Computers: Less Stress and More Success

Less Stress and More Success

Written by Katherine Vargo

Less Stress and More Success By Katherine Vargo Stop cursing your computer. End your frustration with these top computer solutions. You are just four steps away from being more productive and having fewer headaches. Step 1: Install an anti-virus program and use it. A virus can result in lost data or require costly repairs to your systems. You can avoid these risks by installing and using software that scans your computer for viruses. Look for antivirus software that is updated automatically and can effectively reverse repparttar

damage of viruses. If you have anti-virus software already installed, make sure that it updates daily. It doesn't help to have anti-virus software installed, if it doesn't have repparttar 107682

latest virus information. New virus are written every day. Yes, every day. Unless your computer is powered on and connected to repparttar 107683

Internet during repparttar 107684

automatically scheduled updates, you are missing out. Step 2: Remove spyware. Spyware applications are typically bundled with freeware or shareware programs. Once installed, repparttar 107685

spyware monitors user activity and transmits that information in repparttar 107686

background to someone who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell repparttar 107687

information to a third party. Beside invading your privacy, spyware can lead to system crashes or general slowness because spyware runs in repparttar 107688

background and uses system memory and resources. Getting rid of spyware will also help stop those terribly annoying pop-ups. For Windows, Spybot Search and Destroy is a great program for scanning and removing spyware programs.

6 Essential Steps to Protect Your Computer On the Internet For Free

Written by Jerry Yu

Recently one of my friends asked me to check out if his computer was infected by virus. He suspected because occasionally repparttar

computer was shut down automatically when connected to internet. My first thought was repparttar 107681

Sasser worm 60 seconds auto count-down. As he uses Windows 98 second edition with IE5, repparttar 107682

virus must be a Sasser variant.

I'm not network security expert but I know some basic things he must do to protect his home PC. It was a shock when he told me that his 4 years old PC had no protection except McAfee anti-virus.

- Bought in 2000 and no Windows service packs had been applied since then.

- McAfee anti-virus software came with repparttar 107683 PC when bought and no updates since then.

- No firewall installed.

- No anti spyware installed.

This is what I did to beef up his PC to repparttar 107684 best of my knowledge.

Step #1: Patch repparttar 107685 operating system.

The first thing I did was update his Windows 98 to repparttar 107686 latest available Windows updates for Windows 98.

- Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

- Scan repparttar 107687 PC to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.

- Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.

- Restart repparttar 107688 PC after finished.

When you open repparttar 107689 Microsoft Windows Update page, click repparttar 107690 "Scan for updates" link. The page will suggest what updates are needed based on your Windows version. You should install all Critical Updates suggested by Microsoft.

It took me about one and half hour to complete repparttar 107691 above steps.

Step #2: Download, install, and run Spybot to get rid of all spyware.

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Spybot-S&D is a free anti-spyware software to detect any spyware installed on your PC.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

- Track what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.

- Track and record your computer activities such as what keys you hit. This is generally called Trojans.

- Change your web browser's home page.

- And more...

After installed Spybot, I immediately scanned my friend's computer and found 166 problems. The first run killed nearly all of them except some memory residents that had to be killed after a reboot.

Step #3: Download and install Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF).

http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html

Kerio Personal Firewall limited free edition is for home users. After installation, KPF works as repparttar 107692 full edition for 30 days, after which it becomes repparttar 107693 limited free edition.

You may also try repparttar 107694 free ZoneAlarm firewall. Be aware that ZoneAlarm free edition uses a lot of computer memory.

The following is repparttar 107695 free ZoneAlarm firewall download link. You hardly can find this download link on ZoneAlarm site because they want you to buy repparttar 107696 Pro version which is a much better choice.

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