Computer health and safety

[SOHCSE]

Computer Safety

Here are some tips for keeping your computer running its best and free of spyware/adware and viruses.

Internet Habits:

Email: Phishing Scams: If you are like me, half of the email that you receive each day is some sort of spam. One of the most common, and most dangerous, emails that you can receive are Phishing Scams. In computing, phishing is a criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication [email]. eBay and PayPal are two of the most targeted companies, and online banks are also common targets. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, and often directs users to give details at a website, although phone contact has been used as well. Normally the email will contain a link that seems to point at a valid address (www.paypal.com for example) but closer inspection will reveal that the link actually points elsewhere (www.paypal.com.phisher.uk for example) The easiest way to tell if a link is a scam is to right click it and select something like "copy link location". Open up a text editor like notepad and paste it. If the link points to somewhere other than it is supposed to, delete the email. Most companies will never contact you with a request for personal information. You can aid in the war against these criminals by alerting the spoofed company to the attack. Most will have email addresses that you can forward the phishing email to.

Attachments: Attachments in emails can be very dangerous also. Most people will tell you not to open attachments from email addresses that you do not recognize. This strategy is ok, but it is not enough to ensure your safety. Even friends can unknowingly send you attachments that contain viruses. The best habit is to download the attachment (without opening) to a location that you can remember. After downloading, use your virus software to scan the attachment for viruses. If the scan comes up clean, feel free to open the attachment. Make sure your virus software is up to date first though.

Web Surfing:The most common web browser used today is Microsoft Internet Explorer. Unfortunately it seems that IE gains a new security hole each day. Even though there are some sites that require IE (active x controls) it is better to use a different web browser. The most common alternative is Mozilla Firefox. The nice thing about Firefox is that by default it blocks pop-up ads. You can allow popups on a site by site basis or you can allow pop-ups by holding in the ctrl key while clicking a link. There are a lot of plug-ins that you can add to Firefox that will expand its capabilities. One plug-in will allow you to block advertisements from appearing on webpages. Plugins can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org

Downloading:Peer to peer networking: Be careful when using peer-to-peer applications (limewire, winmx, bit-torrent) be aware of the sizes of the file you are attempting to download. If you are downloading a song, the size should be over 2MB. Sometimes people upload files that are actually viruses, they will be very small. After downloading any file, make sure you take the time to scan the file for viruses before opening.

Cleaning/OptimizationSpyware/MalWare/Adware: Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term Spyware, which was coined in 1995 but wasn't widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware (software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer respectively).There are a few great free pieces of software out there to keep your computer running well.

Free applications: There are a few free pieces that will do a good job at keeping your computer free of spyware. Download Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware SE Personal. Both are free for non-commercial use and do a fairly good job at finding and removing spyware/malware. Make sure you update them both after installing, no point in scanning if your definitions are old. Some spyware returns after a reboot even after being removed due to registry entries. Another good application that can help with this is Crap Cleaner. This is another freeware utility. When you run the program you will see a section called Fix Registry Issues. It is good practice to run this after you finish your Spybot and Adaware scans to remove those pesky registry lurkers.

Computer Viruses: A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. The original may modify the copies or the copies may modify themselves, as occurs in a metamorphic virus. A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive. Additionally, viruses can spread to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer. Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses. A worm, however, can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host. A Trojan horse is a file that appears harmless until executed. In contrast to viruses, Trojan horses do not insert their code into other computer files. Many personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local-area networks, facilitating their spread. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and file sharing systems to spread, blurring the line between viruses and worms. Furthermore, some sources use an alternative terminology in which a virus is any form of self-replicating malware.Forr those of you with inadequate virus protection, or those that are currently paying a monthly or yearly fee for your current virus app: Download AVG Free! Feature rich with a small footprint. I highly recommend it, use it myself.

