Five Important Steps to Keep your computer safe

Step 1:
Stop using Internet Explorer. Switch to FireFox. It has speed and security and is quicker, safer and easy. It blocks unwanted pop-ups, keeps your desktop clutter-free with tabbed browsing. It includes Phishing protection and has useful add-ons .You can download FireFox here or clicking the banner below.
Step 2:
Anti-Virus Software : These softwares are specifically devised for the detection and prevention of known viruses. These antivirus programmes scan files and emails. If a virus is found in one of the objects you are about to use, the antivirus program issues a warning and will stop you from opening that infected file or program . It should be set to auto-update regularly. Always use webmail services like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, because they provide free anti-virus scanner .Norton Anti-Virus is an extremely powerful antivirus program but if you find its price exorbitant, there are other free Anti-virus softwares available. Two softwares which are excellent and free, and only for non-commercial use, are AVG antivirus and Avast! 4 Home Edition . Do not however use more than one Anti-Virus program!
Step 3 :
Spyware Protection : Spyware is like virus that finds its way into your computer, although , it does not try to duplicate itself to other machines. However , more and more spywares are blending with viruses, making it harder to eliminate and evade. Two softwares that can scan your computer and help in removing spywares are Ad-aware & SpyBot Search & Destroy. You can instal both the softwares to enhance extra safety measures.
Step 4 :
FireWall : The firewall blocks and acts as a barrier from intruders like hackers, viruses and worms from breaking into your computer across the Internet. Make certain that the firewall is switched on. Zonealarm is the best free firewall software available. They also do have a paid version.
Step 5:
Set your browser preferences only to accept cookies that you recognise and wish to install. Many cookies are quite genuine but others can act as spyware or Trojans . Cookies contain words such as access, ad, tracker, backdoor, burrow or exe. Trojans are also disguised as helpful programs but actually install malicious ones – spyware, that reports your activities back to their makers.

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BROWSERS

Surfing the Web (World Wide Web) has ceased to be a friendly neighbourhood and has become quite an unsafe place , flooded with bad monsters of the internet like dangerous Viruses , Trojan horses, and Spywares . Therefore to surf safe, we need a secure Browser, a good Anti-Virus programme , Spyware and above all Awareness.

The following are the most popular browsers:

Internet Explorer (IE) by Microsoft, the popular browser till recently, hasn't had any major updates in recent times and thus it now takes the second place after Mozilla . Even with the latest security patches installed, IE is considered a marked risk. Internet Explorer 8will be released by the end of 2008.

Firefox is a new free browser from Mozilla which was released in 2004 and offers a safer alternative to Internet Explorer.

Opera is another Internet browser known to be fast and small and available for many operating systems. Opera is the preferred browser for a number of small devices like mobile phones and hand-held computers.

The Mozilla Application Suite has a powerful browser with great features like tabbed browsing and popup window blocking. It also comes packaged with an e-mail program, chat client, and web page editor!

Apple’s Safari has become very popular with Macintosh users that Microsoft has stopped developing IE for the Mac! Safari is elegant and fast, and is the default browser on the Mac. Starting with version 3, Safari is also available for Windows.

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