Firefox Has The "Restore Session" Feature

In the event of a power outage, or if your computer stops responding, you can just exit and restart Firefox (don't restart your computer). When you relaunch Firefox, you will be given a choice to "Restore Session". When you choose this option, you will be taken back to any webpage you have been browsing before(including password protected pages).

Easier Access To Browsing History

With Internet Explorer, finding the 'browsing history' section is like finding the Holy Grail. I mean it! With Firefox, there's a highly conspicuous, separate tab fully devoted to your browsing history. In case you get lost while browsing 10,000 pages in an hour, you can just visit the 'History' section and toggle between pages that you have visited before. And yes, with Firefox it's easier to delete your history archives.

The Mozilla Firefox Interface Is Less Cluttered

Have you noticed that Internet Explorer sometimes takes longer to load than Firefox? This is because Explorer has more tabs/features/add-ons, and this is not necessarily good. When users browse online, majority of them don't care how many features are available on the browser. They just want to check their email, watch some Youtube videos, read the news etc...whatever they wanna do, they wanna do it faster!

Another thing, the Internet Explorer interface takes up too much screen space. Firefox is a breath of fresh air. It is less cluttered with features that you don't need anyway. There's more room for the webpage itself. (To be fair to computer geeks, Internet Explorer has more features to spend time with and explore on).

Firefox Automatically Opens .PDF Files -- No Need To Download

Online reports and e-books are pretty much popular online. These kinds of files frequently come in .PDF format (a file that can only be opened with Adobe Reader). With Internet Explorer, you cannot read .PDF files online. You need to download them before you can read them. That means, if the PDF file has some sort of viruses or malware attached to it, or if the source website is malicious, then you acquire those dangerous elements into your computer as well.

With Firefox, you can open PDF files online without having to download them. It's safer, faster, and it saves disk space. Ain't that convenient?

So, tell me, which browser are you using right now?

Use WPA (Wireless Protected Access) encryption with the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, or TKIP. WPA can always encircle the authentication keys used to authenticate transmissions. WPA also checks network transmissions for enormous data packets that are transmitting from a false network address.

But, if your Wi-Fi adapter is old, it may not support WPA. The best option is to upgrade to WPA-enabled model or you can take your chances with WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).

A determined hacker can break through your network if your Wi-Fi card is 64-bit WEP, but with a 1258-bit with WEP, it will force all the components of your wireless LAN (access points, client adapters, etc) to use encryption key.

Some say that security is a state of mind and for the most part, they are correct. Yet it is more than that. Security is having confidence that private matters stay private and public matters are public affairs.

The biggest problem is that whenever conducting private matters over a public medium such as the Internet keeping it private is no easy matter to achieve. Here is how to do it.

First Line Defenses

Your first line of defense will be your antimalware software. You have an antivirus suite to keep malicious code at bay and antispyware to prevent keystroke logging.

Firewalls, intrusion prevention and intrusion detection devices and software to regulate network traffic flow and to stop prevent intruders from gaining access to your network as well as to warn you of attempts to breach your perimeter security.

You cannot conduct business or social affairs in isolation so you create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) to allow visitors access to your public face, usually in the form of a website. You might even establish dedicated email and blog services in your DMZ to facilitate smoother user-friendly communications.

Whenever you partake in communications outside of your secured sites using a publicly accessible medium such as the Internet you know your privacy and security are non-existent and want to do something about it. Enter the CIA.

CIA: Confidentiality, Integrity and Authenticity

The foundation stones of all secure private communications are the three pillars of confidentiality, integrity and authenticity also known as the CIA of security.

Confidentiality - Confidentiality ensures that the conversation remains private (confidential). Encryption technologies are the standard means to assuring message confidentiality.

Integrity - Integrity to ensure that the contents of the communication remain free from interference or corruption (the message remains intact). Hashing algorithms and the digests they produce are the most common means of assuring the message's integrity.

