How Much Money would it cost you to regain the use of your computer after a serious virus infection?

Written by Richard Rossbauer


It cost one of our friends a whole lot of money, much aggravation and lost time, lost records, and a major inconvenience to recover fromrepparttar havoc caused byrepparttar 105873 worms and viruses that had infiltrated their computer over a period of many months.

Actually, our friends are like so many other people who use their computers primarily for communicating with family and their friends by email, sharing personal pictures, playing a few games, doing a little research now and then, making airline and hotel reservations, and maybe even balancing their check books.

Surfingrepparttar 105874 internet for them was just a sometime thing, not necessarily a must-do daily routine.

They were aware of computer viruses and had even heard of firewalls. Occasionally, public comments on TV and in newspapers about wide sweeping virus attacks with odd names like ‘MyDoom’, ‘Sasser’, and ‘Bagel’ caught their attention.

After those reported epidemics were no longer news items, they simply put them out of mind, and resumed use ofrepparttar 105875 internet.

When they purchased their computer a few years ago, it came with virus scanning software but not a Firewall program. So, they believed ‘they were protected’!

The general public didn’t really care about Trojan Horse dangers then, because no one was really making an effort to inform them ofrepparttar 105876 insidious efforts of Hackers, spammers, and malcontents who were floodingrepparttar 105877 internet with their poison.

Even today, there are computer users who believe that they don’t need a firewall. They aren’t aware that Firewalls help stop some ofrepparttar 105878 viruses and worms that are hidden in email attachments and other downloaded information.

They aren’t aware ofrepparttar 105879 new strains and variants of worms, adware and other spyware programs that crop up nearly daily, or that there are over 70,000 identified computer viruses.

They aren’t aware because forrepparttar 105880 past few years, their chances of actually being infected by a computer virus were very small, and spyware and adware weren't even discussed inrepparttar 105881 general news media.

Not so any longer!

Some authoritive researchers have determined thatrepparttar 105882 internet is so dangerous today, that an unprotected computer connected torepparttar 105883 internet is likely to become infected within 20 minutes of going on line.

A protected computer today MUST HAVE an up-to-date Firewall program, up-to-date virus scanning software, up dated Spyware scanning software programs, andrepparttar 105884 latest updates fromrepparttar 105885 manufacturers of their web browsers (MicroSoft’s Internet Explorer in particular).

Unfortunately for our friends, they were not aware that their anti-virus program needed to be brought up to date on a regular basis. A few years ago, maybe a monthly update would have saved them from their virus grief.

(Actually, they had never updated their anti-virus program at all).

The safest way today is to use anti-virus and anti-spyware software that can be programmed to download updates automatically fromrepparttar 105886 Software providers themselves.

Protecting Yourself From Affiliate Link Thieves

Written by Stephani Richardson


So, you have worked really hard to build a fabulous affiliate site. You tookrepparttar time to add your keywords and relevant information aboutrepparttar 105872 products. Your pages load quickly, and your site is even listed inrepparttar 105873 search engines for specified terms. You look at your stats, and you see a regular flow of traffic coming into your site. You get really excited! You log in to your affiliate program manager, and.... WHAMO! You have very few commissions from sales, and your click-throughs are extremely low. Suddenly, you are asking yourself, "whatrepparttar 105874 heck happened here??" The answer... You might possibly berepparttar 105875 victim of affiliate link hijacking!

In this revolving world ofrepparttar 105876 Internet, we are constantly being bombarded by spammers, spyware, viruses, and hackers. Now, we have to worry about link hijackers stealing commissions that are rightfully ours. So, what is link hijacking and how do you prevent it?

Inrepparttar 105877 simplest terms, link hijacking occurs when someone replaces their affiliate ID with yours. The result? They getrepparttar 105878 commission instead of you. You did all that work, but someone else is getting paid? Yes! You may be wondering how this happens. Let me explain. I first heard about this phenomenon while visiting various discussion boards on affiliate marketing. Many affiliates had experienced a decline in sales while their site's traffic stats remained high. Common discussions found in affiliate forums include various software programs which "steal" information. Many of these programs download themselves onto a person's computer, either knowingly or unknowingly. These programs can override your affiliate links each timerepparttar 105879 customer visits your site, therefore giving credit to someone else. Many times, people download packaged programs that contain these types of software. The innocent surfer may not even realize they have a program running inrepparttar 105880 background. Anyone who takes part inrepparttar 105881 Internet community, whether it be a webmaster or a surfer, should stay informed about these programs by visiting parasiteware.com on a regular basis.

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