How To Protect Yourself From Viruses, Spyware, Adware, And Other Nuisances

Spyware/adware is a new major concern for PC users everywhere. Infecting your computer silently (usually installed with programs that seem harmless), spyware and adware can collect personal information about you, as well as cause pop up ads to come up all of the time, changing your browsers home page, sometimes even completely disabling your computer's usability.

This article will show you how to protect yourself against harmful spyware / adware, as well as how to remove current infections, and how to protect yourself from viruses, hackers and other general "malware".

The first thing you can do, if you're an Internet Explorer user, is consider making a switch to the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox can do everything that Internet Explorer can do, and much, much more. Plus it is almost completely spyware "proof", and is much more stable and secure than Internet Explorer. You can go to getfirefox.com for more information.

Next, you'll want to keep your computer up-to-date. To do so, you'll want to download all available updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com (if you use Firefox, you will need to fire up IE to do this since Microsoft doesn't like people to use other browsers, so they have "banned" Firefox from accessing Windows updates).

Now that you've got a secure browser and have Windows up to date, it's time to talk about the anti-spyware software. The following is a list of the top three players in the free anti-spyware software game:

Spybot Search & Destroy
Download from: safer-networking.org
If you're only going to download one program, get this. Spybot is known as the king of spyware removal – and is completely free, ran buy a guy who volunteers his free time to keeping Spybot up to date.

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware
Download from: lavasoftusa.com
Ad-Aware is technically a for-profit program, but they have a freeware version of their paid software, which is just as good, in my opinion. It picks up a few things that Spybot misses, so it's good to run both.

Microsoft's Newly Released Anti-Spyware
Downlaod from: microsoft.com
Not a must-have if you have the above two programs, but it actually is a pretty good program, especially considering it's a Microsoft product. Might as well have it around to pick up anything the other two might have missed.

Take all of the programs that you have chosen to use, download, and install them. Then, one at a time, update each program, run them, and remove anything that they found. This should effectively remove any active spyware or adware on your system.

Now that you have spyware removed, you'll need hacker and virus protection. To keep hackers out, you will need to install a solid firewall. You can either use the old built in with Windows XP, or download a third-party one.

To activate Windows XP's built in firewall, follow these easy steps:

Click the Start button, and open up the Control Panel.

Open "Network Connections" (or "Network and Internet Connections", then "Network Connections" if you're using the category view).

If you're using broadband, or another form of connection through a LAN, right click on Local Area Connection (or the appropriate network connection), and select Properties. Click on the advanced tab, and click on Settings. Select "On", and don't select "Don't allow exceptions". Click OK on all windows to close.

If you would like to download a third-party firewall, Kerio Technologies has a great personal firewall that you can use. It can be found at kerio.com/kpf_home.html.

Grisoft offers a great freeware antivirus program called AVG Free. It is a great alternative to the common commercial antivirus software designed to milk you for more cash with their "update subscription" fees. Updates to AVG are 100% free, forever. AVG can be downloaded from grisoft.com.

To keep your system completely secure, be sure to scan for viruses, spyware and check for Windows updates every week or so. By taking these simple steps, your computer is now many times more secure and less likely to leak out personal information or get a malware infection.

Ryan Bauer is a computer geek who writes tutorials for his computer optimization website and runs a computer optimization and support forum.

[tags]spyware,adware,optimization,computer,viruses,hackers,firewall,antivirus,pc,internet,security[/tags]

Virus Scanning Or Virus Avoidance

I have had to fix hundreds of computers over the past several years and most of them could have been easily avoided by using antivirus software and making sure everything was up to date. This is not hard to do you just need to learn to make it a part of your routine.

Best Antivirus Software

Viruses are little executable programs that run on your computer, normally without you knowing and can cause an immense amount of damage to so little that you don't even notice. The best way to guard yourself is to not go on the internet, or even better don't own a computer. If that isn't a viable option for you then you are going to need a virus scanner. Most people are going to suggest Norton or McAfee but I have found these to be lacking. I have found in many instances that AVG virus scanner actually will detect more viruses than Norton will. AVG is completely free and can be found by searching through Google. Make sure you update your virus definitions on a regular basis, a minimum of once a week, I suggest every morning. This will ensure that you have the latest up to date virus list so that you are protected and also if you have one of those viruses you can clean and remove it.

Email a Virus Without Even Knowing

Next watch out for email attachments. If you do not know the person who sent the email, don't open it. Most new viruses spread by extracting your email address from other computers and sending you an email with the virus as an attachment.

Downloads From Sites

Some web sites request that you download an ActiveX DLL or Java Applet or some other piece of software in order to use a certain function on their web site. You need to be careful when deciding whether to download it or not. There are a few rules I follow to make sure that I don't download something I should. If you are on an adult site do not download anything unless you absolutely have to. Make sure that the site/company has a good reputation; this can normally be done by searching Google.

Downloading From P2P

If you are downloading from a peer-to-peer program like Kazaa, Bearshare, WinMX or any other P2P program you are at your own risk. Most computers that I've seen that have this software on it end up having plenty of viruses and spyware. Now, this is not due to the P2P software itself but is due to the files that you are downloading through it. If you must have a P2P program, please make sure that your virus definitions are up to date at all times.

Don't Rely On Automatic Update

On of the worse things you can do is to rely on the automatic update that come with the antivirus that you have. This will normally not send you an update notification until a few days after there is an update that you can get. Any antivirus software that I've seen allows you to manually download any updates that are available.

When Should I Scan My Computer

I leave my computer running 24/7 and if you do the same I would suggest scheduling a time somewhere around 2:00am. This allows the scan to run when no one is on it and will catch anything might have gotten by the automatic scan for one reason or another. If you turn your computer off at night, I suggest a scan right when you turn it on for the first time that day.

Conclusion

You will probably still get a virus from time to time but it should be a lot less frequent and will normally be something minor that you will get. Also if you need up getting a virus it will normally be caught within 24 hours which will reduce the amount of destruction that it can cause your computer and to others.

I am an all around big Geek with too much time on my hands. My main services are web design/development and PC repair. I've been doing both of these for the past 5 years and consider myself pretty good at what I do but, more importnantly, I love it. Webcyte Design

[tags]virus, virses, anti-virus, antivirus, virus scan, virus clean, virus scanner[/tags]