Computer Basics: How To Get better At Computers Without Learning a Thing

I've been giving people basic computer help for a long time now – over thirteen years as a professional, and for years before that, I was the "computer genius" (their words, not mine) everybody came to when they got stuck.

I've been paying attention to all those people over the years, and I've noticed something; for most people, the biggest problem they have with computers is actually very simple, and it's something they have total control over – their mental attitude.

I consider myself really lucky because I was born at a unique time. I'm just old enough to not only remember the first home computers, but also remember clearly what it was like before anyone had one in their home.

I think I was around ten years old when I first sat down in front of a computer. The first thing I thought was how cool it was, and how much fun I was going to have using it.

I dove right in and started played around with it, just seeing what I could do, and I wasn't intimidated by the fact that I didn't yet understand computer basics.

Back then, I only had a couple of friends with computers (it was still rare in the 80s) – they must have gotten really tired of the way I hogged their computer for hours at a time, every time I came over!

Finally, a few years later, my parents bought me my own computer, and I sat down and taught myself the basics of how to use it.

Now it's really common with people even just a few years older than me to think that they'll never be any good at computers because they didn't grow up with them. They think because they didn't get to learn computer basics as a kid, that it's hopeless.

Even people my age feel that way a lot!

I happened to be lucky enough to go to a junior high school that had two computers (which was a lot at the time!), and was lucky enough to have a couple of friends who owned them too. So I got exposed to them earlier than a lot of people my age.

But think about it: I was I born with some natural talent at computers?

No, of course not.

I didn't know a thing about them back then. And you know what? I made a lot of mistakes when I first learned to use them!

But I learned from those mistakes.

I've thought about this a lot over the years, and really, I think the biggest single advantage I ever had, was that I was able to really imagine all the ways I could have fun using the computer – and because I was just playing around with it, because I was enjoying the process of learning, it made it easy.

I bet there's something in your life you really enjoy a lot. Could be football, basketball, or some other sport; it could be restoring vintage cars, cooking, or collecting stamps.

It could be any of a hundred other things – the number of things people are passionate about is just as many as there are people.

But chances are, there's at least one thing in your life that you get really excited about, and really enjoy. And whatever it is, I bet you know a lot about it, and probably could talk about it for hours.

And I bet you never thought learning about this was something hard or intimidating. And in fact, you probably think it's pretty easy, and fun!

Just imagine for a minute what it'd be like to feel the same way about using a computer.

I know some of you reading this are thinking "yeah, right." But understand, I'm not asking you if you could suddenly find the computer easy. I'm just asking you to just *imagine* what it'd be like if computers were fun and easy for you.

Just pretend.

Because one of the most important things you can learn, that will really help learn computer basics, and even master your computer, is not memorizing technical computer terms like what the difference is between memory and a hard drive (although if you don't know this, you can find a plain English explanation in the computer basics articles section of my web site) or anything else like that.

One of the biggest things you can do to help yourself get better at computers is to simply change the way you feel about them.

And that can be just as easy as using your imagination, and pretending you already find them easy, and that they're fun to use.

Because when you can learn to experience even just a little of what you feel when you're enjoying your favorite hobby, you'll be surprised how much easier it is to skyrocket your computer skills.

What is An Operating System or "OS" - A plain English explanation

What is an operating system? In this article I'm going to help you finally make sense of what for most people is one of the most confusing and least understood computer terms around: "operating system", or "OS".

This is actually a pretty easy idea to get when it's explained right.

Now what is an operating system, or OS? First off, it's is a type of software. To recap my explanation from my last newsletter article:

"Software" is all of the parts of the computer that you can't really see or touch. Software would include things like Microsoft Word, your email program, Windows or the Mac OS, plus all of your personal files like letters, photos, music, and more.

One way to think about it is like this: hardware is like your brain, the physical part of your body, while software is like your mind or your thoughts -- the non-physical part of yourself.

Software runs on hardware, just like your thoughts "run on" your brain.

Make sense? So let's get to the OS specifically.

