General Tips-

I have some advice for people who, if your like me, like to keep their pc in excellent shape. So here are a few good recommendations:

1) A good thing to have is experience/knowledge or common sense of the net, as it can be a dangerous place... ( At least for your pc anyway .) If a link looks suspicious then don't click it. If a site is full of things asking to be downloaded that are from a questionable source and or doesn't state the source then you might wanna be sure of what your doing, remember most software makers hold no liability for what happens to your pc.

2) Anti-virus - if you use the internet at all then you need anti virus, plain and simple. Make sure its an anti-virus provider with regular updates or auto-updates which keep your pc protected at all times, norton antivirus or mcaffee antivirus are probably the best paid programs.

3) A registry cleaner- always good to have because after a while all the programs you install and uninstall will clog up the registry causing slow downs errors and sometimes crashes.

4) Spyware cleaner - along the lines of anti-virus protection, you should also have a spyware remover if you use the net with any frequency. Spyware is more of a pain than anything but some spyware can be sent by malicious people, out to collect info on you that shouldn't be made known to them ( credit card #'s for example ) a good spyware remover is Lavasoft Ad-aware or Spybot: search and destroy.

5) A firewall- what better way to protect your pc than by making it harder for hackers to get into your pc. You should, if you haven't already, enable the windows xp firewall (it isn't much but it is better than nothing.) But you should also have an additional firewall, such as sygate or norton system works comes with one ( I think, if not symantec does have a firewall.)

6) Disk check is a good idea, it makes sure every thing on your computer is in the right place, its worth a shot if a program won't open or takes a long time to run.

7) Defrag is useful and should be performed atleast once a month. What it does is puts things back in their proper places, freeing up room and making the computer run more efficiently (instead of having to look in 8 places for files it may only have to look in 2.)

8) Scheduler- if you know your not gonna be around, instead of having to take valuable time to do all these tasks, why not set one or 2 (depending on hd size and cpu speed) to run while your away? this way when you come back they'll be finished and your comp should be working a little faster. (Just a note, be sure you have enough time to perform the tasks, a virus scan can take 3 hrs depending on a variety of factors, and with other tools you should know roughly how long each takes to finish.)

Online Gaming-

Online gaming... I'm sure you know someone who does this, and while its a great source of fun, be sure to keep your pc protected. As while your not actively tending to the hidden functions of your computer, someone else may be. As it takes only a few minutes for someone to hack your computer, and trust me it happens on a fairly regular basis, so what do you do if you do get hacked or suspect your getting hacked? Well here are my suggestions:

1) Cut the internet ASAP- A hacker can't stay connected to your computer if your not online. The hacker may try and provent a disconnect by disabling your disconnect feature or you may not have enough time to prevent the hack, so just pull the internet cable from the back. This results in an instant disconnect. And with the physical removal of the cable, there is nothing a hacker can do with his software or skills to prevent it.

2) Leave your net disconnected until you can verify that your system is clean and your firewall/net safety will protect you when you do go online again.

3) Run virus scan and spyware removal tools IMMEDIATELY, to prevent further spread of possible infections.

4) Alert any other users of the computer of infection, so they don't accidentially reconnect and allow any hackers to pick up where they left off.

5) If you dont have the proper tools to remove the infection, you can get them. Typically you can buy newer virus software for 80$ that includes virus protection, firewall, adware/spyware removal among other useful features. Or if you can use another computer, then you can use it to find out how to remove the infection ( by checking www.symantec.com , www.mcaffee.com or even just googling the name of the virus if you know it.) and download any tools you may need to remove the virus. (Such as AVG and the latest updates to install manually.)

Links-

Ok, I've said never click a link you don't trust well, but how can you tell if you should trust it? Well here's how I judge links, and it's worked out pretty well so far for me:

1) If it came from an email:
- Did it not have the official marks of the company ?
- And not provide contact information? (Or have incorrect or questionable contact info?)
- Did the link look even slightly different from an official link?*
- Were there spelling or grammar mistakes?
- Did it ask for money or say you had won some?
- Did it ask for confidential information?
- If it did come from a company was it one that your not a subscriber to or have no affiliation in any way with?
- Was it trying to solicit you something?

2) If a friend sent it to you via msn or other instant messaging system:
- Did it end in an .pif ( for picture ) or a format you've never seen?
- Did it end in .exe?
- When asked what it was did they give only a vague description, none or repeated something over again ( such as "it's cool just click it" )
- Did they open the conversation different than they normally would? (Like by saying hey see this image of me, or image of you... Especially if you know that you've never shared your picture with this person, and they haven't shared theirs with you.)
- Does the link resolve to someplace other than imageshack or photobucket/some other well known image host ?
- Are they persistent in sending it? (That is if you close the chat window and wait a bit will they resend it? If so they have a virus and it's trying to send itself you you, they may or may know know they're infected so it can be nice just to let them know they have a virus so they don't infect more people or they can warn others not to accept links from them until further direct notice.)

3) if you come across it in a web page:
- Does it cleary indicate where the link leads to?
- Does the site your already on auto spawn popups or attempt to load spyware?
- Is the link cloaked or shortened?

