Note: I posted this on one of my other blogs, and I'm posting this here also.
Hey y'all, this post is a little off topic from what this blog is about, but It is something that I need to post about. And I think internet marketing beginners can benefit from this information.
First off, I was reading the local fish wrap, the St. Petersburg Times. I only read this rag because my brother buys it everyday. So I'm reading it today, and there is an article in there about about how people are lining up to use one of St. Pete's 239 computers free, an hour at a time, at the libraries. In the article, they mention 2 young people who do have personal computers at home, but "viruses forced their computers into disrepair". And I would say at least 10% of those systems are infected
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why so many people have infected computers, be it a virus, spyware, malware, Trojans, or any other bad stuff. It does not take long to find out to properly secure your computer, and then to implement the steps. It is not that damn hard, and I think there is no excuse for having an infected computer. I have worked on computers that had so much bad stuff on them, the computer would take forever to boot, and when it did boot, well, it was not pretty.
And for the record, I have been known to troll "bad" websites on occasion.
I only use a few things to keep my computer secure. I use XP. First, I am behind 2 firewalls, my wireless router and I use Sygate personal firewall. Nothing gets in, and I control what programs connect to the internet. And there is no one getting through to my connection, I have that locked down tight also, just by following simple instructions.
Second, and this has been getting a bad rap lately, I use Spybot Search and Destroy. I don't understand why it gets this bad rap. I scan whenever there is a new update released, and nothing is ever found. I also used a couple of other programs, but since dropped them, because I would get the same results, nothing, after scanning with Spybot. Another great, free program to use is SpywareBlaster, and it works for IE6/7 and Firefox, but I only use it to protect the IE-based browser I use.
Third, I only use Firefox and Seamonkey as my browsers. I do have Maxthon installed for the very rare occasions I need to use a IE-based browser.
Fourth, and most importantly, I use Avira Personal edition as my AV. I use the free version, though they have a paid version. There are other great free AV programs out there, but I like Avira the best. It is simple to setup to scan and update everyday, and uses very little resources, plus it has a guard that informs you when anything tries to get in. And it also checks for rootkits. All I do is check my reports everyday. The thing with AV programs, people think once it is installed, that is it, they don't scan and they don't update the program. Just like you have to keep putting gas in your car so it will run, you have to update your security programs to help keep your computer safe. I also use Vipre and CounterSpy, mainly because I'm a beta tester, and those programs work great. If you don't want to use free programs, they are what I recommend.
So there you have it. These are the programs I use, and I have had no infections on this computer for 5 years, except tracking cookies, and Spybot catches them. There is absolutely no reason at all to have an infected computer, or a computer down because of a virus or anything else. And I don't care how old you are, it just takes a short amount of time to educate yourself about basic computer security.
Oh yea, I know 1 library where you can use the computers all day for free, but I'm not telling where it is, sometimes I go there to get out of the house, and they have way faster upload than I do.
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2007-2008 Timothy Watson
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