Why Is Internet Safety Important - A Simple Answer

From time to time I people ask me "Why is Internet safety important?" "Why should I worry about it? I've got nothing to hide." If you're not thinking that Internet safety is important, then you're making a mistake.

There's a variety of reasons that people think Internet safety and security don't really matter for them -- maybe they don't think they keep anything important on their computer, so even if someone got into their computer they wouldn't find anything; they may not realize that wherever they go on the Internet they leave tracks and clues about themselves; they may just never have thought about it at all.

Now the Internet is a wonderful thing, and I use it constantly every day without fear, but that doesn't mean I use it heedlessly and without thinking about Internet safety.

When you're on the Web, you should think of it kind of like walking down the street -- if you live in a small town you probably don't think much about walking around downtown, and you probably feel pretty safe.

And even if you live in a big city, you may feel pretty comfortable, too, since you know your way around and you know how to handle yourself.

But on the other hand, how would you feel walking down the street in the most crime-ridden part of a bad city in the middle of the night by yourself, dragging your wallet or purse on a string behind you while heedlessly listening to music on headphones and never looking at your surroundings?

The thing people don't realize about Internet security is that even if you live in a safe, secure small town with no crime, when you go on the Internet there is no real border between the "good neighborhoods" and the "bad neighborhoods", so you need to take a few basic precautions to protect yourself on the Web.

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Make sure you use a good firewall program on your computer; regardless of whether you use a Windows PC or one of Apple's Macs, this is absolutely essential
2) If you have DSL or cable Internet access, get a router and hook it up between your DSL or cable modem and your computer. Not only does a router allow you to share the connection between multiple computers, it also has a firewall built in to it, which adds another layer of valuable protection against threats from the Internet. And yes, this should be *in addition* to the firewall program on your computer
3) If you have a Windows PC, make sure you have a good antivirus program such as Kaspersky antivirus, that is still activated and up-to-date. Many people have poor quality antivirus programs and it's common for them to have expired after a trial period or the yearly subscription has run out, which means they're no longer protecting you.
Mac users do not at this time need an antivirus program, but this may change in the future
4) Use a strong password, preferably a mix of letters and numbers that is at least 8 characters long, and which is not easy to guess like your name or a pet's name, etc., and don't use the same password for everything.
5) If you post in public forums online, or use a social networking website like MySpace or Facebook, don't put too much personal information in your profile.
It is extremely common for people to share all kinds of information about themselves on their profile page, including birth date, pet names, children's names, address, etc. -- all of which might give a clue to passwords, answers to those "reset your password" security questions that you're asked if you forget your password on a website, and other clues that could be used for identity theft.
Most of these social networking sites let you set your profile to private, so only people you've added as friends can see what's on the profile. This is also a good idea.
6) Remember that email is not truly private, any more than a postcard is, so never put credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc. in an email
7) Do your Windows Updates (PCs) or Software Updates (Mac) regularly to keep your computer's software current and "patched" so security holes have been fixed.

These are just a few reasons you need to be safe on the Internet. Hopefully these safety tips will help you remain secure online and have helped answer the question "why is Internet safety important?".

Until next time, be safe, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. You will find lessons and tips on computer and Internet safety and how to avoid common mistakes in my easy computer lessons Gold Club members-only area, as well as many other lessons to help make your computer safe and easy. If you're not yet a member, you can try it for free by clicking the link below.

Free trial to Worth's Easy Computer Training Gold Club

Computer questions answered: question from Carla about using Mozilla Firefox

A computer question from Carla about using Mozilla Firefox

I got another email recently from a subscriber named Carla who asks a very good question:

" Hi Worth, My computer in a Compaq. And just recently I downloaded the Microsoft 2007 to update for the computer course I'm taking online. What I was wondering was, would it be safe to download the Mozilla Firefox onto my computer you talked about in one of your emails. I wanted to ask before doing it. Don't want to mess up more than I usually do. "

Hi Carla, I'd be glad to answer that for you.

First off, I assume you're saying you installed Microsoft Office 2007?

Understand, I'm not criticizing at all, just helping to explain computer terms that a lot of people understandably mix up, so we're all on the same page and understand each other.

To clarify, as I explained in my last email, "download" means to deliver something to your computer like delivering something you ordered from a catalog by mail or FedEx, while "install" means to set it up for use just like you have to set up a TV before you can use it by plugging in the cables, etc.

Also, Microsoft is the name of the company that makes Windows and Microsoft Office -- Office is the suite of programs including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which are used by millions of Windows and Mac users across the world.

Again, it's OK if you misunderstood or misused these terms before; it's a common mix-up and since so many people use the wrong terms, you end up learning the wrong info by example. But that's what I'm here to help with.

Also, as a side note, Office can be very expensive, and there is actually a free alternative called OpenOffice for Windows, or NeoOffice for Mac. These programs offer all the same basic features as the programs in Office, but literally cost nothing, and yet still allow you to share Word documents, Excel documents, etc. with others.

