The 10 Commandments for Your Computer Sanity
1. Don’t assume anything. Make some time to learn about securing your system, especially with a new computer. Many people assume that their new computer comes with an antivirus program and that they need to do nothing else about it. In fact, most brand name computers come with only a 30 day to 90 day trial version of the antivirus software, and even with a full version it is NEVER activated (license agreements do not allow the major OEM’s to activate any of the software on your new computer). Without activation and or registration, it will not protect you. Village Geek Computers will come with full versions only, but you still must activate the software on our new computers. We will activate antivirus software for you if it was purchased when the computer was in for service.
2. Acquire and use a reliable antivirus program. We recommend Eset Antivirus (available at our stores) . Any major brand will do, but some have drawbacks. For example Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security and McAfee have become such large programs that only the latest most powerful computers should run them. Older computers will bog down under the load.
3. Acquire and use a reliable firewall solution. Windows XP Service Pack 2 comes with a software firewall, but we recommend a hardware firewall solution, like an inexpensive Dlink or Linksys router.
4. Acquire and use an antispyware program. Do not rely on the free utilities available on the internet, most of these are not interactive and will only detect and clean infestations when you run a manual scan, which may be too late. The program you use should have “Active” or “Real-time” protection that watches for infection constantly. We recommend Eset NOD32 Antivirus, with built in spyware protection.
5. Many web sites are sources of spyware, viruses, worms, phishing, and spam. Do not visit “risky” websites without proper protection. Typical risky sites are those related to gambling, free software, free photo downloads, free music downloads, file sharing, and of course pornography. Before visiting these sites be sure you have an updated antivirus program, antispyware program, a hardware router and we recommend that you download and install McAfee SiteAdvisor (which warns you if a site is risky or not). Many seemingly safe sites are also dangerous and many of the mentioned sites are harmless. There is no way to tell if a site is safe without the proper software.
6. Do not open any attachment that you received unexpectedly, even if the sender is known to be reliable. Many viruses “Spoof” the addresses of a trusted sender to trick you into opening them. The “I Love You” virus is a classic example. The I Love You virus would arrive from someone you know, and the subject line was I Love You, there was an attachment and a simple message asking you to look at the attachment. Who wouldn’t open that? Of course if you did, your software was damaged beyond repair. If you want to open an unexpected attachment, first save it to your hard disk and scan it with an updated antivirus program.
7. Avoid installing services and applications which are not needed in day-by-day operations in a desktop role, such as file transfer and file sharing servers, remote desktop servers, so called cleanup utilities, and the like. Such programs are potential hazards, and should not be installed.
8. Update your system and applications as often as possible. Windows and some applications can be set to update automatically. Make full use of this facility. Failure to patch your system often enough may leave it vulnerable to threats for which fixes already exist.
9. Take some time and learn email etiquette, and learn how to detect phishing attacks. Since these topics are too long for this article, please follow the links above to learn more.
10. Make backups of important personal files (correspondence, documents, pictures and such) on a regular basis. Store these copies on removable media such as CD or DVD. Keep your archive in a different location than the one your computer is in. DO NOT USE floppy disks. Check the back up disks to make sure the data was accurately backed up and do a test restore to verify the backup.
To do a test restore:
1. Create a test file and include it in your backup, preferably a small one like a text (.txt) document, or a copy of a picture that you don't care about. After the backup, delete the file.
2. Find the file on your back up media (disk) and copy it back into it’s original position.
3. Open the file and make sure it is as it should be. If the file does not open, or if you can not find it on the backup disk, then your backups have failed. If the file opens properly and everything is there, then your backup is good.