Guide to internet security (by Ciro)

This guide is for Internet security and how to avoid getting viruses and other infections on your PC.

To start you need a firewall. A firewall is a virtual wall around your PC that blocks intruders. Windows XP SP2 comes with a built in firewall but it ain't exactly solid. I recommend that you disable it by getting into the security centre through control panel. At the bottom there is a link that says windows firewall. Click it and select the "off" square.

Now with that done we need to find a new good firewall. There are alot of freeware ones around. The best (in my opinion) is Zone Alarm.
Open the installation wizard. It is pretty straight forward from there. Don't participate in all that survey stuff. When it is installed you can set it all up. When ever a program tries to access the Internet you can either allow it or deny it. But only turn all that on high if you are a security freak like me. If your not interested in zone alarm you might want to invest in a proper one like Norton or Mcaffe.

So you have a firewall, now what.

Now you need an anti-virus program like AVG or Spyware docter. Anti-virus programs can search and remove viruses that may have got past your firewall. Like a firewall they need to be updated very regularly because new viruses are discovered every day. If your firewall is out of date there is no point in even having it.

Is it better to have lots of firewalls

The simple answer to that question is no. When you have multiple firewalls installed they will clash and not do what there meant to do. Thats why i said to disable windows firewall at the start of this article. And they will be fighting for the default firewall which can frankly be a pain in the ass.
But this is not the case for anti-virus programs. You can have as many of them as you want. Some may pick up viruses that other ones will ignore.

What would you recommend

Well as i said Zone Alarm is the best freeware firewall, but when it comes to anti-virus i have a few. Firstly my PC doesn't like many of the free anti-virus programs. I have tried alot of them like Spyware Docter, Spy Sweeper and many others. And they all had the same effect on my PC. Nothing would respond and i couldn't click on anything or open anything. I ended up system restoring every time. Now i am very cautious of what program i will install. But i have found one that finds most spyware and doesn't kill my PC. Its AVG Anti-virus, Although the interference isn't that friendly the virus scanner is a piece of work. Most sites i have read only give it a 5 or so out of 10, but I'm not sure why. There are two other programs i would also recommend. They are Spbot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware. These are all free ware programs.

By Michael Yeates

hey chey

thought i should let you know that i don't mind you having my guides here- thanks for putting my name there. They are really old - i wrote them in like grade 6 or something so the information might be false. Anyway it;s your call if you want to display them or not - although there very bad quality as opposed to what i could write now.

what the hell are you talking about!

ive been your friend for nearly 6 years why wouldn't i like you