Security Services | Site Design & Management

• Secure Set Up
• Rates
• Viral Extermination
• Rates

Secure Computer Installation and Set Up

We will hook up your computer, install all peripherals, and initiate your internet connection. We will install an excellent and automatically updating security system with full anti-virus and firewall protection as well as pro-active malware and threat prevention that you will be able to run for 30 days to evaluate whether or not you want to keep it before having to pay that company for future protection. We will install a current "hosts" file to help prevent infection from accidentally visited malware sites or inadvertantly clicked "bad" links. We will install a current copy of today's best anti-spyware software and set it up to "immunize" your machine and help guard against any future problems. We will set up your email client with your email addresses and give you advice on which email clients are more secure and the careful use of any email client to keep malware from getting into your computer via email.We will set up IE, as well as a second more secure browser, and give you advice as as to securing this possible entry point from malware. Lastly, we will optimize your new copy of Windows to run both faster and more securely than it is, unfortunately, set up to run "out of the box".

While we can't guarantee that someone won't be able to find a way to get into trouble with the machine we will leave you with, we will certainly hand you the controls of a machine that is optimized to run safely and securely, as well as quickly and smoothly, in today's potentially risky but enormously rewarding online environment.

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Viral Extermination

In all cases: We will come to your home or office and assess what the situation with your computer is in its current installation, on site. Depending on the result of our assessment we will then either proceed with Option A or B.

Option A

1. We will make a preliminary scan of your computer and run a minimum of two cleaner tool scans, attempting to purge your machine on site of the malware.
2. We will run another scan of your computer and assess the log of that scan, comparing it to the original scan to determine the success of the first attempts.
3. If the cleaning has been successful, we will make a final run with two cleaning tools, making sure all remnants of the infection are gone. We will then put the computer back online and go through a testing routine, giving it every chance to exhibit any evidence of lingering infection. (If any problems remain we will go to "B")
4. If all is well, you can either take over from here or we can proceed with our Secure Computer Installation and set-up routine for you. If opt for the latter, we will install a current "hosts" file to help prevent either recurrance of the same problem or infection from newly visited malware sites. We will install a current copy of today's best anti-spyware software and set it up to "immunize" your machine and help guard against future problems. If you don't have a current security program running or if you are unsatisfied with your current anti-virus (which will be likely if you need our service in the first place) we will install an excellent security system with full anti-virus and firewall protection as well as pro-active malware and threat prevention that you will be able to run for 30 days to evaluate whether or not you want to keep it before having to pay that company for future protection. We will also assess your email program and your browser and give you advice as needed as to securing those possible entry points from malware.

Option B

If our original assessment determines that we can't help you with your machine on site, or if the results of the first two steps of option A are unsuccessful we will then request that you allow us to...

1. Remove your computer from your home (or office) and bring it back to the Captain's Lab where we have more resources and where, while we run long and time consuming processes on your computer we are free to do other things rather than bill you for endless hours of watching scans run.
2. Once here, we will hook your machine up in a protected environment and run a battery of tests and scans on it, then make every attempt possible to safely remove the infection and return your computer to a working state. If we are successful at this, we will then immunize your computer as detailed above in step 4 and then return it to your home or office and re-install it for you, leaving you with a working computer and joy in your heart.
3. If, as is always possible in the case of some malware infections, the cleaning of your machine is either impossible or will consume more time (and cost more money) than the replacement value of the computer, we will advise you of this before running you up a bill that exceeds the value of the patient. We will, if you want, perform data recovery on your machine, often being able to recover and save all of the data you have on the machine without saving any of the malicious infection. You will then often have the option of reformatting your original hard drive and re-installing Windows, effectively starting over with that computer. Sometimes, the most cost effective thing is to just replace the computer with a new one, computer prices have dropped dramatically over the last few years and often you can replace a five year old machine with a better one that costs a fraction of what the old machine cost.
4. All along the line we will keep you informed and allow you to make the decision as to what the next step you want to take is, keeping you aware of what the cost is going to be for you both if we continue to work on your old machine or if you choose to replace it.

Our interest is in building a relationship with our customers which will last over time and will be beneficial to both of us over the long term. We are not interested in trying to get the most out of you due to your unfortune in being infected with some malicious program and will do our best to get you back up and running with a minimum of time on our part and financial investment on yours. However, running scans, deep cleaning, doing research into new viral infections, worms, trojans, root kits, and other malicious programs, all take time and we do have to bill for our time. We will be honest and up front with you from the outset but you must be aware from the start that cleaning up the maliciously clever little programs that some malicious individuals have released into the computing world takes time, effort, energy and determination...and will not often be cheap.

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Set Up Rates

Secure Set Up

We charge a flat rate of $150.00 for the Secure Computer Installation and Set-Up described above with a single non-networked computer, single internet connection, single monitor, single printer and two email addresses. More complex set-ups will be charged additional hourly rate.

Virus Removal and Repair Rates

Initial Call Out

On site evaluation and scan: $100 which includes travel to and from your location and up to one hour of on site scanning and cleaning.

Further On Site Work

$60/hour billed in half hour increments. This pretty much includes any and all time we spend at your location beyond the first hour. If we have been successful in our initial attempts to clean your machine, we won't charge for the security programs we will install as part of our service but we do charge for the time we work on your machine from start to finish.

For on-site work, payment is due when we leave your location. We will give you an invoice before we leave and we prefer to leave with check in hand although we are flexible with prior or current customers.

Work In our Lab

Okay, it's not a lab. It is a space in my office.

We charge $60 per hour billed in 15 minute increments and we only bill for time actually spent with your computer (or your problem) in our actual hands or control. For instance, if we initiate a scan that takes two hours to complete, we will only charge you for the few minutes it takes to set up the scan and then the time it takes to evaluate the scan once it is finished. You won't (as you would if we were at your location) have to pay us to twiddle our thumbs while we wait for the scan (or cleaning run) to complete.

For off site work, payment is due when we return your computer to you. We will give you an invoice at that point and payment is due at that time, although again we are flexible with prior or current customers.

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Things We Won't Charge For

We will not charge you for further unsuccessful attempts to clean your infected machine once we return it to our office, set it up and make the intitial attempt to clean it. If we feel we might be able to still get things cleaned out but aren't sure, we will take on the risk of being unsuccessful and not billing you for the additional attempts. We will not charge you for returning a recovered, cleaned or repaired machine to your location and for re-installing it the way it was when we first encountered it. We will not charge you for returning to you a machine that we have made every attempt to repair but have been unsuccessful and, if you wish, we will re-install the machine at your location and leave it as we found it initially with no extra charges.

If you choose to have us do any other work, any additional installations or evaluations at that point we will charge $60/hour, billed in half hour increments, for any additional time spent beyond returning and re-installing the original computer.

Malware changes daily and while we keep informed, read many sites and belong to numerous forums and associations that deal in spyware and malware eradication, new variations and completely new viruses and worms still appear daily. We may have to spend time consulting with security firms, software companies, malware forums or other resources in order to fully understand and completely eradicate whatever infection you have picked up on your computer. We will bill you for this time only as it applies directly to your specific problem. We won't bill for time spent going in other directions while your computer scan runs, but we will bill you for our time researching the best and safest way to eradicate your particular infection from your particular computer if it is something we aren't already familiar with.

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