Antivirus

2005-12-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

10 Ways Not to Use Email

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Email is such a super tool!
It has changed the way we
communicate. I can easily
stay in touch with people
all over the world instantly
by email, where a letter
would take a long time and
a phone call would be too
expensive.

Sadly, this great tool can be
abused. This ruins the
experience for all of us.

With that in mind, here are ten
ways NOT to use email. Please
stay away from these and keep
email the great communication
tool that it is!

1. Do not spam. You've received
the email offers that read,
"Millions of email addresses" for
a cheap price. It sounds good.
But don't do it. Those people
didn't give you permission to
send emails to them. Do not
spam.

Instead, build up a list of
people who have given you
permission to email them. You'll
be better all the way around!

2. Do not flame. Flaming is responding
to spam or an email in an angry
manner.

For some, the privacy of email
becomes the opportunity to be much
more rude than they would in person.

Don't stoop to such levels! If you
have a problem with someone, discuss
it with them in a calm, civilized
manner, whether in person or through
cyberspace.

3. Do not respond to spam. If you
respond to spam, you are doing two
things:
a. You're letting the spammer know
that your email address is valid and
you may receive more email.
b. You're giving the spammer more
reason to spam even more by responding.

Just say no, and hit the delete button.

4. Do not respond to flames. People will
get angry at something and email everyone
in the world to let them know how they
feel.

I remember one time when a hacker hacked
into a list that I was subscribed to, and
sent a bunch of messages to the group.

Well, a bunch of the subscribers got angry
and started sending their flames out to
the group, making the problem that much
worse. All of us ended up with hundreds
of unwanted and duplicate emails.

You've got better things to do than that!

5. Do not expose a large group of email
addresses in your email header. There's a
way to send to a group without exposing
all the email addresses. Simply place the
addresses in the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC)
line of your email program.

That will hide those addresses and shield
those folks from unwanted email.

6. Do not reply to exposed emails. It's
tempting, I know--but resist the urge to
email all those nice email addresses someone
exposed in sending an email to you.

You don't have their permission, and the
person sending the email obviously didn't
read this article!

7. Do not spread urban legends. No, I didn't
wake up in my bathtub with ice all around
me with one kidney gone and Bill Gates is not
paying me $200 for forwarding an email.

I'm glad someone has a great imagination. I
just wish they'd put it to better use!

8. Do not spread viruses. It's easier to do
than you think.

Someone gave me a virus and fortunately it
was a fairly harmless one. I sent an attachment
to a friend and his antivirus program caught
it. He let me know and I immediately got some
antivirus software and got rid of it.

And he's still my friend! But make sure you're
not spreading viruses through your email.

9. Do not spread hype. "Cough once and make
a million dollars." Okay I made that one up,
but I'm sure you seen others just as
ridiculous.

Like Joe Friday, I want "just the facts."

10. Do not overdo it. I don't want to be
worried to death by one person emailing me
over and over again for no reason. Yes,
sometimes repetition is good, but don't
needlessly clog up email boxes with the
same message over and over.

If it's moving a project or conversation
forward, that's another matter. But even
then, there may come a time when you need
to switch to a chat or instant messaging
format.

Or even use that ancient invention, the
telephone!

Keep email the great experience it can be
and stay away from all these things!

About the Author

Craig Hardee is the webmaster of
http://www.cyberagora.com, Your Internet
Multiplex, spotlighting the resources you
need to make your time online fulfilling,
profitable and fun.

2005-11-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Avoiding Fraud Through Safe Shopping

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Avoiding Fraud Through Safe Shopping

Online fraud is an increasing problem that can be avoided. Every year more and more people shop online, and every year seems to bring more ways to trick unsuspecting buyers. This report was written to help protect you as a consumer.

Following the guidelines set in this report will protect you from most types of online fraud, and help you recover in the event that you are taken advantage of.

-------------------
Before You Buy
-------------------
Before you buy anything online, review the store�s refund policy. Make sure they will accept returns on defective or wrong items. Also, see how long the return period is, usually, it is 30 days.

Review the store�s privacy policy. You want to know that your information is being handled responsibly before giving it to anyone.

-------------------
During Check Out
-------------------
Plastic or plastic? During the checkout process you will be given a few payment options. Of these, you will probably see credit or charge cards. As you know, if someone accepts credit cards, they also accept debit cards. Debit cards are not the same when it comes to limiting your liability for fraudulent use. Debit cards are fine for most things, but not online purchasing.

Credit or charge cards are the ideal way to pay online. If you pay by credit or charge card online, your transaction is protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act. Under this law, you have the right to dispute charges under certain circumstances and temporarily withhold payment while the creditor is investigating the disputed charges. In the event of unauthorized use of your credit or charge card, you generally would only be held liable for $50 worth of the charges.

Some credit companies even offer an online shopping guarantee that ensures you will not be held responsible for any unauthorized charges made online, and some may provide additional warranty, return and/or purchase protection benefits.

Double check everything. Make sure your billing, contact, and email addresses are correct and yours. You don�t want your purchases delivered to someone else.

Always ensure that the checkout is being completed on a secure server. You can tell if a server is a secure server by the web address, it should begin with an https://. In addition, the bottom of your browser should contain a padlock image.

-------------------
After the purchase
-------------------
Always keep a record. You should receive a receipt or invoice after your payment. If you do not, politely request one from the vendor.

Be sure to save this receipt, you will need it as a proof of purchase if the item is defective and needs to be returned, or was never received.

-------------------
Ongoing Precautions
-------------------
You should regularly check your credit card and bank statements for any unauthorized payments. If you notice anything that you did not authorize, be sure to notify your credit card company or bank immediately.

Some malicious applications will rest on your computer, and send your private information to someone else. This is a common cause of identity theft. For this reasons, you should always run the latest version of your antivirus program with the most recently updated databases. You should also run spyware removal programs regularly.

-------------------
Conclusion
-------------------
Following the guidelines outlined in this report should lead to a satisfying online experience. The only identity theft victims are people that don�t know or follow safe shopping practices.

About the Author

Jeff Mueller is the founder/webmaster of
Slick Shoppers http://www.slickshoppers.com
Dedicated to finding the best deals and
savings on brand name items.

2005-11-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

Personal Firewalls For Home Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

What is a Firewall?

The term "firewall" illustrates a system that protects a network and the machines on them from various types of attack. Firewalls are geared towards keeping the server up all the time and protecting the entire network.

The primary goal of a firewall is to implement a desired security policy; controlling access in both directions through the firewall, and to protect the firewall itself from compromise. It wards off intrusion attempts, Trojans and other malicious attacks.

Personal Firewalls:
They are meant for the home user in a networked environment. They aim to block simple attacks, unlike the enterprise level firewalls that the corporate world uses at the server or router end. There are many ways to implement a firewall, each with specific advantages and disadvantages.

Are they really needed?
Nowadays organizations and professionals use Internet technology to establish their online presence and showcase their products and services globally. Their endeavor is to leverage digital technology to make their business work for them.

All the organizations and professionals are shifting from Dialup to broadband and getting a fixed IP. It has led to an increase in security attacks, bugs in everyday working. This does not mean that Dialup being anonymous dynamic link or the firewall of the ISP network make you pretty safe.

Now if your machine was under attack, you must have wondered what went wrong making your system crash suddenly. So I would rather like to say, it�s not necessary for anyone to actually know about you or your IP address to gain access to your system.

If you system is infected or prone to intrusions, then beyond the anonymity of your Dialup connection or a dynamic IP, your system can be hacked.

Types of Attacks

Intrusion:
There are many ways to gain unauthorized access to a system. Operating system vulnerabilities, cracked or guessed passwords are some of the more common. Once access is attained, the intruder can send email, tamper with data, or use the system privileges to attack another system.

Information Theft and Tampering:
Data theft and tampering do not always require that the system be compromised. There have been many bugs with FTP servers that allow attackers to download password files or upload Trojan horses.

Service Attacks:
Any attack that keeps the intended user from being able to use the services provided by their servers is considered a denial of service attack. There are many types of denial of service attacks, and unfortunately are very difficult to defend against. "Mail bombs" are one example in which an attacker repeatedly sends large mail files in the attempt at filling the server�s disk filesystem thus preventing legitimate mail from being received.

Types of Attackers

Joyrider:
Not all attacks on computer systems are malicious. Joyriders are just looking for fun. Your system may be broken into just because it was easy, or to use the machine as a platform to attack others. It may be difficult to detect intrusion on a system that is used for this purpose. If the log files are modified, and if everything appears to be working, you may never know.

Vandals:
A vandal is malicious. They break in to delete files or crash computer systems either because they don't like you, or because they enjoy destroying things. If a vandal breaks into your computer, you will know about it right away. Vandals may also steal secrets and target your privacy.

�In an incident a Trojan was being used to operate the web cam. All the activities being done in the house were being telecasted on the websites.�

Spies:
Spies are out to get secret information. It may be difficult to detect break-ins by spies since they will probably leave no trace if they get what they are looking for.

A personal firewall, therefore, is one of the methods you can use to deny such intrusions.

How Firewalls work?
Firewalls basically work as a filter between your application and network connection. They act as gatekeepers and as per your settings, show a port as open or closed for communication. You can grant rights for different applications to gain access to the internet and also in a reverse manner by blocking outside applications trying to use ports and protocols and preventing attacks. Hence you can block ports that you don�t use or even block common ports used by Trojans.

Using Firewalls you can also block protocols, so restricting access to NetBIOS will prevent computers on the network from accessing your data. Firewalls often use a combination of ports, protocols, and application level security to give you the desired security.

Firewalls are configured to discard packets with particular attributes such as:

Specific source or destination IP addresses.
Specific protocol types
TCP flags set/clear in the packet header.

Choosing a firewall:
Choose the firewalls which have the ability to ward of all intrusion attempts, control applications that can access the internet, preventing the malicious scripts or controls from stealing information or uploading files and prevent Trojans and other backdoor agents from running as servers.

The purpose of having a firewall cannot be diminished in order to gain speed. However, secure, high-performance firewalls are required to remove the bottleneck when using high speed Internet connections. The World-Wide-Web makes possible the generation of enormous amounts of traffic at the click of a mouse.

Some of the good firewall performers available in the market are below:

�BlackICE Defender
�eSafe Desktop
�McAfee Personal Firewall
�Neowatch
�Norton Personal Firewall
�PGP Desktop Security
�Sygate Personal Firewalls
�Tiny Personal Firewall
�Zone Alarm
�Zone Alarm Pro

Most of these firewalls are free for personal use or offer a free trial period. All the personal firewalls available can�t ensure 100% security for your machine. Regular maintenance of the machine is needed for ensuring safety.

Some of the tasks advised for maintaining system not prone to intrusions:

�Disable file and print sharing if you are not going to be on network.
�Update your antivirus signature files regularly.
�Use a specialized Trojan cleaner.
�Regular apply security patches to your software and operating system.
�Don�t open email attachments if you have don�t know the contents it may contain.
�Don�t allow unknown applications to access to the internet or to your system.
�Regularly check log files of your personal firewall and antivirus software.
�Disable ActiveX and java and uninstall windows scripting host if not required.
�Turn off Macros in Applications like Microsoft Office and turn macro protection on.
�Check the open ports of your system and see them against the common list of Trojans ports to see if they are being used by some Trojan.
�Log Off from your internet connection if not required. Being online on the internet for long duration gives any intruder more and sufficient time to breach system security.
�Unplug peripherals like web cam, microphone if they are not being used.

About the Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director ,
Birbals,
India

2005-11-05T20:46:00.000-08:00

Keeping XP Working For You

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

XP RECOVERY CONSOLE

Imagine the situation, you are about to start your days work on your trusty computer when blimey, the thing won�t boot up.
The reason could be a dodgy driver or an unknown virus may have the master boot record all in a tizzy, the first thing you do is try the automatic recovery to try and return to the last know configuration (Usually f8 when booting then choose safe mode from the menu options then all programs/ accessories/system tools/system restore ).
If this doesn�t work you will have wished you had installed the little know recovery console supplied on the XP disk. This tool is not installed as default by Microsoft so you will have to do it yourself.
It takes a mere 7MB and will take about 30 to 45 minutes.
Insert your XP disk and from the run box and type in or browse to di386WINNT32.EXE /cmdcons and press OK (d being shown as the letter drive your XP disk is in) .
You will be prompted through the installation process which when complete will add the option to boot into the recovery console upon start up.

HOW TO USE IT

Once selected from the boot up screen you will have to choose a which installation you want to go to, this is for people that have multiple systems on their computer so if you only have 1 press 1 and enter.
You should now be at the system root which is usually C:/windows
A full list of commands is available at the HELP section, just type help and enter and you will be told everything that the recovery console can do, Pressing the space bar continues the list.

The important tools that don�t require much technical knowledge are the ones you may already of used in DOS such as diskpart, format and chkdsk.
Chkdsk searches a disk or file for errors and repairs them.
Diskpart is a partition tool for creating / deleting partitions and format is exactly that, a format disk tool.

If you are having problems getting past boot up then try the fixboot command.
The other common problem is a virus infecting you master boot record or MBR and the solution is to type in fixmbr although it is important to get it scanned with an antivirus program if you can as this can lead to partitions you might not be able to access.

Another Useful command is the listsvc command which lists all services and drivers so if you have an idea where your problem may lie you can simply type disable / followed by which service you want to stop and the same with the enable / command.

You should be able to save yourself having to re-install windows so it�s worth having , even if you never use it.

More help is available at the Microsoft site. Support.Microsoft.com/?kbid=314058

As with all tools which enable you to change the registry please exercise caution, take it to a professional if at all unsure.
Mark white
http://www.sunspeks.com
http://www.phone-bits.com

About the Author

I am an internet freek and i earn a living with 2 websites that i built and run.
I am mad about free traffic resources and moderate for www.freetrafficdirectory.com
I have an unhealthy interest in anything computer related.