First off, let me give a couple of examples: the two best known operating systems right now are Windows, and Mac OS X (pronounced "Oh Ess Ten" -- as in the Roman numeral ten).

Windows XP and Windows Vista are a couple different versions of the Windows operating system. While Mac OS 10.4 (also called "Tiger") and the newest Mac OS 10.5 (or "Leopard") are two different versions of Mac OS X.

So what *is* an OS?

Think of it this way: when a baby is born, they have the instinct to eat, breathe, and so on, and also the instinct to watch, listen, and absorb what's going on around them.

In time, a young child learns to talk and walk by learning from others, and as they get older, they also learn more fundamental skills like reading and writing, hand-eye coordination, and so on.

So in other words, they go from being able to do not a lot except eat, sleep, and fill diapers, to physical and mental maturity where they have all the general skills they need to learn more specific skills like driving a car, playing a sport like football, writing a paper for school, working a job, etc.

In many ways, when you turn a computer on, it's just like a newborn baby. It has the ability to turn on, and show an image on the screen, but that's about it.

The only other thing it can do is look at the hard drive, and if there is an operating system installed on it, the computer knows to start running the OS.

That process is called "booting", which is what happens between when you turn the computer on, and when you can actually start using it.

And the best way to think about it is that it's just like a child being born and growing up: the operating system contains the "life experiences" and lessons that give a child all the basic skills like walking, talking, reading, writing, and so on, that make everything else possible.

So in a sense, it's like your computer is born and "grows up" in the space of 30 seconds to a minute or so (or longer for some computers) that it takes to "boot" the operating system.

So in other words, the operating system is like those basic skills we all have and learned as children. More specifically, it's the software on the computer that creates the desktop, the icons on it, moves the little mouse pointer around on the screen when you move your mouse around, lets you view files and open, lets you type, and so on.

Without it, you couldn't do anything with the computer but turn it on and see an error message like "non system disk or disk error" on a Windows PC, or a flashing question mark on a Mac.

So even though a lot of people don't really understand what an OS is, or what it does, you couldn't use your computer without it.

Hope that makes sense.

Until next time, enjoy,

Worth Godwin

What is RAM, What is a Hard Drive: A Plain English Explanation

When it comes to a computer, there are so many computer terms like RAM, megahertz, gigabytes, etc. that people can find confusing. Having a better understanding of some of these terms can help you feel more comfortable using your computer, and ultimately get more out of it.

A lot of people I talk to seem to be apologetic about their lack of knowledge. It's too bad people feel that way; they really shouldn't. What I tell them is that while they may not know as much as I do about computers, there's nothing wrong with that, and they probably know a lot of other things I don't know much about.

All you need is someone who takes the time to explain things to you in a way that makes sense.

One term many people confuse is memory or RAM, and hard drive storage space. RAM stands for Random Access Memory (don't worry, you don't need to remember that!).

It is a temporary working space the computer uses to get work done, which gets emptied when the computer is turned off.

Think of it like a work bench or table. You have a project you're working on and you do your project on the bench and when you're done, you clear it off.

The hard drive is the main place your computer uses to store information. It looks like a rectangular metal box which contains a non-removable disk (as opposed to something like a CD Drive where you can take the disk out).

It is the disk inside the drive which stores everything on your computer -- every picture, every music file, every email, and every Word document. Not only that, but Windows or Mac OS X, the operating system that makes the computer run.

To continue our analogy, think of it as a set of shelves where you store the tools or materials for your project -- when you want to work on something you choose the things you need from the shelves, put them on the bench and work on the project.

This is like when you run a program; the computer loads the program from the hard drive into memory (the temporary working space).

So the larger the shelves, the more you can store -- i.e. the more programs you can have installed, the more songs or pictures or videos you can save on your computer.

Most people with a computer made in the last few years have far larger hard drives than they'll ever use. Few people ever fill them up, unless they are keeping a lot of large files such as sound files or pictures, or especially video files.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, video is worth at least a million words, and the files can be that much bigger!