Authenticity - Authenticity to ensure that all parties to the conversation are who they are say they are (verification that the remote party is in deed the remote party you intend to converse with). Digital certificates are the most common means of verifying the authenticity of all and parties.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

The most common means of securing a website and allowing parties to connect over a secure HTTPS connection is by using SSL technologies to provide authentication and message encryption. The process is as follows:

• The first step is to obtain an SSL certificate consisting of a public key and a private key. This can be “in house” or by way of a commercial certification authority such as VeriSign or Thwarte. You use the public key to encrypt information and the private key to decrypt it.
• A browser is pointed to a secured domain or website
• The Secure Sockets Layer handshake authenticates the server and the client
• An encryption method is established
• A unique session key is created
• The parties begin to communicate via a secure session that guarantees message privacy (confidentiality) and message integrity between authenticated parties

Other Common Uses of Cryptographic Technologies

Other technologies commonly used to deliver confidential, authenticated sessions with data integrity assured include:

• SSH is commonly used for secure encrypted remote access sessions
• OpenPGP is often used for file encryption with Email content encryption the most common
• VPN/IPSec for secure private networking over public media

Other uses of cryptography include full volume encryption of hard disk drives to protect data in the event of physical theft; digital rights management (DRM) schemes, key generation for digital fingerprint and authentication systems

As with all technologies, it is important that any cryptographic technologies that you use be correctly: installed, configured, administered, maintained and regularly tested, verified and updated when necessary.

With people regularly communicating outside or beyond their firewall protected local environments it is important that we ensure we pay due attention to the CIA of security. We must be proactive in order to protect ourselves and our organizations as well as our personal information and our assets (computers etc.).

image source

The order that the free music websites appear in is the order that has received the most hype from Internet chatter that has been collected during the research sessions. This way the actual order of the top music sites appear in has been predetermined by thousand of users across hundreds of chat platforms.

1. Pandora

   Fall in love again, with the possibility of stumbling across a brand new artist, group or band that have been captured through Music Genome Project and overseen by Pandora, so that the flow of new musical talents don't go unnoticed. If you enjoy sampling the sounds of a creative crop of new and still probably new, undiscovered talented, then you will find a whole new world of sounds to delight your listening pleasures.

2. Last.fm

   Last.fm offers more music than you can shake a stick at. Join the community and make new friends who share the same interests as you do. Last.fm members can play full tracks and customize your playlist according to your own unique tastes.

3. IMEEM

   If you really dig your music, then you have come to the right place. IMEEM is the biggest and most comprehensive music resource on the web to get great music. Join the IMEEM community and share your music interests with others or watch music videos if you are not too busy.

4. Songza

   Songza offers music fans the opportunity to search for and listen to the artist or song that they want to on the web. Users are not required to subscribe or pay for the services unlike Last.fm or Rhapsody does. An added bonus Songza pays for licenses from all of the major performing-rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) and these companies pay the publishers and writers in proportion to the number of plays they get on Songza, so the artists are getting paid and the listener are getting to listen to free music on the web.

5. thesixtyone

   This website offers music lovers great music to listen to, but not to download. The unique twist is that listeners can earn points by bumping up songs that you like that catches on with other listeners and they too can bump the song up, too. Listeners are the ultimate judges of the song's success or failure. It's kind of like American Idolon steroids.

6. Grooveshark

   Use this music sharing website to discover new artists and songs through its community of music loving listeners. Share your favorite music with others in the community and earn credit, so that you can use to get free songs of your own. Listeners can also review and recommend the music that they listen to and download music without restrictions.

7. SpiralFrog

   Signup at Spiral Frog and get access to over 1 million songs that you can download legally and free. Discover new artists that you probably haven't ever heard of before or stay with the tired and true recording artists that are known for packing large stadiums of screaming and adoring fans. You must register for a Spiral Frog free membership before you can start downloading your favorite music that you like to jam to.

8. Mp3eq

   Check the latest music charts from around the world starting with the Billboard Top 50, European Top 50, UK Top 50, USA Top 100, Germany Top 20, Dance Top 20 and download free Mp3s or add your own Mp3s.

