… Is it taking more time to load recently when you start your computer?
… Are you being annoyed these days with pop-up windows from sites you have never visited before?
… Do you notice any unusual software loading simultaneously during startup?

If your answer is even a mild ‘yes’ to these questions, then it is most likely that your computer is at some stage of being infected by a parasite called spyware /adware. Beware my friend, because this parasite can grasp eagerly your identity by closely keeping an eye on your activities on the net, by laying hold of your passwords to sites housing your personal documents, and by stealing access to your bank account and credit card details.

So what then is spyware anyway ? A simple definition will be that ” it is a program that creeps in cunningly without your knowledge to collect data from your PC.” All of us are in the midst of visiting websites and downloading/installing various programs for our daily use. It is to these programs that the spyware attaches itself while your program is being downloaded.

What do you do then when you have found out that your computer has been invaded by spyware? First, do not run any program that has not been scanned by an anti-virus and anti-spyware program. Most inexperienced Internet users have the notion that a simple virus scan is all that is needed to get rid of all infections. Follow the steps given below to get ideal results…

1. Delete all temporary files. Information about sites you have visited before is stored in these temporary files. They occupy space and have the potential of being infected. Delete them by going to “Start-Acessories-System tools-Disk cleanup”. Also delete cookies by going to “Tools” and “Internet options”

2. Get a complete anti-virus / anti-spyware /adware program. “BitDefender” and “NoAdware” are the best. You can also try “Spybot’s Search and Destroy” program. The ‘Paid’ ones are still better.

3. Get free updates on all the anti-spyware programs you will have. New spyware worms keep coming to infect all the time.

Here are a few more tips to keep your computer healthy…

1. Please do not open an attachment from any unknown email you receive without running a scan. Have you received the email from Nigeria yet? Do not click on any links or open attachments from them! Just delete them! A hacker recently went into the Paypal account of a friend of mine and cleaned up his checking account.

2. Be careful while you are downloading your favorite songs and movies. Download only from well-accepted sites and run the anti-spyware program on them anyway.

3. Do not visit porno sites. You can collect dangerous spyware easily from here.

4. If you can, install a firewall on your PC to protect it from dangerous visitors. Check with your computer consultant or your hardware dealer how to do this.

5. Download the latest updates for Windows or whatever system you are running.

Guard yourself and your computer. Change your passwords very often to be safe while browsing. Turn off the broadband if you want the computer to be on and you need a break. An idling computer is raw meat for the spyware employer. Hackers are waiting round the corner. Remember there is big money to be made by collecting and selling information. Internet browsing will only be enjoyable until the time you are the next unfortunate victim.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

Home networking is just as popular as office networking these days for all the same reasons. Money can be saved. People can share resources. Everything on the network is accessible by anyone on the network!

You love your network! Everyone on it share resources  printers, the Internet, storage space and all of the data on all the computers hooked up to it. It’s great! It’s one thing to share resources with your family or co-workers but do you want it accessible to everyone on the planet? Do you want to invite anyone inside your computer? An uninvited guest could destroy all the data on your system let alone access all your personal information.

If you leave the door to your house wide open, you might receive an unexpected or invited visitor. To protect yourself, you have doors and locks. You can also leave your computers doors’ wide open. Unfortunately, you may not know they are open and you may not recognize the implications until you get stabbed in the heart with a large bill for computer repair that could have been avoided.

Doors and locks will only keep the honest people out. Regrettably, the same holds true for computers. But, quite simply, leaving the door wide open is an invitation. Find any open doors, close them, AND lock them! Better yet, make your door invisible and undetectable! Yes, this IS possible. It doesn’t mean your door will never be knocked on, but if a passer by can’t see the door, they are less likely to knock, let alone gain entry.

Security is critical. Know where your doors are; know whether they are open or closed.

Install a firewall when sharing an Internet connection. A router can effectively accomplish this for you.

Limit file access on your network to only those whom you wish to see the files you are willing to share.

Use password protection both on your network and on your confidential files.

Anywhere there is an open doorway, close it, and secure it. If you don’t know  or don’t wish to know  more about the doorways, hire someone who does.

Remember, the balance in your bank account could depend on it!

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

At its very basic level, a computer virus is simply a program which replicates itself and infects your computer without your permission or any knowledge of the program running on your part. Although it can often be applied to other malicious software, such as adware, a virus is actually much different. The most difficult part about having a computer virus is the fact that it may be doing damage to your computer without any knowledge on your part. This is because it replicates itself from a single file and may hide as a legitimate system file in order to overcome detection.

There are several different ways that you can get a computer virus but typically, you have to receive the virus from another location. Viruses do not just grow on their own, they are specifically made in order to invade and infect other computers. Some of the most common ways that computer viruses are spread are through downloadable media, by sharing files through removable drives or CDs and over various types of computer networks. It only takes one small program in order to cause a lot of different problems for the end user.

