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Page 1 Page 2 Five Simple Easy *Free* Things You Can Do to Protect Your PC

1) Download and install anti-virus software

In olden days, these just stopped virii from infecting your computer and spreading to others, but most malicious software these days isn't designed to destroy your data, it's designed to harvest it for horrible bastards who want to nick your bank account or WoW details.

Personally I choose to use Avira AntiVir which can be found at http://www.free-av.com/ and the reason is mainly because they are one of the quickest at updating whenever new virii hit the scene. But if for some reason you don't want to use that, I've also used AVG which can be found at http://free.grisoft.com/ although they aren't so quick on the updates, but still more than good enough.

If you've never had anti-virus installed before, install one of these and scan your whole HD, yes it may take a while but it's worth the effort. You only need to do this once, then the fact they run in the background and keep you protected should be enough to maintain a safe desktop.


2) Make sure any folders you are sharing on the network are password protected

Really want any old Tom, Dick or Harry to have access to your files, be able to change them without you knowing, replace them with a trojan you might accidentally run assuming you put it there so it must be okay? No? Didn't think so.

Go here if you use Windows XP and try to make it more secure: http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ring/index.htm


3) Use some sort of firewall

Windows' built in firewall is FINE. All you want is the ability to decide whether an application should be allowed to connect to the internet or not, and it does this perfectly adequately. Just make sure you turn it on FFS.

If you are particularly paranoid you can go one stage further and use something like ZoneAlarm which can be found here http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/home.jsp and does an excellent job. However it does require more knowledge about networking to use, and if you aren't particularly solid with PCs then you'll probably end up causing yourself more trouble than it's worth.


4) Make sure your software is up to date with patches

If you have a legit copy of XP then go to Windows Update and patch, patch, patch! Also make sure any other software you use is up to date, this includes things like JPG viewers, WinAmp, Office (MS or Open), etc, if you are particularly paranoid. Heck even Adobe Photoshop has an exploit now.

If you don't have a legit copy, that is still no excuse. You can at the very least scan your system and download patches by hand using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, which automatically produces a list of links to pages where you can get the patches you are missing. Get it at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../mbsahome.mspx


5) Every now and again it's worth scanning your PC for spyware

This is probably the *least* important of all the things I suggest you do, since mostly this stuff just gets in the way of browsing the web, anything more malicious is caught by your anti-virus software.

Preferred easymode here is Spybot Search and Destroy which can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and should be easy enough for anyone to work out how to use. It also lets you protect your browser from malicious sites by adding a block list of n0rty places, just click the Immunize button each time you run the software (after it's updated a current list).Previous Page

Posted by Robert John Shepherd