Computer Security

Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer, has better privacy control, and is completely free and easy to use. There are a wealth of plugins to modify the way it works the most important being Adblock-plus though there are hundreds more.

To get it, go to Mozilla's home page, click the big green button, save the application to your computer and run it. Follow the directions and you're done.

I also recommend several different plugins, but the one I recommend most is AdBlock Plus. AdBlock prevents ads from loading which saves you bandwidth (especially important if you're a dial-up user), saves space (since you don't have to find the content of the page hiding in ads), saves time (since ads can play animations that cover your page until you do something about them), and helps maintain your privacy (since many ads use web bugs or cookies to track your movements between sites that use the same ad service).

To get it, open your new Firefox browser and go to Adblock page. Again, click the green button and just follow directions.

Spyware/adware is designed to send information about you, your computer, your files, and/or browsing habits back to the servers of the company/degenerate who wrote the software. Virus scanners typically don’t block this kind of traffic and firewalls can’t stop all kinds of spyware. Make sure you have a decent scanner and run it once a week or so.

Lavasoft (the maker of AdAware) hosts their download at CNet's Download.com. Click here to go to their page and click the "Download Now" link to start the download. Open the file once it's downloaded and follow directions.

A firewall is one of your best and most important protective programs. It will stop hackers from directly attacking your system and, sometimes more importantly, it will stop programs on your machine from getting out to the Internet without you knowing. Think of it like a highly-caffinated dog that barks and runs to the end of its chain every time someone passes by.

Download it here by finding the link they try to hide labeled "I only want basic Zonealarm protection".

Using it is all a matter of understanding the security warnings it gives you. Like this one:

A firewall security warning

All it's telling you is that one of your programs is trying to get to the Internet and it wants you to tell it what to do. To decide, ask the following questions:

• What program is trying to contact the Internet? This should be pretty easy since the altert tells you the name of the program. If you don't recognize it, try going to your search engine and typing the name to see what comes up.
• When did this program make the attempt? Did you just now click the icon to start the program or were you doing something completely unrelated like reading an e-mail? Most programs shouldn't be contacting the Internet on their own without interaction. If they do, that's generally a bad sign.
• Why is this program trying to get out? Unless it's a program like an online game, your Internet browser, or something that's trying to auto-update from the Internet (like your virus scanner often will), most programs have no legitimate business getting on the Internet.

After this, you have several scenarios:

• If you still don't know what the software is, deny it once and run your virus and adware scanner
• If you know what the software is, but not why it's trying to get to the Internet, deny it once and see when it asks again
• If you know what the software is, but don't think it has any real reason to be online, click the check box that says "Always use this action" and then click deny
• If you know what the software is, and it should be able to connect to the Internet, click the check box that says "Always use this action" and then click allow

An anti-virus makes up for deficiencies in software like your e-mail reader or communications programs by scanning for recognized viruses. Since many software companies are either slow to update or don't provide live updates, the anti-virus picks up the slack by blocking the vulnerabilities for them.

There are two main free-antiviruses, AVG and Avast. I tried AVG and it was constantly using my computer power doing scans at the worst times. It also notified me in a big way of every update and action and was generally annoying. Instead, I tried Avast is the highest rated free anti-virus that I've come across. You can download it at Download.com and installation is pretty straightforward. It will set up occasional scans and auto-updating by itself so you don't have to deal with it.

Note that after a month or two, it will nag you to register, but that only requires an e-mail address and a name (both of which I made up) and then it works fine for another 14 months or so.

Win XP Security Center

If you're not using Windows XP service pack 2, I'd recommend that you get it. It has a large amount of security fixes and includes the Windows Security Center which makes handling updates and such far easier.

When you get it (or if you already have it), the security center (a new option in the control panel) has options for Automatic Updates. I don't recommend putting updates on "Automatic" though. Either choose the "Download, but don't install" or the "Notify, but don't download".

The reason is that Microsoft has a nasty habit of slipping non-system updates into the downloads. It's always better to preview the stuff that's about to download before you let it install on your machine. You'll be able to choose with checkboxes which updates to accept and which to reject.