Spyware, viruses and worms… oh my!

If you are connected to the internet, you need to make sure you get your computer set up properly if you want to avoid problems down the road.

With all the viruses, spyware and other threats on the internet today, no computer should be set up without the proper protection.

And that protection needs to be in place as soon after you hook up your new machine as possible.

The following five steps will make your computer a much harder target for threats. You still won’t be completely immune to problems, but 99% of the time the threat will pass you by, looking for the easy mark.

1. Running a Personal Firewall

A personal firewall is software that basically makes your computer invisible to hackers, worms and other threats that can infect your computer over the internet.

Setting up a firewall is the absolute first thing you should do if you’re going to connect to the internet. Without a firewall, your computer could get infected in as little as one minute after connecting.

If you have a brand new computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2, there is a firewall built into Windows. It will already have been turned on when you first set up your computer.

If you’re running an older version of Windows, even an earlier version of Windows XP, there is no firewall automatically set up for you. In this case there are two possibilities:

- Your computer came pre-loaded with a firewall such as Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security
- You have no firewall installed and should download one ASAP.

If you don’t have any personal firewall software installed, you should do so right away. Zone Alarm is a very good firewall program that has a version that you can download and install for free.

You can download the free version of Zone Alarm from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/zonealarm

2. Turn on Windows Updates

Again, if you’re running Windows XP Service Pack 2 this is already set up, but otherwise you should turn on Windows Updates. Microsoft releases updates for security problems and other bugs in Windows on a regular basis.

These updates will keep your computer running better, and they often fix security issues that could compromise your information or privacy.

If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can double-check that automatic updates are turned on by clicking Start, then click Control Panel, then double-click Security Center. The window that opens will tell you if automatic updates are turned on, and lets you turn them on if they’re not.

To turn on automatic updates in earlier versions of Windows XP, click on the Start menu, click Control Panel and then double-click on System. On the “Automatic Updates” tab, click the option to “Automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify.”

To turn them on in Windows 2000, click on Start, click Control Panel and then double-click on Automatic Updates. Again, click the option to “automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify.”

Now when Microsoft releases updates, they will be downloaded for you automatically and Windows will tell you when they are ready to be installed.

Make sure you have “System Restore” turned on (it is by default). If anything should go wrong with an update, you can restore your computer to the way it was before the update.

3. Install & Update Antivirus Software

Most new computers come with antivirus software these days. You might have Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin or another brand. No matter what program you have, you will need to update it when you get connected to the internet.

It doesn’t matter how new your computer is – there will be new viruses, and new updates for the antivirus software, since it was loaded.

The exact process is different for each brand of antivirus program, but most of them will have an icon in the bottom right corner of your desktop, beside the time. The icon might be a picture of a shield (McAfee), a stethoscope (Norton) or something else.

In most cases, if you point to the icon for your antivirus and click the right mouse button, a menu will pop up with an update option. It could be simply called update or could be something like Live Update or Download Latest Updates. If you click on the update option (with the left button this time) it will install the newest updates for you.

If you’re not sure which icon is for your antivirus software, just point to each one for a few seconds and a little title should pop up telling you what it is.

4. Install Anti-Spyware Software

Spyware – and other things known as adware and malware – is becoming as big a problem as viruses. Spyware programs can cause a lot of problems with your computer, not to mention they can track your personal information and you never know where it’s being sent.

Some new computers might includes antispyware software, but most of them don’t yet. There are quite a few anti-spyware programs available, some free and some not.

5. Set up a Free Email Account

This last item is not as critical as the first four, but I would highly recommend you set up an email account with one of the free services like Hotmail or Gmail.

Once you’re on the internet, you’ll find a lot of useful information that you want that requires you to provide an email address. In some cases, these people will end up sending you a bunch of spam.

If you use a free email account to sign up for anything that you don’t know for sure you can trust, it’s not going to fill your main email with a bunch of junk.

This goes for anything really, not just online information. If you’re entering a contest or signing up for anything offline and you don’t know where your information could end up being used, I would suggest using your free email address.

