Small Business Computer Services - Home Computer Services
Australian Owned and Operated
Australian Owned and Operated
Safe computer use should be a priority for all users. Buying a computer, setting it
up and start work is no longer enough. There are many people out there who attempt to spoil
the fun of computer use. Unfortunately the people who attempt spoiling the fun for computer
uses are succeeding by inventing new schemes like spam, phishing, computer fraud, get rich
quick, gambling and pornography to obtain money by deceit. Users need to be aware of basic
safe computer use and terminology like computer virus, firewall and spyware. Here we will
warn you about some of the pitfalls of using a computer with safety. Hopefully this will
not spoil the fun computer use should be.
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Now you bought a computer and you would like to get the most out of it. Soon you will find
that the computer was the cheapest item. The cost of the software (computer programs) you
need to do all the things you wanted to do is going to add up. Your computer most likely
came with an operating system like Microsoft Windows. If you have later versions of this
operating system like Windows XP or Windows Vista you will get a lot of utility programs
that you should put to good use.
After starting up your computer the first thing recommended is to connect to the internet.
NO! Not for fun right now but for safety. Once connected to the internet do NOT visit any
web sites you consider fun as that could be dangerous. First update your operating system.
In Windows the update option is located in the start menu under programs. Before installing
any other programs or doing anything else updateing your operating system will fix most
problems that were found with the operating system. After all operating systems are very
complex and it would be close to impossible to foresee all problems. You will need to
continue updating your operating system at regular intervals. For more advanced users I
would recommend to turn off the default setting of automated updates as this will not allow
you to check what is being updated. Everyone needs to do most critical updates offered.
All other updates to the operating system are optional. Always restart your computer after
updating.
Next you need to set up users. You need at least two user accounts. One user account that
is allowed access to everything link program installation, full operating system access, and
all other rights.
You then also need to set up another user who is not able to access administration rights as
mentioned above. That is the account you need to log onto to connect to the internet.
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Now that you have succeeded updating your operating system you need to configure your
operating system. Windows XP and Windows Vista come with firewall software. The firewall
software in Windows XP is basic and cannot be trusted on its own. Windows Vista firewall
software is a little better. However I would strongly recommend that you obtain other
software like "zonealarm". You can get this software by visiting a site like
www.download.com
or
www.tucows.com
. This software comes in several versions. A basic version that will
provide very good firewall protection and some more advanced versions that will do a lot
more but need to be paid for. A firewall basically prevents other people from accessing
the files on your computer and obtaining information from your computer. Do not forget to
check for updates once the software is installed. As I suggest with all software you
should turn off the automatic updates but not the reminders as you do not know what is being
updated. However if you are not sure how to do this or you do not know what is updated
under any circumstances just allow the software to update itself. Again after installing
the firewall software you will need to re-start your computer.
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Next you need to obtain anti virus software. Computer viruses are a great threat to all
users as they can destroy data, make your operating system misbehave, send information from
your computer to people you do not wish to have it e.g. your internet banking passwords or
E-Mail contact list. A computer virus is a computer program that does something naughty.
Again you can obtain free antivirus software like Avast or AVG via
www.download.com
or
www.tucows.com
or you may purchase anti virus software like Nortons Antivirus by Symantec. Whichever
software you choose be aware that you need to update the software and its data files very
regularly, even daily. Just buying the software in a shop, installing it and then not
updating it will NOT protect against some computer viruses. Generally you can only ever
have one anti virus program installed or your computer may become inoperable.
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Spyware detection software is another piece of software that needs to be installed
before you can start working on your computer.
www.download.com
and
www.tucows.com
are the place to look for this software. However you now need to be careful as some
software claiming to be a spyware / adware checker are spyware / adware. That defeats
the purpose of having this kind of software. Spyware is software that does everything it
says it will do but sends information from your PC to someone else. It may e.g. send
away all the web sites you have visited and you may then receive advertisements via
E-Mail that are targeted to your interests. You may say that this is not bad but the
advertisements may become that frequent that your E-Mail becomes unusable. Some virus
checkers will claim to do spyware / adware checking but you may wish to install
additional software like Adaware. Again the basic version is free and the more
extensive versions need to be paid for. It is up to you to decide which version you
need.
