If you’ve been a victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government’s one-stop resource for identity theft victims. The site provides streamlined checklists and sample letters to guide you through the recovery process.

If you haven’t been a victim, read these tips to help keep your identity from being stolen or compromised in the first place: Prevent Identity Theft.

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If you have a free Yahoo or AT&T/Yahoo email account and use the forwarding feature to send your email to another email address (i.e. username@gmail.com), you may have noticed that forwarding stopped in January 2021.

As Yahoo’s help article explains, you can upgrade and pay for the ability to forward your email again. Alternatively you can use a feature in Gmail and other email services to check emails from Yahoo (or other) accounts and bring them into your favorite email service automatically.

Also see: Why you should ditch your internet service provider’s email service.

Cell phones operating on the T-Mobile and AT&T networks will stop working soon (as early as January 2021) if they don’t support the 4G/LTE calling standard VoLTE (Voice over LTE). Cell phones without VoLTE support on the Verizon network will stop working in 2022.

If you have an older non-compatible phone hopefully you’ve already been contacted by your carrier to arrange for a replacement. But if you only turn on your cell phone occasionally for emergency use, chances are that you may not know about the impending inability to make phone calls. If the last sentence describes your phone usage, now is the time to check with your wireless phone service provider.

Need help with your mobile device? We can help – just contact us. Also read How to improve wireless cell coverage at home.

Adobe Flash Player – not to be confused with Adobe (PDF) Reader – in the last decade had been the most common method of viewing video and animation files in the web browser. But the latest web coding standards includes the ability to play videos and animations natively – without the need for a browser extension or add-on.

In July 2017 Adobe announced it would no longer support Flash Player at the end of 2020, and recently all major web browsers have blocked or completely removed the ability to play Flash content. Around that time many security vulnerabilities plagued the software and it became a common vector for spreading malware through the computer browser.

What can you do if the web content you are trying to view says it requires Flash Player? Nothing – it’s up to the website developer to reprogram the site with modern standards that doesn’t require Flash Player.

A massive government and business computer hack was discovered early this month (December 2020), but the long term effects likely won’t be known for months or years as more knowledge is obtained about what companies were affected and what data may have been (or will be) breached.

Early details of the hack are explained in these comprehensive articles from CNN and CNET. The hack was spread to thousands of computer systems, altogether likely containing the private data of a majority of US citizens. That data may be compromised and leaked to miscreants if the data on those computer systems was not securely stored or encrypted. Hackers may be holding onto such data for months or years to come.

So what should the home computer user do?

• Change your passwords ASAP: Data breaches usually contain email addresses and sometimes passwords. If you use the same password for different websites, you are more vulnerable to having your other accounts hacked. Click here to read the top 5 password tips that you need to know.
• Make sure all of your devices are up to date: By default Windows and MacOS computers update automatically. But other internet connected software and hardware usually require manual updates – such as iOS, iPadOS, Android, internet routers, video doorbells and cameras, streaming media players, etc. If you need help making sure all of your internet connected devices have the latest security patches, please contact us.
• Be suspicious of every email, phone call, SMS or browser pop-up: Initially do not trust any unsolicited email, phone call, SMS or pop-up in your web browser – particularly if it’s asking you to do something. Treat everything as “guilty until proven innocent”. See how to recognize scams and phishing attempts, and for more information review all of our security articles.

When you are trying to print something from your computer and the printer doesn’t respond or the pages come out half-printed or blank, below are some troubleshooting tips to help you figure out what the problem could be and how to fix it.

• Are pages blank, have streaks or not printing some colors? It’s likely that one or more of your ink cartridge colors are out-of-ink or ink has dried out in the printing mechanisms. Print this test page, then compare the printed output vs. what you see on your screen. If all colors don’t look good on paper, try cleaning the print heads via the printer’s maintenance menu or replacing the ink cartridges. If this is a common occurance you may also want to consider getting a laser printer – or moving to a more humid climate. 😀
• Is there no response from your printer when trying to print? Make sure that you are printing to the correct printer before clicking “Print”. Often there will be several copies of your printer – usually a wired/USB, and a wireless connection. You will also likely have a PDF printing option, and may have other printers on your network display in your list of printers.
• Is your wireless printer working sporadically? Wireless printing problems are one of our most frequent calls for service. Often Wi-Fi interference will cause the printer to no longer be reachable on the network. Sometimes simply powering off/on your printer and computer will fix the problem. In some cases you may need to turn off and unplug the power to printer for about a minute. After plugging it back in and turning it on, try printing again.

If you’re still having printing problems, contact us for an on-site printer and/or Wi-Fi diagnostic.

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To help pass the time while sheltering or quarantining at home, check out these websites to view live video of webcams featuring scenery and nature.

• EarthCam – A website and also available as an app on various devices
• EarthCamTV – Random webcams around the globe displayed on a schedule
• earthTV – Also available as a live streaming YouTube channel
• Explore.org livecams – Watch nature and animals
• WindowSwap – See random views from Windows throughout the world
• Reno area live webcams – A comprehensive list of location and traffic cameras
• 511 Home – Local road and traffic cameras viewable on a map

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This may happen to you: A few times each month I get an email delivered to my junk/spam folder from an address such as 7755551212@txt.att.net. If I happen to recognize the 10-digit phone number before the “@” symbol I can recognize who it’s from, and respond accordingly. But often times it goes unnoticed or unopened.

When sending messages from a smartphone you typically have 2 options – a “Messages” app and an “Email” app.

The Messages app is meant for sending short messages – usually 160 characters or less – to the recipient’s phone number. The message can be accompanied by one or more photos. If you incorrectly send a message to an email address, it goes through your wireless carrier’s SMS-to-email gateway which converts the message and appears to the recipient as an email coming from “your-mobile-number”@”your-carriers-gateway” – as described in the beginning paragraph of this article. Messages typically cannot be read on a computer – they are meant for mobile-to-mobile communications.

The Email app is meant for sending an email to the recipient’s email address. Emails can contain lots of text, photos, short videos or other attachments, and can be recognized by the recipient in their as originating from your display name and/or email address.

The next time you originate a message or email from your mobile device, make sure you are addressing the recipient in the correct app and correct format – using their 10-digit phone number or email address appropriately.

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How well can you spot a scam? Take the following quizzes to help protect yourself the next time you get an email, text message, website pop-up or phone call.

Scam Spotter

Can you spot when you’re being phished?

OpenDNS Phishing Quiz

In mid-March after people were encouraged to stay at home, Zoom became a popular platform to hold online meetings. But shortly thereafter, security researchers and pranksters found flaws in the platform. Fortunately Zoom acted quickly to fix security and privacy vulnerabilities, and change default settings to help prevent ” Zoombombing ” from unwanted participants. Therefore, Zoom is now safe while remaining easy to use.

To participate in a Zoom meeting, you’ll need a camera and microphone – which is included in all modern laptop computers and smartphones. If you don’t have a smartphone and only have a desktop computer, a separate webcam is needed to participate in the meeting so others can hear and see you (optionally). Unfortunately webcams are currently in short supply, and online sellers have been charging 2-5 times the normal ~$50 average price of a webcam.

If you only want to view and listen to the meeting (and not participate), you can use Zoom on a desktop computer without a webcam.

You don’t need to have or create a Zoom account in order to participate in a meeting. Therefore there’s no login or password information to remember, or have the chance of it being discovered due to a data breach . Accounts are only required for people that host a meeting and invite participants.

Do you need help connecting with others at a distance? We can help with most online meeting platforms like Zoom, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, Google Duo and Hangouts, Microsoft Teams and Skype, Apple’s FaceTime, etc…

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