You can download free firewall protection on the Internet … be aware that some of these offerings may not be as great as they sound. I use Norton’s Internet Security. It takes awhile to customize the program to individual needs, but it’s worth it. ZoneAlarm offers a product that has received conflicting reviews, primarily because it does not appear to be compatible with all operating systems.

Visit sites where you can run tests to check your computer’s vulnerability to hackers and to learn more about security issues.  I suggest starting with https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 or http://hackerwhacker.com/. Then visit http://www.scrounge.org/security.php3 for good general security information.

If you receive email, you probably receive a lot of information forwarded to you by friends and family about viruses.  Most of the time they will advise you to forward the email to everyone you know.  Take a moment and check the urban legend, virus, and hoax site (http://www.urbanlegends.com/) to determine if the “warning” you received is real, and do not pass on the ones that are not valid. Reporting false warnings is a form of a virus and will prevent people from paying attention to real virus alerts.

Here are some other sites to help you sort the fact from fiction: http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info/hoax/, http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/, http://www.virusbtn.com/.

Most importantly … prevention is worth a pound of cure … back up your data. If you do not know how, please call me to set up an appointment to visit your office and help you. If you find you do not have time to backup your data, we can arrange remote connections to your computer using Symantec’s pcAnywhere. I can backup your data for you daily, weekly, or bi-weekly.

Visit www.siteschemes.com or call 665-2875 today to learn more about Site Schemes’ discounts, services, and Web Schemes.

What’s a blog?

Last month I quoted from a UCLA study that stated that the average user spends 9.8 hours each week on the Internet. Ever wonder what people are doing with their time? Visiting a blog can be very revealing. Jorn Barger, blog pioneer, defines a blog as “a webpage where a weblogger (sometimes called a blogger, or a pre-surfer) 'logs' all the other webpages she finds interesting."

Among the thousands of blogs on the Internet, you can find some that are lists of daily Internet wanderings while others focus on specific subjects that researchers would find helpful.

To whet your appetite visit one of the blogs listed in the box on the right. If you become seriously interested in finding more blogs, visit the Open Directory at http://www.dmoz.org to find an endless supply.