JB's tips for a healthy PC

[JB]

Just wanted to give ya a headsup on pc maintenance...heres some tips to keep ya healthy.





Are Ya worried about all the spyware horror stories you've read? You should be. I've heard varying numbers, but it's said that putting an unprotected computer on a high-speed connection results in getting infected within a few minutes. I just read that the time is getting longer, but that's not much comfort. By all means you should have a router if you're on a high speed connection. A router provides some protection, but is only the beginning. Ok, now the new machine is booted up the first time and ready to go. It's on the net. In this order, here's what to do.
1. Update Windows immediately. In the Windows Security Center in the Control Panel turn on automatic download and installation for updates. Unless the computer came with a third party security suite or firewall, turn on the Windows XP firewall.
2. Update the pre-installed antivirus definitions and other security apps. Set them to auto update.
3. Download and install an alternative browser like Firefox or Opera.
4. Lockdown Internet Explorer. Yes, do it even if you use a different browser.
5. Install at least two anti-spyware apps. My top two recommended free apps are Ad-Aware and Microsoft AntiSpyware. Update definitions for both and turn on active protection in Microsoft AntiSpyware.
6. Install some free protective programs like SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard from Javacool Software.
7. Install IE-SPYAD, which puts nearly 20,000 known dangerous domains in IE's restricted site zone.
8. Install a HOSTS file from here or here.
9. Educate yourself on how to not become infected in the first place.
10. Surf safe and practice safe hex.
Porn sites with there pop up infect many a pc, however Porn isn't the only problem these days. It's rogue torrent sites, rogue search pages, so-called "free" software, P2P apps, pop-ups that shill spyware infested programs, (some claiming to remove spyware themselves), etc. I have lots of customers I KNOW would never visit porn sites, yet get infected with spyware just like everyone else. Porn sites are indeed a high-risk area, but the numbers of seemingly innocent websites that will install crap on your system without warning is extremely prevalent these days. I agree with pretty much everything on that list, with only a couple of exceptions. Any new computer owner should visit the windows update website first off, rather than waiting for the automatic updates to come down to them. Sometimes, the automatic updates do not get downloaded in a timely enough manner. I've seen XP systems with auto-update enabled that still havent got SP2. And that was released over a year ago. So a manual update is in order to get caught up with all the lastes patches, then the automatic updates are fine after that. Also, two antispyware programs with active resident components can be problematic. They can fight over what is detected, and prevent proper removal action by both programs. One good self-updating resident spyware scanner like MS Antispyware, or Sunbelt Counterspy is good in conjunction with a quality antivirus program (even these can overlap and conflict at times, but it is a necessary evil since no antivirus program does an acceptable job alone at preventing spyware, and no antispyware app is acceptable at detecting and removing viruses). Having multiple antispyware programs installed is fine as long as you only use ONE resident background agent. Use the other programs for manual scanning.