DNSchanger malware alert by FBI mentioned on The Project on channel 10.

Tonight on channel 10 I was watching The Project and heard about the DNSchanger malware alert. I’d also seen some articles in the press. I thought this was an interesting alert and worth investigating. Some alerts are hoaxes, but in this case this appears to be a real alert.

There appears to have been malware, referred to as DNSchanger, which changes the DNS settings for a computer or the router, people use to connect to the internet. Temporary action was taken by the FBI in November 2011 to provide a solution, but that solution will be closed down in July.

I’d suggest you should check your DNS settings for your computers and your router and make sure they aren't set to one of the following values.

Rogue DNS IP Ranges
85.255.112.0 - 85.255.127.255
67.210.0.0 - 67.210.15.255
93.188.160.0 - 93.188.167.255
77.67.83.0 - 77.67.83.255
213.109.64.0 - 213.109.79.255
64.28.176.0 - 64.28.191.255

You can use the site provided by the Australian government (www.dns-ok.gov.au) to check your computer, but I'd suggest a manual check will be more thorough. The reason is the ISP you use may have taken action which means, whilst you may be infected, you may not be able to tell.

It is stated it is expect that around 10,000 Australians (about 4 million worldwide) will not be able to access the internet when the FBI removes the temporary solution to the problem on the 9th of July 2012. Whilst that will cause inconvenience, the side effect will be those who are infected will know and then need to make the necessary changes.

If you need assistance checking your DNS settings, I'm available to assist people in the Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and surrounding area. The cost to check your DNS settings will vary depending on how many computers you have and the type of router you have, however it shouldn’t be that much.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for assistance.
Providing support in Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham
and the surrounding area.

 

 

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

How much electricity does a computer use and thus its cost to run?

When I reviewed the electricity usage of appliances around the house, one device which stood out in terms of electricity usage I must say I’d never really thought about.

I’d turn the computer on in the morning and leave it on all day. I work from home so for me having the computer on made sense. Often I’d even have a couple of computers on. The children even had their computers on as well. But the real surprise wasn’t when the computers we on, it was when they were off.

An off computer isn’t off. It is in standby and it keeps consuming power. The LCD screen looks off, but again it is in standby consuming more power than you’d think. Those additional devices such as the printer, the scanner, the external drive, all sitting there sipping away at the power and ready to immediately jump into action at your beck and call, even when you are asleep.

All those devices even when not used are in standby up to 24 hours a day in some cases (such as when you go away for the weekend) and all consuming power which is costing you real money.

Yet amazingly the answer is simple. When you power down your computer turn it off also at the switch on the wall. When you power off the devices at the wall you save power, you also prevent the situation of a brown out where the power drops and your computer ends up in an unknown state and doesn’t want to work and you also reduce the chance of a power spike taking out your computer during a storm.

Determining how much your computer is costing you when it is running and how much it is costing you when it is in standby is very easy. You can purchase a cheap power meter for under $30 and measure the power usage in watts. Then use the Electricity Cost Calculator I provide,  enter the power usage, the time the device is on, or the time it is in standby and the calculator will let you know the daily cost and the yearly cost. If you use your electricity retailers tariff you’ll get an even better idea.

I’d highly recommend that everyone should measure how much the devices in their home are using. We’ve reduced our daily electricity usage to around 6.5kWh down from around 12-14kWh per day. From what I’ve read the average power usage for a home is around 18kWh. We now save around $400 to $600 a year off our electricity bill and it all started with the purchase of a low cost power meter. We’ve added a couple of convenient foot switches and one remote control power switch (all quite low cost), some simple changes to how we turn devices off and the impact on our power bill has been significant. I know I prefer the $400-$600 in my pocket than the power company’s.

I wrote the Electricity Cost Calculator to help me when selecting high cost energy efficient lights compared to the lower cost normal lights. The calculator helped me make better purchasing decisions. I found the Electricity Cost Calculator was also very handy for working out the cost of appliances we had running in the home which helped me make informed cost saving decisions. I’d found the government and media would focus my attention on what they wanted (such as installing solar panels for their carbon certificate scheme) where I could achieve the same or better result with almost no cost.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Call 0415 910 703 if your require computer assistance.
Covering Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

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www.MyAnswers.biz
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MyAnswers: Which PDF writer software would you recommend?

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Kelvin Eldridge
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Electricity tariffs increase in January has now been adjusted in the Energy Cost Calculator

In January the price for electricity from my retailer increased as it did for a lot of people. The biggest increase which people often don’t notice, was the Service to Property Charge which increased by a staggering 25%. For me that’s another $62 added to the bill which I can’t control. I can control my usage, but when the increase is added to the Service to Property Charge that has nothing to do with usage.

I’ve now updated the Energy Cost Calculator with the latest peak energy rate which is 22 cents per kilowatt hour. The Energy Cost Calculator allows you to determine how much your devices are using over a year and the cost. It really is amazing how just a few cents a day saved on a single device can add up to quite a bit over the year.

When comparing electricity prices don’t forget to compare the Service to Property Charge as well. The best approach is to take a couple of bills and do the calculation for each bill with each of the electricity retailers you are thinking of using. I’ve seen some retailers with quite high Service to Property charges, whilst their usage rate compares well or better than others, it was when the full calculation was done they were shown to be worse than a higher usage rate.

With basic changes to our families electricity usage we’ve move than halved our electricity bill and now use around 6.5kWh per day. By using a low cost power meter and the Energy Cost Calculator, I was able to determine which devices were using how much energy, the cost per year, and with some basic changes, we now make considerable ongoing savings.

You can check out the Energy Cost Calculator at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Outlook Express French spell check (spelling check) fix for British and Australian users

If you’ve installed Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2010, then you’ll now find the spelling check in Outlook Express only offers French spelling as an option. The options of English (United Kingdom) and English (United States) are no longer available. The other situation is if you’ve set up or purchased a computer and never installed a Microsoft application such as Office or Works, then the Outlook Express spelling check will also not be available.

Both of these situations are easily fixed using a program I’ve written. The program provides American spelling and British spelling. Whilst British spelling is sufficient for Australian users, those who have access to an older version of Office 97 or Word 97, are also provided with instructions on how to obtain the Australian dictionary so they can have Australian English spelling.

You can find the program at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oespellcheck/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

PS. There is no such word as “spell check” with the space between the words. This is now very common because it is incorrectly suggested by most spellcheckers.