If you answer yes to any of these questions AVOID THAT LINK, it most likely is malicious, intent on wreaking havoc on your computer.

*(You can check this by using the mouse to hover over the link and it'll display the address of the link in the status bar at the bottom of the screen in IE and Opera. Then google for the name of the company to get their official website and compare the links by copy and pasting them into an empty notepad document, one directly over the other so you can compare letter by letter to see if they match. If even 1 letter is off, it's best to avoid the link as even one letter is enough to send you to a completely different site.)

Holidays and Hackers... Never a good combination.

The holidays... a time for people to relax and spend time with their families, to have fun and play games. But be careful, during the holidays hackers are out in larger numbers. Why? because it is a season where people are buying things online, playing games over the net, visiting forums or just plain looking at stuff on the net. And basically using the computers more than most other season. ( Due to the time off ) well bringing this back to my point, with more hackers on the net during the day and into the wee hours ( and all over the globe ) your computer could be at constant threat, so best tip is when your not at your computer:

1.) Disconnect from the internet- why? because hackers can't connect to your computer if your not online.
or as an alternative if you won't be at your computer for several hours set the computer to hibernate mode (in XP on start menu click shut down, then hold shift and the stand by button will become hibernate, keep holding shift and click the hibernate button )

2.) If you can't disconnect from the net for certain reasons, ensure your firewall and security measures are up to date and functioning.

Thats all well during the day... but at night the best advice is just turn your computer off. Why? because then it doesn't consume power all night, and it gets a chance to have a break because if it never shuts down it will burn out faster. (Like anything really.) Plus shutting down cleans the ram and allows the computer to put things back in order as it shuts down, this keeps your computer working better for longer. (As well as it saves you some money because it's not consuming as much, if any, power.)

Hoaxes and Real Threats

This time the topic is Hoaxes and how can you tell if its a hoax or not.
If your like me, you have well meaning but uninformed family members who pass on these hoaxes, thus helping pass false messages to warn people over non-existing threats and work people up about these. Well how can one tell if its a hoax or not?

Here is how:
The best way to tell if a virus is a hoax or not is to check either Mcaffee's ( or Norton's ) online database ( just try seaching for the virus' name or any key desciptive things. For this hoax I searched for olympic torch, and it showed me the exact email. ) Or you can look in the news ( www.cnn.com or another one like that ) to see if such a virus exists ( as they usually report on the latest big viruses, that you have to worry about, such as the just passed karma sutra worm ).
The links for the antivirus sites are:
norton-www.symantec.com
mcaffee-http://www.mcafee.com/us/
Just use the search bar on the page and it should find it.


But while you're in your email box, what you should beware of is to never open any attachments from people you don't know or (even if its from some one you know) if the attachment is an .exe type file or a .pif file (or a file type you've never seen before) also be aware that some people try using tricks like making an image file have 2 endings ( such as this example time.jpg.exe ).

And I'll say it again. (Do you think maybe its important?)
But other than that the best way to stay virus free is have a virus scanner that is regularly updated and perform weekly system scans to make sure all is good, it also is a good idea to have a firewall and a spyware remover.

You can get a pretty good antivirus for free (for personal use) from AVG. AVG antivirus (Just note that a free antivirus possibly isn't quite as good as a paid one because they oft update a bit slower, so you just have to be a bit more cautious, but on the upside they are free and they typically do remove viruses just as well as the paid ones.)

You can get a free spyware scanner from Spybot search and destroy
or www.lavasoft.de go to adware personal under the product listing on the left. (It is one of the ones I use.)

And for firewall
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/cata...d=dbtopnav_zass
yet again a free program for personal use, so take advantage of these to help keep your computer protected from malicious intent.

( I apologise if I sound like an advertiser for these programs but they are pretty good. )

And if you really want better protection, buy the security suites from either mcaffe or another brand name you trust (just use google or cnet.com to do some research on which is the best antivirus to buy before spending you hard earned dollars.) Just don't forget to protect yourself.

Viral Suspicions...

I (suspect I) have a virus on my computer, what can I do?

Ok, the first things your going to want to know is this:
Don't EVER reinstall windows because of a virus, for these reasons-
1- it takes too long (it can take over 6 hours to format the hard drive and then install a clean copy of windows.)

2- There is no guarantee a format will clean it. (Some viruses are too persistent and can survive a format, this happened to a friend of mine... twice. And he knew it was the virus surviving because that computer had no net connection and he was only installing Windows certified software... which was clean.)

3- Once you re-install windows you have to update everything IMMEDIATELY (which again can take a few hours depending on your net speed) or you run the risk of getting another virus instantly. (Fun fact, a computer connected to the internet without protection can be compromised in under 20 seconds, regardless of whether the user does anything or not.)

4- it's far easier to get rid of the problem once you clearly identify whats causing it.

So then to find out the problem your going to need an antivirus...
You can buy one... McAffee for example (Though I recommend avoiding Norton.) Or you can download a free virus scanner from AVG.
(It's free and fairly high quality, I recommend it over Norton. And it's available Here, at AVG's website.)