If someone tells you you need more memory, or your computer gives you an error message about being low on memory, this usually means you don't have enough RAM. This can slow your computer down drastically.

Think of the bench idea again: if your bench is very small, you can't fit everything you need on it to get your work done, so you're constantly wasting time moving one piece of the project off the bench to make room for the next piece... if you can really work at all.

Both RAM and hard drive space are measured with the same terms: bytes, kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), with newer drives even being measured in terabytes (TB). Since both RAM and hard drives are measured in the same way, this may be one reason people confuse the two terms.

You don't need to understand exactly what those terms mean, but understand that each one is basically a thousand times larger than the one before. So a kilobyte is 1,000 times larger than a byte, a megabyte is 1,000 times larger than a kilobyte, a gigabyte is a thousand times later than that, and so on.

The reason you buy a computer one year that has a lot of RAM, and two or three years go by and suddenly someone tells you you don't have enough memory, is because each year the average size of programs, and the amount of memory they need, gets larger.

It's as if the tools you use on your workbench keep growing every year so you eventually have to get a larger bench.

If your computer seems to be running more slowly recently, or you've been having odd errors, it could be that you need to upgrade your memory. This isn't always the source of these problems, but RAM is very inexpensive these days and adding to what your computer has can add life to your Mac or PC.

Hopefully this clears up the meaning of these basic computer terms for you, and made a lot more sense than it used to! To learn more about RAM and memory, read this related article that explains how RAM affects the speed of a computer, and more.

What Is Spyware & Adware and What Is Malware

Has your computer been been running more slowly recently? Has it been crashing? Do you get pop-up ads for no apparent reason?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have fallen victim to malicious types of programs called "malware", a term which includes both adware and spyware.

Adware (advertising software) is a type of program which delivers ads to your computer screen. These adware programs run in the background whenever your computer is on.

This can be annoying because the ads pop up from nowhere, and often contain offensive images, but can also cause conflicts and potentially crash your computer.

There are several ways these programs can get into your system. In some cases you find a shareware program which, for example, delivers up-to-date weather reports to your computer. You download the program and install it, and while it does give you weather reports, it also watches what websites you visit and based on the profile it builds about you delivers targeted ads to your computer screen.

In other cases, the adware program is a completely separate program which is attached to a a program you choose to install. This is almost universally the case with file-trading programs (see my article on file trading risks).

Many adware programs also get installed just by visiting certain websites, as the sites are designed to take advantage of security holes in your web browser, especially those in Internet Explorer.

An even bigger problem is that many of these hidden programs are also spyware — spyware gather information from your computer.

Most commonly they monitor web sites you visit, but some spyware programs are what is known as "keyloggers," which is short for "keystroke loggers." These programs literally record everything you type into your computer, harvesting passwords, credit card numbers, and social security numbers.

This personal information can then be sent off without your knowledge and can be used for identity theft, potentially embarrassing you or even robbing you of thousands of dollars and your good name and credit.

Having spyware on your system is like inviting a stranger into your home and never noticing as he snoops through your drawers, writes down your credit card numbers, and watches your every move.

Most Windows PCs with internet access turn up one or more of these programs lurking unseen. I would personally estimate 80% or more of the Windows machines I look at have adware or spyware installed. According to Symantec, maker of Norton Internet Security, it may be 91% or more. In most cases, the computer users have absolutely no idea their machine is infected.

Fortunately, there are ways to clean up your system if it is infected, and ways to protect yourself from future infections. There are a number of anti-spyware programs out there, but be warned: many of them are scams which actually install more spyware and adware on your system!

Most people find the easiest way to learn how to get more out of their computer and be safe at the same time, is to be shown, step by step, how to do it. Aside from spyware, there are a lot of threats to Windows users that can be very complicated.

But it can be a lot easier than you think with the right help.

My free computer tips email newsletter explains a lot of this in plain English articles, plus when I made my easy computer lesson CDs, I made a big point of including a lot of my quick, easy step by step video lessons on making it easy to protect your computer whether it's a Mac or Windows PC.

Take a look if you feel you need more help.

