Security and maintenance

Protection and Servicing

Protection

Computers online need protection on several fronts:

• FIREWALLS. A firewall on a computer can stop programs accessing the internet as well as the preventing the internet accessing your computer. 'Zone alarm' do a very good free firewall program.
• ANTI-VIRUS. Again a good free antivirus program is available from AVG. Warning! Only one anti-virus program can be used on a computer as they tend to confuse each other.
• ANTI-SPYWARE. Go to CNET, click on Downloads and 'search' for anti-spyware programs. This site is a good source software, both free and paid-for, as well as reviews and tips.

General Servicing and Back Up

General servicing is described later, but, first, a word about backing up your files. Sooner or later your computer is going to crash necessitating a reformat of your hard disk drive. Another fate worse than death is the demise of a hard disk drive.

One alternative is an external HDD. It is unlikely that both drives die at the same time. 'Clickfree Hard Disk Drives, whilst not cheap are the easiest to use.

Another recent discovery is SyncBack. This program (including the free version) is more than a backup program. It synchronises the destination to the source. I.E. if you delete a file on your computer, it is also deleted on the 'backup'. Perhaps not the easiest program to set up, but easy to use after that.