2005-11-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

MyDoom Virus - How You Can Help!

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

We have been monitoring stories and technical information that
is available on this Virus that is Spreading like Wildfire! We believe
that starting Feb 1st, we may see things slow down on the net,
email problems, sites not available etc. We saw it before with
last years big virus, but sources say this new virus is the
worst one yet.

Based on their code, the Mydoom worms are scheduled to launch
denial of service attacks against the SCO Group Inc. and Microsoft
Corp., starting Feb. 1. A DOS attack means the infected computers
are set to overload both companies' web servers with bogus
information, in an attempt to prevent access by legitimate users.

Mydoom.B also prevents infected computers from accessing the web
sites of Microsoft and many anti-virus software makers, making it
difficult for the owner of an infected machine to get help.

With hundreds of thousands of infected computers as of Friday and
at the estimated rate of 12,000 per hour systems becoming infected,
this virus is taking over. It has been estimated that now 20% of all
email that is being sent/received is the Mydoom virus and its variants!
With this many systems infected and once Feb 1st hits, these infected
systems will start the DoS attacks from all over the world. How will this
affect you?

Email Service could be slowed down, pop3 errors, websites slow to bring
up or not available. Yes, this could very well affect even our sites and

your access to them when the DoS attacks start and there is NOTHING
we can do to prevent this from occurring except educate our members
and provide information on how to protect your system. This virus will
cause so much information to be passed through the nets backbones
that it will cause congestion, packet loss, instability of the major
backbones and services being temporarily denied while major ISPs
attempt to block and prevent further problems due to the DoS attacks
and this virus.

This could turn into a nightmare for many companies that do business
and depend on email, website reliability etc. HOW CAN YOU HELP?

DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS - CHECK YOUR COMPUTER FOR THE VIRUS
UPDATE YOUR VIRUS PROTECTION DAILY if NECESSARY - If you do not
have an anti-virus software installed... DO SO NOW!!

There is NO reason that anyone on the internet should not have an
anti-virus software installed on their computer. The fact that many do
not and many that do not update their software regularly plus opening of

attachments when you do not know who they are from or where not
expecting it - This is what is causing the spread of these viruses like
wildfire.

MyDoom Details -

Avoid opening attachments from suspicious email messages
Emails sent out by Mydoom.B are generated randomly. The From address
may also be spoofed to appear as though the message is from a different
address.

The subject of the message will include one of the following:

Delivery Error
hello
Error
Mail Delivery System
Mail Transaction Failed
Returned mail
Server Report
Status
Unable to deliver the message

Not all email messages with these subject lines carry the MyDoom.B virus,
some may be legitimate status messages.

The message body will include one of the following:

RANDOMIZED CHARACTERS
test
The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been
sent as a binary attachment.
sendmail daemon reported: Error #804 occurred during SMTP session. Partial
message has been received.
The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary
attachment.
The message contains MIME-encoded graphics and has been sent as a binary
attachment.
Mail transaction failed. Partial message is available.
The attachment will have one of the following filenames:

body
doc
text
document
data
file
readme
message

Attachment:

The attachment may have either one or two file extensions. If it does have two,
the first extension will be one of the following:

.htm
.txt
.doc

The second extension, or the only extension if there is only one, will be one
of the following: .pif .scr .exe .cmd .bat .zip (This is an actual .zip file that
contains a copy of the worm, sharing the same file name as the .zip. For
example, readme.zip can contain readme.exe.)

We have gathered information for you that will help you get an anti-virus software
Program, how to check for the virus on your computer and information sites on what
a virus is and how to prevent infection. Please make sure you protect YOUR system
and prevent further spread through computer systems worldwide!

Removal Tool for MyDoom
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.mydoom.b@mm.html

How Computer Viruses Work http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm

Tips on Avoiding Computer Worms
http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info ips.shtml

All users should go to the following site. They provide a
GREAT and FREE Online Virus Scanner. Scan your computer
And make sure you are not infected with a virus!
Trend Micro's free online virus Scanner
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Anti-Virus Software - Get YOURS TODAY!

There are other Quite a Few Anti-Virus programs out there, some are free, some
offer free trials and some are paid. You need to find one that works for you, the
main thing is GET one if you do not already have one. Then Once you have it,
make sure to keep it UPDATED regularly.

Here are a couple of Anti-Virus Programs that many of our members and
Subscribers already use:

Norton AntiVirus 2004 - FREE TRIAL
http://nct.digitalriver.com/0001/

AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System - AVG 6.0 Free Edition
http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm

Mcaffee - FREE TRIAL
http://download.mcafee.com/eval/evaluate2.asp

Please make sure you keep your system protected which then will help
protect any one in your address book from receiving a virus from you.
In the end, if we all do our part, we can slow down and possibly even
stop further spread of viruses across computer systems worldwide.

Your Partner In YOUR Success

Val Burnett
MBPAdvertising, LLP

About the Author

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Val Burnett is Owner of many responsive marketing programs that include
http://www.ipostad.com http://www.yuhknow.com http://www.thisway.to
And 13 others all found at MBPAdvertising!
http://www.mbpadvertising.com "Our business IS our Customers"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2005-11-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Less Stress and More Success

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Less Stress and More Success
By Katherine Vargo

Stop cursing your computer. End your frustration with these top computer solutions. You are just four steps away from being more productive and having fewer headaches.

Step 1: Install an anti-virus program and use it.
A virus can result in lost data or require costly repairs to your systems. You can avoid these risks by installing and using software that scans your computer for viruses. Look for antivirus software that is updated automatically and can effectively reverse the damage of viruses. If you have anti-virus software already installed, make sure that it updates daily. It doesn't help to have anti-virus software installed, if it doesn't have the latest virus information. New virus are written every day. Yes, every day. Unless your computer is powered on and connected to the Internet during the automatically scheduled updates, you are missing out.

Step 2: Remove spyware.
Spyware applications are typically bundled with freeware or shareware programs. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity and transmits that information in the background to someone who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to a third party. Beside invading your privacy, spyware can lead to system crashes or general slowness because spyware runs in the background and uses system memory and resources. Getting rid of spyware will also help stop those terribly annoying pop-ups. For Windows, Spybot Search and Destroy is a great program for scanning and removing spyware programs.

Step 3: Enable Automatic updates.
It is important to keep your computer current with the latest patches. This helps prevent nasty things like worms and viruses from disrupting your computer or deleting data. Newer operating systems enable you to download security updates automatically and receive prompt security changes. One more thing you don't have to worry about. To configure automatic updates for Windows XP:
1) Select Start> Control Panel
2) Select Performance and Maintenance, scroll to the bottom and select System
3) Select the Automatic Updates tab
4) Select the button for "Automatically download the updates, and install them on the schedule I specify." Select the day and time preference that you desire.
To configure automatic updates for Mac OS X:
1) Select Apple Menu > System Preference
2) Double-click the Software Update icon
3) From the Update Software tab, select the check box for "Automatically check for updates"
4) Click Check Now.
If you are using an older Microsoft operating system, you can get the latest updates at windowsupdate.microsoft.com. The website will determine which patches are required for your system.

About the Author

Katherine Vargo is a partner of Vargo Consulting Group, your computer lifesavers. Additional lifesaving reports from Vargo Consulting Group can be found at http://www.vargoconsulting.com/tips

2005-10-31T20:13:00.000-08:00

Product Review: Zone Alarn Pro

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

I've tried using a number of personal firewalls, including WRQ
AtGuard (since purchased by Symantec), BlackIce and ZoneAlarm. On
my opinion, ZoneAlarm Pro is by far and away the best personal
firewall on the market.

I like this firewall because it is the first product of it's kind
that actually seems to have been designed for normal human computer
users instead of techno-nerds. The product simply installs and
runs. You can use it out of the box with no configuration at all.
The program will ask a few questions and learn from you exactly
what is allowed and not allowed. What could be more simple?

This program is one of the very best defenses against spyware,
which is software that "phones home" every once in a while with
information about you. Unlike most other personal firewalls,
ZoneAlarm Pro (as well as the free version) stops outgoing
transmissions as well as incoming ones. This in itself is a major
benefit to the product.

One of the major advantages to this product is the way you can
configure it to know the difference between intranet and internet
accesses. That's the problem with some competing firewall
products - they do not understand that intranet access is always
to be allowed while internet access must be controlled. ZoneAlarm
made this distinction easily.

One of the problems that has been found with other firewalls is
the "pattern" for determining the identity of something accessing
the internet is the program name. Well, as it turns out, this is
very simple for hacker software to fake. ZoneAlarm was the first
product to recognize and fix the weakness by actually performing a
checksum of the product. This allows ZoneAlarm to be absolutely
sure it has the correct program identified.

One of the absolute coolest things about ZoneAlarm is that it also
protects your system from email viruses. For example, today I
received an email with an attachment. The attachment was a virus,
and it was renamed by ZoneAlarm to make it obvious that it was a
problem. My antivirus software would have caught it as well, but it
was really nice that my firewall stopped the virus even before that
point.

So to sum it all up, yes, I would highly recommend this firewall.
In fact, it is recommended over any other software firewall
product.

Additional Information

Firewalls protect your system
http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Firewalls.htm

You must protect your system with a personal firewall,
especially if you are using DSL or cable modem.

Products - Sonic WALL
http://www.internet-tips.net/Products/sonicwall.htm
You really want to protect your personal computer? The best
possible firewall solution that I have found is the SonicWall.

Tanstaaf - Spyware
http://www.internet-tips.net/Tanstaafl/spyware.htm
Be careful installing ad supported products - you may find that
you every move on the internet is being watched!

About the Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets
at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to
read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

2005-10-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

Internet Safety Tips

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

You have permission to use this article in a newsletter, website, blog, so long as you DO NOT edit text. And that my website and name are included.

***************************************
Tips for a fun & safe internet experience.

ONE

ALWAYS update your anti-virus at least once, or twice a week, and be sure to check for EXPIRATION DATES on your antivirus, your antivirus will no longer function if it is expired. A new Anti-virus must be purchased. Each time you purchase an anti-virus program, you usually have up to a year of free license of updates..

TWO

Invest/purchase a firewall software.

NOTE: The difference between a firewall and an anti-virus is that, a firewall blocks intrusion or hackers from gaining full access to your computer; an anti-virus scans, removes and prevents computer infection.

THREE

When making internet purchases, always make sure you print the receipt/invoice immediately after payment is approved. Always, always, always, save confirmation emails, they most often contain UPS tracking, accounts and return/exchange information.

THREE a.

In addition, always save packing lists and shipping invoices, these are actual receipts and can be used for warranty repair purposes.

THREE b.

All good website merchants have a way of contact/custoemr service lines. If you have any questions or issues on a particular internet order or product, customer service numbers are always available.

*FOUR*

Its always a good idea to own a second bank card with a limit of about $100; The reason for this is, if your concerned with credit card theft, any orders past that amount would be declined. Or you can just transfer the exact amount from your checking to your bank card, when needed.

FOUR a.

There are also companies that offer credit cards with insurances, that specialize in internet security/purchases for free or low cost. You should also know that most credit card theft often occurs outside the internet (example: Grocery store, Retail, Restaurant or any situation, when someone has access to, or opportunity to copy the numbers off your credit card). Make sure you are very careful and watch your cashier receipts; and make sure that your receipt does not contain your FULL credit card number. Your electronic credit card cashier receipts should only display the last 4 or 2 digits of your credit card ONLY, for example:

xxx-xxxxx-xxxxx2222

xxxx-xxx-xxxx-xx43

FOUR b.

In all honesty, do not allow your fears of what you think the Internet is all about, get so over whelming that you can't enjoy the power of your computer. However, you can not allow yourself to stay in the dark either. Don't wait for someone to hold your hand and teach you, find out how to protect your self and update your computer awareness.

FIVE

When making any internet purchase, make sure that, somewhere within or during the actual check out process it states, "secure server", or "secured"; or if you use Netscape or Internet Explorer (versions 5.0 and greater), look for a very small picture of a pad lock, usually on the bottom right hand side of your browser. This this tells you that the website you are making a purchase on, is secured; and all information you send out will be encrypted/scrambled, giving added protection against credit card theft and personal information.

SIX

Usually about every 9 months -1 year, both Netscape and Internet Explorer comes out with new versions of their browsers, make sure your up-to-date. Many of the new browser versions or revisions, also include security updates, as well as software patches/fixes for better functionality. These security features are necessary in addition to your anti-virus/firewall. This also insures web compatibility while your surfing the internet.

SEVEN

Its always a good idea to create a special email address, and dedicate that address to be used as way of contact for all your internet purchases. Why? because some companies share and or sell your valid email address to other companies, who are looking for possible customers. Although the new SPAM laws prohibit companies that do this, its a good Idea to do it anyway.

EIGHT

When sending instant messages and emails, be mind full of what information you type in, unless you truly know the person on the other end.

EIGHT a.

If your friend sends you an email with an attachment (picture, a program etc.) always scan for viruses before you use it, You can't assume that all your friends are updating their anti-viruses.

NINE

Always download from well known and well solicited websites. These kinds of sites are less likely to have files that contains viruses, example: download.com, ZDnet.com, Microsoft.com, etc...

NINE a.

You should know that on some well known websites, sometimes have spyware in there software ( with the exception of software drivers for your printer, mouse etc. ), or you may want to download a game from an advertisement and find out that several other crap/programs that you don't want came along with it (after you've downloaded it). its a good idea to know what software you have in your computer, so that if you need to remove something, like unwanted software, you know what's important and what's not.

