One of the many questions I am asked is how do I keep my computer safe and running
clean and at speeds the user can deal with, without spending a fortune in firewalls,
anti-virus and ad-ware software.
For the intent of this article and its content, more experienced PC users can jump right to the links and the descriptions that accompany them. All links were active at the time this was written, but if they are no longer valid you can search each product online and find download links.
For the rest of you I will go into some detail about what things are, how they affect you and others, along with ways to keep on top of them for free (most home PC users).
Let me first start by saying; all operating systems are not equal in the world of PC woes. Microsoft, the giant that continually crams windows to the PC makers, Yes folks it is the primary target of most malicious stuff out there. But newer trends in bad guy stuff do include operating systems such as Lenux and Mac.
My problem with Microsoft is the same as most… Microsoft always seems to be reactive rather then proactive when it comes to the security and stability of there operating systems, yes Microsoft now has a built-in “Firewall” and you can get the “Malicious Software Removal Tool and Updates” but again by time you run this tool and it finds something, you’ve already been hit and the damage may have already been done.
The firewall is basically an open door for XP unless your vigilant about trusted and not trusted sites and browser control, and is so restrictive on Vista that you cant pass wind without telling it that it’s ok, just one of your normal everyday bodily functions, ok, it’s not quite that restrictive but you get the idea.
No folks; when it comes to control and your system safety, it falls to you the “End User” don’t believe me; read some of the stuff you just nonchalantly scroll to the bottom of and click the “I Accept” button, because it’s long and legalese. The site owners know you’re not going to read it so they can put what ever they want in there, we personally own your fist born son, and a second mortgage on your house, not really; but in legalese we could or at least attempt to.
My rant above is the old adage a little common sense and some time to read what you agree to is never a bad thing and that those who protect themselves, serve themselves a great justice.
Let’s now talk about what you will find out there and how to stay on top of it.
Java Beans, Applets, Flash
and Active X Controls:
You will find these on most sites you visit; they drive the navigation, search
capabilities and other site functions. They for the most part are harmless,
but the one thing I will attempt to reiterate over and over in this article
is to know and trust the sites you visit, obscure sites can have obscure owners
with bad intent on their minds and can use these items for mischief.
These controls are used on our site to control navigation and other presentation task.
Cookies:
The most common… everyone that surfs the web has cookies on there computer.
Yes, you can block them but most sites you visit (I would even venture to say
ALL) place cookies on your computer.
We placed one on your computer when you came to this site for our visit counter, it tells us how long you were here, where you are located (to the city and service provider address that was assigned you computer when you logged on, or was reassigned to you when your address lease expired) along with the pages you visit on our site, how long you stayed, what search engine sent you and if you are a first time visitor or have visited our site before. (Depending on if you’ve cleaned your cookies out since your last visit, then you again show up as a new first time visitor.)
Some cookies have other functions such as tracking everyplace you visit on the web, what ads you might want so see and can track and report other more valuable information.
Most cookies like ours are harmless; we use ours to get reports on our visitor count; a majority of the common sites you visit do likewise. But in the wrong hands cookies can spy on you more then you would like, even to the point of accessing, recording and reporting such things the keys you press on your keyboard ultimately reveling items like Social Security Numbers and Credit Card information.
Cookies are the driving force behind many pop-ups and advertisements, leading us to ad or spy-ware.
Ad/Spy Wares:
Ad and spy ware programs are small programs that are downloaded to your computer
when sites are visited, and are developed mainly for commercial usage in tracking
and advertisements, we do not use any on our sites; but all the big sites such
as Google and Yahoo do. Information gleaned from ad and spy ware is used and
sold amongst companies and persons... While not necessarily evil in there intent
for the most part (here too, know and trust the sites you visit) they do have
a tendency to accumulate on top of each other and all try to communicate with
there perspective host at the same time; the result is slow computer reaction
times, the “It takes forever for my computer to open anything” syndrome.
The Big, The Bad and The
Ugly; Worms, Trojan Horses and Viruses:
We all hear about these nasty things and they serve many purposes, most bad.
These items are delivered to your computer from website and e-mail attachments,
and if you’ve never had one or more of these little tidbits of evil on
your computer; your either really new to computing, have them but just don’t
know it…Yet; never had the computer connected to the web or installed
any no-no software; or simply a liar.
Worms are little pieces of programmed code that find you, do there nasty, and then look to you for finding their next targeted victim using information found on your computer such as address books or contact list, so they may propagate whatever they are programmed to do. This can be bombard a server with floods of hits at a predestinated time, effectively bringing the site down from the volume to doing the same to you and your friends computers, and much, much more.
Trojan Horses are little programs that allow backdoor access to your computer, they usually come from websites in the form of something downloaded or played. They are like little homing beacons that tell the bad guys when your computer is on what it is doing and can even allow them to take total control away from you, but most do not take total control, then you would know they were in your system, no they do things behind your back telling your computer to change this, do that, send this, record something. They too have the capability of being like a worm and infecting other systems on you home or internet network.
Viruses, evil programmed code designed to find and infect other systems, and bring your computer or network down. End of story hire a computer tech or format and reinstall your operating system. I personally know of a caned virus (never been released) that is not designed to mess with just software on your computer but it is designed to wipe the e-prom, effectively making it so your computer will never come back on again without a complete reprogramming of the motherboard. In most cases you would have to send the computer back to the manufacture for fixing. Fortunately I know this person would never let the bug out of the test tube at the lab, yet, unfortunately if he make a bug like this, so too can others.
