Wall of Mouths

huh! Why meeeee???

I was talking about PC and I don’t trust Realnetworks as far as I can throw my computer, but it seems they are a neccessary evil at times. *shakes fist in impotant rage*

Best thing to do is not to download any crappy software just for the hell of it and never download and install things that a webpage thinks you need.

Always have your firewall and virus protection software running.

The less crap you have on your computer the better the chances of it not fucking up.

That is a clever idea, IF you have the cash, the space and the inclination to do so.

I would suggest maybe a laptop for work…

zipless wrote:

Ta!

Oh sometimes I hate them damn’ things. Actually thinking about getting me a second computer just for the internet/mail stuff which would then leave my main machine nice and clean and ready for work. I wonder if a lot of people do that…

The best way I’m aware of is to have a second machine running as a harware firewall - way more secure than using standard software ones like McAfee - and run your current machine as it is from behind that. The hardware firewall is just a very simple PC system which has just one function - to monitor all incoming/ outgoing traffic and block accordingly (you set this up). You’d connect to the internet as you normally do now, but it gets routed through the hardware firewall. Adds an extra barrier of protection.

I think these days you can actually buy standard hardware firewalls - a small box you put between your router and PC. Cheaper than buying a full pc but does the same job.

Also, for basic security, ensure you delete cookies and offline content regularly, and run a spyware checker such as Spybot regularly - this picks up loads of hidden spyware crap that sites like MySpace put on your machine (porn sites are the worst for this). They aren’t virus’s as such, but they do slow your system down and mess with internet browsers. And generally spyware does not get picked up by virus scanners as it’s not regarded as a threat to your data.

Finally - back your system up regularly. How often you do this depends on what you use your system for. If you are doing loads of important work - back up at least once a week.