FINALLY

If you follow these simple steps, you will have a safer and enjoyable internet experience
- Yogiraj

copyright 2004 USA/INTERNATIONAL

www.yogachakra.ORG

About the Author

I've been a PC technician for about 10 years w/ about 8 years of retail experience. Recently became a poet/writer and webmaster entrpreneur; providing writing resources and information on the net. Please visit yogachkra.ORG

2005-10-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Your Antivirus is Not the Answer to Your Total Internet Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

MicroWorld focuses on new generation e-security threats with its new product eScan Web and Mail Filter for Windows

Do you think your anti-virus software is all that you require for protecting your system from cyber criminals? Is it all that you need to prevent your machine from becoming a spam producing mill? Is it all that protects your children from obscene material, prevents your employees from degrading their performance by using Internet unproductively, protecting your personal/private documents from any modifications or unauthorized access, killing your precious bandwidth through pop up Ads and securing you against Spywares? The answer to these questions is a big NO.

The anti-virus software simply protects your system against viruses, worms and trojans but the cyber criminals have become so intelligent today that they know how to circumvent through the security policies and attack the systems with other types of tools. If you have an anti-virus software in place and think that you are secured from all potential Internet threats, you need to rethink.....as your children may fall into pornographic loop, your bank details may be stolen and the productivity of your organization may go down the drain. So, what is the solution???

The recently launched product from MicroWorld, eScan Web and Mail Filter for Windows, protects your system on a real time basis against threats like:

Unsecured content,
Spam,
Pornography,
Unproductive use of Internet,
Spyware,
Pop Up Advertisements etc.

The product has been developed to run efficiently with any antivirus software you might already have on your system.

"This product has been developed keeping into consideration the security requirement of our users who already have an anti-virus in place but are vulnerable to other new potential e-threats", said Mr. Govind Rammurthy, CEO and MD, MicroWorld. �People already having an anti-virus installed on their systems if want to secure themselves from other potential e-threats also usually do not find software which can gel with their existing anti-virus and provide them a good security. Considering this requirement of our users we have launched this new product in the market which we expect would get phenomenal response", he futher says.

The more details about the new product from MicroWorld can be obtained by writing to sales@mwti.net or support@mwti.net.

About the Author

MicroWorld Technologies is one of the leading solution providers for Information Technology, Content Security and Communications Software. MicroWorld's primary motive is to "add confidence to computing" by developing innovative solutions targeting Single Home Users, Small & medium companies, Corporate, Large Enterprise, Schools & Universities, Government Organisations and ISPs.

2005-10-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

Seven Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Seven Tips To Keep Your Pc Running At Peak Performance.

By
Dave Fraser
http://www.pcsandthings.com/
(c) Copyright 2004

Did you know that very soon after you start using your
computer it begins to slow down and loses that responsive,
"fresh out of the box" sort of feel.

You've just started up your new super-speed, top of the range
computer. You start surfing the internet, downloading
a few new programs to try out and then a few weeks later
you're working away and you notice it just
doesn't seem as fast as it was before.

If that's ever happened to you, then there are a few things
you should know which I'll be covering in this article that
will get the pep back into your PC.

------- Seven Steps to Sharpen up your PC -------

********************************************************
Step one: Clean up any Adware and scumware
********************************************************

Free programs on the internet are not always what they
seem.
Often the sting in the tail is, the behind the scenes,
installing of Adware or Scumware as it's sometimes known.
This usually consists of programs that run in the background
and advertise various offerings which can be targeted to
match your preferences.
These programs take up valuable system resources and should
be cleaned out.

Programs such as Gator (form filler) and Kazza (music
sharing) are well known examples of this but there are
many others.

The solution to this, is for you to download one or both of
these free programs.

Adaware 6.0 at
http://www.tucows.com/preview/236049.html

or

Spybot search and Destroy at
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Use them to clean up your system regularly.
I personally use them both once a week.

**********************************************
Step Two: Clean out your start-up files
**********************************************

Nearly every program you load on your computer wants to be
top dog. By that I mean when you install the program it
usually sets itself up in your startup list.

This means that whenever you start up your computer the
programs installs itself automatically into main memory
whether you are going to use it or not and just takes up
valuable resources that could be better utilised by programs
you are using right away.

If you hit the Control-Alt-Delete keys once
(if you do it twice you will reboot the computer and lose any unsaved work)
you will be able to see all the programs that are running behing the scenes.

The more you have running that you are not using,
the more memory will be taken up and the slower and less
stable the system will be.

Things like Anti-Virus programs and "system tray" should be
left running but many others can be removed.

To do this in windows 98/ME, hit "Start"-"Run"- and type in
"msconfig" and enter,
then choose the right hand top tab marked "startup" Uncheck
all the programs that you aren't using all the time. You
will be able to run them normally at any time from your
start menu so don't worry about that.

Most of the programs can be identified by the program names
at the right hand side, any that can't, you can always type
it into google and see what comes up.
Occasionally you find programs loaded here that are
malicious programs such as Trojans or Browser hijackers that
you definitely don't want. To get rid of them search for the filename
in Google and then see if it comes up as a nasty and then get the
info on how to remove from the anti-virus website.

You will notice a definite improvement in start-up speed and
general running when these are removed.

***********************************************************************
Step Three: uninstall any old programs that are no longer used
***********************************************************************

Windows registry is the section of windows that contains all
the information relating to your system and software.

As time goes by it can get extremely bloated and even if you
are not using the old programs anymore, the time taken to
search through registry is increased.

Uninstalling the programs rather than just deleting the
files will ensure that the entries in the registry are
removed and this helps keep the size under control.

Another little utility you might find useful is called "EasyCleaner"
and it is great for cleaning out all these unwanted files and
registry entries that were somehow left behind.

You can also use it to locate temporary files used by
various programs that just clog up your hard drive and slow
things down.

It's a free utility you can download from
http://www.docsdownloads.com/easycleaner.htm

*******************************************************
Step Four: Invest in a good antivirus program
*******************************************************
Invest in a good antivirus program such as Shield-Antivirus or
Panda anti-virus and keep it regularly updated. Having a virus
on your system can not only wreak havoc with your system speed
but can lead to more serious problems and data loss.

You can check out Shield at:-
http://www.pcsandthings.com/shield-antivirus.htm and

Panda at:- http://www.pcsandthings.com/panda.htm

******************************************************
Step Five: Delete or uninstall unwanted fonts
******************************************************
When Windows loads it installs all available fonts.
This not only takes up space but also valuable time.
Deleting or uninstalling fonts that you will never use
will help streamline things a bit more.

To view the installed fonts, select Start, Run, type
"fonts", and press Enter. To see what a font looks like,
double-click its icon. You can delete a font by
right-clicking it and selecting Delete, but it's safer to
uninstall it by dragging it to another folder so you can
always drag it back if you really need it.

You must do this dragging (in either direction) from within
Windows Explorer. Moving or copying a font to or from the
C:WindowsFonts folder via DOS commands or some other
utility won't properly install or uninstall it. Some fonts
should stay put, such as Windows system fonts, which have
the extension .fon instead of .ttf. The icon for a system
font has a red 'A' rather than a gray-blue 'TT'. System
fonts are usually hidden files, but they're visible in the
Fonts folder in Explorer. They disappear when you move them
elsewhere, though. Some applications require specific fonts,
such as Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman, so you'd better
keep them around.

Any other ones you don't use can be moved to another folder.

More info on this can be found at:-
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234749

**************************************
Step Six: Optimise your system
**************************************
A few basic pointers for optimising your system.

(1) From the desktop right click on the "my computer" icon
and select properties. Select "file system" and under the
hard disc tab, where it says "for typical role of this
computer" select "network server" in the drop down menu as
this speeds up transfers.

(2) Under floppy disc make sure the little box is not ticked
as this increases boot up time slightly.

(3) On Internet Explorer while surfing the net, images are
stored on the hard drive in a section called the cache. This
is useful if you are using a slow dial-up connection as it
means the most used images don't have to be continually
downloaded so surfing speeds are increased.

If the cache size is too great then Explorer has to check
through all the images before it downloads them and this can
slow up browsing. The optimum size is a bit, hit or miss,
but with ADSL or cable the cache can be set much smaller as
the images download quickly. Also when the cache is too large
the files get fragmented (this is covered later) and the hard disk
thrashes around trying to piece it all together thus slowing everything
down.

It's a matter of trial and error but I wouldn't recommend
much more than 50MB for a slow connection and about 10MB for ADSL or Cable.

Adjustment is made by clicking on Internet explorer "tools"
and "internet options" then under "temporary internet files"
the settings button and use the slider to adjust the
amount.

(4) A program I find very useful for optimising various parts of your
computer is one called "Speed up my PC" With this you can
set it automatically to take care of memory usage and can
prevent system crashes at awkward times.
It's not free this on but it might be worth taking a look at it.
You can read more on it here:-
http://www.pcsandthings.com/speed_up_my_pc.htm

***********************************************************
Step Seven: defragment your hard drive regularly
***********************************************************

De-what, my hard drive? I might hear you say. Sounds a bit severe
but it's something that should be done fairly regularly.

Your computer works efficiently when the data it takes from
the hard drive to process in memory is all in one place and
doesn't take very long to fetch.

After using your computer for a while, related files get
broken up into fragments and are scattered all over the
disc. This happens in normal use and it can significantly
increase the time it takes to collect it all up.

A bit like you going to another room to fetch your files
from a filing cabinet and if they were all together it would
be easy to collect them. If on the other hand they were in
different cabinets all dotted around the room then you get
the idea.

The thing to do is run the defragmenter that comes with
Windows. Double click "My Computer" and then Right Click
the icon for drive C: and then click properties. Select
defragment and follow the instructions.

This process can take a long time on a large hard drive with
badly fragmented files, so it may be advisable to set this
running at a quiet time computer wise or even overnight.

There is a another program I highly recommend for defragmenting
which is called Diskeeper Lite and is much better than the
built-in version that Windows has. It is available as a free
download plus some more articles on fragmentation from
http://www.executive.com/downloads/menu.asp

Defragmenting is best done last after the other steps above
as removing files and clutter will leave gaps that can then
be put back together for normal use.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carrying out the above actions will help keep your PC running faster
and more stable and hopefully crashing less causing you less stress
and frustration from lost work.

So get started now and clean up your PC and make it a habit
to do it regularly and keep your system running at peak
performance.

And don't forget one of the most cost effective upgrades you can
do to your PC at the moment is to add some more Memory (RAM).

Check our website for "Memory specials" at:-
http://www.pcsandthings.com/

or

Buy direct from the manufacturer at:-
http://www.pcsandthings.com/crucial.htm

They have a system selector that can help you choose
the correct RAM for your PC.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Fraser makes it easy for beginners to learn about
their computers in less technical terms. For more Free
tips and tricks to make your computing experience better,
visit http://www.pcsandthings.com and sign up for our FREE newsletter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author

Dave understands that not everyone is up on the latest technical words and tries to make computers accessable to anyone by keeping things as simple as possible.

2005-10-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Seven Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Dave understands that not everyone is up on the latest technical words and tries to make computers accessable to anyone by keeping things as simple as possible.

2005-10-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

Crisis on the Home Front

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Viruses, spam and system crashes are just some of the challenges that online business owners face on a daily basis. But there is another challenge that many online entrepreneurs may overlook. Across the globe, Mother Nature wreaks havoc with monsoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Would one of these natural disasters create a crisis on the home front for your e-biz? What would you do? Are you prepared for the worst?

Recently, a natural disaster hit my town. Seventy to eighty mile per hour straightline winds ripped through Cheney Kansas. The damage left in the wake of the storm was unfathonable. The town was in shambles. It really got me to thinking about how it would have effected my business if the storm has destroyed my home. Since I work from home, the destruction would have likely taken my business down as well. Looking over my files on my computer, just my documents folder alone is 336 megabytes. That's not including my website, graphics and the other tons of files I have.

I remembered reading an editorial from an ezine recently that spoke of online back up services. I decided that an online back up service would be worth looking into. After all, how would I recover from a tornado or flood, if it destroyed my home and business? Computers can be replaced, but what about the data and files? After a quick search using the keywords "online backup" and "online storage" (without the quotes), I had a starting point for my research.

What I found was a cornucopia of options, from pricey to quite reasonable in regards to fees. I chose the companies at random after careful consideration of features included, security issues, and amount of storage verses cost. The companies I chose, in no certain order are as follows:

http://www.bullguard.com/antivirus/backup.aspx Free trial - no $39.99/year/10 MB Type - back up
http://www.backup.com/ Free trial period the first 30 days $49.95/year/50 MB Type - back up
http://www.streamload.com/ 30 day free trial $4.95/mo/3000 MB Type - storage
http://www.usdatatrust.com/service/default.asp 30 day free trial $199/month/5 GB $150 activation fee ** Online information kit - very helpful Type - back up
http://www.iomega.com/istorage/ 30 day free trial $2.49/mo/50 MB Type - storage/back up
http://www.xdrive.com/features/backup.jsp 15 day free trial $9.95/mo/500 MB Type - back up
http://www.filesanywhere.com/Features.htm 30 day free trial $8.95/mo/500 MB Type - back up
http://www.ibackup.org/ (back up only) 30 day free trial $14.95/mo/4 GB Type - back up
http://www.ezbackup.com/ 30 day free trial $9.95/mo/250 MB Type - back up

How does one know exactly how much storage one needs? Well, that's a good question. I recommend that if you use your PC on a regular basis, you probably have between 100 to 500MB of data to protect. You should only backup files that you can not easily replace. These files are usually created or named by you. Do backup documents, financial files and pictures, etc. Don't backup operating system files or applications. A good starting point in determining your storage requirements is your "My Documents" folder. To do this, right click "My Documents" and select properties. The size displays on the General tab. Take a look at other folders or files you want to protect in a similar manner to determine your storage requirements. You can always upgrade or downgrade your account.

I would not recommend using an online service in the direct vicinity in which you live. If your community is hit by a natural disaster, chances are, your back up service would be affected also. Location of your back up service should be a key consideration in protecting your data and files.

