Keeping worms out of your home network No auntie Sookie, not earth worms, computer virus worms that can get to you computer and slowly dig deep into your files and eat them away. Put that eggnog down and I'll tell you some more about these new worms.
This worm is a self-replicating (makes a copy of itself, aunt sookie!) program that reproduces itself over a network. It can be hidden in an email attachment from an unknown sender, a movie download from a suspicious website, or an application sent from someone you don't know. Once on your computer it then can replace a single file, like a winsock.dll or many files and send copies of itself along with email or newsgroup messages that you can post.
The following are ways to keep these type of worms out of your network:
a) Never, I said never (for emphasis) connect an unpatched, non updated computer or other Internet related device to
Internet. How do you update and patch a computer without connecting to Internet? Get a cd from Microsoft with latest and greatest patches and updates, then connect device and then check for updates while connected to make sure you have protection.
b) Always, I said always (yes I am being redundant) use a firewall between your network of computers and Internet. Even if your network of computers is 1 or 2 computers, it is still a network and needs a firewall to protect it, really protect it. A single computer connected to Internet is now part of a world wide network thru it's Internet connection and is therefore vulnerable without protection. Get a firewall, a real firewall.