There are several different things that you can do in order to keep your computer from getting infected. First of all, you can run a good anti-virus program on your computer that will continually scan for any virus-like activities that are taking place. It is also a good idea to scan any files that are given to you, even by those that you trust. Finally, make sure that you are not downloading off of the Internet at random. If you do download a file, scan it with your anti-virus program. Just these few easy precautions will go a long way in helping your computer remain virus free.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

It is now very simple to set up home wireless networks. Wireless networks are very popular and are found in many places such as cafes and other public areas. There are no actual cables and the set up is very minimal. With the boom in this technology and an increase in the manufacture of this technology this has resulted in a decrease in the cost of setting up wireless networks and made them available to the typical user. This means the technology is no longer affordable by only educational institutions and businesses.

In order to set up home wireless networks there are several pieces of equipment that will be required to get your network started. The use of a wireless router is normally recommended for the benefits it gives to the home user such as the ability to provide internet sharing and the additional security. The use of access points is available but these are more expensive and more useful on a larger scale. The use of a wireless network adapter is also important and one is required for each computer that has to be connected to the router.

When purchasing the equipment for your home wireless networks it is often advisable to look around for the best price and warranty. There are many manufacturers and the equipment is available generally as a retail item and comes with some warranty. The larger outlets will carry these items but it is often good to check smaller independent stores as they may actually have lower prices for the same piece of equipment with the same warranty. It is also possible to get great deals online and have the equipment delivered directly to your home.

It is important to assess home wireless networks properly when purchasing equipment. This is to avoid the wastage of funds on unnecessary items. The best wireless router to purchase is one that also has the ability to be connected by wired ports. This can cut down on costs if two computers are relatively close together as the purchase of wireless adapters is approximately 10 times more expensive than normal wired network adapters. Also these wired network adapters can come with your computers and are thus not actually costing anything extra. It is essential to know how you plan to move your computers and assess if it is necessary to have the wireless network on all the computers or to connect some via wired connections.

In configuring your home wireless networks it is a possibility to completely leave out a wireless router and to communicate between computers with your wireless adapters. This technology uses a peer to peer mode and is not as easily explained as the network using a router. The use of the adapters in place of a router makes it more difficult to configure access to the rest of the network and its resources.

About the Author:

George Royal is the publisher of Wireless Networks Web with information about wireless networks and wireless broadband networks.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

When it comes to a wireless standard, the first thing we all look at is how fast will this baby run! And you know the trade-offs, you can spend a lot of money to get the fastest thing running, or you can back off a little and save a lot.

The good thing about wireless networks is that the price difference between wireless standards is almost gone. There are some things that could add up, but I will explain the difference and why you might want to go that route or not.

Now, let’s get to the different wireless standards you can choose from.

1. 802.11b - 11Mbit at 2.GHz 2. 802.11a - 54Mbit as 5.0GHz 3. 802.11g - 54Mbit at 2.4GHz 4. Hybrid Systems

When you get ready to purchase your equipment, you will see a lot of systems saying that they are faster than these standards listed above. Most will say 108Mbit per second, some 125Mbit per second and a few even higher. To operate at these speeds usually requires you to only use their network cards to access their access points, some of them require a specific card from them to get that speed. If any other card connects, then they will drop back to the standard speed and you lose the extra speed you probably paid extra to get.

What Should You Get

I was purchasing equipment for a completely new wireless setup. We only had one older wireless computer and I replaced the card in it with a new one. I did purchase a system that advertised the 108Mbit speeds since I knew who was going to connect to it.

If you are building a new network setup, I suggest you purchase a system that will run faster than the standard, but only if you know who is connecting. If not, then get a system that runs on the 802.11g standard. The price is about the same as 802.11b but runs 5 times faster.

About the Author

Greg Walding owns Wireless Networks Only, LLC. You can get more information about wireless networks at www.wireless-networks-only.com.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

I think it is safe to assume that the places you visit on the Internet will determine which programs are installed on your PC. Let me put it this way, the software installed on your computer will have some relevance to the sites you often visit. Lets take a few examples, when you are using Gmail, chances are good that you will have Gmail Notifier or GoogleTalk installed on your PC. When you often visit Yahoo.com or take part in their social networks, chances are good that you will have Yahoo! Toolbar or Yahoo! Messenger installed on your PC. Lets take a more practical example, users visiting Microsoft.com most probably have packages like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows XP installed on their computers. It is likely for supporters of the Open Source Initiative to hang out on sites like OpenSource.org, OpenOffice.com, Linux.org or SpreadFirefox.com. So your software preferences play a huge role in the type of web sites you visit and vice versa.

But what has this to do with malware infections? To be honest, everything! Let me show you what the top culprits of malware infections are and it will soon be clear to you what the connection is between the web sites you visit and the malware found on your PC.