So, are you prepared for a disaster on the home front? If not, you should be. Take control of your online business. Don't wait until its too late to take action.

Lisa Note: It is my most sincere desire that this article has made you go hmmm...and answered questions about online services available that can be utilized to protect an important investment. Your business.

About The Author

Lisa A. Reddell is a Freelance writer, owner of Reddell Marketing and publishes the bi-weekly Ezine, The Left Handed Times. Lisa has started achieving dreams of online success & YOU can too! Read the lastest edition of The Left Handed Times. http://www.ad-alyzer.com/727/artbhfme0708. Come join our family and grow with us.

2005-10-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Spyware - Scourge of the New Millenium

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Spyware is the virtual plague of the new Millenium. You no longer have to receive emails with viruses in them or even click on dangerous links on websites. Simply surfing the web can now leave you wide open to the scourge of spyware. You may also hear spyware referred to as malware.

What is spyware?
Spyware is when a program is placed on your PC without your consent. The most common way for this to happen is when you install a separate application such as a file sharing program or free download utility on your computer. The program you install also places some "extra" programs on your PC. These extra programs perform tasks from recording what websites you visit to popping up ads on your screen. More worrying are the spyware programs that record everything you type on your keyboard. That's right. Your most private instant messages, emails and chat room discussions can easily be stored and transmitted without your approval. Scary stuff!

Are there different types of spyware?
There are many different classifications of spyware but the following are the most dangerous types:

Adware
The most common type of spyware. These are small programs which sit on your computer waiting for you to go online. Once the adware detects that you're connected to the Internet it starts sending you popup, popover and popunder ads for anything from airline tickets to porn site membership. Not only that but information on your viewing habits is then sold on to marketing companies who will then send you more junk email and popup ads than you ever thought possible.

Browser Hijacker
These are just plain annoying. These install themselves on your computer and change your default homepage and search engine to something else. Every time you start your web browser it will bring you to a page filled with ads, porn or other unwanted material. This interrupts your web browsing and is intensely annoying. Most browser hijackers are also data miners. A data mining program reports your web browsing habits to a central database. This information is then sold on to marketing companies.

Keyboard Logger
These programs are designed for one thing - theft. When you log in to your online banking these can record your PIN number. When you check your private email account these programs can record your password. Keyboard loggers are
potentially one of the most damaging pieces of spyware because of the potential financial dangers and theft of personal information.

Modem Hijacker
Potentially the most costly spyware. Modem hijackers are also referred to as diallers. Diallers normally install themselves to your computer via a virus infection or from warez, mp3 or adult websites. A dialler is a small piece of software that will dial long distance, premium rate phone numbers when you're not at your PC. These phone numbers are normally for adult chat line services located in Russia, China, South America and the Phillipines. I have personally seen unlucky victims receive $2,000 bills for one month of telephone calls.

How do you remove spyware from your PC?
Thankfully several responsible companies have made it their mission to help eradicate the menace of spyware. You'll need 2 - 3 programs to remove spyware from your PC. The first of these is Ad Aware which is a free download. The second application is Spybot Search and Destroy which is also a free download. Last but not least I'd recommend also getting yourself a copy of CrapCleaner 1.0. These applications can only remove the spyware already on your PC - they cannot protect your PC from being cluttered with new spyware.

How do you stop spyware infesting your PC?
1. Do not click on links offering free movies, competitions, prize draws, free software or anything that looks suspicious. If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog and walks like a dog... well it's a dog.

2. Install firewall software. This is absolutely critical for Broadband or Highspeed users. All computers connected to the Internet today should have firewall software installed - regardless of your connection speed.

3. Make sure your antivirus software is updated. Good antivirus software can find and delete the most harmful types of spyware.

If you'd like more information on fighting spyware drop by www.affiliate-advocate.com for our spyware fighting guide.

About the Author

This article was provided courtesy of the Spyware & Malware Guide website. The site itself had lots of useful information on spyware removal and other spyware fighting info.

2005-10-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Trials and Tribulations of a Confused Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

During a recent period of the fretted PC breakdown,I
came
to realize that I took my computer for granted.I
thought the high tech machine would never let me down
and I was
never further from the truth. Just when I thought
things were going smoothly,"BANG",I was in deep
trouble.

Home-based businesses should be aware that computer
down time can and will mess up your schedule.After only
a week,I was behind and a bit discouraged to say the
least. I was lucky enough to be able to fix my pc
myself,but this isn't always the case. Sometimes it
takes an expert to bail you out and it can be costly.
Professionals charge $50.00 per hour,and up, to find
and correct problems. It may be wise to stash a bit in
the bank for such an occasion.

I found backing up your files is of the utmost
importance.
Store your important pieces on floppy or Cd-Rom.
Do not wait too long and be sure to format those
floppies.
I stored information on a floppy and found after I was
back to normal, the floppy was no good and would not
open my files.
Never store a program on a floppy, it will not work
properly when you try it. Programs must be reinstalled.
A good example is Aureate Group Mail or something you
downloaded online.
If you have an opt-in list,that can be saved to floppy.

Think you know your computer? Take a look at its
contents. Go to my computer, C drive, Wow,I was amazed
at the contents and the worst of it was I did not know
what everything was.
Another great place to see the internal contents of
your computer is the Control Panel, Go to my
computer,control panel,system, and device manager. This
place is a maze of high tech content. Do not change
anything unless you know what you are doing. The
results can be disastrous.
I have had my share of problems with down time,ranging
from installing anew Cd-rom, to blowing dust from my
tower. Yes, dust is a common culprit! Fans get clogged
with dust quickly,and the result is overheated
components and leads to computer failure.I blow out the
dust using a vacuum cleaner and also being careful not
to disturb delicate parts.

PC problems sometimes develop from a loose connection.
It may be a cord or a circuit board within the tower.
Gently pushing in a loose connection may solve a
problem.

Booting into the safe mode is a safe way to fix
problems.
When booting, after the start up screen,pressing Ctrl,
puts the pc in this mode with internet access, and many
programs disabled, so the problem can be found and
corrected.

Running disc cleanup, scandisk and defragmenter
regularly is a must.
Keep your recycle bin emptied, and the cache of your
browsers cleaned.

Downloading too many programs and files can be a
hazard. Games the kids like to play require alot of
hard drive with their special effects,graphics and
colors.

Updating programs help out alot and often results in
faster load time, and keeps up with technology.
Windows updates are included in the start menu. Many
programs have updates files included.
Another important update is the antivirus software. New
viruses are discovered every day and your antivirus
program needs to cover new and potentially harmful
viruses. This is another great way to lose important
data and wipe out your whole system.

Email is the culprit for unwanted viruses. Never open
an email if you do not know where/who it is from and
beware of attachments. Always
scan your mail before opening,if your unsure of the
content....DELETE IT!

Starting from scratch is not fun and may take several
days to accomplish. Reloading programs back into the
computer is time consuming and usually requires
technical assistance. Check your warranty for
additional information. If you are out of warranty, you
may have to pay for repairs.

Additional hardware cause problems too, such as a
backup unit for power outages,scanners, and printers.
Be sure to service these often,check for wear and
upgrade when needed.

I have an additional comment for those of you that want
to save money, be aware those universal ink printer
refills for any printer may not work for your printer.
I thought I was saving money and the results were a
damaged printer,thus repairs. In my case, not only did
I get ink all
over my hands, ink leaked into my printer from the
cartridge and caused the damage. You are much better
off paying for the cartridge that goes with the
printer, than trying to save money and end up paying 3
times the cost in repairs.
Last but not least....again...Never, ever think your
computer is not vulnerable to sickness..Some never
recover!

About the Author

Donna Sweat
Publisher/Editor
Dee's Helpful Info.
Endless Mts.Home Business
New Albany,PA.18833
http://www.homebiz.pa.32668.com

2005-10-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Trials and Tribulations of a Confused Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Donna Sweat
Publisher/Editor
Dee's Helpful Info.
Endless Mts.Home Business
New Albany,PA.18833
http://www.homebiz.pa.32668.com

2005-10-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Protect Your PC From Viruses, Worms, Trojans

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Each of the items in the checklist below is part of a broad and easy to implement security policy.

Install all windows critical updates for your operating system from the Microsoft Update site - it's free! All that's required to keep your Microsoft operating system up to date is an Internet connection.
Install and configure a firewall - either a hardware or software based firewall is a must! If you are using a router, it probably has firewall capabilities included. Software firewalls are available at minimal cost; one of the best is free!
Install and configure antivirus software - the cost is minimal, there are even free versions available - the protection is priceless! Update the definition files daily - scan your drive weekly - it can all be automated with most programs.
Create a backup - even the best plan can be circumvented - be prepared for the worst with a complete backup of your hard drive! If you already have a CD burner and software installed in your machine, you probably have the tools to create a complete system backup - for only the cost of a few CD-R's!

Obviously, the costs to properly protect yourself from the worst threats to your security are almost nil. If you need help with any step above, simply use a Google search to find help - it's freely available.

Follow these four simple steps and you will have implemented comprehensive and complete protection for your PC. If you are unable to initiate your own plan, hire an expert to do the job. You won't be sorry!

2004 ODEC

Mike Burstein has been helping the SOHO and Small Business community grow & prosper for over 20 years by solving start up problems, creating best practices, automating their offices, getting free publicity and dramatically increasing traffic and sales.

Visithttp://www.SOHOWiz.com for the latest FREE business tips.

Email the Wiz at: SOHOWiz@SOHOWiz.com

2005-10-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Is Your Computer Your Friend or a Dirty Name?

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

I am sitting here laughing and wishing I could hear the answers that each of you may have for the above question. Sometimes trying to get a computer to do what it is supposed to do, is like trying to nail jello to a tree. You might ask, why would someone want to nail jello to a tree? I don't know, I heard that somewhere and thought it would be fun to use here. At any rate, I am here to defend you against your computer and to also defend your computer against you.
We can compare our computer to our bodies. It basis it's function on what we feed it. If you feed your body something bad, then it will feel bad and not function the way it is supposed to. Well the computer reacts the same way, if you feed it something that is not compatible with what is already in it, then it might not function right. How do we know if something is bad for it? Well this is the part where I defend you, sometimes there is just no way to tell until after we have already installed it on the computer. Most places that you download from will list what operating systems (Windows 98,XP,etc.)that their software will run on, so look for that listing before you download. Of course they have no way of knowing what you already have installed on your computer and there may be a program already on your computer that has a conflict with their's. Even if they knew what was on your computer they might not know that there is going to be a conflict, until you tell them. Then they may be able to come up with a fix for the problem. If you find your computer acting funny just after a download, then uninstall it as quickly as possible.

Now having said all of that, we all know that sometimes you just walk into the same room the computer is in and a blue screen can appear telling us that we have done something illegal. After getting one of these messages, you might want to do what I always do. That is lock the doors so the computer police can not get in and arrest me for whatever it was that I was not supposed to have done. If you do the same thing, you might not want to mention it to anyone outside your family. I have found that there are people out there that do not believe in the computer police, (poor lost souls).

It is time now to get to the good part. Anytime you download something off the internet or download something a friend or relative has sent you, always run it through your antivirus program before you make the installation. If you do not have a antivirus program on your computer you should really get one. Without one you have no way of knowing if someone has sent you a virus and no way of knowing if you are sending it to someone else. Here are two good ones that are free for personal use. You can find them here "http://www.asw.cz/index.html" and "http://www.grisoft.com" Do not include the quotes when entering these addresses into your address bar. The bottom line is this, your computer can be a good friend and lots of fun if you know how to treat it. A good way to keep your computer running good is to perform maintenance on a regular basis. Maybe in my next article I will cover computer maintenance. See Ya, keep it on the road.

About the Author

Larry McLemore is the webmaster for www.rvinginfo.com and www.rverscomputerhelp.com He has written articles for www.rversonline.org and is also the online computer advisor for the same web site.

2005-10-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

10 Ways Not to Use Email

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Craig Hardee is the webmaster of
http://www.cyberagora.com, Your Internet
Multiplex, spotlighting the resources you
need to make your time online fulfilling,
profitable and fun.

2005-10-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

6 Essentail Steps to Protect Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Recently one of my friends asked me to check out if his computer was infected by virus. He suspected because occasionally the computer was shut down automatically when connected to internet. My first thought was the Sasser worm 60 seconds auto count-down. As he uses Windows 98 second edition with IE5, the virus must be a Sasser variant.

I'm not network security expert but I know some basic things he must do to protect his home PC. It was a shock when he told me that his 4 years old PC had no protection except McAfee anti-virus.

Bought in 2000 and no Windows service packs had been applied since then.
McAfee anti-virus software came with the PC when bought and no updates since then.
No firewall installed.
No anti spyware installed.

This is what I did to beef up his PC to the best of my knowledge.

Step #1: Patch the operating system.

The first thing I did was update his Windows 98 to the latest available Windows updates for Windows 98.

Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Scan the PC to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.
Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.
Restart the PC after finished.

When you open the Microsoft Windows Update page, click the "Scan for updates" link. The page will suggest what updates are needed based on your Windows version. You should install all Critical Updates suggested by Microsoft.

It took me about one and half hour to complete the above steps.

Step #2: Download, install, and run Spybot to get rid of all spyware.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Spybot-S&D is a free anti-spyware software to detect any spyware installed on your PC.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

Track what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.
Track and record your computer activities such as what keys you hit. This is generally called Trojans.
Change your web browser's home page.
And more...

After installed Spybot, I immediately scanned my friend's computer and found 166 problems. The first run killed nearly all of them except some memory residents that had to be killed after a reboot.

Step #3: Download and install Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF).
http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html

Kerio Personal Firewall limited free edition is for home users. After installation, KPF works as the full edition for 30 days, after which it becomes the limited free edition.

You may also try the free ZoneAlarm firewall. Be aware that ZoneAlarm free edition uses a lot of computer memory.

