Protect your computer from viruses!

Unfortunately, one of the most common problems that home users experience is virus and spyware infections. Getting rid of these infections can be a pain in the behind, but rest assured there’s lots of ammunition for you to use.

The best way to remove an infection is to not get one in the first place. Read up on how to protect your computer from viruses and spyware.

Note that you should always back up your documents before attempting operations involving malicious software removal.

1. Use System Restore

If you have a spyware infection, System Restore could be your best friend. If the problem occured recent enough that you still have an earlier restore point available, you should try restoring to that date to see if it removes the spyware.

2. Use Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware Software

If you don’t have anything installed, you should install a free suite such as AVG Internet Security. Use your anti-virus & anti-spyware suite to scan the computer for infections, if any are found you should be able to remove them.

3. Try Virus & Spyware Removal Tools

There’s lots of removal tools available on the internet, here are some of the well known and respected applications you can download for free:

• Ad-Aware Free
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Windows Defender
• Norton 360
• McAfee

If anyone has any other tips, feel free to leave them in a comment.

Whether you want to clear your browsing history because it’s causing your computer to run slowly, or because you’ve been looking at wedding rings – it’s a task easily achieved in most browsers.

In Internet Explorer, you do the following:

1. Look for the Tools menu. If you have Internet Explorer 7+, the Tools menu is on the right hand side of the screen with a ‘cog’ icon.
2. Click Delete Browsing History…
3. Click Delete history… and then click Yes to confirm your action.
4. You can do the same with Temporary Internet Files to save space on your hard disk.

And that’s it! For internet addicts, deleting your history once a week can help keep your computer healthy.

Spam is a serious problem that can become quite frustrating for those receiving it. In this post we’re going to discuss what spam actually is, and the four lines of defense against spam.

So, what is SPAM?

• Spam is unsolicited email – it was not requested, welcome or invited.
• Emails that you receive from websites such as Amazon or eBay aren’t necessarily spam – if you signed up with these sites, you’re probably receiving emails from them because you’re a member. Usually, you can stop these emails by looking for an ‘unsubscribe’ link usually located at the end of an email.
• Even if an email appears to be from a legitimate source, it isn’t necessarily safe. Internet email is about as secure as real world mail. Anybody can send an email from any address – it’s your responsibility to make sure the mail you receive is legitimate.
• Emails asking you to log in to your bank account and provide your credentials are usually spam. If an email asks you to enter important information, it should ask you to open up a browser and manually type in the domain name rather than linking to it from within the email.

Three Lines of Spam Defense

1. Avoid giving out your email address to those you do not trust.If only there was an oxymoron for posting your email address where it is publicly viewable and trying to avoid spam – we’d be set. Spam bots browse the internet constantly, harvesting email addresses where they are written in plain text. Don’t let your email address be a statistic!
2. Don’t forward messages, and tell people not to forward you messages.Forwarded messages carry with them a trail of email addresses telling whoever receives it where the email has been. You can bet that almost all of the email addresses are legitimate – and if that email falls into the wrong hands, it’s viagra-galore for the spammer! Email senders back and tell them that you don’t want your email address used in their forwarding list.
3. Download spam filtering software to filter out emails that are likely to be spam. SpamExperts is free to home users.
4. Report spam emails to help close insecure email servers. Take a look at SpamCop.net.

As a last resort, if your spam problem is too big to manage then you might consider switching to a new email address.

We know how annoying it can be when you can’t download a file from an FTP server, so we’ve made the tool downloadable from our domain to save you the bother of hunting down a reliable download. Click here to download it.

You can also click here to go to Norton’s webpage relating to the tool, if you need more information.

As a side note, you might consider switching to the free edition of AVG when you’re done.

How can I back up my computer files?

There’s lots of online backup software available (Mozy for example), but Windows XP has its own backup software included. If you’re using XP Home Edition then you might need to download the package and install it. If so, you can follow this link to do so and then come back here when you’re ready.

NOTE: You’ll need a backup device such as an external hard drive or a USB flash stick to back your data on to. The size of the device you need will depend on how much data you’re backing up.

Let’s get started.

How to back up your computer files:

Step 1. First, load the backup software. You can find it by clicking Start, Accessories, System Tools, Backup.

Step 2. Wait for the application to load. (If the screen doesn’t look like the picture below, click switch to Wizard Mode.) Then click Next.

Step 3. On the next screen, the wizard will ask you what you want to do. Select ‘Back up files and settings’ and click Next.

Step 4. At this step, the wizard will ask you what you want to back up. The options are self explanatory – most importantly you’ll want to either backup your documents and settings, or everyone’s documents and settings. Select an option, and click Next.

Step 5. Choose where to save your back up. Choose the corresponding letter from the middle drop down (labelled F: in the picture). Name the back up (Data Backup would be an appropriate name). Then click Next.

Step 6. Review the settings, and click Finish.

That’s it! Go make yourself a cuppa! The backup could take a while. Repeat this process whenever you want to make a back up.

Note: The best solution would be to combine local backups with an online backup service.

www.eyeonsilicon.com/downloads/ntbackup.msi

Follow the wizard to install the application.