File Sharing & File Trading - Risks You Should Avoid

Most people who were following the news a few years back have heard of Napster, the music-trading network that was shut down as a result of legal action taken by the recording industry, and which has since been resurrected as a legal music download site.

Not everyone knows that Napster spawned a host of similar programs such as Kazaa, Grokster, and Limewire, and more (many which have come and gone) most of which allow people to trade not just audio files, but virtually any type of file over the internet.

There are now millions of people in the United States alone who are running file trading software on their computers; many do not know the risks involved. These programs usually share virtually every type of file — including everything from compressed .zip or .sit files, to Word and Excel documents, photos and video, and even financial data.

Right now there are thousands if not millions of computers — maybe even yours — sharing personal documents with the world without the owner of the computer realizing it. Maybe because your child or grandchild has installed the software without telling you, or because the software is set up to share the entire hard drive, or both.

This is the electronic equivalent to going to a public place with a box full of personal letters, photos, bank statements, and other private information, dumping it on the ground, and walking away. Except anyone in the world could see your files, not just your neighbors.

Aside from the risk of exposing personal information to strangers, there is also the risk of downloading a virus or a backdoor program which allows people to take control of your computer remotely, and the problem of adware and spyware.

Adware and spyware are malicious programs which come with virtually every file trading program. They slow your computer down while spying on you and filling your computer screen with popup ads for everything from refinancing your home, to Viagara, to pornography, problems I cover in more detail in other articles.

It's also important to realize that most file trading, especially if it involves downloading music, movies, or computer programs, is illegal. To be more specific, file trading or file sharing is not illegal in of itself, but the things that are being shared are being shared illegally because it breaks copyright laws.

I'm not making a judgment of whether this is right or wrong -- that's none of my business -- but if you or someone you know is doing this, the recording industry is still suing people like crazy for illegally downloading music and other copyrighted material.

There are legal alternatives to file trading programs such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (Mac and Windows compatible). It does cost money to buy music online, but it is often cheaper than buying CDs at a store, and a lot cheaper than being sued for thousands, or having someone steal your identity by downloading financial documents off your computer.

Just something to think about.�

What is Shareware & Freeware - Understanding Different Types of Software

There is a huge variety of software available to run on personal computers, from business applications, to games, to screensavers.

Most people are aware of commercial software — software you buy in a box at a store — but many internet users have also heard of shareware and freeware programs.

Freeware, as the name implies, is software you can use for free. It can usually be copied to anyone as long as it’s not changed.

More common is shareware: software that you can also copy freely, but which comes with a trial period after which you are supposed to either pay for it or stop using it.

Some shareware programs will allow only limited features during the trial period to give you a taste of what you can get for the full price, others give you all features but you must wait through a time-delayed message asking you to register. Many of the full-featured shareware programs stop working if you keep trying to use them afer the trial period.

Commercial software tends to be written by a group of professionals with a lot of testing done before release to ensure quality and compatibility. Shareware and freeware, on the other hand, often tends to be written by one or two people in their spare time to make some extra money, to practice their software writing skills, or even as a way to show their skills off to get a job.

Because of these factors, there is a large difference in quality from one program to another, which sometimes means they can cause problems on your system if your download and install them, especially screensavers and programs that are always running in the background.

Downloading, as you may know, is the process of copying a file from a different computer to yours over a network.

It is always important to scan any software you download for viruses — some copies of legitimate programs can be infected by viruses, and creators of viruses sometimes disguise their malicious programs as useful ones.

You also should scan programs to make sure they aren't adware or spyware. If you're not aware of adware and spyware programs, they are malicious programs which can cause problems as serious as viruses and worms. I suggest you read my article on adware and spyware which is elsewhere on this site.

There are, however, some very high quality programs available for download. These include, among many many others, WinZip, Stuffit Expander, GraphicConverter, Apple's iTunes (which runs on both Macs and PCs) and Ad-Aware (a spyware & adware removal tool).

