3 Tips To Remove Spyware From Your Computer For Free

Your computer is the portal to the Internet. It allows you to speak to friends via email or instant messenger, to play games on or even to educate you or your children. However your computer is at risk the minute you browse on the Internet. All kinds of nasty files from spyware, adware, malware to computer viruses which are lurking to attack your computer, all without your knowledge. I am going to give you three easy to follow tips that will enable you to repel and remove spyware infections from your computer.

Tip No.1 - My first tip is to practice safe browsing techniques. This sounds obvious, although it is tempting to visit those sites that offer downloads and goodies for free. Most of the time they come with a price, infected files within the download itself.

So to prevent spyware files from being downloaded onto your computer in the first place, do only download legitimate files or programs from safe and trusted websites. If you are unsure then ensure you have the latest browser installed on your computer. Preferably you should be using Firefox as this can warn you if you are visiting a potentially 'dodgy' website.

Tip No.2 - You should ensure that you have an anti-spyware program that has an online guard contained within. Anti-spyware programs that remove spyware are great at removing infections, but that is all they can do remove after the infections has occurred.

The best way to combat spyware is to limit the amount of infectious files that will be able to infiltrate your computer. As this article is to help you remove spyware for free, then I can recommend two products at the time of writing this. The first program is Spyware Doctor. The free version does have a decent online guard. [The paid for version is slightly better, but the free version is a very good product in its own right]. The second program is Spyware Terminator. You will only need one of them not both.

Tip No.3 - My final tip is to run a regular scan of your computer with whatever anti-spyware program you use. Ensure that you also regularly update your anti-spyware program for the latest file definitions so the anti-spyware program can find the latest spyware that is released to attack your computer.

How regular you run your anti-spyware program is based on how much you use your computer. Once a week is fine if you use your computer frequently but to not to excess. Personally I run a scan every 2 days as I do use my computer every day. My computer is pretty clean.

Unless you are using a Macintosh or Linux based machine, it is near impossible to stop spyware from infecting your computer. However, by following the above tips you can reduce the amount of infectious spyware files get through your computer defences and cause you too much havoc.

Want to discover more tips and secrets that can speed up and protect your computer for free? Then check out my online blog at http://www.john-french.net

John French has been breaking, repairing and building computers for over 15 years. He has expertise in computer security and maintaining a healthy computer.

How A Computer Virus Works

A virus is a small computer program designed to do mischief by destroying data, altering information or even sabotaging entire computer networks.

The computer virus was originally a concept of science fiction. It was used in David Gerrold's book When Harlie Was Once in 1972 and also in John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider in 1975.

The concept in John Brunner's science fiction novel was a worm, the computing equivalent of a parasitic tapeworm, generating new segments for itself in all machines of a network and therefore unstoppable. Although this type of program was beyond the capability of programmers at the time.

The figurative use of the word virus is based on the biological virus which multiples itself within an organism. So too a computer virus has the same ability to replicate itself in a computers system.

A virus spreads by burying itself deep within the computer's disk operating system (DOS). The DOS is a set of instructions coordinating the activities of the disk drive, the keyboard, the monitor and the CPU that performs the arithmetic and logic operations. The DOS must run every time the computer is turned on.

Viruses tend to sneak past many users of computers because the viruses, like legitimate programs, are written in a computer programming language, a type of code made up of letters, numbers and other keyboard. A programming code gives instructions to the computer "behind the screen" so that most users are never aware that their system has been breached. Until it is too late.

As well as infected legitimate software or the illegal copying of software sold on disks, viruses are transmitted through the internet.

Once a virus has been discovered it is easy to write a simple program to delete the virus. Creators of such viruses, however, can just as easily upgrade their viruses to override such a program. Furthermore, some viruses can change the characters in their code every time they reproduce, making it almost impossible to stop them.

The first real virus was the subject of a computer science experiment in November 1983, presented by Fred Cohen, a professor of computer science at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, to a seminar on computer security. He developed the first computer virus as part of his research on computer security for his doctoral thesis.

When Cohen introduced the concept to the seminar, the name virus was apparently suggested by Len Adleman.

According to Cohen, computer viruses are so easy to write that "anybody can do it". He said that it was possible in some programming languages to write a virus in as few as 11 characters.

By the second half of the eighties the virus had become a serious and prolific hazard to individual and corporate computer users; because the code copies itself into the computer's memory and then causes havoc, it became advisable to avoid using floppy discs which might conceivably contain a virus - freeware and discs supplied by clubs, for example.

In one famous incident, London's Royal National Institute for the Blind temporarily lost six months' worth of research after being attacked by a virus contained in files on a floppy disc. Considerable financial loss was suffered as a result of the epidemic, not to mention research time and valuable data.

The proliferation of viruses has seen the rise of a new business within the computer industry, the anti-virus. A number of software companies began to offer virus detection programs and 'good' viruses which could guard against threats.

Prevention is better than a cure: The best Antivirus Software available online free review

Protecting Your Website From Unethical Online Predators

If you have ever created something from nothing you are a true artist. And you are most likely familiar with the feeling of contented satisfaction. Mix that with the excitement of being a powerful creator, and you may feel like this is your destiny. Whether it is a child, an oil painting or a novel it is as if you are presenting a little bit of you to the world.

The same feeling applies if you have created your own website. Particularly, if you have introduced an absolutely unique and patented product on this website. The web is such a wonderful window to the world. Reaching millions upon millions of people, what could be a better place to show off your "baby"?

Hold on, though. Before you get too excited, I urge you to take some very important precautions. If you were taking your baby home from the hospital, would you make sure that some details are in place first? Of course, you would! You probably would get yourself a crib, some disposable diapers, formula, a car seat, etc.