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Windows comes with an internet browser called Internet Explorer. You will need an
internet browser to visit web sites. If your PC is able to handle it I would strongly
recommend that you update to Internet Explorer 7 or later. Otherwise I would
recommend that you obtain a browser like mozilla firefox. You may use the links above
to obtain this software or you may use the link provided under the useful link tab on
this web site. The reason for using this software is to protect your PC. Internet
Explorer 7 provides for a "pop up blocker" that stops some nasty web sites from
displaying bad content (e.g. pornography and gambling) as well as running some nasty
programs similar to a computer virus embedded in web sites. Using browsers other then
Internet Explorer 7 is recommended as people who wish to attack a PC will try to
attack the most common software first. Internet Explorer is free with Windows and
therefore a lot of people are using it and it is easy to gain lots of information by
attacking it
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E-Mail is one of the reasons why the internet became as popular as it is. E-Mail is
a way to communicate to other internet users. Outlook Express is the E-Mail program
that comes with Windows. Once you have it set up it is just a matter of typing a
message and addressing the message to someone else and you communicate. Where the
problem starts is that people send each other attachments via E-Mail. These
attachments can present a danger to your computer as they may be a computer virus or
spyware / adware. It is a good idea to save all attachments to a folder on your
computer and NOT to open them until you have virus checked them. This advice is valid
for ALL attachments. Even attachments from people you know very well may contain
nasty things like a computer virus. The person you received it from may not be
aware they are infected by a computer virus as a computer virus may not do anything
for a long time and then destroy your data. Attachments like computer programs
should NEVER be opened. Attachments from people you do not know should also be
deleted.
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The usenet is a service provided by most internet service providers and is similar
to E-Mail. The difference is that any message posted to the usenet is available
to everyone who has access to this service. The usenet may be configured within
Outlook Express or other specialised software. I highly recommend NOT to post
to the usenet using your main E-Mail address as this is an invitation to receive
spam (see below). The usenet needs to be strictly supervised by parents as there
are some very nasty things contained within a lot of useful information.
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Spam is advertisements send to you that you do not want. Spam may become very
bad to the extent that your E-Mail becomes unusable. Spam is happening when a
user gives out their E-Mail address to people who do not need it. Posting on
the usenet is one of these ways. Putting your E-Mail address onto forms within
web sites is another way to get spam. Sure, sometimes it is required to provide
your E-Mail address but a little care is needed. Maybe you should consider an
E-Mail address provided by someone like
www.hotmail.com
that can be used when first providing a contact E-Mail address and once the
contact proves trustworthy provide your main E-Mail address.
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E-Mail provides naughty people with lot of opportunities to trick honest people.
One now common way is sending E-Mails that look like they come from businesses
the user is dealing with. A good example are E-Mails that appear to be from
banks asking the user to click on a link within the E-Mail and confirm their
account details such as their password. NEVER do this! Banks will NOT ask you
to confirm passwords and other account information via E-Mail. If in doubt ring
your bank or better still go to a branch and ask what the E-Mail is all about.
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As mentioned previously E-Mail provides a vehicle that opens up access to a user.
This is exploited in a lot of ways creating computer fraud opportunities. The
"Nigerian Scam" is a classic. It basically involves a contact from
someone who pretends to be a government official or company director who has a
large amount of money that needs to be transferred to an overseas bank account.
NEVER fall for this. As soon as you have sent your account number your account
is likely to be empty. A variation of this is money laundering where proceeds of
crime are actually send to the account and the owner of the account will receive
a percentage of the money until the police knocks on the door and wants to know
details about the crimes that generated the cash-flow. "Get rich quick"
schemes generally do not work.