Top culprit number 1: Pornographic web sites
Download Spyware Blaster by JavaCool Software and have a look at all the porn related web sites blocked by this program. It is also remarkable to see how many computers with traces of pornographic web sites in their browser history, are often infected with spyware and trojan horses. Unfortunately you will have innocent victims of malware infections, also with traces of pornographic web sites in their browser history, but only because the malware redirected them to these sites. However, people with pornographic material on their computers are not that innocent in this case, pornography does not go out looking for people, people go out looking for pornography.

Top culprit number 2: Illegal music (MP3) and movie downloading sites
These sites normally force you to install special downloading software on your computer so that you can download files from them. These download managers are often bundled with spyware and are trojan horses themselves, downloading tons of other spyware programs while you cheerfully download your illegal MP3’s. They sometimes place tracking cookies on your PC to monitor your browsing habits and hijack your browser to make sure you return to their site or a site of a partner.

Top culprit number 3: Software Piracy web sites
If you love using illegal software, cracks, serial numbers or license key generators (keygens) then you most probably had to remove some malware infections in the past after visiting one of these sites. Most of the people using these cracks are normally technical wizards and know how to disinfect their computers. Many of these sites do not only contain harmful scripts but also fake cracks and key generators, which are nothing else but malware. Some crack developers create a working crack but distribute it with spyware or a trojan horse to make your PC their slave.

Top culprit number 4: Peer-to-peer file sharing programs and networks
The file sharing community is loaded with pornography, pirated software, music and movies. Is it not amazing that everywhere these guys make their appearance you also find spyware, viruses, trojan horses and all kinds of malware? The client software is also often bundled with spyware (or adware as they call it).

The culprits discussed so far are those connected with illegal and indecent activities. People visiting these sites and using these services deserve getting infected with malware. These culprits are also some of the biggest sources of malware epidemics. What flows from the mouth, comes from within the heart. The same rule applies to your computer, those nasty little programs crawling inside your computer is, in the case of culprits 1 to 4, the direct result of your own sinful actions and activities.

The next couple of culprits are caused by negligence and a lack of knowledge about how malware are distributed.

Top culprit number 5: Pop-up and pop-under advertisements
Another culprit that wants to caught you off guard. A pop-up window may appear out of the blue or a concealed pop-under window my load in the background without you even knowing it. These windows can start downloading malicious programs and install them on your computer. They can appear on any web site, not just illegal and other bad web sites. You can prevent these windows from opening by using a secure browser like Firefox with a built-in pop-up blocker.

Top culprit number 6: Fake anti-virus and anti-spyware tools
You visit a legitimate looking web site and suddenly a banner appears telling you that your computer is infected with spyware. You can scan your computer with all the anti-spyware software in the world, over and over again until you are blue in the face, but that banner will keep telling you that your computer is infected with spyware. This is because it is a plain image banner. The site never does a scan of your computer, it is a fixed message that will display on any computer, no matter how clean it is. Simply put, it is a blatant lie! They want you to believe that your computer is infected and that only their software can remove this spyware. If you download and install their software you will only find that it is spyware itself. You may end up infecting a completely clean system with a dirty program, trying to remove the so-called spyware.

A system scan is not a three second process, it takes time, so no scanner can tell you instantaneously that your system is infected with spyware. I do not believe in online scanners, rather use software with a good reputation, a local scan is much more faster. Most online scanners are no online scanners at all, you actually download the whole scanning engine and end up doing a local scan anyway. A real scanner will tell you the name of the malware and its location on your hard drive, if it does not give you this information, then it is fake. Even if it gives you this information, it still does not mean that the software is legitimate. Do not trust everything you see online and stick to well known anti-malware brands.

Top culprit number 7: Free games, screen savers, media players, etc.
No, not every free program comes bundled with spyware, but spyware (once again the developers prefer to call it adware, but it is still the same thing) is often the price you have to pay for the free software. It is normally a ploy to monitor your use of the program, to send the creators statistical data or to collect data about your online behaviour in order to send you targeted ads. If you try to remove the spyware you normally render the main application useless. Read the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) very carefully before installing the application. But everyone knows that nobody reads those tedious, long licence agreements, so use EULAlyzer by JavaCool Software to check for specific keywords and phrases that might reveal any spyware programs being installed or privacy breaching practices that may occur if you install the free software.

Top culprit number 8: Malicious web pages with harmful scripts
But you already mentioned this one in culprits 1 to 3. No, culprits 1 to 3 often have harmless web sites and it is the content you download from the sites that is harmful. But you also get web pages containing malicious scripts, totally innocent looking web sites, like a site donating money for cancer. You go to their homepage and suddenly a script virus strikes your computer. This is what an anti-virus shield was made for, that unexpected attack. Firefox is also designed to prevent harmful scripts and browser hijackers from accessing the system and taking advantage of flaws and weak spots in your operating system.