9. Ruckus

   This website came highly recommended by a few of my readers that had left comments in my other two TOP 10 Music Lists, so it earned its nomination. Ruckus is a music network that allows students the ability to download and listen to, free music that have been archived in its network. Students can download unlimited free and legal music with the option to choose from more than 3 million songs. Additionally, students can also legally download hundreds of popular movies and television shows through the Ruckus service.

10. Jamendo

    Open your ears to a whole new world of music talent at Jamendo. This site offers its members full free albums to download from the emerging new pool of artists and musicians from all four corners of the planet. Wanting something new to listen to, then Jamendo is the place for you.

11. Live Music Archive

    Live Music Archive provides the highest quality concert downloads on the Internet. There are more than 49 thousand items and 2,912bands to choose from, so this is an excellent tool to use when enlarging your free music collection.

12. Songerize

    Use Songerize's straightforward music search engine to find the precise song or artist that you are wanting to listen to, and when you want to listen to it. Simply type in either the name of the song or the name of the artist that you want to hear and Songerize will do the rest. Songerize is more like a radio than a music-downloading site. No membership or special software is required.

13. Free Music Zilla

    When you get past the lame name of the site, Freemusiczilla is a free music application that give you the power to download music directly from social music services from places such as; IMEEM, Last.fm, Pandora, Myspace, eSnips, Mog, Digg, Radio.blog.club and almost all social music services. Freemusiczilla supports all web browsers, has no adware or spyware and is super light, micro-sized and resource-friendly. Best of all, it's free to download.

14. DEEZER

    Are you ready for a home away from home and listen, download or join a lively community that eats and breaths music from various genres? If so, then DEEZER is ready for you. Listen to or download your greatest music icons' masterful works for free or participate in the DEEZER online community and make new friends who enjoy the same music as you do.

15. SeeqPod

    Seeqpod offer its users an opportunity to explore its vast multimedia directory to play, listen to and enjoy playable web content that includes audio, video and Adobe Flash rich media files. According to Seeqpod “It is legal to use its technology”. Music is just the beginning at Seeqpod.

16. MOG

    MOG's slogan says it best “Where Music Junkies Get Their Fix”. Listen to millions of full-length songs for free or share your music playlists and opinions with others in your community.

17. MACIDOL

    Do your own an iPod and want to download new songs and Podcasts from your favorite artists for free? MACIDOL allows its members to download free music for your iPod legally. You name it - MACIDOL probably has it.

18. Slacker

    Slackers offer its users a customizable radio allowing the users to edit and share their favorite stations with other users. Listen to the some of the hottest songs and artists in the world and performing in different music genres.

19. Jango

    Jango is a custom radio that plays the music you want for free. Create your own music playlists to store and play on your own radio channel or choose from the stations that Jango provide. Membership is required to participate.

20. OurStage

    OurStage is an unique concept that gives its users the opportunity to listen to and vote to indie recording artists and musicians, and then the artists or musicians who's song is voted to the top of the charts during a specified time period could be rewarded with one of many excellent prizes. The prizes that can be won by the artists and musicians are focused on helping the winners to become more successful in the music industry. It is a win-win opportunity for both the fans and the artists.

21. Allmusic

    Get to know your favorite recording artists better than ever before and listen or download some free music at Allmusic. Read the Allmusic blog or watch a music video, but by all means relax and have some fun.

22. Sideload

    Sideload offers its users a place to store all of their favorite tracks into their own personalized Sideload Locker. Users must download the Sideload Plugins, so that any time the user discovers a new song or track that they want to keep track of, then just use the Sideload toolbar and store it in the Locker. Sideload offers a large collection of music tracks in a variety of genres. Users will discover 452,995 free tracks from 50,045 artists from around the world.

23. MyBloop

    MyBloop allows anybody the ability to store files for free and share them with anyone else for free. Works with both Windows and Mac, so anyone can listen to their favorite music, create playlists, back up files or simply share your personal music tastes with the world in minutes. With over 1.5 million files already stored on MyBloopthere isa fantastic selection to choose from when you are ready to get started.

