Safe Web Surfing
| "...there are many unwanted applications installed on your computer without your permission ... and without you even knowing it." |
No, it wont. Chances are, there are many unwanted applications installed on your computer without your permission and most of the time they are installed without you even knowing it. Most of these intrusion-ware applications do not harm your computer - which is why virus protection software is not aware of them.
In this article I will be discussing how you can detect, remove and protect yourself from viruses, intrusion-ware, and spyware.
Common Sense
Common sense is most important to maintaining a clean system. If you are clicking around on a webpage and you are prompted to install something called "download_program.exe" or "gator.exe", then hopefully common sense will tell you not to download that file.A good practice is to not trust anything you get off the web, to surf defensively. If you are not sure what it is, then cancel the download or deny the install immediately. Software should only be downloaded from trusted and known sites (ex: microsoft.com, download.com, gamespy.com, etc.). If you are unfamiliar with the company distributing the software you should be wary about installing it. Check around; see if anyone else has installed the software and what their thoughts are. Again, use common sense.
Virus Protection Software
Novice as well as advanced web surfers should all use some sort of virus protection software. Even if you only download software exclusively from trusted sites; it does not guarantee these sites have not made a mistake. Recently Microsoft sent out a CD of service packs which, unknown to them, contained a virus on it. Do not trust others to protect your system. They may try, but everyone makes mistakes.Whether you get Norton Anti-virus, McAfee VirusScan, or some other free virus scan, use something. I prefer using Norton's Anti-virus, but that's just a preference. Most of these you can download and try them for free.
| "...spyware is running all the time, sucking up your system resources ... shoving spoonfuls of ad after ad into your face." |
Spyware
Spyware's main purpose is to spy on you and to deliver ads your desktop based upon where you surf and what you like. They usually track your web surfing habits and send you ads that constantly nag you. Are you not able to figure out where that same popup ad keeps coming from over and over again? Guess what? You've got spyware installed. Commonly found spyware's are Cydoor, Alexa, and Gator. A lot of spyware will also disguise itself as a useful and friendly program (ex: gator and alexa), but in actuality this is just a ruse for getting you to install their program. Spyware also tags-a-long with other popular software and is installed without your knowledge or permission (ex: divx5 and KaZaA). Most spyware is running all the time, sucking up your system resources, for the sole purpose of shoving spoonfuls of ad after ad into your face.Fortunately there are many others out there who hate spyware as much as I do and have created software applications to detect and remove the unwelcome junkware. One of the best (and free) programs I use constantly is Ad-Aware by lavasoft. A computer without this program is a computer with a ton of spyware installed on it. This software is a must.
Popup / Popunder windows
Unless you've been using lynx your whole life, you've been annoyed and pestered by popup ads. They pop above your browser. They pop below your browser. They pop up off the screen so you don't know they are there,and now they popup in a windowless control so you cannot close them. These annoy me to no end and are usually responsible for tricking you into unwanted junk or sending you to a site that will try to trick you into downloading intrusion-ware.Right now there is no ultra great method of killing popups. If you stop all popups you will not receive popups you want (ex: sending you to a link you clicked on, navigation, floating animations or messages). So, they trick is to kill the unwanted popups, but keep the wanted ones. I have played with two popular software titles that do a great job of killing unwanted popups.
The first popup killer I used was NoAds (free). NoAds kills the popups based upon the title or URL of the popup. This is great for blocking ads like "teenage girls -- click here", etc. (these ads popping up at work are no fun). But because these titles change all the time you spend a lot of time plugging rules into the software. You also have the danger of blocking popups you want by using a bad rule.
The popup killer I'm currently using is Popup Ad Filter by Meaya ($25). Popup Ad Filter kills all popups that haven't been preceded by a click. If you are on a site and have a wanted popup killed, you simply have to hold the ctrl key down and the popup will be allowed through. This is a more aggressive method of killing popups and totally depends on what your needs are.
There are many other free popup killers out there. I have not tried them all. If you do not like these or do not want to pay, then you may want to check them out. They do make surfing the web enjoyable again.
Anyway, good luck in taking back control of your computer and browser. If I have missed something or you have a question, you can reach me through my contact form.