Product Review - ASUS EA-N66 Dual-Band Wireless-N900

I purchased this Access point/Repeater/Ethernet Adapter exactly a month ago. I picked it up off newegg.com refurbished for the very reasonable price of $30. After it was already on it's way I decided to read the reviews on this item: It didn't fare to well.  Many people were complaining that they had to reset it a lot due to losing connectivity to the net. I regretted not reading the reviews prior to actually purchasing it, I'm a fan of ASUS products and have had good experiences with their products and their customer service.

On to the item in question; I hooked this up as a repeater to extend our WiFi throughout the rest of the house. So, I can't really speak to the other applications of this device. It works great!  It brought my signal up to max strength throughout the rest of the house and out to the road in front of my house as well. I have not had to reset it since it was installed a month ago.

Programming and set up, was extremely easy.  I hooked it up to my PC, told it which wireless network I wanted to extend, that I wanted it to be a repeater.  Then I unhooked it, took it to a spot where the signal was at two bars of strength, plugged it into the wall, and set it on a shelf. Easy as it gets! It has a blue light bar that is visible as you walk by that if its on and solid means everything is working fine, flashing indicates there is an issue and no light means it's off. 

This was a great buy especially for a refurbished item.  I had to get the manual from the Asus website and I also did not receive the original box; so if these are a big deal to you I would suggest you buy this item new.

Malware... Again...

Lately there seems to be a lot of activity on the malware front.  It's everything from bitcoin stealing trojans to really nasty ransomware.

Note: You can get a really great way to block a ton of malware including the Cryptolocker stuff from the peeps over at Bleeping Computer:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/cryptolocker-ransomware-information#cryptoprevent

~ Thanks to Chris for bringing the cryptolocker stuff to my attention.  I (luckily?) have not had to deal with it and was only partially aware of the damage it can do!

Other than the cryptolocker stuff, the removal process isn't any different.  If you find yourself infected with any of the run of the mill stuff - check my previous post about malware removal and you'll be fine.

Next up: FBI / NSA / RANDOM SCARY GOVERNMENT AGENCY NAME HERE Ransomware

This stuff is nasty and can't be removed through regular means.  Here is the bleeping computer writeup: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-fbi-monkeypak-ransomware
They explain it and have the removal process.  You'll need a flash drive to boot up on and may need to adjust your BIOS to support booting to an external USB drive.

For those of you without a good and current antivirus - I have a question for you:
Would you have unprotected sex with a prostitute that you met in a crack den?
Here are some of my favorite antivirus progs and they have free versions that work like a champ for home users.  I personally use the BitDefender Internet Security suite but you can choose what works best for you.

Note: NEVER EVER install an antivirus if you already have one!  This includes Microsoft security essentials! It will do VERY bad things to your system.  If you are changing antivirus progs - ALWAYS UNINSTALL THE OLD ONE & REBOOT first!

BitDefender Free
Panda Cloud Free
AdAware Free Antivirus+ - Remember these guys?

I picked those three because they are lightweight & effective.  The only thing I ran into that I didn't like was that AdAware wants to add a toolbar and change your search engine to them.  Both of these things enhance your security but, they limit your web access and browsing experience.  You can however choose for it not to install the toolbar etc. during the installation.

Note: After you get you stuff cleaned up it's really important to clean up you system (ccleaner) and if you have a mechanical hard drive to defrag (defraggler or auslogics) it.

Note: Some of the free progs mentioned use cnet who has been including a lot of junkware with their installer.  Make sure you read the stuff during installation and un-check or opt out of the extra progs.  It's also really important to look at the download and make sure it's the prog you wanted.  A lot of ads have big green download buttons that install other progs.

~ Chris also brought up the fact that filehippo has almost all the same stuff that cnet does w/o the junkware integrated into the installer.  So, they're a great alternative for freeware that won't give you a bunch of stuff you don't need / want.  They're a great sight that slips through the cracks for some reason.

Good luck!

P.S - If you are unable to do this or if you're not 100% confident in doing any of this: always take it to a reputable professional and get it repaired.

Disclaimer: We are in no way responsible for you damaging your equipment, data, etc.  The aforementioned post is for informational purposes only.  Using any information found on this blog is done at your own risk!

Addendum: Preventing issues with DNS

A quick note to everyone: You can stop a ton of bad things (malware, phishing, etc.) by adjusting your DNS settings and using one of the following free providers:

Norton DNS
OpenDNS Family Safety Shield
Comodo SecureDNS

They all have great write ups on how to configure your PC / Router (protects everyone) for their individual services and they all are almost as fast as Google's free DNS servers (which are not filtered).