24. Unsigned Band Web

    There is nothing more satisfying to a music lover, then the day that you discover a new band to rock out to. Unsigned Band Web delivers on the promise that new bands are discovered everyday, because at Unsigned Band Web visitors will be introduce to musical geniuses that have yet been signed to a major recording label and are waiting for their chance to shine before their audiences. Discover the sounds that you have been missing out on, before they were major rock stars.

25. Soundflavor

    Users of Soundflavor can play, watch and share their favorite music by music genre, lyrics, decade and songs and search for their favorite music the same way, too.

26. Live365

    Live365 offers its users the opportunity to listen to or create their own Internet broadcast, so that they can be shared with the rest of the Live365 community. Some free downloadable music is offered, but most music can only be listened to and not downloaded.

27. iLike

    With more than 20 million using this website to listen to and share music interests and playlists, iLike is an excellent place not only to listen to new music, but to learn about new artists and concerts together.

28. Dizzler

    Dizzler offers its users to search online and play free music, videos, games and radio stations on their computer or mobile device legally. Dizzler is committed to keeping any spyware, adware or storage constraints flushed out of their system, so that the users will have a more enjoyable and safe Dizzler experience. So, wanting to listen to or play new music, then checkout what Dizzler has to offer you.

29. finetune

    Users at FineTune can create their own personalize playlists to share or post on their blog or MySpace page. Users can listen to great music or socialize with other FineTune users and share their favorite playlists.

30. Digitally Imported

    Get ready to burn up the dance floor to the electrifying electric dance music with highly addictive elements of the unique style that only electronic music can bring. Get free radio channels featuring recording superstars, DJs and the hottest exclusive shows anywhere.

31. Tagoo

    Tagoo offers its music listeners free music to listen to on the Internet. Build your own playlist featuring the biggest names in the business or from the least known garage bands that are just starting out in the music industry. Tagoo is still in Beta, so expect a few bugs here or there.

32. purevolume

    PureVolume offers music fans the opportunity to discover and share new music from emerging artists and the artists chooses to give their music away for gaining exposure or to make the music buy only. Not all music is free on this site, but there is enough to rank PureVolume at number 34 on this Top 100 List.

33. The Hype Machine

    The Hype Machine user community gathers to share their common love for music and blog and post their favorite musicians and music on their blogs to share. Users can personalize and modify their favorite music and share with everyone else.

34. GarageBand

    Users of this cool little site can listen to some great free music from mostly undiscovered bands and musicians from across the globe. User can vote and write reviews about the music that they have listened to and compete in monthly drawings to win prizes. Musicians and bands can also enter their music into contest to get reviewed by fans and gain some valuable exposure. The winning Artists will win additional exposure from Feed Partners giving the winning Artists a much larger audience platform.

35. musicovery

    This website offers its listeners the ability to listen to or build their own playlist via its own radio channels. Discover new music from different music eras and/or by selecting your favorite music genre.

36. Music

    Looking for the hottest popstars and rockstars on earth, then what are you waiting for, because music.com has it going on and a little of that, too. Watch music videos, listen or download the hottest music for free.

37. Jamwave

    This website offers its listeners the opportunity to listen to free music on the Internet and discover new artists, musicians and bands that you probably haven't ever heard of, until now. Listeners can join a Jamwave group, keep tabs of the charts or browse through the upcoming events when not tuning in the Jamwave radio.

38. Opsound

    Opsound is an experiment in applying the model of free software to music and its users can download, share, and remix the songs and sounds that participating musicians and sound artists have uploaded into the Opsound database. A wide selection of Creative Commons music awaits new listeners.

39. MySongCast

    MySongCast is an ongoing music competition where independent musicians go head-to-head for a chance to win real cold cash. Music fans listen to each music entry, and then cast their votes for the winning song. The more votes for a particular song results in that song raising through the charts and thus receiving more valuable exposure. This is a good site to discover new artists.

