Protecting Your Computer on the Internet: 5 Critical Steps

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Protecting Your Computer on the Internet: 5 Critical Steps

Malicious Software, Worms, Trojans and Viruses!

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

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

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 an easier mark.

1. Using 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 your firewall is the first thing you should do if you're going to connect to the internet. Without a firewall, your computer could get infected seconds after connecting to the Internet.

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

If you're running an older version of Windows, there will be no firewall installed. In this case you should download one ASAP.

Firewall Gold is a very good firewall program that you can download and install in minutes.

You can download Firewall Gold from Firewall Gold

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.

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.

One of the better ones is Antispyware 2009. AntiSpyware 2009 is a cutting-edge anti-spyware solution. It was created by the industry's top spyware experts in order to protect your computer and your privacy, while ensuring optimal system performance. With the ability to locate, eliminate and prevent the widest range of spyware threats, AntiSpyware® 2009 is able to offer its users a safe, spyware-free computing experience; and with it's convenient automatic update feature, AntiSpyware® 2009 ensures continuous up-to-date protection. Get Antispyware 2009 here

5. Set up a Free Email Account

This last item is not as important as the first four, but It's strongly recommended that you set up an email account with one of the free services like Hotmail or Yahoo.

Once you start browsing the internet, you'll find a lot of the information that you are trying to find 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 mail or Spam.

If worst comes to worst, 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 best free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and www.yahoo.com.

Even if you've had your computer for a while and never set up any of these things, you should still take action now to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of frustration, time, and money in the long run.

Written by Geoff Cooper BSc., MCSE+I.

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