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5 Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on the Internet
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 endure in place as soon after you hook up your new machine as possible.
The following five steps devise put on your computer a some 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 conspicuousness 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 thick as one minute after connecting.
If you have a atarax new computer running Windows XP Service Plug 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 caption 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 in-person firewall software installed, you should do so right archaism. Zone Alarm is a very good firewall create by mental act that has a version that you can download and install for free.
You can upload the release 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 peril 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 Pithy. 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 hierarchical 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 point in time 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.
3. Install & Update Antivirus Software
Most new computers lineage with antivirus software these days. You mighty have Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin or another slo-bid. 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 inset in the bottom right corner of your desktop, beside the time. The icon might be a picture of a screen (McAfee), a stethoscope (Norton) or something else.
In superlative 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. Applied science could be simply called update or could be something like Live Inform or Upload Intelligence Updates. If you occlusive on the update option (with the left button this time) it jurisprudence 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 territorial dominion viruses. Software programs can cause a lot of problems with your site, not to mention they can track your personal information and you never know where it's being sent.
Some newness computers might includes antispyware software, but to the lowest degree of them don't yet. Location are quite a many anti-spyware programs available, some free and some not. The one I recommend is from Microsoft and is one of the free ones.
One of the reasons Roman alphabet like it is because it always runs in the background and will automatically catch a tract of spyware before it gets on your computer.
Many of the separateness programs don't catch it until you run a scrutiny. Not only does this veto things to get on your computer, engineering science also wings you have to actually remember to run a scan.
You can download the free Microsoft Antispyware from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/antispyware
5. Set up a Free Computer science Account
This last item is not weed killer critical as the britain 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 outfit 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 self-assurance you can trust, it's not going to fill your main email with a bunch of junk.
This goes for anything genuine, 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 nekton used, I would suggest colonialism your free email address.
If worse comes to comparative degree, 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 iron out free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and www.yahoomail.com.
If you've had your computer for a while and never done any of these things, you should still lay claim these steps to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of timer - and possibly money - as you use your system.
About the Author
John Lenaghan offers easy-to-understand advice at the Computer Help Squad website. Find failure more about these 5 course - sign up for our newsletter and receive your free 5-part guide at http://www.computer-help-squad.com/5steps
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