Use these tips to protect yourself and your computer from email scams.Â
By Janette BlackwellThe Internet is filled with scams, and eventually they wind up in your e-mail box. The ingenuity of these people is astonishing. Their goal is usually to get you to click on an e-mail attachment, so they can infect your computer with a virus, a tracking cookie, and/or a trojan horse.• COMPUTER VIRUSES strike fear into all our hearts. When a particularly vicious virus comes out, announcements are made on television and in newspapers. For a good discussion of computer viruses, go to http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm.
• A COOKIE can be perfectly aboveboard and even helpful. For example, when you visit Amazon.com, you get a cookie which enables their computer to recognize you when you return and to remember the sort of thing you’re interested in. TRACKING COOKIES, on the other hand, record the places you go online and what links you click on, telling advertisers what type of ads should be aimed at you. It’s true, they won’t transmit a virus, but who wants an Internet bloodhound baying on their trail? Good anti-spyware will remove tracking cookies.
• A TROJAN HORSE pretends to be something it is not, such as an e-mail from a friend or something you’ve ordered. The text of the e-mail may say, “Here is the information you wanted.†Or, “Keep this as a secret between you and me.†Or, “You’ve just won our grand prize!†Anything to make you click on that attachment. Once you do, the trojan horse takes over your computer. It can do any malicious thing it wants, from erasing files to changing your desktop. It then propagates by sending itself to other people in your address book.
A good friend just had his Internet address list stolen, and I’ve been getting messages supposedly from him ever since. They all want me to click on an attachment to the e-mail. I e-mailed asking him if he’d sent that message. He had not.
Even if you’re smart enough not to click on a trojan horse attachment yourself, one of the friends on your address list may do so, your address will then be stolen, and off you go into the underworld.
Once scammers get your e-mail address, they may use it to send malicious e-mails to thousands of people in your name. I usually discover this when I get “I’m out of the office†automatic responder messages from people I never heard of. It’s frustrating, but I know it isn’t my fault.
• Anti-scam rule 1: Never click on an attachment from a good friend unless you are positive the friend sent it. It takes only a minute to click on “Reply†and ask the friend, “Did you really send this?â€
• Anti-scam rule 2: Never double-click on an e-mail attachment that contains an executable, such as an EXE, COM or VBS suffix. Once you click on it, an executable can do any sort of damage it wants. (Enough people now know this to make the scammer say, “This attachment is virus-free.†If you believe that, I’ve got a nice bridge I’d like to sell you.)
• Anti-scam rule 3: Your computer CANNOT be infected by an e-mail attachment unless you click on the attachment. If you simply delete the suspicious message without clicking on a link or the attachment, you’re okay.
REAL CHUTZPAH
It’s so awful it’s funny, but after the scammers have used your stolen address to scam thousands, they have one more scam up their sleeves. This is the message they sent me:
“Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of spam during this week. Obviously, your computer was compromised and now contains a trojan proxy server. Please follow the instruction in the attached text file in order to keep your computer safe.
Sincerely yours,
The foodandfiction.com team.â€
My first thought was, “How nice. These people are sympathetic to my problem and want to help me.†And then I thought, “Wait a minute! This message is supposedly from the foodandfiction.com team. Food and Fiction, http://foodandfiction.com, is me, myself, and I, and I never sent that message.†Of course, if my e-mail address had been, say, AOL, the message would have been signed, “the AOL.com team.†I might have thought the dear folks at AOL were trying to help me, and I’d have clicked on that attachment. Which was of course from the scammer, not AOL, and would have infected me.
• Anti-scam rule 4: Having your address stolen does NOT infect you with a virus or trojan horse. If you don’t open suspicious attachments, you are all right — though you may want to warn your friends that they’ll be getting attachments pretending to be from you, which attachments will infect them if they open them.
Coming next: an article on hijackings and spyware.