If you're looking for software to download, you can find different programs, rated by other computer users on Shareware.com and Versiontracker.com, and other sites. �

For help on downloading and installing programs, plus tips on avoiding installing risky software, take a look at my basic computer lesson CDs for Windows and Mac.

What is Spam & What Does Spam Stand For - Tips to Avoid Email Spam

I find a lot of people asking me questions like "What is spam?" "What does spam stand for?" In this article, I'm going to explain the term spam where it comes from (what it stands for) and give you a few tips to avoid email spam.

Do you hate spam? I’m not talking about the food, but the seemingly endless stream of annoying commercial emails that flood most people’s inboxes. The content of the messages range from mortgage rates to enlarging various body parts, to pornography, and their numbers grow every day — up to 500 percent in the eighteen months prior to March, 2003. As of April, 2004, over eighty percent of all email was spam. Since then, it's risen as high as 95%!

Spam is named after a classic skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus, which took place in a diner where everything on the menu had spam in it. During the whole skit, a chorus of vikings keeps chanting a song about spam, drowning out conversations.

Yes, it's a little random (that's Monty Python for you) but it's very funny. Years later, the skit reminded someone of how email in your inbox can get lost in all of the junk mail (the conversation gets drowned out by "Spam! Spam! Spam!"), so they started calling junk email "spam" and the name stuck.

It can be hard to avoid getting your email address on somebody’s list. It’s not uncommon for many people to receive 50 to 100 pieces of spam in a single day -- some people get hundreds a day! -- and the problem is growing worse.

Fortunately there are ways for individuals to reduce the amount of spam they get. Here are a few good tips:

• Never try to unsubscribe or ask to be removed. Those emails may include a link or a reply address to unsubscribe, but 95% either simply don’t work, or you confirm to the spammers that they have a live one.
  
  
• Never order anything advertised in spam, visit the website, or in any way respond to the ad. Every order or inquiry encourages the spammers to send thousands of more ads.
  
  
• Try to avoid entering your email address on dubious websites as much as possible, and if you do, consider getting a second email account with Yahoo mail or a similar service and enter that address instead of your main email. Most websites offering contests, joke lists, free greeting cards, etc. harvest and sell your email address.
  
  
• Never sign an online guestbook. As an experiment a while back, I created a new email address and entered it on about five guestbooks. Within 24 hours I was getting spam, and it grew to dozens a day within a week.
  
  
• Try to avoid opening an unsolicited ad while connected to the internet -- this can alert spammers that they have a live address, so if your email application has a “work offline” option, often found in the file menu, select it before opening suspect emails, or disconnect from the internet entirely.
  If you use a web-based email service like Yahoo Mail, check your mail options for a setting to turn off graphics in emails, or to display mail in plain text only. This keeps the spammers from knowing you've opened the message.
  
  
• Avoid forwarding emails to large numbers of people: Not everyone realizes that when you forward a message, the email addresses of everyone who receives the message is visible to every person who reads it.
  
  If any of the recipients is a spammer, or if one of a friend's computer is infected by certain viruses, they can harvest all of those addresses, including yours.
  
  If you do send an email to multiple recipients you can avoid revealing email addresses by entering addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) area instead of To or CC — this will hide the list of addresses from everyone else.
  
  You should also copy and paste just the message into a new message window rather than hitting the forward button — this trims the message down and protects the privacy of others.

As for dealing with the spam you already receive, most email programs allow you to create “filters” or “rules” that move incoming email into a specified folder or even right into the trash.

Setting filters up can be complicated, but the newer versions of many email programs, including Mozilla Thunderbird and Mac OS X Mail make it much easier. The programs have a free spam blocker built right in, and recognize patterns in spam, and use your address book as a white list of legit senders.

Any spam that shows up in your inbox can be marked (and automatically deleted) with a click, and the more spam you mark, the better the program gets at automatically taking care of them so you end up seeing a lot less junk than you used to.

Many internet providers also provide a free spam blocker which filters email before it gets to your computer. The problem with this is that they often block legitimate mail and you may never know about it. Because of this, I recommend using filtering software on your own computer, such as the above mentioned programs.

