Hi all

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Protect your home computer from malicious virus attacks

Hi all,

With all these malicious viruses about, there is huge discussion about the vulnerability of home computers.

In all the discussions I notice that there are very few suggestions put forward to counter this terrible treat other then have an up to date anti-virus program and a firewall.

Here is my advice, if you want it, and most of the solutions are free.

If you download your mail to your computer through e.g. "Outlook" or some similar program, you now have your mail on your hard drive inside your computer. Once you open that mail you will be infected if it contains a virus.

Set up an internet e-mail with Google, Hotmail or Yahoo Now it makes more sense as they provide huge space with every thing you could wish for in an e-mail program. Plus you can access your e-mail from anywhere in the world. Google Mail Hotmail Yahoo

Important:

If you use internet cafe's or hotels computers abroad, always make sure that you un-tick the boxes that ask you, if you want the computer to remember your e-mail address or Password. Some hotels have computers that are not controlled by ticket numbers and only require you to put money in a slot to gain access - It is very important that you log off from everything before you time-out, because the next guy that puts money in the slot will see what you had open and looks at, for example, "Ebay" he will find that you are logged in, where he can start committing to spend on your behalf, if you have not logged out. So if you time-out before you log out -- Put more money in and log out

Ignore and immediately delete all e-mails purporting to come from your Bank as they will never contact you via e-mail and ask you to make changes to your account. If you did not purchase something recently in Itunes, ignore and delete a false advice e-mail, that you have bought something as they only need you to reply to access your computer. This applies to all companies that may appear to be genuine, an example "Tax Revenue" send you an e-mail at just the right time of year asking you to reply, it is a fake. Think when you are told that you have won the Lotto, did you give them your e-mail as you made the purchase, of course not. Never click on a link within an e-mail unless you are positive it is genuine. Set up a second e-mail address, that you use, just for joining sites on the web and give it out on any form that you must give your e-mail address - never use this address for your important contacts.

There are many scams on the internet, if something is too good to be true, it is a scam. There are what are known as legal scams. an example: A company advertising anti wrinkle cream or body enhancement tablets. offers a "Trial" product for 5 Euros, most people will interpret the word Trial as Sample. Be sure you read all the terms and conditions, because you will find that when you look at your credit card statement the following month, that you have not complied with the conditions of the trial and will have 120 Euros or more, deducted each month until you contact them and cancel and return the product. Un-Believably this is not illegal.

It is essential to have an up-to-date anti-virus program and also a security firewall protection program on your home computer.

You can download a free anti-virus program that can also be updated free from:

Grisoft AVG

It's very good it also gives you firewall protection. You can set the program to automatically check for updates. Definitely download this. I happily paid for this great program because the paid version give me a firewall and anti spyware etc. It protects you from almost everything.

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Get protected with a free program from: Spybot or Lavasoft

Some disreputable Companies drop cookies on your system that will control where you search for products on the net. Others can steal information from your computer every time you go on line. If you find these useful you can make a donation to help them constantly improve.

http://www.zone-x.com/spybot.php

Ad-Aware

Protect your children from harmful content with a fantastic Free web content monitor filter called Naomi internet filter

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I am just an amateur computer enthusiast and not an expert. I have used all the above programs and found them very good, I'm sure there are expensive alternatives to the above that may have a greater protection, but if you do not have any protection at the moment I would recommend that you start getting these Free ones as soon as possible. If you are careless and allow a virus on to your computer, you may unwittingly cause a lot of trouble to your friends or company, some of my friends and colleagues have found this to their cost in the recent past.

Joe Carr

It is essential to download *Critical Updates from Microsoft. These will patch any security hole found in the Windows system.

A good independent site for good computer hints, links and downloads is: http://www.silverhairs.co.uk/sitemap.htm

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