The following is the free ZoneAlarm firewall download link. You hardly can find this download link on ZoneAlarm site because they want you to buy the Pro version which is a much better choice.
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Step #4: Download AVG anti-virus software
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Because my friend has McAfee antivirus installed but has not been updated for about 4 years. I downloaded AVG Free Edition antivirus software and let him to consider if he wanted to pay and update his McAfee or use the freebie. Running two antivirus software on the same computer can cause conflicts.

Step #5: Install password management software - RoboForm free edition.
http://www.roboform.com/?affid=siter

RoboForm is a password management software with Artificial Intelligence built in that can automatically fill online forms for you. It has been featured on The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Financial Times, PC Magazine, etc.

Nowadays we all have many usernames and passwords to use on the internet. Some spywares record your keystrokes and send them to the hackers. It has been reported many times that people lost all their money in online bank account or internet payment system account.

One of RoboForm key features is designed to combat this kind of key logger hacking. RoboForm can

AutoSave passwords in browser.
AutoFill passwords to login form.
Click Login button for you.
Fill personal info into online forms.
Save offline passwords & notes.
Generate Secure Random Passwords.
Encrypt passwords and personal info using 3-DES.
All personal info is stored on your computer only.
Put passwords on USB KeyChain for extra security.
Sync your passwords and safenotes to a Palm.
Backup & Restore, Print your passwords.
More features: drill down for more.

RoboForm works best with IE 5.0 and above. IE6 is the recommended browser to use with Artificial Intelligence RoboForm.

Note: free eidition comes with some limitations.

Step #6: Apply additional security measures.

More security measures and resources:

Read Web Security tutorial from W3Schools, especially the paragraphs for home users.
http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_security.asp
Use Audit My PC to do three Penetration Testing.
http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/prefcan.asp
Use Gibson Research's ShiedsUP to do port scan and get useful advice.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Download Gibson Research's LeakTest and check if personal firewall can be fooled. If the firewall is good, the LeadTest will not be able to reach the internet.
http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm
Browse Microsoft security home page to learn more about Windows security.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

Mission completed. It took me nearly 4 hours that night and the result is so far so good.

About The Author

The author, Jerry Yu, is an experienced internet marketer and web developer. Visit his site http://www.WebActionGuide.com for FREE "how-to" step-by-step action guide, tips, knowledge base articles, and more.

2005-10-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Outlook Express

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Outlook Express is a reasonably nice email, newsgroup and
contacts client. One of the best things about this program is
the fact that it is free - if, of course, you install Internet
Explorer on your system.

Let's start with the positive things about this program. The
email client is on a par with most other email clients. You can
do just about anything that you would ever desire, including
creating maintaining email accounts, receiving messages, replying,
forwarding, and so on.

One of the real benefits to Outlook Express is the ability to
create identities. I don't know about you, but I have several
email accounts. Using the standard Outlook 2000 client all of the
messages from all of the accounts get thrown together in one list
(my understanding is that Outlook XP fixes this, but who wants to
install such a piece of garbage as Office XP on their system?)
Outlook express allows you to create more-or-less separate, well,
everything for each and every email account (if you so desire).
This way, all of the contacts, inbox, sendbox and so on are
totally unique to the account.

The newsgroup reader is the standard, online type. This was the
first newsgroup reader that I ever used, and it meets most of the
requirements of anyone doing light to medium reading and posting.
Other, far better newsgroup clients now exist, however, so Outlook
Express cannot be recommended based upon the newsgroup client
alone.

Contacts are handled in a more or less standard way. You've got a
list of contacts, and you can add their mailing information as
needed. The contact can be defined directly from an email message,
which is a nice touch.

The rule engine in Outlook Express probably was considered
advanced many years ago, but by today's standards it is mundane.
However, it can be used to block spam, file away messages and
perform autoreplies.

A feature which is really cool is called Email Stationary. One of
the best features about Outlook Express is the built-in stationary
editor. It's not super-sophisticated, but it does the job of
creating simple and intermediate stationary files very well.

Okay, now for the negatives about this product. I can sum up the
biggest negative in just one sentence:

The reason why viruses such as Melissa, Iloveyou and the
like exist and thrive is the proliferation of Outlook and
Outlook Express.

You see, Outlook Express (and it's big brother Outlook) support
email scripting. Other email clients do allow you to execute
programs and scripts, but very few of them allow the email client
itself to be invoked from the script or executable. Why is this a
problem?

Here's an example. Read and execute a virus in a different email
client and you could wipe out your own system. Read the same
virus in Outlook Express (or Outlook) and you can additionally
automatically (and often without your knowledge) send that virus
to everyone you've ever communicated with on email.

Before the days of email scripting, creating a self-replicating
virus was a large task requiring a very knowledgeable person. He
would have to design and create a means whereby the virus sent
itself to other systems. Once email scripting was invented and
became popular, virtually anyone with a few days or weeks of
script training (or reading of manuals) could do the same.

So if you use Outlook Express, you MUST install a very good
virus checking program (such as Norton Antivirus) and you MUST
keep the definitions up-to-date. Unfortunately, the email
security patch for Outlook which disables email scripting does
not apply to Outlook Express, so is of no help. (I am not sure if
the scripting problem applies to the Outlook Express which ships
with Internet Explorer 6 and above as I have not installed that
program yet).

To sum it up quickly, Outlook Express is a reasonable email and
newsgroup client. The best that can be said about it is the
product works and it's free. You are, however, exposing yourself
to some risk if you use the program, especially if you do not
have a good antivirus program installed.

Additional Reading

Changing Location Of Outlook Stationary
http://www.internet-tips.net/System/registry_outlookstationary.htm
The location of Outlook and Outlook Express stationary files is
contained in the registry. You can modify this value.

Creating Stationery Using Outlook Express 5 Lesson #1 - Basics
http://www.internet-tips.net/Email/outlookstationarycreate01.htm

Creating Stationery Using Outlook Express 5 Lesson #2 -
Stationery Wizard
http://www.internet-tips.net/Email/outlookstationarycreate02.htm

Email - The most critical application on the web
http://www.internet-tips.net/Email/Email.htm
Email is the most used and most important component on the web.
There are lots of options available to make your email
experience better and more more fulfilling.

Outlook Stationery
http://www.internet-tips.net/Email/outlookstationary.htm
Both Outlook and Outlook Express support stationery files,
which allow you to send very cool-looking email messages.

The Ultimate In Virus Protection
http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Virusprotection.htm
Learn how to protect your computer and your hard work. Start
with a backup plan, install antivirus software and subscribe to
newsletters.

Viruses
http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Viruses.htm
The most important thing you can do to protect your system is
install a virus checker (also known as an anti-virus program).
These programs will scan your system for viruses and Trojan
horses and delete or repair them. There are several products
including those by McAfee and Norton (Symantec).

About the Author

2005-10-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Are You Well Protected

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Winter�the official start of the cold and flu season. Though, technically speaking, things got started a little early. Close to a million computers, mostly home PC users, have been infected.

For many of us our computers are our business. We keep in contact with customers and clients via email, do extensive internet research, and transmit important files electronically.

We know what to do to protect our bodies from viruses. There are some simple strategies, and even free precautions we can take to protect our businesses by keeping our PCs virus free.

Adopting the following six checkpoints will help keep your computer healthy and your business uninterrupted.

Use a Firewall

At its most basic level a firewall is a software security system that acts as a barrier between your computer and the outside world (the internet) by monitoring all incoming network traffic. A more advanced firewall will also monitor outgoing traffic. How you use your computer will determine whether basic or advanced firewall protection is needed.

What a firewall does is make your computer invisible while on the Internet. If hackers can't see you, they cannot attack you.

Windows XP has this software installed; however, it may need to be enabled. If you have XP and would like to enable the firewall, directions are on the Microsoft website.

For non XP users, firewall software can be purchased. McAfee and Zone Alarm are two very popular products. Zone Alarm has a free downloadable firewall, basic version, available on their website, www.zonealarm.com.

Before installing a firewall, you may be interested in learning your computer�s vulnerability. This is something that can be checked for free and in just a few minutes. Visit the website of Gibson Research Corporation, www.grc.com, and under Hot Spots, click on Shields UP. It takes a little bit of scrolling to get to but is well worth the extra seconds. In minutes your PC is scanned and its vulnerability rated.

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is the "shot" after the epidemic. This software protects your computer from known threats. Many PCs come with antivirus software already installed. Some of the more popular versions are Norton, PCCillin and McAfee.

If you have it pre installed or have purchased it, great. Please be sure to keep it constantly updated with the latest virus definitions. This is important because these definitions are formed in response to the latest viruses. If you don't have this protection, please consider getting it.

Once this software is installed on your computer, you will be automatically notified when new virus definitions are available. Then it is just a matter of a few clicks to download the new definitions.

Likewise you will be notified when your antivirus software is about to expire. The software needs to be updated annually. The initial purchase, renewal, updates and installation can all be done online.

Spyware Eliminator

Why am I getting all of these pop ups? Certain websites that you visit or free software (shareware) that you download, and, in some cases, hardware purchased from major manufacturers will also install tracking devices on your computer (spyware). Spyware is annoying but not illegal.

An internet search will reveal the many choices available for spyware elimination software. The important thing is to get one and use it consistently. Spybot and PestPatrol are popular choices.

I really like Spybot Search and Destroy. Besides the fact that it is free, once spyware is identified, the software will provide a detailed description of just what it is. This is helpful just in case it identifies something that you don't want to get rid of.

Backup, Backup, Backup

How often do you backup? What files/programs do you backup? What media do you backup to?

We all know the importance of backing up our information yet so many of us don�t do it. There may be a ton of reasons why it's not done but the one reason it should be done on a regular basis is that it can be a timesaver, possibly a business saver if your computer system is corrupted for any reason.

If you happen to be using Windows XP Professional, the backup procedure is quite simple. For users of XP Home Edition, it is a bit more involved. Complete instructions, however, are on the Microsoft website.

Typically, data files are what most people need to back up and having well organized files will certainly simplify the process.

Whether you backup to disk, zip disk, DVD, writeable CDs, external file drive or utilize one of the online services, it is important to get into the habit of backing up on a regular basis.

Weekly Updates of Windows

Windows users are automatically notified of current updates for the Windows operating system when your computer is turned on. With just a few clicks your operating system is updated.

However, when certain patches become available for your particular applications software (XP, 2000, NT, etc), as was/is the case with the recent worm viruses, a visit to Microsoft's website is necessary.

Once there, Microsoft will scan your computer, tell you what updates are available, and you then have the option of installing them on your system. In some cases, you will need your installation CDs to complete the download.

With the recent run of viruses and with more expected, it is imperative to check for these updates weekly on the Microsoft website as well as do the automatic updates.

Be Careful of Email Attachments

Email is such a widely accepted method of communication, and this has not gone unnoticed by hackers who use email as a means of mass virus spread.

For this final checkpoint, your due diligence is the only software required.

Always delete any email from unknown senders and be very careful of any attachments you are not expecting from any known senders. As we have seen, hackers can quite easily access Outlook address books to spread viruses.

By the way, including a fake email address in your address book will not prevent your PC from spreading viruses. This is an urban legend. If you�re interested in the full story, check out this link:

www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.htm

When it comes to the health of our computers, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Effective prevention software along with plain old common sense, used consistently, can keep you protected.

About The Author

Roxie Hickman, Virtual Assistant (VA), is the owner of The Virtual Connection. The Virtual Connection (www.thevirtualconnection.net) specializes in working with the �sucstressed� (successful professionals who are stressed because they�ve been doing it alone). The Virtual Connection provides offsite executive, administrative, and personal assistance (virtual assistance).

roxie@thevirtualconnection.net

2005-10-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

How to Safeguard Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

The following practice, if done regularly, may help you to safeguard your computer to some extent.

1. Run disc clean up, scan disk and defragmentor.

2. Keep your recycle bin emptied.

3. Clean your cache of browsers.

4. Download only the very essential programs that are required to run your business and avoid the habit of downloading whatever you get for free.

5. Update your programs to keep up the latest technology and also for a faster load time.

6. Never open suspicious emails from unknown people, especially the attachments however tempting it may be. It will be hazardous to your computer. Sometimes you may even get emails with attachments with subject saying your "Thank you for your order and the credit card details". Most of them will be sending malicious viruses through those attachments.

7. Above all remember to protect your computer with antivirus soft ware and update it regularly.

8. Backing up of all your important files and store them in two sets of floppies. In case one floppy fails to open the other one would be of help.

Before calling the technical help, it will be wise to try the following simple step, which may help you to sort out your problem.

Carefully check your connecting cord and circuit board of your computer. A gentle push may solve the problem, correcting the loose connection and a big expenditure of calling the technical person can be eliminated.

Lakshmi Menon is a a Juvio Independent Associate Member. For computer help please visit: http://mela.juvio.com

2005-10-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

Virus Hoaxes

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Have you ever gotten an email message like this?

BIGGGG TROUBLE !!!! DO NOT OPEN "WTC Survivor"
It is a virus that will erase your whole "C" drive. It will come
to you in the form of an E-Mail from a familiar person. I repeat
a friend sent it to me, but called and warned me before I opened
it. He was not so lucky and now he can't even start his computer!
Forward this to everyone in your address book. I would rather
receive this 25 times than not at all. If you receive an email
called "WTC Survivor" do not open it. Delete it right away! This
virus removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll files) from your
computer.

Again,,, I urge all of you to make sure your virius scanners
are up to date daily!!!!!!
FG

Sounds very bad, doesn't it? My, what a horrible virus. It, and
others like it, will eat your hard drive, destroy your email,
infect every other machine on your network and listed in your
address book, and even perhaps give you cookies and make your
car break down!