There is other nastiness’ out there in the form of bad music and software downloads but I figure if your doing that and don’t know the risk both legally and computing wise; then you just shouldn’t have a computer and defiantly not an internet connection, but then again people such as those would not be reading this article. As for the other nastiness’ I am confident none of my readers would do any such thing and if they do they already posses the tools or ones of the like to protect themselves. For those reading this that plan to indulge; you are really going to need these tools so keep reading!
Spies, Worms and Bugs…
Oh, My!
So have I got you completely afraid to turn on your computer and be online yet…
there is hope and it is for the most part free… yes, the magic free word.
You do need to be vigilant about performing a few task and we are never 100%
without risk when connected to there people, be it catching the flu while you
were out shopping or surfing the internet as you recover. The flu shot may or
may not help, just as these programs may or may not provide instant relief of
computer problem you might encounter. Most all viruses will get found and fixed,
but it may take days or more depending on your protection software and the company’s
that support them.
The free ones are no different, and some are a little more on it when you pay for the full version of the product, but that’s how the shareware game is played. But, I can tell you that the products I will tell you about here are all well worth spending the yearly subscription fees for, but all will give you 90% performance for no cash out of pocket.
Ad Aware:
Ad aware is free for personal home users and is made by Lavasoft
you can download it from http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php.
You need to keep it updated and I suggest if you surf the web a lot you run
it weekly at full scan mode to rid you of ad/spy wares as well as unwanted cookies
and some other Worm and Trojan Horse problems. This regiment of weekly cleanings
will help your computers performance both online and off.
Avast Anti Virus:
Avast Anti Virus is virus detection and removal tool made by Alwil
you can download it from http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html.
You will need to register the program for updates and this must be done yearly,
but it is free and if you make sure to uncheck the send me crap selections you
have no further contact besides the updating which is done automatically and
daily.
Scans are run as you surf, receive or send email engage in per to per exchanges, and most all activity is checked for problems. Manual scans should be performed monthly, but here’s a little trick that you get with Avast that not many others offer and most none for free… you can perform a scan with your operating system open and running, even perform other task with it running in the background almost without operations interruption or slowdown, but for very effective detect, clean and wipeout use the option from the dropdown menu that allows you to do a boot time scan.
Many computer evils attach themselves to a variety of places on your computer that if scanned and are operating at the time “Can Not Be Shut Down” to be eradicated, you may or may not get a report of this type action.
With a boot time scan, the scan is done before the operating system gets a chance to open or run anything, so the scan will do a much better job of doing what it is intended to do. It takes no more time then the in operating system scan, except for shut down and reopen time that it normally takes your computer to come on, it just runs the scan before loading the operating system.
Now with ad/spy ware and nasty Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses dealt with we can get on to keeping Hackers and there like out.
Zone Alarm Firewall:
Zone Alarms by Check Point
Software is a Firewall that is both heavy duty and user friendly and can
be downloaded from http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp.
This firewall blows the built-in windows firewall away and has the support to
back it up. Not only can you have full control it has generic controls for ease
of use, all fully adjustable in between.
I have a friend in Texas that once told me he didn’t need a firewall because he was on dial up service and was not connected long or fast enough for hackers, he humored me and installed this software within 30 days it had blocked a couple thousand intrusion attempts, needless to say he still uses it today.
If you download the afore mentioned programs and follow the usage procedures outlined above you will alleviate 70% of the problems you now take your computer to guys like me to fix.
Want more… Ok, Windows users… next let’s make your computer faster by performing a couple of simple task monthly. First click open your browser, and clean your cache out, rid yourself of all the junk therein from places you’ve surfed to, the pages may take a second longer to load next time you visit the site, but you’ll be sure to get all the current changes from the site as well as a faster operating computer. You can also wipe your cookies from here, but if you’re doing the Ad Aware thing you will have greater control; and cleaning them from here becomes unnecessary.
Now with that done click your start button in windows, click Programs, Accessories, System Tools. In this menu you will see two programs that we will use; Disk Clean Up and Disk Defragmenter.
Use Disk clean up to remove and compact old unused files, this frees disk space for better speed. This cleanup may take a long time to complete especially if this is the first time you are running it.
Now that we have that cleaned up and outa-there; we can defragment the drive, a computer is a lot like a little kid, when they play with things they usually just let them lay where they are done with them, and move on to the next interest. A PC does the same, by defragmenting you are in essence cleaning up all the little parts and pieces of things you have done on the computer and putting them back in their proper order and place within the system, making them easier for the system to find and use thus speeding up the system itself. This operation may also take some time if it is the first time you have done it. Defragment about once a month also.
Users of other non-widows operating systems have operations available to them that are similar to those described here for windows; each with its own name and method for deployment.
Keep up on operating system updates such as windows update, but be sure all your programs will work after the update is applied, when in doubt; check it out. The update provider will have pages online concerning these issues.
There are other things that effect performance and operations, but you have eliminated 90% of what a computer tech. sees on a daily basis. The other items involve hardware conflicts, registry and other problems that should be tended to by qualified knowledgeable people, and if attempted by a novice or someone not sure of what they are doing, can lead to disastrous results.
Should you need help for any computer related issues, contact us for fast honest results. We inform you so when your in doubt you know where to turn.