Next is asking for charity donations. Unfortunately nasty people take advantage
of the good will of people by asking for donations. The little girl who has
cancer and needs small donations for a life saving operation has been on the
internet as long as the internet existed. Donations send will NEVER reach the
person intended. If you are kind enough to provide a donation to charity
please do it via a well know charity like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army
or whatever else is your favourite
charity.
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Truth and the internet could be considered an oxymoron. Well not quite. There is
a lot of good information around. Like this page. But how would you know that
what you read is true? Let me invite you to do what you should do with all
information on the internet: CHECK WHAT YOU READ! As far as what is here is
concerned may I invite the user of this page to read information provided by the
NSW Police service to check the truth of the information provided?
The internet is great to get general information but there is some information that
you should be very careful with. Medical information is the first warning.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people around who offer hope in exchange for money.
Before taking any kind of medical advice provided on the net ALWAYS check with your
local doctor.
Second in line is medication. Buying medication on line may appear to be cheap.
While there may be high quality pharmacies on the internet I would suggest that
buying on line is risky. How do you know what you are getting is the medicine you
are after and not sugar pills dressed up like the real thing? You do not! And
buying prescription only medicine without your doctor‘s consent is outright
dangerous and saving a few dollars may cost you your life.
Financial advice is the next casualty on the internet. Beware! If it sounds too
good to be true it generally is. If official interest rates are around 6% how
could someone offer 20% or more? Trust web sites like the Australian Stock
Exchange and similar for financial information. However still check with your own
financial advisor before making any kind of financial decision.
Legal advice falls into the same category as the previous paragraphs. Legal advice
is as personal as medical and financial advice. Get personal advice from a
properly qualified lawyer.
How about these beautiful free offers on the internet? Please be careful. If the
offer is free why would they need your credit card number? May be an identity
check? How would a credit card number typed in over the internet identify you?
Ask why your identity needs to be verified and why your credit card number is
needed.
As we are talking about credit cards and the internet; how about buying things
over the internet using your credit card number? It is possible to buy lots of
things over the internet. Check when you are ask to type in your credit card
number that you are on a secure site. You can recognise this as in your browser
window there will be a little padlock symbol. Without this padlock symbol visible
do not give your credit card information away. Another check you should make is
the web address. Firstly check that the web address is the address that you
expect. Then check if the web address contains ".au". Thus
www.uwepacker.net.au
will afford you the protection of Australian consumer law but www.thatshop.com
will not provide the same protection. This is important as the ".au"
registration requires the business to be registered in Australia. A ".com"
registration may be located anywhere in the world and it may be that you have to
travel to the country of registration to get legal rights.
Even with all of these checks ALWAYS check your credit card statement carefully
for unauthorised charges.
Chatting on the internet is very popular with young people. Chatting is similar
to E-Mail but you are typing into a web page or use a special computer program to
type your messages. The person you intend the message for can read what you type
as you are typing it and they may then answer and you can read their answer as
soon as they type it. This is the major difference between chatting and E-Mail.
With E-Mail the person you send the message to does not have to be on the internet
as you are sending the message while with chatting the receiver of the message
needs to be in the internet. Unfortunately you have no way of knowing who is on
the other side of the chat. Someone may tell you they are a 29 year old rich
doctor but in reality they may be employed as a council worker cleaning the
streets and has a huge mortgage. While there is nothing wrong with either
situation the misrepresentation is the problem. NEVER meet anyone person to
person you only know from a char room alone in a quiet area. If you need to meet
someone from a chat room meet the person in a very public place and take a bunch
of friends with you. Be safe! NEVER answer personal questions via a chat room.
Why would a person need to know your phone number or address? You are just
chatting on the internet. Be careful telling someone in a chat room anything
about yourself as this data may be used to find you or rip you off in some way.
Chatting with people you know in real life is much safer.
Gambling is frequently offered as a service on the internet. It is not advisable
to get involved with on-line gambling as you do not know where the web site is
registered and what the laws are in that country. It may be legal to only return
5% of investment where in Australia 80% of investment needs to be returned.
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Be very careful as to what personal information you disclose over the internet.