This email and others like it are simply hoaxes? How do I know
they are a hoax and not a real warning? Here's how it works. A
virus propagates (reproduces) by automatically sending itself to
all of the addresses in your address book. This is a fairly
complex piece of code, requiring a little knowledge on the part
of the person who created the virus.

Well, instead of writing code to propagate something, why not
ask some gullible people to do it for you? That's what these
hoaxes are all about - the "virus" is the email message and the
delivery system is human being.

Why will people do this? Sometimes it's just for a laugh, and
sometimes it's for more insidious reasons. Someone could send
out a message which claimed that any message from AOL contained
a virus, for example, in an effort to make AOL look bad.

Here is one of the first hoaxes known to have been sent out
across the internet. It went out in 1988.

SUBJ: Really Nasty Virus
AREA: GENERAL (1)

I've just discovered probably the world's worst computer virus
yet. I had just finished a late night session of BBS'ing and
file treading when I exited Telix 3 and attempted to run pkxarc
to unarc the software I had downloaded. Next thing I knew my
hard disk was seeking all over and it was apparently writing
random sectors. Thank god for strong coffee and a recent
backup. Everything was back to normal, so I called the BBS
again and downloaded a file. When I went to use ddir to list
the directory, my hard disk was getting trashed again. I
tried Procomm Plus TD and also PC Talk 3. Same results every
time. Something was up so I hooked up to my test equipment
and different modems (I do research and development for a
local computer telecommunications company and have an in-house
lab at my disposal). After another hour of corrupted hard
drives I found what I think is the world's worst computer
virus yet. The virus distributes itself on the modem
sub-carrier present in all 2400 baud and up modems. The
sub-carrier is used for ROM and register debugging purposes
only, and otherwise serves no othr (sp) purpose. The virus
sets a bit pattern in one of the internal modem registers, but
it seemed to screw up the other registers on my USR. A modem
that has been "infected" with this virus will then transmit
the virus to other modems that use a subcarrier (I suppose
those who use 300 and 1200 baud modems should be immune).
The virus then attaches itself to all binary incoming data
and infects the host computer's hard disk. The only way to
get rid of this virus is to completely reset all the modem
registers by hand, but I haven't found a way to vaccinate a
modem against the virus, but there is the possibility of
building a subcarrier filter. I am calling on a 1200 baud
modem to enter this message, and have advised the sysops of
the two other boards (names withheld). I don't know how this
virus originated, but I'm sure it is the work of someone in
the computer telecommunications field such as myself. Probably
the best thing to do now is to stick to 1200 baud until we
figure this thing out. Mike RoChenle

So what should you do if you receive a warning about some
horrible virus? Generally, if these demand to be sent to everyone
you know, it's a hoax. If you are unsure, then check out the
following site:

Symantic Antivirus Research Center - http://www.sarc.com

Go to the search page and enter a few words from the message
claiming to warn you about a horrible virus. Behold, you will
now read about the hoax. In fact, here's the datasheet on the
virus mentioned at the start of this article:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data
/wtc.survivor.hoax.html

In any event, hoax or not, it's a good idea to just file the email
or delete it. Don't send it on to all of your friends. Don't do
anything dramatic. These things only gain power when people give
them power.

In other words, maintain your reason and don't give in to an
emotional response which simply floods email inboxes with junk.

About the Author

2005-10-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Why Use Antivirus Software?

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

The previous article "Understanding Ezine Publishing!" focused on ezine publishing basics. Determine your goals. Plan a publishing strategy. Decide on ezine topic. Establish the frequency. Develop the content.

No matter how competitive the market is today, still one of the best forms of advertising is submitting your ezine articles to article directories. (Visit Goggle and search for "article directories". There is certainly no shortage of listing as Goggle pulls-up 6,920,000 results).

At the end of each article, create a resource box. When other ezine and websites publish your articles, your resource box will be included. It will help you increase traffic, gain subscribers, improve your link popularity for the search engines and generate revenues.

The question is how to deliver your message in the most efficient but inexpensive way. One way is to outsource your tasks to the services of another company, which will charge monthly fees on an ongoing basis. The other approach is to purchase software to manage your own list. The cost is usually a one-time fee. I personally use EzineAnnouncer software to post my articles. It offers 1372 ezine promotion resources. I also use paid services.

Proper format and design of the actual e-mail messages is an important factor to assure it will be read and not deleted. Plain text e-mail publications are generally the most popular and email programs will have no difficulties to open and view the contents.

HTML, (the email actually is the same as a webpage), is much more complicated, requires lots of extra work, need special software and/or knowledge to create the formatted message, and also can be stopped by antivirus program as well as software firewalls due to the risk of the html virus.

Many subscribers simply prefer text whenever it is available. If you're brand new to ezine publishing, make text publishing the number one choice. However, should you decide to offer an HTML version, make sure your subscribers are given a choice.

If you write in Microsoft Word or another word processor, be aware that those programs do not insert line breaks, and you will be forced to end each line with a hard "carriage return". That's a lot of hard work. Than there is a simple text editor such as Notepad, but you still must insert the line breaks manually.

To ensure that your ezine will appear well formatted in the majority of email programs, you need to follow the standard rule. Use the same newsletter formatting rules in all issues of your newsletter. Line lengths should be 60-65 characters. Longer lines will be forced to wrap in some email clients and will not look good. The Courier New is the best choice font to compose ezine, however, I've used Arial and Times New Roman and had no problems since it was composed and formatted in Ziney Pro editor.

An editor software must allow user to open, change and save text as easy as possible, cut and paste selected text into an email or text file, while maintaining the set-line length. The line length should be very easy to adjust by changing the number of characters in the appropriate textbox.

Keep in mind that ezine article size is 400 - 1200 words. Larger messages may be converted to attachments by some email programs. If your article is converted to an email attachment, it may not be opened due to the threat of computer viruses.

About the author:

2004, Jon Kogan, All Rights Reserved.
http://www.zivomarketing.com

About The Author

Jon Kogan is Founder of ZivoMarketing and Editor of Home Business Breakthroughs Ezine!
mailto:subscribe@zivomarketing.com

Jason Potash has developed a powerful software application called EzineAnnouncer that automates a lot of tedious work in the ezine submission process. Download a fre.e trial version.
http://www.zivomarketing.com/EA.html

Jon Kogan was born, raised and educated in Ukraine.

Arriving to the USA in 1975 has been able to focus on the area of his expertise in marketing, sales and management in the corporate world.

In 2002, Jon has made a decision to apply real world marketing concepts to the Internet. His goals are to provide training, education and to show that it�s simple and easy to join the ranks of success-minded people by choosing to start a home business.

editor@zivomarketing.com

2005-10-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Virus Protection and Hoax Recognition - Be Safe Not Sorry

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Everyday I receive numerous emails with virus infections.
Many of them come in response to my sending out my twice
weekly newsletter to close to 12,000 subscribers.

What normally happens is a subscriber's system is infected
without them even realizing it. Their email program sends
out emails to everyone in their address book without them
knowing.

When I get an email that is infected, my anti-virus program,
Norton Anti Virus 2002 which I have used for many years,
intercepts it and gives me some options to either delete
or quarantine.

The regular viruses that I see attached to these emails are:

W32.Badtrans.B@mm
W32.Badtrans@mm.enc
W95.Hybris.worm
W32.Magistr.24876@mm
W32.Sircam.Worm@mm

There are other variations of the above and a couple other
different ones that I receive regularly.

If there is any one thing that you should do if you spend
any amount of time on the Net and send and receive email
on a regular basis is make sure that you have a good anti-
virus program. You also have to make sure that you keep it
up to date at all times. That is one of the reasons that
I like Norton, since it automatically updates and keeps
me current with protection against the latest viruses. I
am not a distributor for Norton but I highly recommend it
to anyone that asks me. It is not expensive. Their web site
is at: http://www.symantec.com/

The important thing to remember is that you can have an
active virus infection and not even know it. If you are
trying to run an online business and your potential
customers are getting virus attachments with the email
you are sending them, they probably won't be customers for
too long.

With the many email viruses now active around the Net, you
should also make it your practice not to open any attachments
to an email if you don't know who it is from. Most of the
email viruses become active when you open the attachment. But
again to be totally safe you should have a good anti-virus
program on your system. You could very well get an infected
email attachment on an email from someone you do know since
they might not be aware that they are transmitting it. An
anti-virus program will give you the protection you need.

The Email Hoax Problem

As far as the email hoax problem, they continue to circulate
over and over. When you get one of them you can see that it
has been forwarded many times by the number of ">>>>>>" in
the left column. Each of these >'s are signifiers of another
person forwarding the message.

Some of them are simply jokes and others can cause some
problems. Many just cause a tremendous amount of unnecessary
traffic like one of the ones involving Microsoft:

"If you receive an email titled "WIN A HOLIDAY" DO NOT open it.
It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter
to as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious
virus and not many people know about it. This information was
announced yesterday morning from Microsoft;...."

Then there are ones like the "SULFNBK.EXE" hoax. This ones
says if you do a search on your computer for this file, you
have a serious virus infection and you should remove it
immediately and forward the message to as many people as you
can. Well this file is a real Windows file that controls
certain functions on your computer and you will find it in the
Window's Command folder when you do a search. If you find it
in different locations then you might have a virus since exe
files are normally the ones that get infected. But the email
hoax doesn't tell you that, it tells you that you should
immediately remove it if found. And many people do remove it.

Before you pass on any email like this you should check to
see if it is for real or not. There are a number of sites
that you can check at:

Symantec Site
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
Mining Co.(About.com) Virus and Hoax Guide
http://antivirus.miningco.com/msub2.htm
Data Fellow's Virus Page
http://www.europe.datafellows.com/vir-info
Virus Hoaxes and Net Lore
http://hoaxinfo.com
Rob Rosenberger's Site
http://www.vmyths.com
Hoaxbusters.org The Big List
http://hoaxbusters.org
Stiller Research Alphabetic Hoax List
http://www.stiller.com/hoaxa.htm
Hoax Kill
http://www.hoaxkill.com

What you should do when you have some time is go to these
sites and take a look at some of the most common ones so you
are familiar with them when you get one.

In summary, make sure that you have a good anti-virus program
to protect your system and be sure the information you get
in an email is valid before you do something to your computer
or forward the message to all of your friends.

About the Author

Joe Reinbold, webmaster of The Entrepreneur's Home Business
Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter "Home Income
Quarterly E-dition" which is dedicated to assisting online
marketers. For a free subscription just
mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com or visit his site at
http://www.homebizlink.com

2005-10-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Cyberfraud and Identity Theft Protection

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

There are many people out there that have DSL or cable connections that don't have proper firewalls or up to date antivirus programs in place. Too many think it just came with the computer. This can create a breach and your privacy violated. The General Accounting Office now puts identity theft at 750,000 victims a year. Victims spend an average of 175 painstaking hours to undo the damage.

There are things you can do to protect yourself especially regarding your computer. First and foremost, don't store your personal information on your computer. Someone harvesting that kind of information can literally go through thousands of computers in the hour you spend watching your favorite television program. Virus' can infect your system and relay that information in alot less time. Make sure your firewalls and anit-virus software is up to date. If you don't have them - get them. You don't have to be the most tech savy person to do it either. For the average user, you can find security information, news and products presented in plain language at quantum-links.com http://www.quantum-links.com to keep yourself and your computer running current and up to date.
Beware people who come asking for your personal information. This is becoming commonly known as PHISH. Services you already have do not email you asking for you to resubmit your information. PayPal had some of it's customers caught in this net recently and had to issue an email telling them not to respond. Instead of replying with your information, email them back asking for a telephone number by which to contact them directly. It is doubtful that they will respond with one. If they do, you can check out the number in a number of ways to make sure it's for real. One way is to use the reverse listings available on many search engines. My favorite is http://www.refdesk.com>.

Check your credit report at least once a year. Have a fraud alert put on your accounts. This is a flag that asks creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts. This may impede opening instant accounts. But, the security seems well worth the inconveinance. You can also order credit watch services from them that contact you when there is unusual activity. Here are links to the big three:
Equifax Credit Information Services,Inc. Experian Information Solutions, Inc. TransUnion

You can also contact your financial institutions and ask about their information opt out programs. This takes you off any lists that they sell or trade. Especially do this with any accounts that you do online transactions with.
Another good way to shield your privacy is to contact the Direct Marketing Association in New York to opt out of their member's lists. Use the links to find out how to opt out of each type: Email Telemarketing Regular Mail

This was just a short plain primer on protecting yourself. There are other options out there as well. If you stop and think, the time you spend on prevention will most likely be alot less than any spent on repairing damage. Your brain and your computer aren't all that different.

The average person only uses about 10% of either. Tweak the 10% you use.

About the Author

Guy Hartmann has a degree in Community Education and has over 20 years experience in the fields of education and community development. He is a regular contributor at http://www.quantum-links.com

2005-10-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Help! I Can't Handle One More Virus!

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

"There are 500 new virus/worms created each month",
according to the McAfee.com website. Whenever I learn out
about another virus or worm that has developed into "medium
or high" status, I shake my head in disgust. Have you ever
wondered what would happen if that virus programmer turned
their energies around and instead developed a positive
program for us to use? Can you imagine how terrific that
program would be?!?!

If you haven't heeded the latest slew of virus warnings then
you've probably been hit with a virus or worm. It's likely
you've also lost use of your computer for at least a few
hours if not a few days. In some cases, you've lost very
important computer files or programs, too. Take some steps
today, so that you'll have a virus free year.

Now every anti-virus website tells you to not open
attachments from people you do not know. The thing is, that
even attachments from people you love, could infect your
computer with a virus. I'm going to come clean and admit the
truth. I too have had a virus wreak havoc on my computer -
ONCE! And once since April of 1994 was enough for me!
Actually it was a beautiful attachment of fireworks that a
friend sent me. Well, it looked like fireworks before it
destroyed some of my Word documents and other programs!