Ultimately, spam is a fact of modern life, and isn't entirely avoidable. If your current email address is about to collapse from the amount of spam you get, you might be forced to get a new one. After that, if you follow the tips above, you'll have a good chance of keeping it under control.

How Does Wifi Work - Wireless Internet Access Comparision & Security Explained

Not too long ago, most people hadn't heard of wireless Internet access, but these days, it's commonplace.

There are two basic types of wireless Internet connections. The first is through a cell phone network, which is used by a growing number of people for browsing the web and checking email through smart phones and PDA devices such as a Blackberry or an iPhone.

This works pretty much anywhere you get cell reception.

If you're using a computer to browse the web or check your email, it's more common to use a Wi-Fi connection -- what most people think of as wireless internet.

It basically works like a portable phone in your home. You have the cradle that you plug into the phone line, and the handset works anywhere within range of the radio signal it's sending.

This is exactly how a wireless router works -- the router is hooked up to an internet connection, and broadcasts the signal to a wireless card in your computer (or sometimes a little device you plug into the computer).

So the router is like the portable phone's cradle, and the wireless card is like the handset.

Does that make sense?

There are a lot of advantages to using wireless internet. Using wireless internet lets you put your computer in a different room of the house from where the internet connection is, or roam from room to room if you have a laptop. It also lets you have more than one computer share the internet connection.

And of course, if you have a laptop, you can take it with you during the day or on a trip, and can find a lot of places where you can use the internet, often for free.

But there are some risks to using wireless internet. Using wireless internet can open your computer up to a lot of possible risks.

Whenever you connect to a router, either through wires or wirelessly, you are connecting to a network, which is then connected to the internet (which is just a very very big network).

With a wired network, if someone wants to join the network, they have to plug in. With wireless networks, unless the network is protected by security, anybody nearby can connect.

From time to time, I use a program to "sniff" out unprotected networks. There are many programs like this that anyone with a little knowledge can download for free. I simply drive around town with my laptop in the passenger seat running the program, and it constantly looks for any open networks.

When my computer finds one, it beeps at me and I can get instantly in with a couple of clicks.

This is something called "Wardriving" and people do it all the time. Most are doing it just to check their email quickly while on the road without having to pay at an internet cafe, but some are doing it for more sinister purposes.

Leaving your network open is just as dangerous as keeping filing cabinets full of personal or business information sitting open on the street next to a sign reading: “Take what you want.”

With a traditional wired network, a person needs to physically plug in a cable inside your home or office to get into your network. With a wireless network, unless it’s protected, anyone within range can get into your network with a click of a mouse. Once they’re in they could:

• Use your internet connection for free
  
  
• Look at the contents of your hard drive and read, change, or delete email, pictures, Word documents and other personal files, business information, and confidential client information including social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc.
  
  
• Use the information collected about you or your customers for identity theft. This could cost you thousands of dollars in lost credit and time rebuilding your name, or thousands more if a customer sues you for giving out their information
  
  
• Send spam (junk email) to thousands or millions of people while making it seem to come from you
  
  
• Take control of your network, locking you out of it and the internet (both email and web pages)
  
  
• Install a virus, worm, or a backdoor program giving them control of your computer
  
  
• Do illegal music trading over the internet, drastically slowing down your connection and making it look like you are the file trader. The recording industry is currently suing file traders for an average of $3,000 per lawsuit
  
  
• View porn sites, including potentially child porn, which could get you arrested if it's traced back to your network.
  

You must realize by now how important it is to act now to protect your network. If you don’t you risk losing your name, your reputation, and even thousands of dollars. Fact is, if you have a wireless router (most routers sold these days are wireless even if you aren't using them wirelessly) and you just plugged it in and started using it then 99% likely you are not safe.

Your home or office wireless network should always have "encryption" turned on, which is like a home security system that only gives access to someone with the right password. They're not impossible to break into, but they make it too hard for most people.