Disk Defragmenter: In computing, file system fragmentation, sometimes called file system aging, is the inability of a file system to lay out related data sequentially (contiguously), an inherent phenomenon in storage-backed file systems that allow in-place modification of their contents. It is a special case of data fragmentation. File system fragmentation increases disk head movement or seeks, which are known to hinder throughput. The correction to existing fragmentation is to compress files and free space back into contiguous areas, a process called defragmentation. When a file system is first initialized on a partition (the partition is formatted for the file system), the entire space allotted is empty. This means that the allocator algorithm is completely free to position newly created files anywhere on the disk. For some time after creation, files on the file system can be laid out near-optimally. When the operating system and applications are installed or other archives are unpacked, laying out separate files sequentially also means that related files are likely to be positioned close to each other. However, as existing files are deleted or truncated, new regions of free space are created. When existing files are appended to, it is often impossible to resume the write exactly where the file used to end, as another file may already be allocated there — thus, a new fragment has to be allocated. As time goes on, and the same factors are continuously present, free space as well as frequently appended files tend to fragment more. Shorter regions of free space also mean that the allocator is no longer able to allocate new files contiguously, and has to break them into fragments. This is especially true when the file system is more full — longer contiguous regions of free space are less likely to occur. Windows has a built in disk defragmenter. It can be located at start->programs->accessories->system tools. Make sure no programs are running that access the hard drive while you run this application. If the software detects a change in the drive, it will restart the defragging process. Expect to wait hours for this to complete. Also make sure that screen savers are disabled. If you want, you can save energy and shut off the monitor while this runs.

I hope this helps you all.Matt

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[GEO]

Firewall?

[SOHCSE]

Hrmmm I have a hardware firewall and use a mac, so I don't think of everything heh. I'll work up an edit. That is, unless you want to.

[jkerr240]

any update on that firewall, all that stuff before was excellent its helped me alot

[SOHCSE]

I'll get to it this weekend, promise.

EDIT ** Sorry guys and gals. My wife had another seizure this weekend so it changed my priorities somewhat. I will get to it though.
Modified by SOHCSE at 9:34 AM 4/24/2007

[SOHCSE]

^^^ NOTE TO ANYONE TAKING XANAX.

Don't let your prescription run out. My wife did and it led to seizures. Just a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood techie.

[anti_flag_army]

for firewall i roll with zone alarm, free easy, and it tells you how many things it has blocked since install.

http://www.zonelabs.com i believe is the site.

[E7-S14]

Thanks for that write up SOHCSEi got one question tho

I have Norton Anti-Virus(Free Trial ran out)and i have PC Tools Spyware Doctor. I hanvt registered yet but is that a good program?

And is the Windows built in Fire Wall sufficient enough or should i seek a better one?

[szh]

TAnd is the Windows built in Fire Wall sufficient enough or should i seek a better one?

I also endorse Zone Alarm thoroughly! An excellent firewall ... best there is really.

Z

[E7-S14]

will it cost me money?and will it interfere with my windows firewall?

yeah yeah im cheap. but my aunts computer just crashed bcuz of a virus so now im really paranoid

[krazydriver]

yes zone alarm costs money. The free download is only a 15-day trial. It only costs $40, so the price isn't unreasonable.As far as interfering with the windows firewall, it's never a good idea to run multiple firewalls simultaneously. So zone alarm will automatically disable your windows firewall.

If you need antivirus, i'll have to say Avast is one of the best free suites you can download. I used to use AVG but found it didn't catch much, but avast is awesome.

[240Knightrider]

The free download is NOT a 15-day trial. It is a full working FREE download.You will find it at the bottom of the home and home office page.You just have to keep saying you want the free version.

Secondly, zonealarm does not disable your windows firewall.

As for anti-virus, go with AVG. Everyone one of my customers and my custom pcs have AVG on them. A lot of people choose avg or avast. Both are equally as good IMO.

[szh]

I switched from Norton Anti-virus to BitDefender and am quite happy with it. Lots less load on my system and a perfectly good program!!

Z

[szh]

will it cost me money?

No, they have a completely freebie version on their site too.

and will it interfere with my windows firewall?

No, but it is so much superior to the Windows firewall, that using it too is not worth the memory space.

Check out the site http://www.grc.com (with each firewall running separately) and see which works better with the full set of firewall tests there and you will be convinced!

Z