Remembering Why You Need An Anti Virus Program For Your Computer!

There are several reasons why you should use security software to protect your personal information and your computer while online. Security software offers Internet users with protection against viruses, worms, spyware and other programs that are designed to influtrate your computer system without your permission.Internet security software will help prevent identity theft.

Identity theft is a crime that affects over nine million Americans each year. It can take a victim years to recover from identity theft. Sometimes a victim of identity theft is unable to get an educational loan or a credit card or a loan or is turned down for a job. Another benefit to using security software is that the software is designed to stop hackers in their tracks. This is the best way to protect your privacy while you are online.

Firewalls and Proxies

In building construction, a firewall is a structure designed to contain building fires.  For example, an attic crawlspace that covers the entire length of the building would allow a fire to roar from one end of the building to the other.  Breaking up the crawlspace with non-flammable walls helps to slow the spread of a fire.

Network firewalls have a similar function.  A firewall is a network security system, either a program or an actual device, that breaks up a network to contain viruses and hackers.

Imagine two large fish tanks side by side, separated by a wall.  We want to allow the blue fish to mingle, but we need to keep the carnivorous fish on the left away from the baby fish on the right.  If we opened a computer-controlled door in the wall, programmed to only allow blue fish to pass but no one else, that would be a fishtank firewall.

Free Proxy to Unblock Your Favorites Sites

Proxy servers (sometimes called web site proxy anonymizers because they make the computer user anonymous) circumvent filters on the computer or even the firewall due to the way these sites operate. Proxy servers are computers outside your school, work or library’s firewalls and are easily accessed via the internet.

They have their own IP address and are able to be controlled through your computer. Your computer connects to a web proxy server and the web proxy server is the computer that makes the connection with the blocked web site. The web proxy server then shows you all the contents of the page. You can view the web site and even interact with the web site through the proxy server (even though it is blocked by your computer, firewall, school, work or library). This is achieved because it is not your computer interacting with the web site, but a third party (the web proxy server that makes the connection with the blocked site).

One of the main reasons to use a web proxy; is to get around blocked content that may contain one or two words that the filter has identified as inappropriate for viewing. Many companies, schools and libraries make use of filters to limit the ability of employees, students or visitors to spend time looking at web pages that are not related to job or school functions in some manner. This is usually accomplished with the use of key words that programmed into the filter, which in turn blocks any page or site with those words present. While this does block access to a number of sites that have nothing to do with work or school, they can also inhibit access to pages and glossaries that are designed to be helpful in many job positions.

When this is the case, an employee, student or visitor may choose to use a proxy site to get around the block and be able to get to a page that he or she legitimately needs to view in order to accomplish a work or school related task. Since using a proxy site does not take much longer than using a browser window, it is much faster than calling technical support and trying to get authorization to remove a given site from the filter list.

Free Proxy Lists:

• http://pooxe.com/
• http://www.1freeproxy.com/
• http://www.internet-proxy.info/

Home Page Hijacking and Browser Helper Objects

Internet Explorer has a way for a website to add itself to the list of favorites.  It’s a feature Microsoft added so that websites can have a button that says “Bookmark This Site!  Just Click Here!”

Now, if that’s all that particular feature did, then there wouldn’t be any malware concerns over it.  Unscrupulous programmers have taken advantage of it to create Home Page Hijackers.

In a nutshell, a Home Page Hijacker is a program that reaches into your browser and changes your homepage…without your permission.  You might think, “That’s easy enough to fix, just change my homepage back and everything is fine.”

How Anti-Virus Keeps Your Computer From Crashing

I’ll be the first to admit I did not know much about computers.I always thought when you got a computer it came with everything you needed.What I didn’t know was that you always need an anti-virus on your computer to keep it from crashing.My computer of course came with that,but I did not know after a certain length of time you have to pay to renew it.

I always thought the terminally on a computer was strange.Things like anti-virus,checking the cookies,The mouse,seemed crazy to me.Well after I found out that I had been running my computer with no anti-virus program I didn’t know what to do.My husband and I are on a fixed income so I couldn’t really afford to buy anything else for the computer.It took me years to save up to get this computer.I never expected you could get something at no cost to you.I found out that there are many free sites to get a anti-virus program.

A lot of these sites let you download the anti- virus protection for free.That was right up my alley,free! Well after I downloaded it I had to figure out next how to use it.I am not really swift on a computer.I learned that I just hit the button that says start scanning and the anti-virus program scans everything and tells me if my computer has any viruses on it.I also learned you should not put a lot of things on your computer you really don’t have to have on it.I love music so I would download a lot of my favorite songs on my computer.

Concerning Issues With Anti-virus

The ongoing writing and spreading of viruses and of panic about them gives the vendors of commercial anti virus software a financial interest in the ongoing existence of viruses.Some theorize that antivirus companies have financial ties to virus writers, to generate their own market,though there is really know evidence that we know of.Some of the antivirus software can considerable reduce performance.

Users may disable the antivirus protection to overcome the performance loss,thus increasing the risk of infection.For maximum protection the antivirus software needs to be enabled at all times-often at the cost of slower performance.It is also important to know that a person should not have more than one antivirus software installed on a single computer at any given time.This can seriously cripple your computer and cause further damage.

Adware Overview

Adware is advertising delivered directly to your computer.  Generally, a program puts ads on the screen at some regular interval.  In some cases, this program can be installed without the user’s knowledge, but not always.  Many programs clearly state on install that “this program is supported by advertising, and if you turn off the advertising, you also shut down the program.”

Adware tends to be a “grey area” in the malware family.  Yes, it can run without the user’s knowledge, and yes, it can bog down the system (especially when the adware program goes online to retrieve new ads to display).  At the same time, adware is generally more open about what it does, giving the user the choice to install the program the adware is attached to.

Top Ten Tricks of the Spammer

The spammer’s most fervent hope is that you are ignorant of the tricks and tactics used to spam your inbox. Learning the spammer’s nefarious ways is your best protection against spam.

Manipulating Text:

This is one of the most commonly used spamming techniques. Spammers will manipulate the text in the email, to foil the anti-spam filters. They may, for example, deliberately misspell some words: “M0rtg4ge” for example. They may add characters or spaces to words in the email header, to make the email seem unique from other email. Like this: X_A_N_A_X Here’s an example, . They may also insert random strings of text within the email.

The What, Who, Where and Why of Spam

Spam was once just clutter in your inbox; now it is a commonly used vehicle for fraud, electronic crime and even corporate espionage. The 4 Ws of spam answer the most commonly asked questions about spam.

What is Spam?

Spam, also called junk email, is generally defined in the Internet industry as unsolicited commercial email (UCE). It is email that is sent out in bulk to a huge number of recipients who did not request it. The contents of spam range from benign advertising to malicious programs that can literally hijack your computer system do grave damage.

The most common commercial spam advertises pyramid schemes, pornographic web sites, mortgage loans, chain letters, credit repair, fraudulent pharmaceuticals and illegally pirated software. The more dangerous spam will often contain viruses that can infect your computer, Trojan horses that can hijack your email program and use it to send out spam to your friends and family, and phishing scams that attempt to get your personal and financial information.