6 Steps to a safer computing heaven :)
It's a sad truth, but every time you browse a web site or read your email, you are vulnerable to being attacked in some way by some of the internet underworld.
Sometimes you'll know you've been attacked but most of the time you'll be blissfully ignorant, whilst your PC is illegally used to initiate virus attacks on other users, attack web sites or store files for someone else.
The bad news is that you might already be infected, the good news is that it's not difficult to protect yourself.
The AMAZING news is that it's also FREE!!! Here's our steps to a safer computing life...
Step 1 - Get an anti-virus program
Viruses can come in many forms, but the most common these days arrive as an attachment in your email - as soon as you view the email, the attached virus is activated. Most mail viruses then send further copies of themselves to everyone in your address book, usually pretending to send the emails as someone other than you, someone chosen at random from your address book.
If you do nothing else in life, get an anti-virus program - you can spend money on a program from Norton or McAfee, but we said 'free' earlier, so why spend money when you you get a free program called AVG from http://free.grisoft.com - in tests it was as effective as both the Norton and McAfee products.
During installation, we recommend you choose all the default options, and make sure you let AVG run a virus check at startup, as well as checking your email and all files that you open.
When you complete the AVG installation, you should run an immediate scan of your PC to check for any previous infections.
By the way - let's just mention hoax viruses. These are emails purporting to tell you that there's a new virus out (it usually looks like a teddy bear!), and that you should immediately delete some specific files from your PC - DON'T DO IT!!! And don't forward the email on to all your friends as they so often beseech you to do. Instead visit the following online encyclopaedia of all known real and hoax viruses - type in some relevant keywords to search on and then act according to what information is provided:
Step 2 - Get an anti-spyware program
Spyware (aka trojans) also comes in many forms - at it's worst it can capture your credit card details or online banking passwords and send these off to someone else on the internet. At it's most distasteful it can pop-up offensive messages for you or your children to see. And the list goes on...
Spybot Search & Destroy will check you entire PC system for evidence of almost all known spyware infections and kill them...stone dead - click here for the download file.
Alternatively, Lavasoft's Adaware is another powerful anti-spyware program - click here for the download.
Why not run them both!!
Step 3 - Get a firewall
Don't worry you're not going to burn anything!! 'Firewall' is the name given to a system that monitors all communication to and from your PC and kills anything you've defined as 'bad'. Firewalls can be hardware (like a broadband router) or software, and are a little more complicated to understand, which is why some people are scared by them...but you're not chicken, are you...after all, you already know all about viruses and spyware, so a little diddy old firewall ain't gonna beat you!!
If you've got a DSL broadband connection, then your best bet is to buy a router firewall - if you buy it at the same time as ordering your ADSL connection you can save money on a DSL modem by buying a router firewall with an integrated DSL modem.
For those without broadband or those who've already bought a broadband modem, you'd better download our next favourite, which is a free software firewall called Zone Alarm - click here for the download file.
Software firewalls work by monitoring the communication traffic to and from your PC, and helping you to create rules that say what is and isn't allowed. You should be pretty safe if you allow your PC to send out any traffic, but to deny access to any incoming traffic that you've not initiated.
For example, if you type a web page in to Internet Explorer, it will make a request to your firewall to allow it to send a request over port 80 to the web site to send back the web page information, and the web site will then send a request back to the firewall to allow it to send back the web page information.
It's like chinese whispers, but without the confusion (and a lot faster!) - you phone your neighbour (the firewall) to phone his neighbour (the web site) to send you the web page. The web site (your neighbour's neighbour) phones the firewall (your neighbour) to pass on the web page. If you wanted to, you could tell your firewall (create a rule) that if you phone to speak to the firewall, to just ignore your request, or you could tell the firewall to ignore any requests to send you web pages from the web site.
In most cases you'll want to pass web pages back and forth without interruption, but imagine that you had over 32 thousand phones, and that any of those 32 thousand phones can be calling or be called by any of a several hundred million neighbours, and all this could be happening several thousand times a second - you'd probably become a monk (or a nun)!! Or you could install a firewall and limit the number of active phones and active neighbours.
Step 4 - Get a spam filter
Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail. If you want to find the cheapest place on the internet for v-i-a-g-r-a or how to enlarge things, then you'll enjoy spam as people will willingly send you hundreds of emails a day detailing such delights.
For the rest of us, spammers are a flipping nuisance and should be strung up (that's probably too good for them!). Whilst spam is now largely an inevitable part of email, (free) help is at hand in the form of spam filters, programs that check your email and highlight the ones they think are junk.
Now this isn't a straightforward process (although it's easier than understanding firewalls!!) - since how would the spam filter know whether you really did want to receive that email from Transform about implants? You'll have to train it, that's how, and as you train it, it will create rules and get more and more clever at spotting the junk.
The intelligence behind spam filtering is improving daily - our current favourite application works with both Outlook and Outlook Express and once again is FREE - it's called K9, and you should click here for the download and help files.
Step 5 - Update your PC
Microsoft often receives a lot of press for newly discovered 'vulnerabilities' in it's operating systems and applications. Historically, some of this may have been justified, but they have made huge efforts in the last 12-18 months to improve security 'out of the box' - even so, you should regularly visit the Windows Update site to check for the latest updates and patches for your PC operating system.
As a rule, we recommend installing everything they list as critical or recommended - just have it all!! It may occasionally need multiple visits, since some patches must be installed on their own, but it's really worth the effort.
Click here to go to the Windows Update site.
Step 6 - Be sensible/Don't rest on your laurels
Just as you don't open the door to people you don't know, or give strangers a lift in your car, you shouldn't open up your computer to programs or mails that aren't from a trusted source.
No anti-virus or anti-spyware program, or firewall provides 100% protection, so even though you've been responsible and followed steps 1-3 to the letter, now you need to engage the brain...
Don't open emails from people you don't know - especially if it has an attachment, and even if it is from someone you know, if you don't know why they'd be sending you an attachment, check with them first before opening it
Don't run or install programs that aren't from a trusted source - if you visit a web site and it asks you to install an application to view the web site, be VERY suspicious (unless it's something like Macromedia Shockwave or Flash!). And if you want to get in to the shady world of peer to peer file sharing using tools like Kazaa or eMule etc, then you're on your own buddy, and it's been nice knowing you!!!
Just because you've followed all the previous steps doesn't mean you can relax - there are new viruses and new spyware programs being written everyday (charming people!) - AVG offers regular (free) downloads to update your systems with the latest information - you should do this at least twice a month, if not every week.
Sure, it's a (small) inconvenience, but it's a very small price to pay for not sending us and everyone else in your address book a virus, or not being used covertly to spread spyware around or attack company or government websites.
Summary
So now you know all this, there's no reason to be anyone's fool and get infected with anything.
For more information on viruses - you might even want to subscribe to a virus alerting service - they'll send you an email whenever there are new viruses to be worried about - click here to sign up.
For an alternative approach to computer security, feel free to have a look at Microsoft's 'Protect your PC in 3 steps'.
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