If you use your laptop in a public network like at an internet cafe or other public wireless hotspot (whether or not you have to pay to use it), you run many of the same risks, especially if you don't have a firewall turned on, aren't using good enough (or any) antivirus software, and more.

Understanding all the important factors in protecting your computer's security is absolutely critical these days. Most people using computers are in danger without even knowing it. Make sure to educate yourself and keep yourself safe.

One way to do that is to subscribe to my free computer tips newsletter, or go one step better and learn from my easy computer tutorial CDs that show you step by step the basics of using your computer and keeping it secure from a variety of threats.

Computer Worm & Virus: A Definition and Important Information To Understand

It seems these days you can't go more than a week or two at most without hearing about a new worm or virus spreading on the internet. While you probably have a general idea what they are, you may wonder where they come from and what the difference between a virus and a worm is.

Both viruses and worms are very similar, for the most part. They are malicious pieces of software which cause a variety of problems for computer users including: causing your computer to constantly restart so it's impossible to use, emailing your personal documents to strangers, erasing your documents or your entire hard drive, or even using your computer to send spam.

The main difference between a virus and a worm is that a virus requires a person to run it for it to cause problems, while a worm spreads and causes damage without human intervention. So in other words, for your computer to be infected by a virus, you generally need to do something, like open and run an attachment to an email, while with worms your computer can be infected even if you don't do a thing.

Many viruses and worms take advantage of the frequent security holes discovered in many Microsoft programs and operating systems (Windows). Microsoft regularly releases patches to fix these holes, but many users don't know about them or don't know how to apply the patches, which leaves them vulnerable, and the patches can take weeks or months to come out.

For example, in 2003 a group of people discovered a vulnerability in Windows which worked as follows: one computer would send a special request to a second computer over and over and over, thousands of times in a second. Now the second computer was supposed to ignore those requests because they weren't coming from an authorized computer.

However, due to a bug (or programming error) in some versions of Windows, if enough requests happened fast enough, the second computer would essentially throw its hands up in the air and say "whatever you say next, I'll do!" and whatever instruction that computer was given next, it did it.

So all someone had to do was write a worm which would make those thousands of requests, the vulnerable computer would say "tell me what to do" and the worm would say "install me," and the infected computer would go on and do it to the next computer, which would do it to the next one, over and over and over, causing the worm to cascade accross the world, infecting thousands of computers in minutes.

Microsoft, recognizing the problem, created a software "patch" which sealed the security hole. A month after the patch was released, someone created and released the MSBlaster worm. Because millions of Windows users hadn't installed the patch, their computers got infected, and suddenly they found they couldn't use their PCs for more than five minutes without the machine restarting.

People who used Macintosh computers, and other computers not running Windows had a natural immunity to this and most other worms and viruses. There are well over 100,000 known viruses and worms for Windows, and fewer than 70 (yes, only seventy) for Macintosh, by comparison. In fact, those Mac viruses only affect very old Macs, and there is just one virus that runs on current Macintosh computers (ones running OS X) and that virus isn't considered a real threat because of the built-in security of OS X.

If you run Windows, as you must realize by now, it is absolutely essential for you to keep your computer patched with the latest security patches as soon as they come out -- although to be fair, Macintosh users should also install any security patches for their OS, for just because there aren't any viruses for OS X, it doesn't mean it's impossible for one to be written!

Beyond that, it is an incredibly bad idea to run a computer without having current, up-to-date antivirus program such as Norton Antivirus installed and running on the computer. When I say current and up-to-date, I mean that there is essentially a list of viruses that gets updated as often as every day. If your computer's antivirus software doesn't have the current list, it can't protect you against viruses and worms. So if you have a three year old copy of McAffee antivirus, you are not safe.

Even if you have a 1 month out of date copy, you're still not safe!

Then there's the question of whether you're even using the right antivirus program in the first place! In 2006, tests revealed that the top three most popular antivirus programs -- Norton, McAfee, and Trend Micro, had a staggering 80% failure rate at detecting the latest threats!

