Travel Warnings for the Internet

New computer? Before you do anything, make sure you're protected.

I'm not exaggerating. These days I think the US State Department should issue Travel Warnings for the Internet, just like they do for countries that are dangerous or unstable.

As they say in the advertising business,  you have to be crazy not to be paranoid!

First Step: Make sure you update Windows regularly. Microsoft issues regular automatic security updates. But to get those updates, you have to have Automatic Updates set up to receive them, or you have manually update Windows yourself.

Go to Start, Control Panel, and double click on Security Center. See if Automatic Updates are set to load. That is Windows' recommended setting. If you don't want to let them take charfe of installing updates and want more control of what Microsoft is installing, change the setting to automatically download the updates and only notify you that you have updates ready to be installed. Then check the list and decide what to install and when. (If you have never updated before, check with your IT expert before installing Windows Genuine Advantage authentication or Service Pack 3. This is not the place for a detailed discussion, but these updates can sometimes cause more problems that they solve.)

Until next time, remember: NEVER DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM AN EMAIL MESSAGE. OK, not "never" but don't click on any links in an email unless you are expecting the link and know for sure who sent it to you. Even if you think an email is from someone you know, the return address might have been spoofed. And NEVER download any program from any site you're not absolutely sure is safe. I usually download software from http://www.download.com/. If there's a program you want to get, try them first.

Next time we discuss Firewalls. Meanwhile, follow these email precautions. Stay safe!