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Posts Tagged ‘computer’

Geek Squad Agents Become Free WiFi Hotspots this Holiday Season

With WiFi hotspots popping up in all kinds of places, Geek Squad returned to the lab for a “next-gen” holiday gift. Now “Secret Agent Santas” will take WiFi technology to the next level, releasing WiFi hotspots from the electrical outlet through the use of high-speed USB modems and battery-powered routers.

Beginning today, select Agents in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco will become “Secret Agent Santas,” providing free Internet access wherever they are. “Secret Agent Santas” will help people stay connected on the final leg of this holiday season on trains, in parks and at a multitude of other locations. WiFi’d Agents will be easily recognizable by their non-uniform holiday headgear – a light-up red and white Santa hat with LEDs around the brim.

Civilians are encouraged to take advantage of the free internet service and speak with the Agents about any technology problems or questions they might have. Select Geekmobile® vehicles in Atlanta and San Francisco also will be set up to provide service.

“Free WiFi has made staying connected easier and increased the usefulness of laptops, smartphones and other hand-held devices,” said Geek Squad Agent Ismael Matos. “By creating these roving hotspots, we’re providing an even greater level of service. Need WiFi on an ‘L’ train in Chicago? We can help. Want us to park six Geekmobiles at an Atlanta football game so you can tailgate and stay connected? We can do that too.

“To serve the greatest number of people, these hotspots will not be password protected,” continued Matos. “We recommend that civilians not conduct any particularly sensitive work as a result. Check sports scores but not bank accounts.”

WiFi’d Agents are a gift that keeps on giving; rolling out this holiday season, the service will continue indefinitely. Keep an eye out for specially marked Geek Squad Agents and open hotspots named “Geek Squad.” And if you have any WiFi location requests, please visit Geek Squad Intelligence (http://www.geeksquad.com/intelligence/) and leave us a comment.

Geek Squad 2MM: How to Extend the Life of a Laptop Battery

Geek Squad 2MM: Defining Different Router Options

Before you click on that link…

Language was shortened long ago for ease of Instant Messaging. So when text messaging became popular, people were already armed with ‘c u l8r’, ‘IDK’, and ‘BRT’ (or “see you later”, “I don’t know”, and “be right there” for proponents of the Queen’s English). This computer lingo comes in handy now that social networking sites, like Twitter, are designed for short and succinct updates.

But what if you wanted to Twitter a link to my epic blog about using secure passwords? As you may know, Twitter updates are capped at 140 characters. The full address of my post is:

http://www.geeksquad.com/intelligence/blog/use-halibut-to-protect-your-identity/#more-474.

Not only is that hard to type, but it weighs in at 89 characters. This only leaves you 51 characters for the remainder of your tweet. When it comes to Twitter updates, space is at a premium. 

Enter the URL shortening services. After TinyURL.com was launched in 2002, there have been numerous other sites with a similar spin, such as snipurl.com, is.gd, and bit.ly. By using their services, the large unwieldy URL above is rendered as http://tinyurl.com/yjclqts . Much easier on the thumbs, and it gives you more space to write glowing praise about the link in question.

The problem is, as with anything on the Internet, you find people with malicious intent looking to use URL shorteners to their advantage. Firewalls, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and phishing scanners are great, but if you click a link that goes directly to a malicious site, often there isn’t anything security software can do about it. You may think you’re following a friend’s link to a story about the release of Windows 7, and end up at a site with adult content or a site with the intent to infect your computer with a virus.

Some of the shortening services have instituted a preview system; for example, if you were to enter http://preview.tinyurl.com/yjclqts, the tinyurl site will tell you what the link points to. But for those sites that don’t have a preview system, or if you don’t want to retype all of them, there are a few ways to make sure you don’t end up someplace you’d rather not be.

There are add-ons, which are programs you can download for Firefox and Internet Explorer, which check the shortening site and report back to you the expanded URL, and then giving you the option of clicking on it or not. Longurl.org is a website that you can go to where you can copy and paste the shortened URL, and it will report back the full link.