So, I won't tell you to not open attachments. That's a crazy
suggestion anyway. Instead, take the time now, right now,
this moment, to protect your computer.

~Subscribe to an ezine list, such as the ones listed below
where the owner provides their readers with an added value.
This value comes in the form of important Internet alerts.
Maria's Place - Helping You and Your Business Grow
http://www.coachmaria.com/popup.html
Web Chamber http://www.webchamber.com

~Most new computers come with an anti-virus program and
often the data files for that program are out of date by the
time you receive your computer. Locate the anti-virus
program on your computer, get on the Internet and download
the latest .dat (data files) or zip files (large group of
files compressed so they download quickly).

~If you don't have an anti-virus program, test drive one of
the many programs available on a 30-day trial. Purchase a
program that offers an automatic scheduler feature and set
the system to update files once a week.

~The most popular anti-virus programs are McAfee and Norton,
however there are many other programs available*.
http://www.mcafee.com
http://www.norton.com
http://www.sophos.com
http://www.grisoft.com
http://www.antivirus.com
http://www.alwil.com/en/default.asp
http://www.escorcher.com/

~Costco, Sam's Club, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, etc.
carry one or both these programs and they all have online
stores, too. Or try an online comparison store like
mysimon.com, pricegraber.com, amazon.com

~Add "yearly update of my anti-virus program" to your
business or personal budget.

~Put aside 30 minutes to read the directions of your new
anti-virus program so that you know everything it can do. If
you're updating, the "read me" text file usually contains
what's been updated or added since the last version.

~Know, that if you have email programs other than Microsoft,
you can still end up with a virus. Anti-virus programs are
designed to destroy files and cause fear. Viruses have been
targeted at Adobe PDF, ICQ and other Microsoft files!

~Microsoft provides updates to programs on their website.
Security updates may include fixes for a virus and are
called critical files. Visit the sites below once a month to
update all critical files.
MS Main Program Updates
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
MS Office Updates
http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates/

~When you use them properly, anti-virus programs work!
However remember that they are reactive not proactive.
Whenever you hear about a new virus, update your data files
immediately.

About the Author

Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Maria Marsala, Business & Life
Coach-Consultant. Maria works with individuals as they design, start
and grow their business or career around what they love to do. Visit http://www.CoachMaria.com to subscribe to "Growing You and Your Business" a free weekly online newsletter.

2005-10-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

Backing Up Your Stuff - The Problem

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

I don't know about your, but I depend upon my computer system daily to help
me survive and prosper. I keep everything there:

- My daily journals
- My writing
- Letters and memos
- Documents for personal and work issues
- FAXes
- My photo album (over 10,000 photos)
- Graphics art that I've produced

In addition, if you are anything like me, over the years you've downloaded
thousands of different things off the internet. You may also have installed
some files from CDs and floppy disks, as well as receiving numerous files
via email. Some of these downloads include such wondrous things as:

- Paint Shop Pro tubes, brushes
- Photoshop filters
- desktop themes
- outlook stationary
- Screensavers
- Wallpaper
- ICQ skins and sounds
- Fonts
- Sounds
- Videos
- Innumerable other things

In fact, this is one of the activities that makes the internet so
enjoyable - being able to download and install new features, plug-ins and
cool stuff as often as you can.

These files tend to take up massive amounts of space on your hard drives. On
my system, my outlook stationary alone requires over 150 megabytes, my
desktop themes are getting close to a gigabyte and I have over 200 megabytes
of Paint Shop Pro tubes.

This phenomenon is made even worse because most people (myself included)
never throw anything away. I have kept just about everything that I've ever
put on my computer, until today I have over 100 gigabytes of lord knows
what!

Add to that yet another issue: many of us store files on remote systems.
Many people use their free hosts editing tools to create and modify their
web site files directly on the internet. The files are never downloaded to
their author's hard drive. For example, I receive at least a couple of
emails each week from someone asking how they back up the files on Geocities
or MSN or any number of other hosts.

I used to create a backup of my entire system to a Zip drive once a week.
This soon required two zip disks, then 3 and then a dozen. I switched to
tape, which helped for a while. Before too long, however, I found my backups
took all night long and required several tape changes. This was getting out
of hand - not only did the backup require an incredible amount of time, but
the system was slow while it was running and it was obvious that it would be
very difficult to do a restore if it became necessary.

At this point, many people make the fatal decision to stop performing
backups at all. This is not a good idea, as there are many hazards to the
health of your computer.

- Hundreds and even thousands of new viruses are created monthly. Any one of
these could destroy your system and erase years of work. Even if you have
the best antivirus software on the planet, there is still the possibility
that a new virus could get through your defenses.
A hacker could penetrate your firewalls (assuming you have one) and do
whatever he pleased. He could, if he wanted, delete files, modify them or
even download them to his own system.

- Your system could be damaged or destroyed by more mundane threats such as
water leaking from the upstairs bathtub or mice chewing on the disk cables.

- You could accidentally delete files yourself.

- A new installation of a program or an operating system upgrade could
render your system unusable.

- I have heard tales of lightening striking nearby power poles and rendering
systems completely unusable.

So if your system is getting so crowded that is is difficult if not
impossible to perform a full backup, what do you do to protect yourself?

About the Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This
website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet
profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm
Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com

2005-10-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

Avoiding Fraud Through Safe Shopping

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Jeff Mueller is the founder/webmaster of
Slick Shoppers http://www.slickshoppers.com
Dedicated to finding the best deals and
savings on brand name items.

2005-10-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Personal Firewalls For Home Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director ,
Birbals,
India

2005-10-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

Basic Tips and Tricks for Windows XP

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can run programs as if though they were being run under a different operating system. (This is known as "emulation".) Simply right-click a shortcut, select "Properties" and then check "Run in compatibility mode" and select the operating system you wish to make the program believe it is being run under. This fools or tricks the program into thinking you are really using a previous version of Windows, such as NT, 2000, 98, or 95. This is especially useful for certain games that won't run properly. Be careful *not* to use this with certain system utilities, such as antivirus, defrag, registry, and disk tool applications.

Customizing the Start Menu Right click on the "Start" button and left click "Properties". From here, you can select the new Windows XP style Start Menu, or return to the Windows 2000/Millennium style one. You can also customize the two possible choices using their corresponding "Customize" buttons. This also allows you to turn on or disable cascading menus and other options that are useful, such as large or small icons and more.

Bring Back Those Desktop Icons After you install Windows XP, you probably noticed that some of your icons from previous versions of Windows you've used are missing. Microsoft did this intentionally to help simply and reduce clutter. Of course, for some people, this isn't the best choice or the user preference. So, if you want those icons like "My Computer" and "My Network Places" back, just open Display Properties (right click Desktop Wallpaper, left click "Properties") and click the "Desktop" tab. Click the "Customize Desktop" button and on the "General" tab check the items you want. You can also change the icons used by these desktop items in the same screen. One final tip related to this screen is the "Clean Desktop Now" button, which notifies you of unused icons on the desktop and offers to remove them if you choose.

Give Me My ClearType Windows XP includes a great new visual technology, called "ClearType" which increases horizontal legibility by approximately 300% and it looks great. Go back into "Display Properties" [see tip: "Bring Back Those Desktop Icons" for instructions] and this time, go to the "Appearance" tab. Click "Effects" and for the second drop down box, labeled "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts", select "ClearType". Click OK twice and you're all set.

Lock Computer vs. Welcome Login Screen You must go into Control Panel and open the "User Accounts" applet to change this setting. Click "Change the way users log on or off". For maximum security, uncheck the "Use the Welcome screen" option. This re-enables the use of the "Lock Computer" option from the ALT CTRL DELETE menu, but prevents multiple users from being logged on locally at a single time. This also returns to the Windows 2000 style login screen. If you'd rather have the ability to *not* be able to use "Lock Computer" and would rather allow multiple users to logon to the computer at a single time locally, leave this setting checked and also check "Use Fast User Switching".

www.ICTtutorials.vze.com

2005-10-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

Keeping XP Working For You

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-10-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

MyDoom Virus - How You Can Help!

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-10-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

Free Ways to Tackle Threats to Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Protect Your PC

Having problems with your pc? Do your kids, family or friends fill it with all the stuff they find on the internet?

Your computer, just like your car, needs to be serviced regularly to keep it running efficiently. You wouldn't fill your car up with petrol from an old rusty can with a layer of dirty water on the bottom, so you shouldn't allow your pc to be treated that way either.

Any pc connected to the internet is a target for viruses, spyware, adware and trojan horses.

You need to protect and clean your pc of these nasties which slow down your costly computer. We will show you how to do at little or no cost in this free report.

Before we start here is our disclaimer:- we take no responsibility for any harm YOU may do to your computer with this information. Use it at your own risk and be sure you are confident of what you are doing before you start. It's a good idea to make a restore point before installing/uninstalling or changing anything (see below for details)

Firstly Viruses, these are the most newsworthy of the baddies, and because of this most people have heard of them. They are the pc version of the Flu, or in a worse case scenario, Sars, and can kill your computer. There are new viruses released almost daily, and you need to keep up to date with Antivirus software to stop them. Fortunately there is a free program which can help you protect your pc. This is called AVG and is available at http://www.grisoft.com just follow links through the site to AVG Free Edition. Register your email address, download and install it to your pc.

The program is pretty straightforward to use but make sure you keep it updated at least weekly by double clicking the AVG icon (four coloured square) in the taskbar and then clicking on update in the window, tick internet as the source and you are good to go. It will automatically update and restart the main Antivirus program. Remember prevention is better than cure though and don't open attachments in emails or even sent to you over instant messengers unless you are sure of the person sending them, even then if you have AVG installed right click the file and use the �scan with AVG� menu item to double check.

Trojan Horses come next on our hitlist, mostly these are small programs which record either keystrokes or other information and try to send it back to someone to steal your details. But they can be used to take over your pc completely or partially to use your resources to send spam emails, or launch attacks on other computers on the internet, often for denail of service (DOS) attacks. Most Trojan Horses are removed by the AVG antivirus software, or if not it will alert you to its presence, and you can google http://www.google.com to find how to remove it.

A good prevention measure to stop Trojans accessing the net to send their payload is to use a software firewall, again there is at least one free program you can download, called zonealarm. It will ask you wether to allow programs to access the internet or not, meaning if you get something you know you didn't install accessing the net you can tell zonealarm not to allow it. To download zonealarm, go to http://www.zonelabs.com and follow links to the download section, and then to zonealarm (they are not so prominent as the ones for the Pro version which you pay for). It is a good idea to run a firewall to stop attacks coming in from outside as well your details going out. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed has a built in firewall, but zonealarm is much more configurable and does a better job overall.

Spyware and Adware can also be responsible for a lot of pc problems. These are often programs piggybacked onto a free download offered to help you with some other task like form filling on websites (Gator is a well known example but they are open about it). Spyware is used by less scrupulous companies and individuals to report back your surfing habits so they can send ads you're more likely to respond to. These slow down your surfing and also run in the background using your pc's power to do their dirty work. Sometimes the information sent back is even more sinister than just your browsing habits, so beware of software you download and check first. Adware is very similar although is usually contained in tracking cookies (small text files downloaded by your browser containing information to track you through a website).

Often these 2 terms are used interchangably. Another nasty which falls in with these is Scumware, which is a term used to describe software which hijacks another program (usually your browser or modem dialler) and displays only content which it's maker wants you to see and often prevents you seeing anything else. The diallers reset your modems settings to dial another (usually very expensive) number rather than your ISP's one. Thankfully some thoughtful individuals have kindly donated their time to give us free programs which will release you from the grip of these fiendish programmers.

Download firstly Adaware from http://www.lavasoft.de and install and run that (if it finds nothing on your pc I would be extremely surprised) secondly download Spybot Search and Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html and install and run that too, it will pop up a dialog to say it has found adaware also on your machine, but it doesn't really mind so close it and continue. As with virus software you should use these and update them both regularly, as you can be sure the people on the darkside of the internet are updating their stuff to keep you hooked into it. Both programs have a button for downloading and installing updates automatically so there is no excuse not to do it before every scan, which we would recommend doing at least monthly and more frequently if possible.

So now you are protected from viruses, trojan horses, and other pc illnesses so that's it right?

Not quite, I have to say one of the most important things on your pc is your personal data, you can re-install Windows, Office and all the other programs on your computer from the cd's, but your prized pictures, your kids half written essay for that all important exam or your wifes recipes handed down from generation to generation carefully typed out and saved can't be. Back it up. NOW. Onto cd's if you have a cd writer or if not get one installed or use floppy discs. But for the sake of your sanity BACK IT UP.

And finally some tips to keep your pc running at its optimum.

Before making any changes to your pc or programs, it's a good idea to make a restore point by going to Start, then accessories on the start menu, then clicking System tools and finally the system restore icon. Follow the prompts and create a restore point to return to if it all goes wrong. Sometimes a slow pc is just the result of too many programs running, close down those you're not using, obvious but often overlooked. If you're anything like most pc users you have a bundle of programs start when your computer does, and sitting in the task tray at the right of the start menu. You can close these down manually but if you don't use them at all then why not remove them?

If you may want them but not everytime you start up you can go to start, then click RUN and in the text box type �msconfig� without the quotes. Don't worry now this looks daunting but all you need to do is click the tab at the right marked �Startup� and there is a list of all those programs which run as soon windows starts, now apply a little caution and lookup (http://www.google.com again comes to your aid) any you don't recognise. Now those you're sure you don't need running at startup untick the box.

Next time you start windows will put up a box to tell you you've disabled some things, as long as your pc works ok now, tick the box to not show it again. If you took of something you need or want back run msconfig again, and retick the box in the startup tab again, next time you restart it will return. My last tip is to run defrag monthly, go to start, accessories, system tools and run defrag, this can often speed up a slowing pc as it makes all the files on your hard drive quicker to access.

