The Internet is a Dangerous Place. Vandals and Thieves abound and lurk behind the most innocent looking areas. Adware (a software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer), Spyware (computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent) and Viruses (a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer, and may do permanent damage, without knowledge of the user) are being written and distributed by the thousands - per day - worldwide.


IT IS IMPERATIVE that you protect yourself at all times when using the Internet. This is particularly true is you make on-line purchases (using a credit card), or do any on-line banking whatsoever - even just to check your savings or checking balances or brokerage accounts.


Run these 2 protective programs twice a week:


Ad-Aware 2007 - a free program for home use by LavaSoft

  1. Open the program. Check for, and download, any updates by clicking the “Update” button icon in the middle of the page. If it finds an update to the definitions file, click on “Yes”. You may need to do this a couple of times, and maybe answer for an update to the 'update manager'. Answer YES or OK to any of these questions.

  1. After all the updates are completed, click on the Scan Now button icon on the right side of the main window. A new screen will appear and the Smart Scan radio button will probably be selected. That's fine, leave it selected – click the Scan button icon in the lower right, and it will start to scan your hard drive. This may take quite a long time, if you have a lot of files.

  1. When the scan is complete you will see a results screen – look at the Summary of Scan towards the bottom, and see if any item were detected. If so click the Tab at the top to show the nature of the threat. (Usually tracking cookies.)

  2. Place a check in the box on all items and then select "Remove”. The items will go away, and then you can select the Finish button icon.

  3. Click the Red X at the top right of the next page to close the program - you’re done!


Spybot – Search and Destroy - a free program for home use by Patrick Kolla and Safer Networking

  1. Open Spybot and click “Search for Updates” in the middle section.

  1. After it connects and finds any updates, select Safer-Networking #2 (Europe) as the download server and click Continue. (That's and arbitrary choice, just the one I like – seems to work better that the others).

  1. On the next screen, the download files will have a checkmark beside them. That's good. Click Download at the bottom. After the downloads, you can select Exit from the Updater.

  1. Next click "Immunize" on the left side. Wait until it gets through checking the status, then click Immunize by the green cross at the top. When the cout at the top shows 0 Unprotected, the system is ready to scan.

  2. Click Search and Destroy on the left top to get the scan screen, then click "Check for Problems” at the top.

  1. When it's done scanning, and if any items are found, make sure they are all selected.

  1. Click "Fix Selected Problems" at the top – click ‘Next’ to remove, then ‘OK’ to finish.

Check to be sure AVG has been updated.




PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE


DO NOT download or install any other anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-popup, or anti-adware “Tools” from the Internet. They are, almost without exception, Trojans, and carry spyware and viruses with them. Just update and use what is in this Maintenance folder. You will find this to be adequate protection.


Also – DO NOT install any Toolbars. This includes Google, Yahoo, MySearch, BearShare,, etc.