Latest news and reports for Klaus's Computer Services

Firstly apologies it's been a hectic week and I didn't get time to get online to write this as promised.

As I mentioned in my previous article, most of our clients that complain about spam mail, viruses, diallers and other problems with their computers only have themselcves to blame,

So I will reiterate here if you frequent adult sites and click the buttons that say click here now instant access no credit card needed, you are probably agreeing to and installing a very expensive dialler, as well as advertising that will continue to pop up on your screen.

If you use programs such as bearshare, as part of the installation you are agreeing to install other programs specifically designed for advertising, also if you are installing programs such as bearshare and kazaa you are establishing a direct connection peer to peer with another computer, in anyones home and opening a door for viruses as you have no idea whether the person that you are getting your free music from has virus protection, in fact some of the virus writers particularly target these programs as they are superfast at spreading viruses and causing major damage.

Frequenting hacker sites again, time and time again i have seen purported cracks, that are viruses and do damage, you are purposefully going to sites that specialise and doing damage cracking code, so why wouldn't the virus writers love those sites to spread their goodies.

Giving out your email address to every free opportunity you can find on the net is also a sure way to get huge amounts of spam, free is not free as explained previously.

Other ways to get viruses are chat programs such as MSN, YAHOO ETC .when you exchange files with persons, as well as opening emails that are from persons unknown.

Opening disks from friends etc that you haven't scanned for viruses.

So what can you do to avoid getting virus infections spam and other such things, get off the internet?

More and more we rely on the Internet and that is just not a possibility anymore for a lot of us, a lot of elderly and lonely persons also now rely on the internet for contact with the

outside world, or even contact with their children, many of our elderly clients, tell us that it is more likely they will get a reply if they send an email, than if they ring their kids, or using chat programs where they can interact with video and voice and again have instant communication, wich is not likely to happen by other means, and of course there is the considerable savings if your family is a long way away wether it be overseas or interstate. how much cheaper than free chat can you get.

So to protect yourself, keep in mind the following, don't click instant access buttons on Adult sites, don't open, emails from persons you don't know, don't download cracks for programs, buy legal programs instead, don't use free music share programs such as Kazaa, don't accept file transfers via chat programs.

Having said that, I know that a lot of persons will ignore wthat I have said, from personal experience wih our clients,  here are my suggestions so that you can at least minimise your risks while you are on line.

1.> follow the above suggestions

2.> get a  firewall

3.> get an  antivirus program and keep it uptodate with updating set it to auto update

4.> get a spam program as with antivirus and keep it updated

5.> get a legal copy of windows Xp if you are using it.and keep it updated.

Just an aside, Microsoft is continously blamed for everyone's woes, personally my opinion is that Microsoft provide an excellent service, time and again I keep telling my clients download updates to your windows operating systems and other Microsoft programs, time and again clients that don't download updates have the worst problems with their operating systems, but I will discuss this at another time.

I hope this article is helpfull to you and here are some links if you want to have a look at antivirus, spam and other software to protect yourself, yes you can buy from these links, and guess what if you do I will make small percentage, as I said before free is not free, i will give free advise, but I still need to pay my bills so if you buy something from these links you will be supporting this free advise. 

Link one Security software including protection for children

Link two Antivirus and security software

Link three Spam Software