40. Magnatune

    Magnatune has something to offer to both the musician and the music fans and a nice variety of music genres to choose from, too. The music fans can listen to high-quality MP3s and albums in their entirety before buying or becoming a member. The musician earns valuable exposure for their work and receives 50% royalty for each song or album of theirs that is purchased.

41. liveplasma

    Discover new music and movies using the Liveplasma search tool either by selecting the artists, band, movie, director or actor. Make your own maps or bookmark your favorite music, so that you can share them with others in your community. Membership is required to access the full site features.

42. Project Playlist

    Start building your own music playlist and share them with other music fans in the Playlist community. Listen to great music from a large selection of genres. Search for your favorite music, just by simply entering the artist's name or song title into the Playlist search engine. Membership is required to receive full membership benefits. Share the playlist that you create on your MySpace, Facebook, hi5, Blogger pages or on your on website.

43. Newgrounds

    Visit this website if you are in the mood to discover new music options from aspiring musicians and Flash artists from around the world. Listeners can vote for their favorites or listen to other member's favorite songs, bands and musicians.

44. Roxwel

    Metal rock rules! Get all of your metal rock, rock and roll and indie rock all on one comprehensive website and download the music that you like for free. Where as metal rock rules, Roxwel rocks!!

45. Artists Direct

    Are you ready to rock the house down? Artists Direct is the place to visit when in the mood to listen to the likes of Hip-Hop rapper Lil Wayne to pop queen Britney Spears and everyone left in-between. Download free music or watch free music videos to reserving your concert tickets in advance with the speed and convenience found at Artists Direct each and everyday.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5.524

AVG is anti-virus software developed by Grisoft Company. It is the best free anti-virus software which has much improved design in terms of its usability, stability and highly impressive detection feature that has gained popularity among the computer users. In other words, millions of home users trust on its high level of detection capability to protect their PC from the attack of unknown and weird viruses. Due to its high detection on almost all the wild viruses, Grisoft has awarded VB100% Award by Virus Bulletin in February 2008. Not only that, AVG was rated as the second highest rating for user satisfaction for its free edition. Additionally, its quality assurance has been announced as the top downloaded program on CNET Download.com.

AVG anti-virus free edition is permitted for a home user and not for a commercial use. The software provides real-time protection and it is updated automatically so that you will be provided with a rapid virus database to alert you for any infected files. It handles the infected files safely and it never gets your PC slow down. It is indeed easy to use this anti-virus software that protects your PC against viruses, worms and Trojans besides protecting your PC against spyware, identity-theft, Adware, hackers, network intrusions, and sophisticated rootkit attacks. It is also furnished with an anti-spam feature to help filter out any junk electronic mails. It is by far the best free anti-virus software I have been using so far.

PC Tools Antivirus 3.6 Free Edition

This software is very useful to protect your PC against the latest fast-spreading worms and virus, such as Netsky, Mytob and MyDoom which can seriously infect your PC as they can be transferred to other person's PC who accesses your email contacts and computer's network. Additionally, these infections may allow hackers to steal your database from your PC, and later use it to launch threats against other computer's users or website or to send large numbers of SPAM mails. Therefore, it is always safer to use this software to keep alert of infected files.

Its real-time protection is trusted with rapid database updates and it is essential to keep your PC safer against any online threats and malicious infections attempting to gain an easy access to your PC by stealing your personal details. The suspected viruses, Trojans and worms will be quarantined, disinfected and destroyed thoroughly. It is worth using this software as it is free to use plus it has no time-limits.
For a direct download, please click here.

ThreatFire Free Edition 3.0.8 (Beta 4)

The chart clearly shows that ThreatFire's Active Defense feature has proven to provide up to 243% more protection when combined its usage with the traditional anti-virus products. ThreatFire is powerful software to detect and to stop any malicious and cyber-threats which include known and unknown spyware, adware, keyloggers, viruses, buffer outflow, Trojans, rootkits, worms and malware as well. This is its unique feature as compared to the traditional antivirus products as virus threats are sometimes remained undetected and thereby infecting your PC.

