The internet is great, and now most people with a computer will use the Internet daily or at least have some experience in using it.
Using the internet comes with risks. There are plenty of people out there who work hard in trying to spread around malicious software that, if unprotected, can find itself onto your PC. This software could at best cause your computer to slow down and nt work as it once did but at worst it could allow someone access to your personal files, folders and data and even ruin your computer to make it totally unusable.
Fear not as there are ways to protect yourself and this doesn’t have to cost anything.
A Firewall, in my opinion, is one of the most important items of protection you can get. This stops programs or in fact anything accessing the internet without your authorisation. Without this kind of protection, any program can send information over the internet as it chooses. If this happens to be a malicious program the results can be devestating.
Once your firewall is installed it will require a little configuring although most are very user friendly. All you need to do is allow or deny any program that is attempting to access the internet. If it is a trusted program, for example msn messenger or outlook express then you can always allow them, this will stop the prompt from reappearing. If you are unsure what the program is that is trying to access the internet then it is best to deny any attempt. If any given program then fails to function you know that you blocked a trusted program. Next time the prompt pops up – allow it.
Once you have gone through this initial stage of setting up the prompts should become less and less.
Tags: computer, firewall, internet, internet security
