Topic: HOW TO KEEP YOUR LAPTOP FREE FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES, SPYWARE AND MALWARE

[sam]

HOW TO KEEP YOUR LAPTOP FREE FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES, SPYWARE AND MALWARE

by Dustin Sklavos, California USA

Read the full article at: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=52957

Introduction:

This guide is going to be a little unusual, a little bit off the path compared to its predecessors. Between my brief stint working for Best Buy, all the impromptu tech support I've done, and a recent conversation with my father, I've concluded that this guide has been a long time coming. It may have analogues out there in the internet world already, but I haven't seen them and I haven't stumbled upon them.

If you're not going to play smart with your computer, I'm at least going to teach you how to play safe. If you're going to do something stupid, do it smart.

The fact of the matter is that the internet is not safe for your computer. It can be, and with some education, you can have a spyware and virus free computer like I do and many other people do. Most people don't apply common sense to computing because they assume that anything out there is safe, and that's bad. By not thinking, you can do real damage to your machine, and it can be both costly and time-consuming to repair it. And unless you're someone like me or one of the other computer junkies on the NotebookReview.com forums, messing with things you don't understand is a bad idea.

I'm not totally trying to instill fear into you as a reader and as a user. Your computer is a wonderful tool and for most users is perfectly safe. I'm also not telling you to go out and spend money on expensive subscription-based software to keep your computer safe. I AM going to tell you how to save potentially hundreds of dollars in service. There are some very simple things you can do to protect yourself.

This guide is principally for Windows users, although most of it is just good computing sense. Macintosh and Linux users aren't going to run into these problems with anywhere near the kind of frequency Windows users are. While you aren't bulletproof and should still practice sound computing, you're also not at as great a risk.

Macintosh users aren't at as great a risk because Mac OS X has excellent security built into it, and because the percentage of Mac users on the market just quite honestly isn't profitable to attack. That's subject to change if Apple Boot Camp has a major effect on the market, however, and please note that if you're running Windows on your Mac - and even Apple warns you about this - you're at the same risk as if you were running it on a regular PC.

Linux users aren't at much risk because Linux tends to be very secure, and because its market share for regular consumers is at least as minor at Mac OS X's. Honestly, Linux is too complicated to get running for the average user; the people who run it can usually either serve as their own tech support or know someone who can (usually the same person that got them into Linux).

[Simon]

Nothing much new there, but good advice all the same.  If everyone practised safe surfing, viruses and other nasties might not spread so vehemently.

[sam]

yep indeed... you are right though nothing new, just thought it was a nice summary that we could refer people to for extra reading... i.e. dont download viruses!!!

[Simon]

Indeed. 

[Reno]

That bit about warez was entertaining. I'm kind of surprised he didn't mention ccleaner. I found a repository the other day on a french blue hat site hosting over 30000 viruses. It blew my mind how many are out there and how many new ones are being created every month. I don't think machines will be safe for an extremely long time. There are just too many bored 20somethings like me out there.

[Simon]

I'm convinced that half of the viruses are written by the anti-virus software vendors, in order to keep themselves in business.

[sam]

I'm convinced that half of the viruses are written by the anti-virus software vendors, in order to keep themselves in business.

anyone smell a paranoid person?

[Simon]

 

[Lona]

I'm convinced that half of the viruses are written by the anti-virus software vendors, in order to keep themselves in business.

You could be right there Simon.  One of my Hubby's colleague's deliberately put a virus in the works computers then solved the problem which made him look so good to the bosses they rewarded him with a holiday to Florida with his family.

[Simon]

You could be right there Simon.  One of my Hubby's colleague's deliberately put a virus in the works computers then solved the problem which made him look so good to the bosses they rewarded him with a holiday to Florida with his family.

  Way to go! 

[Michelle]

Should you have said that "outloud" like? 

[sam]

if you doubt the virus scanner (i.e you are paranoid it is trying to get you to buy extra things...) try: http://www.virustotal.com/

Virustotal offers a free service for scanning suspicious files using several antivirus engines

[Reno]

This ones a good one too.

http://virusscan.jotti.org/

[Clive]

That looks very useful Bob!