Douglas Titchmarsh runs several websites, and blogs including http://www.cashinonline.info

2005-09-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Less Stress and More Success

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Katherine Vargo is a partner of Vargo Consulting Group, your computer lifesavers. Additional lifesaving reports from Vargo Consulting Group can be found at http://www.vargoconsulting.com/tips

2005-09-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Watch Out For Spyware Programs That Slow Down Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Spyware is a program that once loaded on your computer unknowingly collects information from your PC and sends it to another party. The most dangerous types of Spyware programs copies personal information that you would not share with anyone such as passwords, files and credit card numbers.

Other types of spyware programs act as a forced advertising program. The program will track your keystrokes and web surfing habits. Once the program, and company running it, knows your habits they will try to change your web page to get you to go to specific sites and purchase something or surf on their site.

The corporations who create and distribute spyware, get many benefits from their dishonest marketing practices. They can build up a huge database of so called opt-in marketing participants, sell you their own products or terrorize you with unwelcome pop-ups.

They�re counting on the fact that a lot of web surfers don�t know that the program is on their computer. The few that do know that they have spyware programs, don�t know how it got there and how to prevent themselves from getting it again.

Spyware usually get on your computer when you download unverified programs online. Everyone eventually downloads something from the internet. Spyware software is usually attached to some kind of free software. The software could be games, wall paper programs, music files or file swapping software. Most web surfers will not take the time to read the long disclaimers and terms of use that are attached to freebies on the web. This is where you will usually find a line in the agreement that states that extra programs are attached to your free download.

Other time, it is clear that there are extra programs but their purpose and functions are not explicitly explained. Almost any program can be described as a user friendly application to help you enjoy your surfing experience. Make sure that you read the fine print before you download and save anything on your computer.

The best way to combat spyware is to not let it into your computer system. You should never download free software unless you trust the source of the software. You won�t find too many spyware programs coming from the larger, more reputable corporations in our society. They depend on selling real products to make money instead of trickery and stealing your personal data. You should get a copy of several commercial applications that you can use in addition to your AntiVirus software to detect and remove these intrusive software pests.

About The Author

Syd Johnson is the editor of the RapidLingo directory of ebooks and software programs. You can always add your listing for free.

To find out more about pop-up killers and other spyware removal programs, visit the ebook and information directory at http://www.rapidlingo.com

2005-09-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Product Review: Zone Alarn Pro

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Internet Safety Tips

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

Your Antivirus is Not the Answer to Your Total Internet Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Seven Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Dave understands that not everyone is up on the latest technical words and tries to make computers accessable to anyone by keeping things as simple as possible.

2005-09-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

Seven Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Dave understands that not everyone is up on the latest technical words and tries to make computers accessable to anyone by keeping things as simple as possible.

2005-09-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

Crisis on the Home Front

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

http://www.bullguard.com/antivirus/backup.aspx Free trial - no $39.99/year/10 MB Type - back up
http://www.backup.com/ Free trial period the first 30 days $49.95/year/50 MB Type - back up
http://www.streamload.com/ 30 day free trial $4.95/mo/3000 MB Type - storage
http://www.usdatatrust.com/service/default.asp 30 day free trial $199/month/5 GB $150 activation fee ** Online information kit - very helpful Type - back up
http://www.iomega.com/istorage/ 30 day free trial $2.49/mo/50 MB Type - storage/back up
http://www.xdrive.com/features/backup.jsp 15 day free trial $9.95/mo/500 MB Type - back up
http://www.filesanywhere.com/Features.htm 30 day free trial $8.95/mo/500 MB Type - back up
http://www.ibackup.org/ (back up only) 30 day free trial $14.95/mo/4 GB Type - back up
http://www.ezbackup.com/ 30 day free trial $9.95/mo/250 MB Type - back up

So, are you prepared for a disaster on the home front? If not, you should be. Take control of your online business. Don't wait until its too late to take action.

About The Author

2005-09-20T03:39:00.000-07:00

Spyware - Scourge of the New Millenium

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

This article was provided courtesy of the Spyware & Malware Guide website. The site itself had lots of useful information on spyware removal and other spyware fighting info.

2005-09-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Spyware - Scourge of the New Millenium

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

This article was provided courtesy of the Spyware & Malware Guide website. The site itself had lots of useful information on spyware removal and other spyware fighting info.

2005-09-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Trials and Tribulations of a Confused Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Donna Sweat
Publisher/Editor
Dee's Helpful Info.
Endless Mts.Home Business
New Albany,PA.18833
http://www.homebiz.pa.32668.com

2005-09-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Protect Your PC From Viruses, Worms, Trojans

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Each of the items in the checklist below is part of a broad and easy to implement security policy.

Install all windows critical updates for your operating system from the Microsoft Update site - it's free! All that's required to keep your Microsoft operating system up to date is an Internet connection.
Install and configure a firewall - either a hardware or software based firewall is a must! If you are using a router, it probably has firewall capabilities included. Software firewalls are available at minimal cost; one of the best is free!
Install and configure antivirus software - the cost is minimal, there are even free versions available - the protection is priceless! Update the definition files daily - scan your drive weekly - it can all be automated with most programs.
Create a backup - even the best plan can be circumvented - be prepared for the worst with a complete backup of your hard drive! If you already have a CD burner and software installed in your machine, you probably have the tools to create a complete system backup - for only the cost of a few CD-R's!

2004 ODEC

Visithttp://www.SOHOWiz.com for the latest FREE business tips.

Email the Wiz at: SOHOWiz@SOHOWiz.com

2005-09-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

Is Your Computer Your Friend or a Dirty Name?

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Larry McLemore is the webmaster for www.rvinginfo.com and www.rverscomputerhelp.com He has written articles for www.rversonline.org and is also the online computer advisor for the same web site.

2005-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

10 Ways Not to Use Email

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Craig Hardee is the webmaster of
http://www.cyberagora.com, Your Internet
Multiplex, spotlighting the resources you
need to make your time online fulfilling,
profitable and fun.

2005-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

6 Essentail Steps to Protect Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

I'm not network security expert but I know some basic things he must do to protect his home PC. It was a shock when he told me that his 4 years old PC had no protection except McAfee anti-virus.

Bought in 2000 and no Windows service packs had been applied since then.
McAfee anti-virus software came with the PC when bought and no updates since then.
No firewall installed.
No anti spyware installed.

This is what I did to beef up his PC to the best of my knowledge.

Step #1: Patch the operating system.

The first thing I did was update his Windows 98 to the latest available Windows updates for Windows 98.

Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Scan the PC to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.
Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.
Restart the PC after finished.

It took me about one and half hour to complete the above steps.

Step #2: Download, install, and run Spybot to get rid of all spyware.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Spybot-S&D is a free anti-spyware software to detect any spyware installed on your PC.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

Track what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.
Track and record your computer activities such as what keys you hit. This is generally called Trojans.
Change your web browser's home page.
And more...

After installed Spybot, I immediately scanned my friend's computer and found 166 problems. The first run killed nearly all of them except some memory residents that had to be killed after a reboot.

Step #3: Download and install Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF).
http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html

Kerio Personal Firewall limited free edition is for home users. After installation, KPF works as the full edition for 30 days, after which it becomes the limited free edition.

You may also try the free ZoneAlarm firewall. Be aware that ZoneAlarm free edition uses a lot of computer memory.

Step #4: Download AVG anti-virus software
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Step #5: Install password management software - RoboForm free edition.
http://www.roboform.com/?affid=siter

One of RoboForm key features is designed to combat this kind of key logger hacking. RoboForm can

AutoSave passwords in browser.
AutoFill passwords to login form.
Click Login button for you.
Fill personal info into online forms.
Save offline passwords & notes.
Generate Secure Random Passwords.
Encrypt passwords and personal info using 3-DES.
All personal info is stored on your computer only.
Put passwords on USB KeyChain for extra security.
Sync your passwords and safenotes to a Palm.
Backup & Restore, Print your passwords.
More features: drill down for more.

RoboForm works best with IE 5.0 and above. IE6 is the recommended browser to use with Artificial Intelligence RoboForm.

Note: free eidition comes with some limitations.

Step #6: Apply additional security measures.

More security measures and resources:

Read Web Security tutorial from W3Schools, especially the paragraphs for home users.
http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_security.asp
Use Audit My PC to do three Penetration Testing.
http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/prefcan.asp
Use Gibson Research's ShiedsUP to do port scan and get useful advice.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Download Gibson Research's LeakTest and check if personal firewall can be fooled. If the firewall is good, the LeadTest will not be able to reach the internet.
http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm
Browse Microsoft security home page to learn more about Windows security.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

Mission completed. It took me nearly 4 hours that night and the result is so far so good.

About The Author

2005-09-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Outlook Express

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Are You Well Protected

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Winter�the official start of the cold and flu season. Though, technically speaking, things got started a little early. Close to a million computers, mostly home PC users, have been infected.

For many of us our computers are our business. We keep in contact with customers and clients via email, do extensive internet research, and transmit important files electronically.

We know what to do to protect our bodies from viruses. There are some simple strategies, and even free precautions we can take to protect our businesses by keeping our PCs virus free.

Adopting the following six checkpoints will help keep your computer healthy and your business uninterrupted.

Use a Firewall

What a firewall does is make your computer invisible while on the Internet. If hackers can't see you, they cannot attack you.

Windows XP has this software installed; however, it may need to be enabled. If you have XP and would like to enable the firewall, directions are on the Microsoft website.

Antivirus Software

Spyware Eliminator

An internet search will reveal the many choices available for spyware elimination software. The important thing is to get one and use it consistently. Spybot and PestPatrol are popular choices.

Backup, Backup, Backup

How often do you backup? What files/programs do you backup? What media do you backup to?

Typically, data files are what most people need to back up and having well organized files will certainly simplify the process.

Whether you backup to disk, zip disk, DVD, writeable CDs, external file drive or utilize one of the online services, it is important to get into the habit of backing up on a regular basis.

Weekly Updates of Windows

Windows users are automatically notified of current updates for the Windows operating system when your computer is turned on. With just a few clicks your operating system is updated.

With the recent run of viruses and with more expected, it is imperative to check for these updates weekly on the Microsoft website as well as do the automatic updates.

Be Careful of Email Attachments

Email is such a widely accepted method of communication, and this has not gone unnoticed by hackers who use email as a means of mass virus spread.

For this final checkpoint, your due diligence is the only software required.

www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.htm

About The Author

roxie@thevirtualconnection.net

2005-09-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

How to Safeguard Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

The following practice, if done regularly, may help you to safeguard your computer to some extent.

1. Run disc clean up, scan disk and defragmentor.

2. Keep your recycle bin emptied.

3. Clean your cache of browsers.

4. Download only the very essential programs that are required to run your business and avoid the habit of downloading whatever you get for free.

5. Update your programs to keep up the latest technology and also for a faster load time.

7. Above all remember to protect your computer with antivirus soft ware and update it regularly.

8. Backing up of all your important files and store them in two sets of floppies. In case one floppy fails to open the other one would be of help.

Before calling the technical help, it will be wise to try the following simple step, which may help you to sort out your problem.

Lakshmi Menon is a a Juvio Independent Associate Member. For computer help please visit: http://mela.juvio.com

2005-09-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

Virus Hoaxes

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Why Use Antivirus Software?

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the author:

About The Author

Jon Kogan is Founder of ZivoMarketing and Editor of Home Business Breakthroughs Ezine!
mailto:subscribe@zivomarketing.com

Jon Kogan was born, raised and educated in Ukraine.

Arriving to the USA in 1975 has been able to focus on the area of his expertise in marketing, sales and management in the corporate world.

editor@zivomarketing.com

2005-09-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Virus Protection and Hoax Recognition - Be Safe Not Sorry

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Cyberfraud and Identity Theft Protection

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Guy Hartmann has a degree in Community Education and has over 20 years experience in the fields of education and community development. He is a regular contributor at http://www.quantum-links.com

2005-09-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Help! I Can't Handle One More Virus!

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-09-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

Backing Up Your Stuff - The Problem

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Avoiding Fraud Through Safe Shopping

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Jeff Mueller is the founder/webmaster of
Slick Shoppers http://www.slickshoppers.com
Dedicated to finding the best deals and
savings on brand name items.

2005-08-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

Personal Firewalls For Home Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director ,
Birbals,
India

2005-08-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

Basic Tips and Tricks for Windows XP

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

www.ICTtutorials.vze.com

2005-08-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

Keeping XP Working For You

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-08-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

MyDoom Virus - How You Can Help!

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-08-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Free Ways to Tackle Threats to Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

Protect Your PC

Having problems with your pc? Do your kids, family or friends fill it with all the stuff they find on the internet?

Any pc connected to the internet is a target for viruses, spyware, adware and trojan horses.

You need to protect and clean your pc of these nasties which slow down your costly computer. We will show you how to do at little or no cost in this free report.

So now you are protected from viruses, trojan horses, and other pc illnesses so that's it right?

And finally some tips to keep your pc running at its optimum.

Douglas Titchmarsh runs several websites, and blogs including http://www.cashinonline.info

2005-08-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

Less Stress and More Success

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

Katherine Vargo is a partner of Vargo Consulting Group, your computer lifesavers. Additional lifesaving reports from Vargo Consulting Group can be found at http://www.vargoconsulting.com/tips

2005-08-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Watch Out For Spyware Programs That Slow Down Your Computer

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About The Author

Syd Johnson is the editor of the RapidLingo directory of ebooks and software programs. You can always add your listing for free.

To find out more about pop-up killers and other spyware removal programs, visit the ebook and information directory at http://www.rapidlingo.com

2005-08-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Product Review: Zone Alarn Pro

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-08-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Internet Safety Tips

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com

About the Author

2005-08-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Your Antivirus is Not the Answer to Your Total Internet Security

This article courtesy of http://www.antivirusdoc.com