Be careful opening ALL attachments delivered through email
This regularly catches out clients of mine. If you receive an email with an attachment you must be careful to investigate it before you open the attachment. The most common of today's viruses are transmitted through email. These viruses look through the address books of their infected hosts, select a random subject heading and send as many infected emails as possible to those addresses. Therefore you can see that a virus may be received from a friend, showing that it is prudent to investigate all emails that you receive before opening them.
NOTE: Microsoft does not send emails to its users with files for updates attached. Do not be fooled by this. Only update your system from the Microsoft website.
Update your virus software regularly
You must have virus software. If you don't then you should purchase it. It will save you time and money in the long run. The software that we use the most frequently is Norton Antivirus. We have found this software to be perfect for both home and corporate users although the corporate edition is best for a larger number of computers.
Once you have antivirus software installed you must update it on a regular basis. Virus writers are prolific and new viruses appear all of the time. Antivirus software works because it can recognise the specific virus and can remove it. Without regular updates to your virus software, it is basically useless. Most virus software allows you to set updates to occur automatically. This is more useful if you have a broadband connection which is 'always on'. Those with a standard telephone connection should update once a week.
Update your operating system
Keeping you operating system updated and in good shape is important. Hackers find new exploits in operating systems all of the time most of the time their findings are reported to operating system makers who release a patch to fix it. These patches must be downloaded by you to update you system. The process can be quite lengthy if you only have a normal telephone connection to the internet but it is worth it. For Microsoft Windows systems, the best place to update your system is by pointing your web browser at: windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Remove programs that you do not use
Most of us install and try out programs all of the time. We download from the web, install from friends and from CDs on magazines. This has the effect that we have lots of installed software on our machines that we never use. Regular removal of unwanted programs will improve your system performance and save disk space.
Stop spam
Spam (unsolicited email) is a common problem for a lot of users. Spam comes from people and companies who are advertising their products and services. Many products exist to block unwanted email; however there are a number of things that you can do to stop people getting hold of your email address:
- Pick an uncommon email address - Some email lists simply guess a name i.e. joe.bloggs@someplace.com. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it If you have a common name, the simple thing to do is to change your email address so that it cannot be guessed easily.
- Get a bogus address from hotmail - Sign up for an email address with hotmail.com. Use this address whenever you are asked to register with a website that you are unsure of. Some of these websites sell their email listings to spammers, so if you register you will get plenty of spam. We have used this method effectively for nearly seven years with only a small amount of spam getting through.
- Use spam blocking software - Spam blockers allow you block incoming mail from people who are not in your address book or from known spammers. These can be good however you must be aware that sometimes email from people you do know will get blocked.
Spybot Search and Destroy
It can be downloaded to remove all spyware and adware from your machine. Spyware is a type of software that monitors which sites you are browsing on the internet and sends this information to a central store. This is then used for marketing purposes. Adware is software that contains invasive advertising which makes adverts pop up as you are browsing the internet. The software is usually clever enough to pop up an advert that matches the subject of the web page that you are reading. Both spyware and adware are invasive software that impinges on your personal privacy. The removal software allows you to get rid of this invasion.
Save files in standard places such as 'My Documents'
If you save all of your documents in the same place then you will know how to find them again. Doing this also allows you to move your files easily.
Save your files often and make backups
Lost files are a common problem. Most people blame the computer, however if you save your files often then there is usually no data lost if the computer crashes. Hard disks crash very rarely but making regular backups of data that you can't afford to loose is important. You don't have to backup everything, just those most important files.
Make your passwords bigger
A long password makes it many times more difficult to crack. The longer the password the more difficult it is. Choose a small sentence as a password, change some of the letters to numbers and replace some of the spaces with punctuation characters, this will make your password almost impossible to crack or guess.
Shutdown Gracefully
All recent operating systems provide a way of shutting down your computer. When shutting down gracefully the computer will save any changed settings, reset anything that needs resetting and sometimes repair broken programs. Turning off power to your system while it is still running can be a disaster. Give your system the time it needs before you pull the plug. Better still, leave your computer running. If you have a broadband internet connection you can set your computer to download updates to the operating system and virus definitions overnight so that your computing fun is not disturbed by these operations.
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