Happy birthday matt!
Last week I spoke about Spy ware and what it can do to your system. To day I think I will talk a little about Anti virus and why it and a Firewall should be your best friend. The world is full of sad bastards and lets face it they would like nothing more than to fuck you up. These sad people think that it is funny to ruin your day and any work you might be attempting to do. There are many viruses released each day and any one can give your Pc an attack of the shits. Its not even a question of being unlucky enough to visit the wrong site or download something infected. Just being on the web is often enough to catch one especially if you are using broadband.
There are some simple things that you can do in the way of security though. The first an most simple is to turn off the preview Payne on your email program. You know the thing that automatically opens the email highlighted. This will give you a chance to look at the place the email has come from, if you do not recognise the sender or are not expecting something from them then my advice is to delete it without opening. This is because the simple fact of opening the email is sometimes enough to set the little bastards loose in you system. It might be that the infection is interested in your surfing habits for market research. These are used by people to target you for mail shots or junk. You know the stuff “Three weeks in Birmingham and a new credit card with 1000000% interest.
At the very least you should also have the Microsoft Firewall turned on its free and better than nothing, actually that’s unfair it is getting better all the time. If you are using a Notebook (Laptop) to surf and its wireless you will be using some king of router to send the signal around the house. The better ones come with a built in fire wall and there is lots of evidence to say that these so called “hardware” firewalls are the best option. If your in the market they cost a few extra quid and are well worth it.
Most people though will go out to a shop like PC World and spend lots on a package that contains both fire wall and some kind of Anti virus. There are many out there and some can be very expensive but you do not need to spend a fortune. There are so great products out in the world that will cost a fraction of high street products prices and will give you great protection. I have tried lots and the best I have found for many different reasons is AVG There is a free version but they also do a free 30 day trial of there combined Anti virus and Firewall. When the trial is up you can buy the licence for about £20.00 for two years of updates and protection. Now I think that’s not bad. Just follow the links on the site.
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
See you next week.
Matt x (yes I am THE birthday boy!)
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