 So while sometimes your friends may just be trying to hit you with the most viral Internet prank of all time, other times you may find something far worse than Rick Astley on the other end of that link.

If you’re looking for some of these add-ons, go to http://snipurl.com/sikhj for Firefox or http://bit.ly/3RD3sP for Internet Explorer.

Geek Squad 2MM: How to use Technology with Long Distance Relationships

Geek Squad’s here to Twelp You!

There’s been a lot of very positive talk recently about Best Buy’s @Twelpforce since its launch three months ago, but it’s not the only way to reach out for Geek Squad assistance.

Geek Squad is available 24 hours a day via phone at 1-800 GEEK SQUAD (1-800-433-5778).  Our Mission Control Agents can help you schedule on-site appointments with our field Agents, or direct you to our other remote service options.

If you have broadband Internet access and can connect to the Internet, we can assist you with your remote support needs via our Virtual Agents at the GeekSquad.com.

If you’re looking to talk to a live Agent in person, you can use our store locator to find the nearest Geek Squad Precinct, often located in your neighborhood Best Buy.

Of course, if you have Twitter, you can always reach us through @GeekSquad or @Twelpforce .

Bad Catch of the Day: Phishing

In order to protect yourself it’s important to understand how a phishing attack occurs. Phishing basically comes down to this: An identity thief composes an email that looks official and sends it out to a huge lists of emails that may be either generated by a computer or obtained by other sources. This official looking email ends up in your inbox and usually prompts you to do something like re-verify personal information, like your email address and password. There may be a link in the email that appears to take you to a legitimate website.
So how do you know if an email is a potential phishing attack? Most legitimate institutions that contain sensitive information will never send you an email and ask you personal questions. This includes banks, email services, internet service providers and stock traders. As a matter of fact, many times you’ll notice legitimate businesses attach a clause at the end of them email which reads: “we will never ask for your personal information.”
When in doubt, pick up a phone. Don’t call a phone number listed in the email, either. Use the good old yellow pages or as a last resort hit up a search engine for contact information. There is no substitute for a live human being on the other end of the line!
One of the most popular questions I receive in the field from the usually upset customer who has been affected by this is “why??” Well honestly it usually comes down to monetary gain. Eventually someone somewhere is getting money in the end. The persons responsible for the attack may want to use your email address to spread a remote-control virus. Or perhaps they want to launch an attack from your email address, thus protecting themselves from authorities behind your identity. Maybe they are going straight for the jugular, your online banking information.
There are several things to keep in mind in order to protect yourself. First, it’s important to know that these phishing attacks may not involve a virus or spyware infecting your computer and therefore will usually NOT be blocked by your antivirus software. Second, if you see a suspicious email asking for information or stating that your information has been compromised, thus asking you to “do something” via the internet to fix it…DON’T. Contact your institution directly from a phone number not obtained in the email. Do not delete the email until after you contact them, they may want you to send a copy to them for further investigation.
Lastly, make sure your password is strong. Do not use birthdays, common phrases (like “admin,” “password,” “1234,” etc) for the password. Instead try something crazy that mixes up letters, capitals, and numbers. Example: g0AwayM1ne! Change your passwords every once in a while too.
If you suspect you have fallen victim to a phishing attack, contact your institution and/or your email address provider and let them know what has happened. This should help you from falling victim to this dangerous social engineering scam.

Geek Squad 2MM: How to Upgrade your Operating System

How to Create a Holiday Lightshow

Holidays are no exception. One of my favorite projects is a yearly Halloween graveyard lightshow I put together for my home display. Check out this video I created explaining the basics behind on the spooktacular show!

Rogue Ads

“What is a rogue ad?” you ask? These types of internet advertisements try and trick you into purchasing, downloading, or installing some sort of application onto your computer that can do some pretty nasty damage to your PC. Think of it like the Trojan Horse. The ad tells you to ‘click here and make your computer faster’ or ‘you have Windows problems, click here to fix them.’ This sounds good until you realize that the payload of this promised application is really something that displays ads on your computer or redirects your web browser to objectionable sites.