Protecting Your Computer From Viruses, Adware, & Spyware

There are some basic things you must do to protect your computer from viruses and trojans, which are adware or sypware. All the programs I mention below are free to home users, and I am using them myself with good success.

First, install ZoneAlarm which is a firewall, it will prevent many programs and hackers from gaining access to your computer, and if a program does manage to install itself on your computer, it will not allow it out. When a program wants access to the internet ZoneAlarm will popup and ask if you want to allow such and such program to access the internet, to which you should always say no except for your web browsers and other programs that access the net to install updates. Additionally, if you have Windows XP, it has a built-in firewall which will function along with ZoneAlarm.

When an unknown program tries to access the internet, that is a sign that you need to scan for trojans and viruses. There are several free trojan removers, they do not all find all the trojans so I scan with several different of these programs. I use Ad-Aware, Spyware Doctor, and Spybot Search & Destroy. Spyware Sweeper is also good but is slow and you only get one free update. Combofix is one you should use if you get a real virus or spyware that the others will not find or remove. Also try Spyware Terminator and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware.

I also use SypwareGuard which runs all the time and protects your computer from being hijacked. When this happens your browser will go to pages, usually porn, that you have not clicked. You click on a link in any web site, and rather than going to that link it goes to a porn site or a site filled with ads. When this happens it is time to scan your computer with your virus scanner and spyware scanners.

Also, if you are using the net and you are at a site that would normally not have popups, but you get popup ads, then you have trojans on your system.

The best things to do to prevent viruses and trojans is to say away from any web site in Russia, and porn sites. And always delete any email with attachments from people that you do not know.

If you ever get some bad trojans that cannot be detected by the free programs, go to web sites that offer free online virus scans that will find and clean your files. Some companies offer this service in the hopes that you will buy their virus software.

If worst comes to worst, you can install a trial version of software that you normally have to pay for, that will find and clean your system until the trial runs out, usually 15 days or 30 days. Some trial versions only find and do not clean. TrojanBlaster is one that will find and clean your files.

All the programs mentioned here can be found at download.com or some other download site, as well as their company's home web site. Just search with google to find them.

One of THE best Antivirus Programs is called AVG and was free to home users but is no longer. I have found it better than Norton System Works. There are free programs which you can download from download.com and pcworld.com.

Michael Fortner
webmaster