It seems that the virus and worm writers are using those three programs to check to see if the programs find the new virus. If the programs detect it, the virus writer keeps working on the virus until it gets through undetected. And then he releases it "into the wild," where it infects all the PCs using those three programs.

The best option right now seems to be a program called Kaspersky, which consistently ranks as the best antivirus program to use, with a success rate of 99.6% at protecting your computer!

Protecting your computer from viruses, worms, and the many other threats can seem complicated and time consuming to a lot of people. But don't make the mistake of ignoring the problem; protect yourself, or you could end up regretting it.

If you need a little help, take a look at my Safe and Easy Web & Email CDs that come as part of the bundle of CDs I have for Windows computers. They lay it all out, step by step, so you can easily protect yourself and avoid problems.

Computer Maintenance Tips To Avoid Problems

Computers can develop problems for a variety of reasons, and it can sometimes be hard to isolate the cause.

Problems come in two general types: hardware and software. Hardware refers to a physical part of your computer, including the keyboard, the hard drive, and the motherboard. Software refers to programs and documents stored on your computer, including the operating system (such as Windows or the Mac OS), Microsoft Word documents, images, etc.

Software problems can be caused by a variety of things, including a hard drive that is beginning to fail, power fluctuations that happen while files are being saved, viruses, or from not shutting your computer down properly.

Hardware problems can’t be caused by software; they tend to happen over time, or because of something like power fluctuations, or excessive heat or moisture. It’s essential to protect your machine with a surge suppressor, or better yet, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

A surge suppressor protects your computer and peripherals from a sudden surge in electricity, sometimes caused by an electrical storm, or because of fluctuations in voltage from the power grid.

These power surges can come through either your power or your phone outlets, so if you have your computer connected to the phone line (if you use dial-up internet access for example), any surge suppressor you use should protect both power and phone lines. There are also surge suppressors which protect your cable line instead of the phone line, for those who use cable internet access like Time Warner's RoadRunner.

If you live on the Big Island of Hawaii like I do, you know we experience a lot of brownouts, and even complete blackouts are common in a lot of areas.

While a surge suppressor is a must-have no matter where you live, it's better to use a UPS (which stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply, and has nothing to do with the shipping company) to protect your computer if you live in a place with unstable power like we have here.

A UPS contains both a surge suppressor and a large backup battery that immediately takes over if the power level drops. This protects the computer from the damage done by brownouts and can even keep your computer running for up to 20 minutes if the power goes out completely, allowing you to save your work and shut down safely.

This 20 minutes can make the difference between losing hours, days, or even months of work (if the computer turns off while you're working on a project, you can lose not just what you're working on now, but everything in the file).

If you live near the ocean or in a very humid area, rust and corrosion are a very big problem; keeping your computer in an air conditioned room will help.

Regardless of where you live and whether or not you have a surge suppressor or UPS, you should make regular backups of your important files onto disks that aren't damaged by moisture, such as CDs and DVDs.

Floppy disks and Zip disks, on the other hand, are both made of similar materials to videotapes, all of which can be ruined by mold. If you have important files on floppy or Zip disk, you should look into transferring the files to CD or DVD.

In the mean time, keeping the disks in a sealed tupperware container with desiccant packs (the same stuff that comes in vitamin bottles) can help keep them working longer.

Symptoms of a sick computer can range from occasional crashes or slow operation, to a computer that won’t turn on. The thing is, a hardware problem can start out very minor, but can get worse over time.

A common mistake people make is ignoring or overlooking problems until they get too big to fix — in the case of a bad hard drive, this can mean you can lose all of your files. This is why it’s so crucial to back your files up regularly.

Don't make the mistake so many people do: make a habit of backing up regularly before you lose important files. So many people learn the hard way; I hate having to tell people that all of their many hours of work are completely lost.

I know what it's like to lose files, too -- I'm not just a computer guy, I'm also a writer. Most of my early writing is lost forever because I didn't back up my first computer many years ago (hey, everybody was a rookie once!).

Don't let this happen to you with the valuable pictures, music, letters, emails, schoolwork, customer files, or whatever other irreplaceable files you may have on your computer.