What to do when you get the “you may be infected” pop-up.

The above is but one of many varieties of pop-up that can occur when you visit an infected website. You don’t have to be visiting an obscure website to get this either, even Yahoo and The New York Times websites were unknowingly hosting this infection.

The question is what you should you do? Should you close the window? No! That will actually start the infection install process.

At the time of the pop-up you are not infected. But as soon as you click the Red X in the corner you are. This is because the whole pop-up is actually a picture and not a window, so the red X is part of the picture file that contains the infection and clicking on it anywhere starts the installation.

When this pop-up occurs should do these things:

1. Step away from the computer
2. Call us
3. We will direct you to do one of two things:
1. Kill the window by stopping the process that is running it
2. Pull the power plug

The solution will depend on what else you are doing at the time. Option 1 will preserve any open files that you have that aren’t saved yet. Option 2 will not.

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Harbor Computer Services provides IT services to businesses in Southeastern Michigan. Find out more about us www.harborcomputerservices.net

iPhone 3.1 update alert

Apple has released an update for the iPhone. However, this new version (3.1) will break connectivity between the phone and your Exchange server if you have an older model. Please do not update your iPhone until we issue the all-clear.

Older model iPhones are anything that is not 3GS – the very latest.

The problem with this update is that it will cause the iPhone to stop ignoring an important security feature of Exchange. By default Exchange requires that transmission between it and the phone be encrypted. Older model iPhones would simply ignore this and send data to Exchange unencrypted anyway. Most Exchange servers are configured to accept unencrypted transmission for compatibility purposes with legacy mail systems so the mail goes through anyway.

However with this update, the iPhone is no longer capable of ignoring the request from Exchange for encryption but the older models are also incapable of encrypting the email, so email breaks.

We’ll let you know when Apple has released an update for the iPhones that can’t encrypt email.

For the Student

The following article comes from one of Microsoft’s blog announcing a deep discount program for college and university students that would like to start using Windows 7. Instead of $119.99 it’s only $29.99. Also don’t forget about the Ultimate Steal deal for Microsoft Office: http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx This offer is good for 91% of retail price.

Based on reader comments, I know many are college and university students. I figured I would take a moment to highlight a great deal for those folks we’ve announced today. For a limited time, we are offering the LOWEST PRICE ($29.99 in the US) for Windows 7 exclusively to college and university students. This offer is perfect for students who are not planning to buy a new PC but want to experience all the benefits that Windows 7 will provide. To learn more about the offer and to check eligibility, students should visit www.Win741.com.

Students in the US can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 in the US starting today…

Windows 7 is easy to use and great to take on the go to class as well as staying in touch with friends and family via Windows Live!

Windows 7 gives university students the tools they need manage their work (including an easy to use design, the ability to easily connect to devices, and take on the go to class and the library), stay in touch with friends (with Windows Live Essentials) and have fun (including Windows gaming, Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Media Center to interact with TV and movies

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Harbor Computer Services provides IT services to businesses in Southeastern Michigan. Find out more about us www.harborcomputerservices.net

Buy a Safe Phone

The environmental working group is out with a very large study on which phones emit how much radiation. While somewhat controversial on whether or not the radiation emitted will cause you any harm, I don’t think that there can be any argument that less radiation is better than more. As consumers of phones information on how much radiation is being emitted into us was just not available until now.

You can check out the whole study and even search for the phone that you have at their website.

http://www.ewg.org/project/2009cellphone/get-a-safer-phone.php

Here’s a quick list of the top 10 best and worst phones.

Here’s a quick list of the top 10 best and worse PDA’s

If you don’t see your phone on the list the website has a simple search that looks like this.

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Harbor Computer Services provides IT services to businesses in Southeastern Michigan. Find out more about us www.harborcomputerservices.net