If worse comes to worse, and your free email address gets inundated with spam, you can always just set up a new one and let the old one expire.

Some of the better free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and mail.yahoo.com.

OK, I saved the best for last.

We talked about Firewalls, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software. Instead of installing 3 different software programs that may or may not conflict with each other you may want to consider Pc-Cillin Security Pro.

Pc-Cillin Security Pro has a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware all built into one program. It’s what I use and what I recommend to all my clients.

There is an old saying, you get what you pay for. When protecting your computer I would not leave it up to free software BUT that doesn’t mean you have to pay full retail either! Click Here to get the best pricing on Pc-cillin.

If you’ve had your computer system for a while and never done any of these things, you should still take these steps to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of time – and possibly money – as you use your system.

 

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Are you having problems with your computer? You would be surprised with the number of people who are having difficulties with their systems because of spyware. Once these malicious programs get a foothold on your computer, they not only begin to cause problems for you, they can open up the door and allow others to install themselves.

The problem with spyware goes much deeper than pop-up windows and a slow system. If you don’t realize that you are having this problem, and they can be silently running in the background, stealing your passwords and monitoring everything that you do on the Internet.

Ever since spyware first started to become a problem, there have been several different ways to deal with it. Some people simply give up and take their computer into a repair shop in order to have the spyware removed. Although, they can get rid of the programs, it is also expensive and you can be without your computer for a couple of weeks before they are finished.

Fortunately, there are some spyware removal products available that can walk you through the entire process. Choosing the one that is right for you, however, can be a little bit difficult because of all of the options that are available. Here are three ways to choose the best spyware removal software so that you can begin enjoying a clean computer again.

The first thing that you’re going to need to look for is something that is automated. Some of these spyware removal tools are downloaded to your computer, run a scan and then automatically remove any spyware that is installed. This can be very convenient and is certainly one I would recommend for anybody that is not very technical. You may need to run this tool on occasion to make sure that no new problems have come up but these tools are generally pretty good at recognizing new spyware that is been installed and alerting you to the fact that they are there.

Another thing that you should consider whenever you are looking at spyware removal software is if the program runs in the background or not. Most people find that having anti-spyware tools constantly scanning their computer is a great idea, particularly if they spend a lot of time surfing the Internet or downloading software.

A spyware removal tool that runs in the background stands guard over your computer like a little sentry, making sure that no new programs are installed. If you have the resources available on your computer, this can be an excellent choice because once spyware gets a foothold in your system, you can have a difficult time getting rid of it.

Finally, you’re going to need to decide if you are going to pay for spyware removal or not. There are some free programs out there which can do a fairly decent job of removing spyware but they are not going to be able to help with some of the more difficult programs. As with anything else, you typically get what you pay for. Before you make your decision, make sure that you take the possibility of paying for product into consideration.

I ran a brick and mortar computer repair store for several years and I can say without any doubt that the best anti-virus, spyware and security package on the market is Pc-cillin. Don’t pay retail prices for Pc-cillin; click here to get below wholesale prices on 1 and 3 user licence versions of Pc-cillin.

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Here is a list of the more common command-line utilities that you should find useful while trouble shooting your network.

 

TCP/IP Command-Line Tolls

Command	Description
IPCONFIG	Displays the basic local host configuratioon – IP address,the subnet address, the subnet mask and default gateway.
PING	Sends a test packet to a specified address.If all is well, it will return. Use the loopback address (127.0.0.1) to test the IP architecture and configuration.
ARP	Used to see the entries in the Address Resolution table.
ROUTE	Use to see the local routing table and to add entries to it. Use ROUTE PRINT to display contents, ROUTE ADD to add entries and ROUTE DELETE to remove entries.
NBSTAT	Used to check the resolutions of NetBIOS names to TCP/IP addresses.
NETSTAT	Used to check the status of current IP connections.
TRACERT	Used to verify the route to a remote host,
NSLOOKUP	Used to verify entries on a DNS derver.