I cover how to download and install it on my Simple Secrets of Word CD that comes with my Ultimate Beginners Bundle of CDs that's available to Gold Club members at a huge discount (in fact, the entire Ulitimate Beginners Bundle only costs about as much as a single visit from a good consultant, but covers more in the dozens of quick, easy lessons than you'd be able to cover in 10 visits from a consultant). You can even order them with the discount while you're still in the free trial period for the Easy Computer Lessons Gold Club.

But to answer your question, now that we're on the same page with the computer terminology, it should be perfectly safe to download and then install Mozilla Firefox onto your computer. It's set up to be pretty straightforward to install, and using it instead of Internet Explorer can help you *avoid* potential problems because of the increased security.

Again, if you feel more comfortable with the idea of seeing it done and being walked through it step-by-step, any current Gold Club members or people who sign up in the next few days will get video lessons with all of the steps on one of the 2 CDs I'll be sending out around the end of the month as part of the regular monthly shipment.

Here's the thing about Mozilla Firefox, or any "web browser" (a program that lets you view web pages).

Web browsers are like cars -- they are vehicles to take you places on the Internet. And just like cars, nothing prevents you from having two of them in the garage so you can drive either one at any time.

Now understand, as I've mentioned, "driving" Internet Explorer is a lot less safe than Mozilla Firefox, generally speaking. But occasionally you might run into a minority of sites that just won't work with Firefox.

This is not because of anything deficient in Firefox, it's actually a lot more to do with lazy web designers who are used to designing their sites for Internet Explorer, or in some cases Microsoft has bribed or otherwise convinced a company to exclusively work with Internet Explorer.

This sort of behavior has gotten Microsoft in hot water more than once, but they have deep pockets so they don't ever stop trying to create a monopoly for themselves. Not very nice on their part, since the little people like you and me end up caught in the middle.

Fortunately this is rare, but in these cases if you have a known legitimate site that only works with Internet Explorer, it will still be "in the garage" so you can just use that to visit that one site, then go back to Firefox for everything else, and be a lot safer in the process.

Hope that helps and makes sense.

until next time, stay safe and enjoy,

Worth Godwin


P.S. If you have computer questions, feel free to subscribe to my free newsletter using the form below, and reply to any of my newsletter emails and I may answer the question in a future newsletter email. I also have a monthly live computer Q&A call-in where you can ask computer questions online, which I announce to my newsletter.

P.P.S. As I mentioned in my last email, I'll be recording video lessons for Windows and Mac that show step-by-step how to download and install the new version of Firefox, as well as an overview of using it on this month's Gold Club video lesson CD, and the lessons will also be available on the password-protected Gold Club members-only area of my website.

If you'd like to join in and empower yourself with more knowledge about the computer and how to make it easier, more fun, and more safe & secure, you can take advantage of my free trial membership to the computer lessons Gold Club right now and gain instant access to a large library of my video and audio computer lessons.

What Does Download Mean - Computer Terminology Explained

In this article I will answer the questions "what does download mean", "what does install mean" and help you understand some commonly misunderstood computer terminology.

I got an email a couple of days ago in response to my last computer tips newsletter where I talked about the importance of using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

A subscriber in Texas named James wrote me the next day and said:

"Dear Mr. Godwin,

I just switched to Firefox, and am having a problem downloading Flash Player. A message tells me I have to close Firefox in order to download it. How can I possibly do that when I'm actually using Firefox as a browser. That's rather like trying to pull myself up by my bootstraps! I'd appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

James"

First off James, you made the right decision by switching to Firefox. As I mentioned in my last email, it is a *much* safer option than Internet Explorer, and if you have a Windows computer you're really making a mistake by continuing to use IE (Internet Explorer).

Apple's Mac computers don't have the same security risks, but it also is a good idea for Mac users to avoid IE since it is so out of date that there are not only some security risks in using it, but many websites won't work.

What I think James is running in to is a common misunderstanding of two computer terms -- "downloading" and "installing".

Before I explain the two terms, let me first say that it's not your fault if you misunderstood or confused these terms -- it's very common, and is due to other people misusing the terms around you, as well as because no one has ever explained them in a clear and easy way.

Here's an easy way to understand the two terms "download" and "install".

Downloading is like delivery -- imagine you have ordered something from a catalog, or Amazon.com or someplace. Let's say it's a TV set.

Before you can use the TV set it has to be delivered to you -- shipped to you -- and this is basically what downloading is. A file (like the Mozilla Firefox installer program) has to be sent "down" to your computer (coming from the Internet is down, sending to the Internet is up, so downloading is coming "down" from the Internet from a web page or an email, etc., while uploading is sending it "up" to the Internet to a webpage or via email, etc.)

So if you want to use Firefox, or Flash Player, or other programs, you need to download them and then you need to "install" them.

So downloading is the delivery of the TV, to go back to our analogy, but before you can use the TV you still need to take it out of the box, put it on the stand, plug it in, etc. Set it up for use -- in other words, install it.

So once you've downloaded a program, you then "install" it to get it ready to use.

And here's where I think maybe you're confusing two terms, which is completely OK on your part, but if Adobe (who makes Flash player) is using the term incorrectly on their website, that is not excusable because they should know better. Again, I don't blame you one bit if you've mixed up the terms, it's a very common mistake, but Adobe should know better.