Now obviously you have to install the antivirus. Once you have that done it's time to update to the latest released version to ensure any virus will be more easily detected/removed.

Once you're all updated, then it's time to scan the computer. So do that and if it finds anything it'll likely tell you, if it can't remove it then you'll atleast have the name of the virus.

So now that you have a name for it, google the name and see what comes up, usually within the first few pages will be a link to either a forum or a website detailing what the virus is and the exact instructions on how to remove it. Save those instructions to your computer and then follow them EXACTLY.

A few tips on virus removal as well:
1- Disable system restore... it just messes up virus removal. (The virus may get backed up by system restore and then later returns to plague you again. If you have a system restore point thats during a time when you suspected you had a virus, delete it and make a fresh one as soon as your certain your virus free.)

2- DO NOT run multiple anti-virus programs. Running AVG and McAffee may seem like a good idea, but in actuality it isn't, they just interfere with each other and cause more headaches that they're worth.

3- Know thy enemy. Once you have the virus' name you can easily search for the exact removal method, despite how scary or intimidating ot may be, it's far better to go through with it than to let a virus run loose on your computer for any length of time.

4- Disable your internet connection after you know your antivirus is fully updated and you have your removal instructions saved. This is just to prevent reinfection or in the case of a trojan to prevent the hacker from trying anything to stop you.

5- Be aware of how viruses are transmitted and where you likely got it, thus so you can avoid regetting it.

Big Brother's watching you... (Or your net has a nanny...)

Ok, so you have small kids or a lot of people using your computer, and short of blocking the internet completely off how do you control who can access what?

Well there are net nanny programs out there that will effectively allow you to control who can access what kind of sites.

So in this installment I'll examine what and why you might be interested in one.

Why is the simple part. Say you have a child, and you want to let them use the net but you don't want to have to be standing over their shoulder all the time while they use the net, so what are you to do?
Like I said earlier a net nanny program is excellent here.
They also work well if you have alot of people in your house to share the internet but you don't want them going to questionable sites, polluting your computer with spam, viruses, trojans and spyware. So you can restrict what they can access and most likely save yourself a few headaches in the process.

An EXCELLENT program that I can wholeheartedly recommend is this one:
PGsurfer
I'll caution that while it is free, when you go to install it, it will ask you to register a valid email so it can send you an activation code so it will work, it is entirely free and works incredibly well so if you do have need for a net nanny program then don't hesitate to use this one as for getting a fully featured program, giving them your email address is a very small price, and they rarely ever mail you anything so it's not a big deal at all. But aside from that, the program is free and is extremely simple to install.

So there we have a program, it is a free program, but how does it work and what exactly does it do?
It works by restricting access to the internet entirely, the administrator must then go in and manually set up atleast 2 accounts.
1- the administrators so they can control the other accounts, and make full use of the internet.
2- the restricted user(s) someone who will be restricted and thus be affected by having the program there.
After the accounts are created, the admin can then completely customize what the restricted account can and cannot access, from the programs on the computer to the very keywords that are and are not allowed on the computer.
If a user tries to enter a restricted word or enter a restricted site the program will automatically block it with a message to the extent of:
"Sorry, but you cannot enter this site" or "Sorry that keyword is restricted."

This also works fairly well for if you want to have a communal computer but don't want your buddies/family going to certain sites. (Say Uncle Steve has a nasty habit of ordering stuff off eBay using your computer. This can be useful to keep him off your pc by removing his access to eBay, or whatever site you want. )

Online Virus Scanners??...

Most of this comes from my own personal experiences with computers... (Especially the virus removal... Had to do that several times. Including twice after my computer was hacked while my brother was playing an online game of Starcraft.)

And speaking of viruses again... If for some reason you suspect a file of being a virus, but your anti-virus isn't reporting it as one but your still suspiscous you can use one of these free online virus scanners to check it.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus
http://onlinescan.avast.com/
http://virusscan.jotti.org/

(Just remember not to upload any personal files to them as they do have to be sent across the internet. )

Another few reasons that these online scanners are good are that:
1- They're free, and you can use them as much as you like. Just be aware that they won't remove the virus from your system, they'll just detect the virus and give you a name. (Which as I said earlier may be all you need to get rid of it.)

2- It can help you determine if your antivirus' virus data has become corrupted (I've had this happen to me as well, went several months with no working antivirus. The program could scan and self diagnose if there were problems, but they always came back good because the datafiles on what good was, were corrupt and couldn't be accessed.)

3- These online antivirus scanners don't interfere with your on system antivirus. (I'm not entirely sure why, possibly it has something to do with the removal aspect which causes issues for installed antivirus programs.)

4- They can also help rule out false positives. Say you had a file you thought legit, but the antivirus says otherwise, if you scan it with several of the online ones it can either confirm its a virus or show that it's just a false positive. (Any installed antivirus typically has heuristics to help pick out yet unknown viruses based on typical viral tendencies, and sometimes files may trigger the heuristics even thought they are legit files, but have one line of code which may be similar to what a virus may have.) Every antivirus scans and detects viruses slightly differently, so if all your attempts say virus, then it might be best to avoid it.