Whenever you are ask to provide any kind of information ask yourself why this
information is needed. Be sensible and apply common sense to this question. When
you are filling out a survey or playing a game why would your credit card number
be needed? Why would someone in a chat room need your full name? For that
matter why would they need your phone number?
Let‘s look at the phone number as an example. Once I know your phone number I
am able to use a reverse phone directory to look up your address. I now have
your name as well. With this information I am able to find out what bank you
are with and how much you own on your mortgage as well as what car you are
driving. I am now able to obtain credit in your name without you knowing
anything about it. This is called identity theft. For obvious reasons I am
not able to discuss the details as to how this can be done but let me assure you
that all of this information can be obtained without breaking the law. It is
just a matter of knowing where to look. My ethics forbid me to use this
methodology. However I can warn people that it exists.
If you decide to do internet banking be careful. You are dealing with machines
and computer programs. No matter how much the banks wish you to believe that
their systems are 100% safe they are NOT. I highly recommend that your check all
your paper statements carefully. Take down any receipt numbers you are given as
well as the details of the transaction. There is a reason why these are provided
to you. Any discrepancy you notice you need to report to the bank straight away.
Should your computer malfunction for any reason while you are doing internet
banking check what happened to the transaction you were busy with before the
fault. Any mistake you make typing in account numbers is very important. Banks
do NOT check names against account numbers. Thus if you make a mistake and the
name does not match the account number typed in the transaction is completed
according to the account number typed in.
NEVER give anyone your username and password. NEVER give anyone your account
details. The bank will refuse any responsibility should you not take this advice.
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If possible change your passwords at regular intervals of about 30 days. Do not
repeat passwords you have used during the last 12 month. Do not use passwords
that are easily guessed. Your birthday, your name, your wives / husbands name
or similar are out. Do not use any word from any dictionary in any language.
Make up a nice word and put in numbers as well as upper and lower case letters.
Unfortunately password systems are not consistent. Thus some passwords may only
accept numbers where others may only accept letters. Other systems again accept
a mix of both. Do not allow your computer to remember any passwords. I remember
a client who saved all his passwords and allowed his computer to remember them.
While servicing his computer I needed a password and displayed a list of all
passwords on the screen while the customer was looking over my shoulder.
Needless to say that I was asked to change the password settings as well as
providing the other service. Passwords in operating systems are stored in known
places and they can be retrieved.
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Downloads are anything that you can transfer to your computer from another
computer. There are lots of programs, pictures, movies, etc. available on the
internet. Generally pictures and movies cannot hurt you or your computer.
However programs can do a lot of damage. Download your programs from a
trusted source. Just by downloading the program no damage can be done to your
computer. After downloading check the file with your anti virus software.
Only if the anti virus software does not give you any warning can you execute
(run) to program. Do NOT allow a program to run directly from the internet.
While I said that pictures and movies cannot hurt you I wish to make the point
that I would still recommend that you virus check these files after download
as people may try to disguise a program file as a picture. Please also check
data files like spreadsheets and word processed documents as they may also
contain a computer virus.
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Above there are some suggestions for essential software. You may wish to
install software that fits your circumstances. Try to obtain your software
from reputable dealers. Do not use pirated software as this type of software
may contain anything from a computer virus to spyware. Should you not be able
to afford software there is plenty of free software available. Even free
operating systems (linux) are available. Productivity software like Open
Office will be able to take care of your business requirements. Networking
(connecting two or more computers), drawing, web design, security, games and
just about anything else you can think of is available for free in one form or
the other. There is no need for you to risk the heavy fines connected with
pirated software.
When you obtain software ALWAYS make a copy of the software. Only use this
copy and keep the original disk in a safe place. Keep a record of your
registration numbers and any other information you need to re-install the
software. Avoid software that requires an attachment to your computer (a
dongle) as if you loose the attachment it is very expensive to replace the
attachment. While I am definitely not a friend of internet activation some
of the software you get cannot be used otherwise. Try to avoid this kind
of software where possible.
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