Well, you should have an appropriate safety checklist for your website, as well. You will need certain details taken care of to protect your site from the greedy, unseen predators that stalk around cyberspace. If you don't you could wind up losing what you spent so much time and money to build.

How do I know? Because it recently happened to me. So before you do anything else, stop, and read this very carefully. I am here to give you a heads up when it comes to protecting your website.

I manufacture and distribute an electronic fireflies product with my partner, Mark. Since 2003 we have sold this cool gadget as "a certain name". In 2004 another website popped up selling their version of the electronic firefly-their fireflies are stagnant lights that only blink, and do not move (like Christmas Lights on their last legs). For their uninspired product, they selected a url that was similar to the one that we were using at the time. This was fine with us, we just looked at it as healthy competition. And we felt that our product was uniquely different (our fireflies actually moved), so we would always have a healthy flow of customers.

So what does our competition do? 5 years later ( in January 2008) this business trademarks the exact name that were using to sell our product. They proceed to hire a lawyer, and file a claim to have our website transferred to them. This unscrupulous business was not content with their current profitable situation, they wanted more. And they were determined to take it.

Not once did they try to contact us in the 5 years we have been online. The only communication they initiated to us was to inform us that they were planning on stealing our website. We filed the response ourselves (lawyers cost too much!) to the National Arbitration Forum, confident with our overwhelming evidence. This was probably not wise, since their lawyer was obviously much more schooled in the domain registry law lingo. This was our second mistake. Our first mistake was not having our name trademarked from the get-go. We were naive to think that there were such unethical predators slinking around. We lost our PR 4 website and now our customers are left not knowing where to find us. Despite all that, we have bounced back under a new name...and yes, it is trademarked.

Do not let this happen to you. Keep in mind that Mark and I had our original website protected under copyright laws since 2003. We clearly used the name that our competitors wound up stealing from us; this is why we did not think we needed a lawyer. Copyright laws clearly state, material that is marked as copyrighted is protected. Under these federal laws, the descriptive works (whether is fireflies or socks) is yours, and no one has the right to take that from you. This is why we did not hire a lawyer...clearly we would win. Well, we did not. Apparently a trademark trumps a copyright, even if it is implemented in an unethical way.

When things like this happen, I always try to look at the bright side. I know our loyal customers will find us, and karma will take care our greedy competitors (can't escape the law of attraction!). And I also know whomever reads this article will spread the word, and learn from our unfortunate mistakes. Be prosperous and keep safe.

Copyright 2008 / Avenstar Enterprises, Inc / Zen Fireflies

Kim McGinnis is a freelance writer/entrepreneur. She co-owns Avenstar Enterprises, Inc with her partner, Mark. One of her many websites features her amazing Zen Fireflies. The only electronic fireflies product on the market that actually MOVE. Come see for yourself at http://www.ZenFireflies.com

Spam The Spammer - Will It Work?

Spam is everywhere. It’s the “in-box lunch meat” nobody likes, wants or looks forward too. Unfortunately, many folks enjoy “eating” this product because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any. Read on…

The federal government’s ill-conceived CAN-SPAM Act did little more than make a few legislators feel better about themselves. Did this legislation stop spam? No. Did it at least slow down the flow of spam? Nope.

You can’t eliminate a problem by treating the symptoms. If you want to eradicate a problem, you must make its environment one that will not support it.

There’s a new plan recently hatched by some well-intentioned folks at Blue Security that several of my clients have asked about. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea but, in my humble opinion, the model is fatally flawed. Here’s the scoop…

1. You sign up for their "list" which is basically a "do not spam me list" and that gives them the authorization to act on your behalf.

2. You then have to send EACH spam message to them for inclusion on their list.

3. They then send the spammer a "stop order" (which, if they can even find the spammer, will be ignored).

4. They then flood the spammer with basically a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack hoping to bring down the spammer's server.

This all sounds great until you think about it rationally...

1. Spammers use "open relays" and hundreds of addresses to prevent you from finding their originating location.

2. The "stop order" they send is just their way of fulfilling the letter of the law under the CAN-Spam act.

3. The part I have the biggest problem with is they then effectively BECOME A SPAMMER by sending thousands of messages in a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS). This is the same thing hackers do when they bring down a website by sending so much traffic to a server it basically shuts down.

4. Most spam is sent from your neighbor's PC. I spend a great amount of my time cleaning “bad guys” from client’s computers. There are MILLIONS of "zombie computers" that are infected with auto-dialers and trojans that are being used without the owner's knowledge to send spam. Don’t believe me? Just run Counter Spy on grandma’s PC and tell me what you find!

5. How long do you really think it will be until the spammers turn the tables on Blue Security and initiate their own DDoS attack? It will be interesting to watch.

Other fight-back tactics against spammers have failed in the past. Last year, Lycos Europe rolled out a screensaver that conducted DDoS attacks against known spammers. Within days, however, Lycos buckled under pressure from security groups, which called it vigilantism, and ISPs who worried that attacks originating from their members would make them liable to legal action on the part of spammers.

Spam will NEVER go away until you attack its real source engine. If you don't order anything from a spammer and don't even click on his link to open the message, the monetary incentive for spam is removed. Spammers operate under the same economic rules as the rest of us...supply and demand.

Take away the demand and you eliminate the supply. Simple.

Allan Gunnneson is the CEO of Gunner Web Group (http://www.gunnnerweb.com), a website design and marketing company based in Kansas.

Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including links (http://www.gunnerweb.com).