What you need to do is close Firefox once you've downloaded Flash Player, but before you *install* it. This is because Flash Player has to add some information to Firefox, and if Firefox is running, it can't do it. Kind of like how if you're standing on a rug, you can't pick it up to clean it.

Make sense?

So what you need to do James is download Flash Player, then completely close Firefox and *install* Flash Player, by double-clicking the icon of the file you download from Adobe's site, and then it should work.

Hope that helps and makes sense!

Until later, take care and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. If you have computer questions, feel free to join my free computer tips newsletter, and reply to any of my emails with your question and I'll answer it in a future newsletter email. I also have a monthly live computer Q&A call-in -- I'll be announcing the next one soon in a future email.

P.P.S. As I mentioned in my last email, I'll be recording video lessons for Windows and Mac that show step-by-step how to download and install the new version of Firefox, as well as an overview of using it on this month's Gold Club video lesson CD, and the lessons will also be available on the password-protected Gold Club members-only area of my website.

If you'd like to join in and empower yourself with more knowledge about the computer and how to make it easier, more fun, and more safe & secure, you can take advantage of my free trial membership to the easy computer lessons Gold Club right now and gain instant access to a large library of my video and audio computer lessons by clicking the links.

Computer Freezing and Tips for Computer Safety

Sometimes it doesn't pay to go on vacation.

I took about a week off work for the first time in about a year and a half and I'm still trying to play catch-up with my backlog of emails and other work.

Here's a computer question I got from a subscriber in the UK named Paul who wrote me a couple of days before I went on vacation. Paul wrote:

"Dear sir...lately my computer has started to lock and the top third of the screen..( 22inch) has changed to a pinky colour..It seems to lock after i open up a ...click here....to read something or enter a small competion...I have to restart my computer...an inspiron 530 3 memory and 640 hard drive..I am not too good with computers..I left it late in life if you know what i mean but i enjoy having a go..."

First off, Paul, let me say congratulations on having a go at learning computers -- a lot of people get discouraged by not having grown up using them, but in my experience, anyone can learn to confidently use computers if they believe in themselves and get the right help.

So there's a couple of things I want to respond to in your email. The first being the locking up and the pink color -- first off, since I'm obviously not able to look at your computer directly, it's not possible for me to make a 100% definite diagnosis of the problem.

The way you're describing what happens makes it sound like it *may* be something wrong with your "video card", which is the part of the computer that actually "draws" the picture on the computer's screen.

The fact that it seems to happen after you click to certain websites, on the other hand, makes it sound more like it may be something fishy about the website you're going to.

It's really hard for me to say without a little more specifics. If you lived here on the island, you could have me take a look at it directly and I could figure out exactly what's going on, but obviously that's not possible with you living many thousands of miles away.

Here are a few tips that can help you avoid problems, assuming it's not an actual hardware problem -- i.e. a physical problem with a part in the computer, like the video card.

Tip #1) Do not use Internet Explorer (the blue "E" icon) to browse the Web. It is generally a *lot* less safe than other options. In some cases, just visiting a website with malicious software in it can infect your computer. Windows users should go to Mozilla.com to download the free Mozilla Firefox. It is a huge mistake to use Internet Explorer, yet unfortunately most Windows users are still using it.

While Apple's Mac computers have pretty much *none* of the many many threats out there for Windows computers (i.e. they have no viruses, worms, adware, spyware, etc.), Mac users reading this can use Mozilla Firefox too, but the program Safari that comes on all modern Macs is perfectly fine, too. Internet Explorer should be avoided on Macs too, but mainly because it hasn't been updated in so long, many websites just won't work with it anymore.

A new version of Mozilla Firefox came out pretty recently, so I will be recording video lessons showing step-by-step exactly how to download, install, and use it for this month's Gold Club lessons. If you're not a Gold Club member, you can sign up for a free trial at:

Get Free trial of Worth's Easy Computer Lessons Gold Club

Tip #2) Be careful about what websites you go to, especially if they're asking for personal information -- there are some "bad neighborhoods" on the Internet, so to speak, where the website owners are less than honest. Two of the most common types of risky sites are adult sites and gambling or competition sites.

While what you do on your own time is your business, just be aware that when you go to *some* of those sites, they tend to be in a "bad neighborhood" and they tend to me more likely to try to infect your computer, or collect information for identity theft, etc.

Again, if you avoid using Internet Explorer on a PC, and use Mozilla Firefox instead, you lower the risk of being attacked by a malicious program like a virus, but try to stick to known-legit sites if you're entering a competition, and don't go to one you see advertised in a pop-up ad, etc.

until later, take care and stay safe,

Worth Godwin

P.S. Again, if you really want to skyrocket your computer confidence and skill, take advantage of your free trial to my Easy Computer Lessons Gold Club -- you get instant access to easy online lessons in a special password protected area of my website, filled with video lessons, audio lessons, an archive of my past Computer Q&A events, my special reports on avoiding common and costly computer mistakes, and more, plus 2 easy lesson CDs sent each month.

You can sign up for the free trial by visiting the following link:

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