The E-Mails You Receive

If you have been using the Internet for sometime, you should be really familiar with spam. They are just as annoying as real-life door-to-door salesmen, trying to sell you everything from penis/breast enlargement creams to Russian mail order brides. But they are not as bad as those infamous Nigerian 419 scam. Even lawyers and doctors have fallen for those schemes and lost thousands of dollars.

E-mails are also an excellent conduit for viruses and trojans to spread. They often come in the form of an e-mail with file attachments. Don't treat all e-mails you get as genuine, even if they are from a person you trust. Viruses and trojans can hijack your friend's PC and have it send infected e-mails to your PC.

For example, if your friend suddenly sends you an e-mail asking you to check out these pictures of his naked sister, don't just assume the guy is drunk again. Ask him if it's for real before you open the attachment! Viruses and trojans will not reply. That may well save your system from the same infection.

The same applies for all other forms of communications, like instant messengers or message boards. Do not click links that are sent to you without first confirming it with the sender that it is valid. Viruses can force infected instant messengers to send you links or attachments that will infect your PC if you click or open them. So, always ask your friend if he just sent you a valid file or link.

Learn from my experience. I once clicked on a link my friend sent me by MSN Messenger. It turned out his PC was infected a virus and that virus was designed to spread through MSN Messenger by sending links to all the contacts in his MSN account. Needless to say, my system was infected. The virus corrupted my operating system, and I had to format the partition and reinstall the operating system and software. So remember this - it only takes you a few seconds to ask your friend if the link/file is valid. That could save you a LOT of grief.

Spyware Blaster

If you fancy an additional layer of protection, Javacool Software's Spyware Blaster is unique when it comes to the way it protects your system from spyware. It generally works by preventing spyware from being installed in the first place using a myriad of methods.

The main point to note is unlike other anti-spyware software, it takes a refreshing new course of action - immunizing your system and protecting it before it gets infected by anything nasty. Plus it's smart enough to block access to websites that are known to be bad. As I've said earlier, prevention is better than cure.

Like all protective software, you'll have to update it constantly to get the best out of its capabilities. But once that's done, just click Enable All Protection and you're good to go. However, I must warn you that using so will render any websites that use ActiveX unusable, but that's the price you pay for security.

Spybot Search & Destroy

I mentioned Spybot Search & Destroy earlier as one of the spyware scanners you can use. Spybot also has an immunization feature which you can use. While that feature doesn't offer as comprehensive a protection as Spyware Blaster, it is far better than nothing.

Besides, you can use it to complement Spyware Blaster. It's like wearing two Kevlar vests. If a bullet punches through the first layer, there's a second layer to back you up. And while wearing two real Kevlar vests is both cumbersome and heavy, the same is not true when it comes to anti-spyware software.

Again, you'll need to remember to keep it updated to get the best protection possible. After that, just click the Immunize button and you're set.