Not knowing what OS are you using, it is difficult to give you more
precise advise, but....
The current, sorry state of windows computing necesitates drastic
measures to maintain a secure platform. You have already touched on
the two main ones, not using MSIE and Outlook, aka "best damn virus
and spyware vectors around". For spyware I use ad-aware and Spybot S&D
(get it from download.com). I find that they complement each other
nicely. For anti-virus, McCaffee and Norton are very competent
programs, worth their price, even though there are many others out
there.
But those programs do not deal with the huge number of attacks on your
computer thorugh the network itself, from crackers, bots and worms
running rampant in the net at large. Latest reports on slahsdot.org
about the average time for an unprotected computer to be attacked and
invaded is *7 minutes* after connection to a high speed network. If
you access the internet, you need a firewall, even if you are using
only dialup. Get the free version of ZoneAlarm at the very least. Even
better, get a phisycally separate firewall, either in a router or even
better, something like Smoothwall (smoothwall.org) on an old PC
(pentium 133mhz, 32MB memory and 1 gig hard drive are about the
minimum required).
Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to be "just a user" and hope
to keep your computer clean of bots and viruses. You have to take some
active steps to learn about the modes of attack and the way to protect
yourself.
Good luck... or just take the big step and switch to linux. Ubuntu
linux will run very well on a 700MHz and up computer (Pentium or
Athlon), for example, and comes with Firefox, OpenOffice and many
other good alternatives to MS programs. OM related bit: gPhoto and
gPhoto2 can talk directly to almost all Olympus cameras out there, via
their USB ports or via their old serial connectors. And you can't beat
the price.
> From: "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 14:34:58 +1300
> Subject: [OM] (OM) Computing security - OT - and stuff
>
> Hi all,
>
> One of the end-of year messages I received and really could have done
> without came from GRISOFT Antivirus cz whose product I have been using
> satisfactorily for some years,
>
> The announcement was that the current Free version, V6, was discontinued,
> and if I wished to continue I needed to download V7 which worked on an
> entirely different basis.
>
> Having been not long ago faced with a similar message from Lavasoft, the
> advertisement-trojan killer program (and for which there would be
> unfortunately a similar outcome), I set about upgrading. Apparently V7 would
> uninstall V6, and all would be well.
>
> The download for V7 was somewhere in the vicinity of 10 MB size which did
> not please me greatly, but I got on with it.
>
> On trying to install I soon got the message that my system needed
> dcom95.exe, which I had to hunt down and install, not without some hard
> work.
>
> Another 1.5 MB space on C drive I didn't really want to give up.
>
> Go back to the install. Oh oh; now it tells me I need MSIE 5.01 or later, or
> Microsoft Office 2000.
>
> A few years ago with a feeling of considerable relief I rid my machine of all
> Microsoft browsers and mail clients due the the considerable virus and back-
> door client hazard they bring with them. I did not want to bring that stuff
> back in. Oh, and MSIE 5.01, when I did eventually find a copy, is about
> 68MB. Goodness knows what the installed size is.
>
> Back to the drawing-board. My currently most-used browser, Opera 3.61,
> does most things I want, and very rapidly, and the download program easily
> fits on a floppy disk. Not 68 MB, installed or not.
>
> I'm on the lookout for a new anti-virus program and a new anti-advertisement
> trojan protector. Quite a blow to lose both within a few months of each
> other.
>
> In the meantime, preoccupied with this viral treatment stuff, I neglected a
> local auction for a copy of the paper Olympus Sales Information File in great
> shape, and a copy of the OM system book, shape ditto. Both went for under
> $15US, dagnabit.
>
> Brian
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