Computer Security
There is a site where you can check to see how secure your computer is from invasion by hackers. Go to www.grc.com - scroll down to, and click halfway to where you see ShieldsUp Services, and click on "All Service Ports"
If you have ZoneAlarm running, you will get several notices that an attempt to access your computer has taken place. Just click OK on all of those.
Scroll down on the page until you see some green or blue squares.
If you have Windows XP and have your firewall enabled, or if you have ZoneAlarm, you will see a whole lot of green squares (hopefully ALL green squares) and at the end of that you'll get the message "Passed"
However, if you get a lot of blue squares, a few green and possibly some red squares, you'll get the message "Failed" and you can read what that means.... its kind of scary.
If you decide to get a firewall for your Windows 95, 98 or Me computer, you can just get the FREE version of ZoneAlarm - it works very well. If you have XP and need to activate your firewall, read the next article.
New Computer?
If you've purchased a new computer in the last year or so, it came with Windows XP but there are a few things about XP that you need to know.
1. If you want to, you can make XP "look" like Windows 98. If you feel you'd be more comfortable with the old look, then by all means change it. It won't affect how the computer works, only how it looks to you.
2. Firewall: When you get Windows XP, the firewall that is integrated with it, is not activated. You'll have to do that yourself. To do so, go to Control Panel, Network Connections. When you see your dial-up connection, RIGHTclick on the icon for it, click on Properties, click on the Advanced tab and put a checkmark next to the information about the firewall.
3. QuickLaunch: Remember when you had the QuickLaunch down by the Start button? It held icons for some of the programs you use all the time.... Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, your ISP connection, etc. Well, that's still there, but XP doesn't activate that either.
To activate that, RIGHTclick on a blank area of the taskbar (the area between the Start button and the systray, where the clock is) and slide up to Toolbars - slide over and click once on QuickLaunch. It will appear right where it should be. Now you can remove any icons you DON'T want there, and put others there that you DO want. To remove any, just RIGHTclick on one, then click Delete on the pop-up menu. To add one, RIGHTclick on any on the Desktop and drag it down to the QuickLaunch.
Test Your Internet Speed
You can view the speed at which you're connected to your ISP by holding your mouse over the little "monitor" icons in the Systray while you're online. But to get a real good report, go to www.bandwidthplace.com - click on Speed Test. On the next screen click next to either low-speed or high-speed. It will give you a much more accurate check of your connection. (You don't have to fill in the survey to view the results, but you can do it if you want.)
Check to see how long it would take to download a 1 MB file. That's a pretty good indicator. I have a cable Internet connection, so I do the high-speed test and can d/l a 1 MB file in about 4 to 7 seconds.
Caution
Be careful when dumping your Temporary Internet Files. The best (and by far the safest way) is to open Internet Explorer, click on Tools, click on Internet Options, click in the middle of the next screen on the Delete Files button.
The more files that there are in there, the longer you'll see your hourglass. But when the hourglass is gone, and you are seeing your normal arrow again, they'll be cleaned out.