Now, how to uninstall it. There are three basic ways to get rid of this. First, you can purchase the Virus Heat ($49.50 I think) and uninstall it. Of course, nobody wants to pay that much. Another way to uninstall this is to do it manually. This is hard and can become very confusing if you are not that good with a computer. Finally, you can use a program called Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to kill Virus Heat. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is by far, the best anti-malware program on Earth.

To uninstall it manually, follow the directions on the website below. I will not list out the directions because I did not do that, and also, it is a long and grueling process.

First, you will need this program called Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. No, it is not a virus. To be safe, download it from this website.

There is some additional information there about uninstalling.

After you have downloaded Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, start a quick scan. Let it finish and Virus Heat should be gone.

Spyware, Adware, Malware and Viruses are infections you can get from opening and Email, going to a website, downloading a piece of software, putting a USB drive into your computer, the amount of ways to receive them are amazing. Computer programmers make the infections, just to cause trouble for everyone, whether you are at home using your personal computer, at a friend's house, at your small business or working in a large corporation.

These nasty infections can do a whole heap of different things to your computer. The things that can happen, and often happen are:

• Slow Computer - Your computer will slow down dramatically.
• Freezing - Your computer may "lock-up" or "freeze".
• Programs not working - Some of your programs might not work properly
• Personal Details - Some infections have the potential to retrieve personal details such as bank account details.
• Turn off - Your computer could sometimes just switch off without warning.

All of these things, and more, are possibilities when you have infections on your computer.

 Hold on! There is hope for you though. There are many programs on the Internet these days that you can download, which runs a scan to delete these problems. Here is a list of programs, free of charge that you can download today!

• Ad-Aware Free
• Spyware Doctor
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Windows Defender
• Clamwin Antivirus
• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

There are also a number of programs that allow you to stop the infections getting into your computer in the first place. They are called "firewalls". Here is a list of free firewalls available to download.

• Comodo Firewall
• ZoneAlarm Firewall
• Ashampoo Firewall
• OutPost Free Firewall
• Sunbelt Personal Firewall

I hope this guide has helped you learn about the different problems you will face with your PC, and how to treat them.

Internet security is big business and the major players are falling over one another to offer their security suite bundled with internet service providers sign up discs, other software and trial versions within the computer press.

With a little further investigation though, free security software can be readily found which is more than adequate for the average internet surfer. Antivirus programs such as AVG free and Avast from Alwil, firewalls such as Zone Alarm and Agnitum Outpost and anti-spyware software such as Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware or Spybot Search and Destroy are all examples of very effective security solutions.

Many can be put off by inevitable scepticism and the old adages “you get nothing for nothing” and “no such thing as a free lunch.” However in these cases, the companies involved are offering free products as a temptation to persuade us to dip our hands in our pockets to purchase the fuller, more enriched versions of the very same program.

The main enticements are primarily a more powerful all encompassing piece of software and, perhaps more crucially, the ability to automate and thereby take out the need for the user to get too involved in the mechanics of something they may very easily not comprehend, nor wish to.

So we end up with consumers of security software divided into two groups, those who do not wish to pay and make use of the free material on offer, and those who would rather spend their time on other more interesting activities and pay for the privilege of not having to bother with manual weekly scanning.

The ironic part of all of this is that both groups are equally likely to fall into the trap of believing that installing the security is all that is required. They then fail to set it up properly be it free or paid for, and end up a few months down the line with slow, unresponsive computers which are riddled with spyware and Trojans and stare quizzically at the engineer they have called out when he requests a date when the computer last had a virus scan!

Spyware is software that lures you into installing software from a scammer. These scammers have put software in your computer which allows them to watch absolutely everything to do. Key loggers are very similar to spyware however a lot more dangerous. Key loggers give scammers a log of everything you type on your computer like bank account passwords.

How Do You Know that You Have One?

There isn't much ways to find out you have a key logger or spyware unless you have an antivirus program that picks it up but there are many types of signs that show if you can get spyware or a key logger and avoiding these signs would keep you away from harm.

How Can You Avoid Having a Key Logger or Spyware?

