Configure FTP
14. In this page, remove the tick beside the Read Only, then click OK
15. Click the Apply button to save the changes and update the firewall policy.

How to Convert Your DVD Movies Into MP4 movies

How to convert your DVD movies into MP4 movies

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Do you have some of your movies still on those DVD disks? Perhaps your DVD player isn’t working anymore? Or, you want to play the file from your computer and it’s a long thing trying to decode which files to play in the too many folder/files format of DVD?

Recall that DVD technology is gradually phasing out… A lot of folks now simply connect their usb memory stick on the usb ports of their TV and get their movies playing! You do want to convert those DVDs to MP4? Let’s look at these steps….

1. Use a software called HandBrake! Download from their site (CLICK HERE), and then install on your computer.
2. After install, open the software
3. Insert the DVD you want to convert into MP4.
4. On HandBrake, choose the source of the DVD which is your DVD Drive.
5. Finally, click Start Encoding

It takes a while to complete. So relax and grab a cup of coffee while you wait. Don’t forget to share to your friends, and you do not need to thank us. We are delighted to help you, always!

How to Merge Various MP3 Tracks into One MP3 Track file

How to Merge Various MP3 Tracks into One MP3 Track file

Most people do not actually know that you can easily do a whole lot of computer works so easily and simply.. Like how to join your MP3 music tracks and make all of them become one file that will play non stop. You don’t need to click on any NEXT for the next tracks.

The import of joining your music files can stem from the need to categorize different kinds of musics – gospel, hip hop, reggae, blues, etc.

Let us see these simple steps to joining music files:

1. Open a Command Prompt – you can do this by opening search on the Start menu and then typing Command Prompt, then click it when it pops out
2. On the Command Prompt, navigate to the folder where your music files are.
   • in my case the folder is on my desktop. So I type cd  C:\Users\sylvudo\Desktop\Songs where sylvudo is the username for my PC and Songs is the folder where my music files are. Press Enter.
3. Finally type copy /b *.mp3 newfile.mp3. Press Enter. This will copy all MP3 files inside Songs folder on your desktop and merge them into one MP3 file called newfile.

The newfile will be inside the same folder as other MP3 files. You can then simply copy it out to the location where you want.

Enjoy!!

How to Check if Your PC RAM is Faulty

How to Check if Your PC RAM is Faulty

Couple of times your computer starts exhibiting erratic behaviors ranging from abrupt shutdowns, excessive slowness, blue screen of death, etc. These behaviors are very annoying technical issues you can be challenged with, and the RAM hardware are usually overlooked in the initial troubleshooting steps.

You might just realize that your RAM is just the whole headache you’ve been having, and needs to be changed. Go through these few steps to run checks on your RAM to determine its health status, using the Windows inbuilt tool called “Windows Memory Diagnostic” tool.

• Open Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool – there are various ways to do this
  1. On your Start menu or search bar, type Windows Diagnostic Tool, then click it when it shows up.
  2. Or on your Run box, type mdsched.exe and press Enter
• When the tool opens, you can then choose between two options: The first option will restart your machine and check the memory right then, and the second option checks the RAM the next time you reboot. Pick the option that best suits your needs.
• Your computer will load a screen that shows the progress of the check and number of passes it will run on the memory. Watch the memory diagnostic tool for errors. If there are no errors, then it’s likely that your RAM is not causing any issues, and it’s time to investigate other hardware or software issues.
• When it’s done, your computer will automatically reboot and return to the Windows desktop. After you log in, the test results will appear.
• However, if the result does not appear automatically after reboot you can check the result through these steps:
  1. Open Event Viewer
  2. Navigate to Windows Logs > System. You’ll see a list of a large number of events. Click “Find” in the right pane.
  3. Type “MemoryDiagnostic” into the find box and click “Find Next”. You’ll see the result displayed at the bottom of the window.

     Hope this help? You can share to help your friends…

How to Save Your Data from Windows 10 Automatic Update

This information will be of immense value to you if your computer runs on metered Internet connection – maybe through WiFi, USB modem, etc. I may need to remind you that Microsoft in Windows 10 enforced that Windows Updates must occur automatically whenever they available – ‘whether you like it or not!’ unlike previous editions of Windows where you can stop the updates, or schedule them at appropriate times.

I want to make clearer that automatic updates are typically a good thing and I recommend leaving them on in general. However, majority of users (particularly in Nigeria!) have just a small amount of data connection that they need to do their works on their PCs and these updates eat a lot of data, sometimes in Gigabytes (GB). And the users may not have such amount of data to spare.

Let us now see how you can stop these updates from running automatically, thereby saving you some coins. To proceed, you need to identify the edition of your Operating System – Pro, Home or Enterprise (contact us if you don’t know how to confirm this).

For Pro and Enterprise editions, follow these steps:
Step 1

• Open the Settings App (Win + I)
• Open the ‘Network & Internet’ section
• Open ‘Wi-Fi’ and click ‘Advanced Options’
• Toggle ‘Set as metered connection’ to ‘On’

Step 2

• Open the Run command (Win + R), in it type: gpedit.msc and press enter
  
• Navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
• Double click the Configure Automatic Update, then click Enable
• Change the Configure Automatic Updates setting to ‘2 – Notify for download and notify for install’. Click Ok.
• Open the Settings app (Win + I) and navigate to -> Update and Security -> Windows Updates. Click ‘Check for updates’ which applies the new configuration setting
• Restart

Step 3: For Windows 10 Home editions
Windows 10 Home Edition does not have the features of the two steps described above. So follow the steps below to stop the automatic update if you must…

• Open the Run command (Win + R), in it type: services.msc and press enter
• From the Services list which appears find the Windows Update service and open it
• In ‘Startup Type’ (under the ‘General’ tab) change it to ‘Disabled’
• Restart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope this helps?
Contact us for further clarifications and/or questions.