Now, that having been said I have just spent an enlightening couple of days installing several PHP and CGI scripts, mainly because whilst I have some experience of installations, only true way to become fast and efficient with all this geeky stuff is to install, de install and test a variety of applications and programs yourself.

After two days and over a hundred scripts I am left drained. Half of scripts I just dumped immediately due to poor or non-existent documentation and bad layout of files. It amazes me that some quite intricate scripts are left high and dry without any installation documents at all. In other words, author spent days programming and putting together complicated scripts, to fail miserably on poor or non existent documentation. Aside from this, some sites you visit in order to download this material insist on blitzing you with numerous pop ups – end result of which is neither good for person visiting website or website owner. Both part very quickly. Perhaps I am intolerant but any sign of boxes leaping up in air and blind adverts and I am gone. I know I am not alone.

Add to this frustration of taking time to read through endless documents and CGI scripts on websites only to find that when you click on a link for more information or a download you find it is dead, site under maintenance or what was advertised as free is not actually free. Either that or you go to extreme of getting a script working only to find writers advertisement popping up all over place to extent it warrants dumping script. Yes I know you can remove it for a fee but why didn’t you tell me that before I installed it?

Are you at risk of losing your privacy? Answer following three simple questions:

Do you shop or bank online? Do you use an "always on" high-speed Internet connection? Do you connect to Internet from your home computer?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions and you have a Windows computer – then you are at risk. Your computer needs to have appropriate protections and you must take extra steps to secure your computer and protect your privacy.

Why is this so critical?

A recent study on Internet security sponsored by America Online and National Security Alliance found that while most people thought their computers were secure upwards of 80% contained monitoring software known as "Spyware."

Spyware allows companies to download information from your computer without you even knowing it. Spyware represents a direct threat to online privacy and security.

But you can put a stop to it.

Here are 8 key actions for protecting online privacy:

1. Use a Personal Firewall. In addition to using an Anti-Virus program, a personal firewall is mandatory as it will block unwanted connection attempts. Sygate's Personal Firewall is a top-quality firewall and it's free for personal use. http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

2. Use a Spyware removal program. You can't rely on your Anti-Virus program to find and remove all instances of Spyware. Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is free for personal use. Recommendation: run a full scan at least once a week. http://www.lavasoft.de/