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Thread: just introducing myself & a few questions

  1. #11
    Everyone has had some great advice.

    My best advice is to read what you can about computers and whatnot. Start with books to help you learn about OSes (start with windows books) then start moving onto stuff like networking and programming.

    And follow devpons advice about getting out, Real Life > Computers/Gaming, always.

  2. #12
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    And follow devpons advice about getting out, Real Life > Computers/Gaming, always.
    Wimmin


  3. #13
    IT Specialist Ghost_25inf's Avatar
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    Let me say Welcome to AO, So what I would sugest a good starting point is MBSA (Micorsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) Download this tool from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

    This tool will show you where your flaws are and give you the approperate fix for that flaw.

    Dont go crazy on the firewalls and AV, yes its great to have them implemented but if you are any gamer like me, these programs will slow down your game play.

    I suggest not keeping any personal information on your computer like: Credit card info, SSN, or any other thing you feel is personal. Keep these things on CD's, external drives, or thumb drives, or like me in my head.

    Now im not saying not to have a firewall and antivirus but read up on them see how much resourses they take up.

    Get all the Updates Microsoft offers for your system minus the hardware updates. Usually hardware updates from Microsoft aren't the best ones out there.

    Stay away from P2P (kazaa, Bearshare, ect.) these programs share from many different computers that you have no Idea what you are downloading. Sites with many popups will usually throw up a red flag (bad news). So stick to well know sites, and dont trust a link.

    If you do use a credit card and make purchases online make sure that you are secure. look at the address bar does it say https:// ? If not then anyone can see what info you are sending. I find using paypal is your best bet.

    Ad-Aware and SpyBot are the two most common programs used when scanning for spyware, adware, and malware. I find that these two programs do the job. There are many others out there claiming to be the best but once you test them you will find they dont quite cut the mustard.

    Well thats just a few things you can do to begin with, the more you read up on security the better you will get at securing your PC.
    S25vd2xlZGdlIGlzIHBvd2VyIQ

  4. #14
    Originally posted here by nihil
    Wimmin

    Thats one of those things that will drive you back to computers though

  5. #15
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    Antivirus

    Hi there

    I agree with what everyone has said so far so I cannot post much to help you. The only thing I am paranoid about is viruses at the moment. There are 2 types of people in the world. someone that has been attacked by a virus and someone that hasnt. I use AVG and keep it up to date however from time to time (say every two weeks) i scan my PC online and one of the major companies, trend micro. It can be found here http://housecall.trendmicro.com/hous...start_corp.asp. They install a little proggie so you can scan. It is totally harmless and you dont need to worry. This online scanner has found many trogans, viruses etc that my normal anti-virus cannot pickup.

    Anyway keepposting those questions and the community will be more than willing to help you.

  6. #16
    Senior Member Spekter1080's Avatar
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    As far as your browser goes, Astral, I suggest also looking into the many extensions for firefox. There are script blockers and other tools that you may find interesting. You can find some of the extensions on the firefox website, or just google them. Furthermore, because firefox is not evil, the extensions should be legit wherever you get them, at least I haven't had any problems...
    there's always a way in...

  7. #17
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    THE most importat thing to do to keep your computer secure is to keep current on patches for all your software and keep your virus defs up tp date. beyond that its just common sense.
    Bukhari:V3B48N826 “The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’”

  8. #18
    Dissident 4dm1n brokencrow's Avatar
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    Lots of good advice thru this thread.

    You might also consider a router on your internet connection if you don't already have one. A NAT router will mitigate the need for a firewall on your PC.

    Also not a bad idea to start picking up some linux skills via "live cd's" like Knoppix.
    “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” — Will Rogers

  9. #19
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    Just a quick tip:
    Stonee as said it, but since you use Firefox, check out the NoScript addon for FF, it allows you to choose what sites you allow java/js on (ebanking for example) and blocks everything else.
    It comes in handy for when you visit sites that may try no hijack your cookies or explore a system flaw through scripts.

    http://noscript.net

  10. #20

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