10 Good Tips About How To Use The Internet Safely part 2

10 Good Tips About How To Use The Internet Safely part 2

This article continues my list of 10 good tips about how to use the Internet safely.

In part one of 10 Good Tips About How To Use The Internet Safely, I talked about the importance of using the right web browser, and how important it is to have the latest security updates or "patches". Let's go on to the next item in our list:

Tip #3) Have a good firewall program & make sure it's on

A firewall program (not to be confused with firewire) is a protective program that guards your computer from threats either on the Internet, or from other computers on the same network (including a wired or wireless home network, one at work, or a public wireless network like you might find at an airport or a cafe).

While this has improved some with Windows Vista, Windows XP does not have a very good built-in firewall, so it's important to use a good one that not only protects from threats outside of your computer, but also from rogue programs like aware, spyware, and viruses that may already be on your computer.

Norton Internet Security, McAfee Internet Security, and Kaspersky Internet Security all have the "active" type of firewall that protects you both ways. A free alternative that does a good job is ZoneAlarm.

Personally, because of the limitations of McAfee and Norton, I don't really recommend using them (more on that in a minute) -- Kaspersky is one of the best choices out there for protecting your computer on the Internet.

Any of these firewall programs should alert you if they're not turned on correctly, and you can check to make sure it says it's protecting you by double-clicking the icon on the system tray to the left on the clock.

Apple Mac users have (currently) a lot less to worry about from Internet threats, due to their excellent built-in security, but they should still be using a firewall program.
The firewall program built into Mac OS X works well to protect you, but needs to be turned on.

If you have OS 10.4 (Tiger) or earlier, you can check to see if your firewall is on by going into your System Preferences (always available in the Apple Menu, and often available on the Dock). Then click on Sharing, then click Firewall.

If you have OS 10.5 (Leopard) you'll find the firewall has moved to Security in System Preferences.

It should tell you if the firewall is on if you look at this window; if not, click the button labeled Start, and you're protected.


Tip #4) Have the right antivirus program & Make sure your AV program is active & up-to-date

Here's a big one for Windows users that isn't currently as important for Apple Mac users.

There are known to be over *100,000* viruses & worms for Windows PCs, and only 1 known virus for Macs (and the Mac virus is more of a "test" and turned out not to spread).

Most of the 100,000-plus viruses and worms for Windows are not currently "in the wild", but it still gives you an idea of how much more at risk Windows users are for these things, so it's absolutely critical to have an effective antivirus program protecting your computer.

Note I said *effective* antivirus program -- I chose my words carefully there, since studies have shown the top 3 *most-used* (again, note my choice of words there) antivirus programs actually have an up to 80% *failure* rate at detecting and removing the latest threats!

I personally recommend using Kaspersky Antivirus (or better yet, Kaspersky Internet Security, which has a good firewall program in it too). Kaspersky has been shown to have an over 96% success rate at finding and removing viruses.

There is no 100% guarantee, but it's pretty darn close.

I'll continue with more of the 10 tips about how to use the Internet safely in a separate article.

If you'd like to *see* step-by-step how to protect yourself by doing the things I talk about in this article, plus get dozens and dozens of more quick, easy lessons that make your computer safer and easier to use, then you might want to click one of the links below to find out more...

All you have to do is click one of the following links, depending on whether you use a Apple Mac or a Windows PC.

Windows PC users (Dell, HP, Sony, etc.) click this link to get easy Windows computer lessons

and Apple Mac users (owners of an iMac, iBook, MacBook, etc.) click this link to get easy Apple Mac computer lessons

until next time, enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. Those links again are:

Windows PC users (Dell, HP, Sony, etc.) click this link to get easy Windows computer lessons

and Apple Mac users (owners of an iMac, iBook, MacBook, etc.) click this link to get easy Apple Mac computer lessons