Tuesday, April 17, 2007

AVG Free Software

I have been using AVG Free Anti-Virus software on my primary home computer for over a year now and have been thoroughly impressed. Lots of features (auto downloads of updates, scheduling feature to run your scans when you're sleeping, etc.) and they don't charge a dime. Of course they offer full featured products for a fee, but I haven't found the need to upgrade to them yet.

They also offer free spamware and rootkit prevention/removal software.

All of these free downloads can be found here.

By the way, since I have grown tired of one well-known commercial anti-virus program (never-ending annoying popups, confusing user interface, etc.) I recently removed it from both my wife's laptop and my parents' desktop and replaced it with AVG products.

By another way, I downloaded and installed this software on my family's machines using LogMeIn Free software that I reviewed here.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Fadmin Haiku #1

Unhappy fadmin
why do you question your fate?
Find joy in service

If you've seen my other blog, you know that I have a penchant for writing bad Haiku.

LogMeIn Free to the rescue

LogMeIn is one of the coolest tools I've found for helping other people with their computer problems. Instead of trying to talk to them over the phone and guide them through 20 rounds of "okay, now click on the START button, okay now go to CONTROL PANEL" LogMeIn let's you take control of their computer remotely, using a web browser. Their website is here. This is the Al Haig option for fadmins (see the section labeled "I'm in control here" to resolve any questions you have about my obscure historical reference).

The free version of LogMeIn (called, appropriately enough, LogMeIn Free) does everything I need for my simple fadmin duties but it lacks file transfer capability. There is a pro version that adds that functionality.

There are plenty of other products like this on the market - do you have once you like to use?

A place to keep all your good ideas

I have created a new Unpsun list called "Best Family IT Tools". Have a look and feel free to add your own ideas to the list.

I have another post about why I think Unpspun is so cool on another blog here.


Calling all good ideas

I've you're a fadmin, I would like to hear from you! What works? What doesn't? What's the must-have piece of software that makes fadmin work possible? If you've got product reviews, post of link to them in your comment.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Welcome

This blog is for all those people out there who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in the unenviable position of being the "resident computer expert" for their friends and family.

Like doctors and lawyers, fadmins find themselves constantly barraged by people looking for their advice. Instead of answering peoples' questions on liver spots and legal tax shelters, though, fadmins are asked to solve everyone's tech problems.