About the author:
Find the best recipe, food gift, and healthy dieting sites on Janette Blackwell’s Delightful Food Directory, http://delightfulfood.com/main.htmlOr enjoy her country cooking at Food and Fiction, http://foodandfiction.com/Entrance.html
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So you know how people throw a bunch of crap together and try to sell it to you for $47? And most of it is recycled garbage they picked up for $1 at eBay?
Well, I’m as sick of that as you are. Which is why this post is so important.
I just found a guy who is giving away brand new stuff he just put together to help us learn how to market our online business with Web 2.0 resources.
Bob the Teacher is an expert in using free advertising. You may know him from his book, “The Best Advertising Money Can’t Buy.” Anyway, he’s put together a special set of resources to help you learn all about Squidoo.
We’re talking a full audio interview, an eBook, and more. And believe it or not, he’s practically giving it away for about a $1.
Well, at least it was $1. I’m not sure how much it is now, since it goes up everytime someone gets their copy of this package.
This is a speedsale which means that the faster you make a decision the lower the price that you will pay. The price goes up a nickel each time someone purchases the package.
Rush over there now, so you can get started with Web 2.0 right away. –> http://www.squidoosecrets.com/chase.php?vip=leaddog50
p.s. By the way, you’ll get 100% affiliate commissions right away. You may notice when you buy the SquidooSecrets kit, you are actually paying me directly! You could be next in line to get paid the whole price.
p.p.s. Of course, if you want the full deal before SquidooSecrets launches on Friday, grab the Super Kraken membership if you get the chance. You’ll be floored by what Bob’s put together! –> http://www.squidoosecrets.com/chase.php?vip=leaddog50
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By John Lenaghan
Spyware, viruses and worms… oh my! If you are connected to the internet, you need to make sure you get your computer set up properly if you want to avoid problems down the road.
With all the viruses, spyware and other threats on the internet today, no computer should be set up without the proper protection.
And that protection needs to be in place as soon after you hook up your new machine as possible.
The following five steps will make your computer a much harder target for threats. You still won’t be completely immune to problems, but 99% of the time the threat will pass you by, looking for the easy mark.
1. Running a Personal Firewall
A personal firewall is software that basically makes your computer invisible to hackers, worms and other threats that can infect your computer over the internet.
Setting up a firewall is the absolute first thing you should do if you’re going to connect to the internet. Without a firewall, your computer could get infected in as little as one minute after connecting.
If you have a brand new computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2, there is a firewall built into Windows. It will already have been turned on when you first set up your computer.
If you’re running an older version of Windows, even an earlier version of Windows XP, there is no firewall automatically set up for you. In this case there are two possibilities:
- Your computer came pre-loaded with a firewall such as Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security
- You have no firewall installed and should download one ASAP.
If you don’t have any personal firewall software installed, you should do so right away. Zone Alarm is a very good firewall program that has a version that you can download and install for free.
You can download the free version of Zone Alarm from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/zonealarm
2. Turn on Windows Updates
Again, if you’re running Windows XP Service Pack 2 this is already set up, but otherwise you should turn on Windows Updates. Microsoft releases updates for security problems and other bugs in Windows on a regular basis.
These updates will keep your computer running better, and they often fix security issues that could compromise your information or privacy.
If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can double-check that automatic updates are turned on by clicking Start, then click Control Panel, then double-click Security Center. The window that opens will tell you if automatic updates are turned on, and lets you turn them on if they’re not.
To turn on automatic updates in earlier versions of Windows XP, click on the Start menu, click Control Panel and then double-click on System. On the “Automatic Updates” tab, click the option to “Automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify.”
To turn them on in Windows 2000, click on Start, click Control Panel and then double-click on Automatic Updates. Again, click the option to “automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify.”
Now when Microsoft releases updates, they will be downloaded for you automatically and Windows will tell you when they are ready to be installed.
