Be sure you make copies of all your important documents, images music and email regularly. Realising the importance of this after you have lost hours, weeks or months of your work is too late!

2. Anti-Virus
Always use anti-virus software with a memory-resident 'shield' (a small application that runs when your computer starts up and watches for any suspicious code that might try to run). Anti-virus software MUST be kept up to date in order to know about recent threats. Make sure it is set to update itself automatically or check manually once a week.

If you do not already have anti-virus software such as McAfee or Norton Anti-Virus you can download AVG, a good free package from the Grisoft website. An alternative free package is Avast home edition.

If you think there may be a problem but do not want to install software or already have and anti-virus application on your system, you might like to try an online scanner such as Panda Activescan. You will need to be using Microsoft Internet Explorer for this and accept a small download into the browser as part of the process. Another online service to scan a single suspect file with multiple scanners is available at virustotal.

3. Firewall
When you are connected to the internet your computer may be visible to other users potentially giving them access to your files and allowing them to install software without your knowing. A firewall hides your computer from view and acts as a barrier watching for internet activity to and from your computer checking that it looks OK. When you first run software that tries to access the internet after a firewall is installed you may be prompted to confirm that you want to allow it. WindowsXP now comes with a built in firewall. If you do not have this or want additional control over what can run install Zonealarm. You can select to install only the free firewall as part of the setup process if you do not want to pay for additional features they also offer.

4. Spyware
Code that is not necessarily a virus can still be annoying and sometimes make your system almost unuseable. If you click on a popup when online or install a browser toolbar it may be that code is then installed without your knowing. This can sometimes be quite benign, but it may equally be trying to capture your passwords as you enter them. Because there are so many different ways that spyware can work this is an area where it is hard to be fully protected. Even the best measures may let something slip through especially if you are not a careful internet user. (See 'staying safe' below). Install the free application Spybot Search and Destroy which can deal with most threats and scan your system. Another good free appliction is Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware. You may also like to visit the Spyware Warrior site for more information and resources.

 

Staying Safe

You can avoid most problems by being careful when online:

• Do not assume that an email is from the person shown as the sender. Names and email addresses are easy to spoof.
• Do not open an attachment to any email unless you are certain it is safe and you have resident antivirus protecting your computer. Just recognising a senders name is not enough!
• If you know that emails are being sent supposedly in your name perhaps even containing a virus, don't worry, you had nothing to do with it and it does not necessarily mean your computer is infected, though it is worth scanning and protecting it as described above.
• Do not respond to any emails that asks you to confirm your account details however genuine they may look. These are common 'phishing' scams that try to fool you to part with personal information so that money can be taken from you. See http://www.antiphishing.org/ for more information.
• Do not click on pop-ups that appear when you are using the internet and even unexpected 'system messages' alerting you to something such as a supposedly critical error. To be safe always close these pop-ups by pressing the Alt key at the same time as the F4 key.
• Use a web browser other than Internet Explorer when you can as it is the target of the majority of malicious code. You are not safe with other browsers just better protected. Try installing Firefox.
• Do not be fooled by hoax emails suggesting that there is an easy way to get rich or that your computer urgently needs to be checked in some way. See Hoax-Slayer for more.