1. Surf carefully. Avoid going to web sites that are not well known or that seem suspicious. Using common sense avoids many problems.
2. Use your internal Windows firewall. It is easy to set up and use and is very flexible, even allowing H.323 videoconferencing to work thru it.
3. Use an anti-virus application. I use Norton Anti-Virus, it works in the background and has caught a few viruses (when I was not surfing safely....arrghhh). There are other applications that can be used, I try to stick with Norton or McAfee. Best Buy has these applications or you can download them. They are worth the few extra dollars.
4. Download and run Windows Defender regularly to check for unsafe (spyware) programs that may have been loaded. It is FREE and it works.
5. Make sure to run the Windows Update regularly. Microsoft spends a lot of time (mostly because they HAVE to
) updating their software to close holes and vulnerabilities.6. Add strong passwords to all your user accounts.
Get started on the road to safe computing
To scan your computer now, for FREE, go to this Symantec web site.
I tried both scans this weekend and they worked fine (and my computer survived without a problem). Note: the scans take awhile and you need Internet Explorer with Active X enabled...if you need help doing that, let me know).
Safe computing!
