Ask Me - THRComputer Solutions

Now that there are complex PDAs and cell phones, you do not have to be near your computer to log into the Internet, read email, etc, send instant messages, etc.  Yet many people who still do not have any of those devices often use public computers in places such as Internet cafes, libraries, and hotels.  These public computers should be protected with anti-virus software, but they may not be secured or regularly checked by anyone.  Also, the person using it right before you could get infected.  What do you do?

There are some tips when traveling that you can use to protect your personal information.  If you are going to be away from your home computer for a few days and plan on accessing your email account, set up a forwarding email.  Your email client probably allows you to forward your mail to another account.  By setting up a new account and forwarding your regular email account to that new one, you can provide yourself with a bit of protection.

With the new account, hackers are less likely to know the account exists or have any idea what the password is.  However, it still allows you to read your normal email.  Even if someone does figure out the username and password, you are only going to be using this account for a brief time.

If you do log into a computer in a public place using your normal email username and password, change the password when you first log in.  When you return home, change your password to something different.  This limits the time your password may be exposed to hackers.

Why should you worry about changing your password so much when using a public computer?  You need to change your password in case anyone has set up what is known as a key logger program.  Key logger software is a type of spyware that records every keystroke made on a computer.  So if you use a public computer to log into email, access your bank account, or purchase something with your credit card, the person who installed the key logger software can record all your sensitive information.  To be extra safe, avoid making credit card purchases or logging into your bank account while traveling unless you are using your own personal laptop.

Some public computer administrators have locked down a feature called auto-complete or password storage.  If you are asked while logging in on a public computer if you want to save your information, always say no.  And try to disable the features if you can.

Visit only the web sites you are familiar with while you are traveling.  Visiting new sites may cause a download of spyware or viruses, but if you normally visit a site, you are probably sure of its safety.  This also includes clicking on any pop-up ads while on the public computer.  Those can also contain spyware and result in auto-downloads.

When you are finished using the public computer, see if you can delete the browsers temporary files, cookies, etc.  The administrator may have the computer locked down so you cannot do this, but it doesn’t hurt to check.  This helps protect you and also leave the computer cleaner for the next user.

If the computer does allow you to download legitimate files, don’t leave any of those on the computer when you go.   Also, it sounds simple, but pay attention to anyone walking up behind you to see what you are typing.  Just like at an ATM, they may be up to no good.

Just by doing these few things, you can help further protect yourself and your information while on the road.

The Internet can be a great tool for a child.  It opens up access to the world that few of us were offered as children.  However, there are things on the Internet you don’t want your child to access such as inappropriate text and images.  They can also inadvertently reveal personal information such as their name, address, phone number, or even your credit card number.  So as wonderful as the Internet is, you must take steps to protect children while they are on it. Read the rest of this entry »

Fighting spam seems to be a never-ending battle.  Like most illegitimate activities, it is going to take a lot to end it.  There are simple steps you as a user can do to help avoid it, but webmasters and email providers can also do their part to help.

Spammers are able to harvest email addresses from forums, blogs, and other activities you do online.  Their spambots take very little time and effort to obtain all these email addresses that they can then use to spam email accounts or sell to others.  They exert very little effort to be able to do this while most of us spend quite a bit of time either deleting spam or trying to figure out how to stop it.  If the cost of spammer’s job was raised, it might help put the ball in your court, rather than theirs. Read the rest of this entry »

Network firewalls got their name from physical firewalls, used to prevent actual fires from spreading from one section of a building to another.  A network firewall does the same thing – it restricts the flow of data and program instructions in and out of the system.

There are two types of firewalls that can be used on a network – hardware and software.  This can be slightly misleading, as hardware cannot really work on its own without software to tell it what to do.  And in turn, the software cannot do much without hardware, since the software must be stored and executed somewhere. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems no matter what you do, your email account gets filled with spam emails.  You try to fight it, but it seems the spammers always find a way around your defenses.  But there are some almost effortless steps you can take to make their actions unsuccessful. Read the rest of this entry »

Like most of you, I know the value of pinging sites such as Technorati when one of my blogs has been updated.  There are a lot of places you can go besides there to let others know your blog has been updated.  However, I would have to enter in all my information every time I wanted to ping a site and then hope the site was actually working.  In my opinion, it was a big time waster and one of those tedious tasks I hated doing. Read the rest of this entry »

Email is a common way for viruses to infection your computer.  No matter how many warnings are issued to avoid opening emails from people they do not know, each day there are users that do just that and suffer the consequences.

One of the biggest problems with email viruses is that they don’t usually stop after infection one computer.  Many will access your address book without your knowledge and send the infected email to everyone on it, spreading the virus even further and further. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you remember when people had to communicate by phone, letters, or faxes?  Many of us were alive before email was popular, but it is hard to believe we survived for so long without it!  It is the major mode of communication today whether at work or at home.  It is also one of the most common ways for hackers to defraud people and send viruses.  It is necessary to protect yourself if you use email at all.

Because emails often contain attachments, it makes them particularly susceptible to viruses contained within the attachments.  Even someone you know may inadvertently send you a file that contains a virus.  Some viruses look in your email address book and send the infected email to everyone on the list to spread themselves even further.

The best protection against viruses is to know beforehand that someone is sending you an attachment and also to purchase virus protection software.  A good virus protection software program will scan all email attachments as they are received.  It will also scan files you send to others.  It will help keep your system clean of viruses. Read the rest of this entry »