Top culprit number 9: E-mail
Virus worms spread themselves by forwarding a copy of the virus to all the contacts in your address book. Those contacts that are unaware of these worms will most likely open the e-mail and the file attached to it. But when you open a strange infected e-mail from an unknown sender, then you are guilty of double negligence. For the virus to be activated you need to open the e-mail and in most cases you need to deliberately open the file attachment too. By using a little common sense you will know that strange e-mails from unknown senders are dangerous, especially when they have executable attachments with file names ending with the “exe”, “com”, “bat” or “scr” extensions. Even dangerous e-mails from known, trustworthy contacts can easily be identified if the contents of the e-mail seems strange and out of character. By being careful and responsible when opening your e-mails, you will not only prevent your own computer from getting infected, but you will also prevent the worm from spreading any further.

Top culprit number 10: You the Internet user
What? Me? How on earth can I be a culprit? Well, you are an accomplice in the spread of malware if you do not have an active and updated anti-virus package installed on your computer, if you do not scan your computer for viruses and spyware on a regular basis, if you do not use shields like the TeaTimer tool from SpyBot (which is free by the way), the Ad-Watch shield of Ad-Aware or the resident shield of AVG Anti-spyware (all of which you have to pay for, unfortunately), if you spend your time browsing pornographic and illegal web sites and take part in the sharing of pirated software and copyrighted material (culprits 1 to 4), if you fail to be responsible with the software you install on your PC and the e-mails you open (culprits 6, 7 and 9) and if you refuse to use a secure web browser (like Firefox) built to prevent malware infections (culprits 5 and 8). Yes, I will go so far to say, that if you stay away from culprits 1 to 7 and 9, you probably won’t need any virus and spyware protection at all. Culprit 8 is the only reason why you should have anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, for those unexpected attacks, over which you have no control.

Culprits 1 to 8 are the main sources of malware. Infections caused by them led to the creation of culprits 9 and 10, which distribute the malware even further. Do not turn your computer into a malware paradise or a malware distribution centre. Take responsibility, protect your computer against these threats and prevent the spread of malware.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.

For a virus or similar program to have any great impact it needs to be able to spread from one machine to another. They are specifically designed to get access to parts of your computer system that allow for communication with other machines. Below is a discussion of some of the most common methods.

Boot Infectors

Every disk (hard disk, floppy, CD, DVD) contains a boot sector whether it is a bootable disk or not. When a computer is turned on, it looks for boot information. If the computer finds a disk with boot information, it reads that information and uses it to properly start the computer. If for some reason that boot information is infected with a virus, the virus is activated and possibly transferred to the computer’s hard drive (if the infection was on a CD for example).

Once the boot code on the hard drive is infected the virus will be loaded into your computer’s memory every time you start your computer. From memory the boot virus can travel to any and every disk that is put into your computer. This is how the infection spreads.

Most boot viruses could be on a system for a long time without causing problems, simply existing there to spread themselves. Often such viruses are designed to activate their bad behaviour on a specific date (Halloween for example). There are some nasty boot viruses that will destroy the boot information or force a complete format of the hard drive immediately after they get into a computer.

Program Infectors

When an infected application is run the virus activates and is loaded into memory. While the virus is in memory any new program file that you run can become infected. This means that there will be increasingly more applications on your system that are infected. Multiple infections are very common and will certainly cause system problems.

Program files may function without any problems for some time but eventually they will have problems or multiple infections brings the entire computer system down. The data the program produces may be a first sign of infection such as saving files without proper names, or with incorrect/incomplete data being saved.

Viruses of this type are often designed to seek out programs that are used to share information between users/computers such as email applications, screen savers, office document Macros, and self-extracting compressed files.

Through e-mail attachments

Many of the most dangerous viruses are primarily spread through e-mail attachments - files that can be sent along with an e-mail message. In such cases, the user of an infected computer unknowingly attaches an infected file to an email message, and then sends the email to a friend or colleague. When the email is received, the virus is launched when the file attachment is opened, thus infecting a new computer. Email messages with animations, automated greeting cards, jokes, photographs, spreadsheet and document files, all have been documented to contain virus files.

More and more frequently these days mass mailing email worms/viruses are being released. These attacks AUTOMATICALLY scan your computer’s files for any email address it can find and then uses your email application to AUTOMATICALLY send infected messages to any email address found in any file on your computer (not just email message files).

It is important to be aware of the emails that you open to make sure that they do not contain harmful viruses. Even emails from family and friends could have a virus, if that person’s computer is infected. This is where an anti-virus software would be really helpful in detecting if there is a virus in any incoming messages.

About the Author:

Antivirus software and general PC protection and maintenance are essential for safe and secure computing. Right now learn to easily block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software.

©2008 DoctorMyPC.com. All Rights Reserved.