• Most links from emails known as Spam should be avoided
• Caution on Websites should be high
• Download things that you trust
• Buy or get a free Virus Scanner

Conclusion

One of the biggest scams ever seen is those free prizes or full illegal software. Be less trusting and more cautious on downloads that strangers give you.

First off, an explanation of what may be happening.

Your computer may be part of a bot net

If your computer is "zombied" this means that somewhere on your computer a program or set of programs is letting someone else access it and use it for nefarious deeds such as spamming or bringing down a website. Most of this is automated, the person responsible is not in your computer looking at your stuff, they are using automated scripts and programs to access many computer simultaneously. This is known as a "bot net" and you really don't want to be part of this, it slows your box down, really annoys people who are getting the spam being generated, and is just generally uncool...

Your computer is running too much spyware or malware

This really slows computers down as the regular programs have a hard time running when something is using up all available memory

Where does this stuff come from and how did it get on my computer?

There you are happily surfing the web searching for variations on turnip wine recipes or some such thing, when you land on a certain website. The site seems totally innocent, even the website designer may be unaware of the evil lurking in the webpage code. But your computer downloads this bad code, and when executed, tries to download all its friends. the next thing you know the computer is running slower than the hour before schools out, and your start page has gone from google to some strange page about midget yahk herder sex. This is called a drive by, and is just one of the ways that you can get compromised.

Oh sweet tunderin' Jesus! what do I do now?

All is not lost! Follow these suggestions and there is a good chance that you can solve these difficulties.

(disclaimer...The following are just suggestions, and by using them you do so at your own risk. If you are uncomfortable doing the following, indeed call in a pro)

Number 1 (and most important) Check to make sure that your anti virus is running and up to date. I cannot over state the importance of this. Many computers that I have to deal with have either outdated, disabled or non-existent Anti Virus. I even had one lady who uninstalled her anti virus because she didn't like the color of the antivirus window. sheesh!

All computers ship with antivirus programs, but most of these only work for a couple of months before the ask you to pay a subscription or they stop updating.

Some viruses, worms and spyware will intentionally break your av.

What to do if your av is broken...

There are quite a few Free for personal use Anti Virus programs out there. The one I have been using is Avast.

It is a self updating av, scans everything going in and coming out of your computer and it talks. The first time I used it I left my computer on overnight, and around three am I heard this manly voice say "Anit Virus successfully updated"...scared the bujesus outa me!

It is good for a couple of months as a demo, but registration is free, and all they want to know for registration is your email, so they can send you a registration number,and what country you are from.

Just download it and install. It will ask if you want to do a "boot time" scan. Say yes and let it reboot your computer. It will scan before letting anything load into windows memory, and will pick up most of the crud.

If you have problems downloading it because your computer is running too slow, shutdown your computer and restart. As it starts to boot up press "F8" a few times and it will bring up a boot menu. Use the arrow key to go to "safe mode with networking" and hit enter. This will start windows without any drivers or programs being loaded. the screen will look weird, but you should be able to access the internet.

Next you are going to want to download another free program Spybot Search and Destroy.

Download and run this, make sure you update it first. This will remove spyware from your system.

This is normally enough to get things back on track, but being the overly paranoid and under paid person that I am, I also use these programs just to make sure:

Ad-Aware

Super Anti-Spyware 

All of these are free for personal use.

Other suggestions to keep you safe...

Use the Firefox browser. I personally think it is a better browser than internet explorer and has lots of plugins to keep you safe. One of the add ons is called "NoScript" and when enabled, stops websites from executing anything unless you say so.

Another handy plugin for most browsers is the Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar. This will alert you if a website is fake, like a banking site or auction site. I'm always getting emails telling me that I need to reset my banking info, or there is something wrong with my ebay or paypal account. These are just attempts by scum sucking hairless monkeys to steal my stuff. Neither Banks or ebay or paypal would ever ask you to reenter your financial info by email. When in doubt, phone the person that the suspect email is from.

Well, thats all for now. I'll put up some more security stuff as soon as I get time.

Cheerio all!