3. Install & Update Antivirus Software
Most new computers come with antivirus software these days. You might have Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin or another brand. No matter what program you have, you will need to update it when you get connected to the internet.
It doesn’t matter how new your computer is - there will be new viruses, and new updates for the antivirus software, since it was loaded.
The exact process is different for each brand of antivirus program, but most of them will have an icon in the bottom right corner of your desktop, beside the time. The icon might be a picture of a shield (McAfee), a stethoscope (Norton) or something else.
In most cases, if you point to the icon for your antivirus and click the right mouse button, a menu will pop up with an update option. It could be simply called update or could be something like Live Update or Download Latest Updates. If you click on the update option (with the left button this time) it will install the newest updates for you.
If you’re not sure which icon is for your antivirus software, just point to each one for a few seconds and a little title should pop up telling you what it is.
4. Install Anti-Spyware Software
Spyware - and other things known as adware and malware - is becoming as big a problem as viruses. Spyware programs can cause a lot of problems with your computer, not to mention they can track your personal information and you never know where it’s being sent.
Some new computers might includes antispyware software, but most of them don’t yet. There are quite a few anti-spyware programs available, some free and some not. The one I recommend is from Microsoft and is one of the free ones.
One of the reasons I like it is because it always runs in the background and will automatically catch a lot of spyware before it gets on your computer.
Many of the other programs don’t catch it until you run a scan. Not only does this allow things to get on your computer, it also means you have to actually remember to run a scan.
You can download the free Microsoft Antispyware from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/antispyware
5. Set up a Free Email Account
This last item is not as critical as the first four, but I would highly recommend you set up an email account with one of the free services like Hotmail or Gmail.
Once you’re on the internet, you’ll find a lot of useful information that you want that requires you to provide an email address. In some cases, these people will end up sending you a bunch of spam.
If you use a free email account to sign up for anything that you don’t know for sure you can trust, it’s not going to fill your main email with a bunch of junk.
This goes for anything really, not just online information. If you’re entering a contest or signing up for anything offline and you don’t know where your information could end up being used, I would suggest using your free email address.
If worse comes to worse, and your free email address gets inundated with spam, you can always just set up a new one and let the old one expire.
Some of the better free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and www.yahoomail.com.
If you’ve had your computer for a while and never done any of these things, you should still take these steps to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of time - and possibly money - as you use your system.
About the author:
John Lenaghan offers easy-to-understand advice at the Computer Help Squad website. Find out more about these 5 steps - sign up for our newsletter and receive your free 5-part guide at http://www.computer-help-squad.com/5steps
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By S. Rosendahl
As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration.What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like?
In this article, we’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:
• Alabanza
• cPanel
• H-Sphere
• Plesk
All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features — advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.
Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.
Alabanza
When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don’t just have a reseller account — you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.
Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:
• Account creation
• Billing and invoice management
• Credit card processing
• Domain registration
• Email notifications
• Ordering fraud protection
Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.
DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.
A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.
cPanel
For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.
A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:
• WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.
• From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.
With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.
H-Sphere
H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.
The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.
From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.
Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.
H-Sphere comes with the website builder SiteStudio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.
Plesk
Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.
With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:
• Server administrator
• Client / reseller
• Domain owner
• Mail user
Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.
Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.
This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.
SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers SiteBuilder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.
If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.
About the author:
About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
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Check out this article about basic computer maintenance tips that will improve your pc performance.Â
By Shawn Shellenbarger
Â
Once you bring your personal computer home from the store or receive it in the mail there is no one around to offer basic personal computer maintenance tips for cleaning up and improving performance of your computer. Maintenance and cleaning up of your PC should be part of a regular routine to ensure that you don’t have any long-term problems with the computer. Unfortunately most basic computer users may not understand the mechanics of a computer or may feel intimidated with the maintenance. There are really simple steps anyone can take to ensure that your computer will continue working at the level it did when you first pulled it out of the box.
One of the first files to become acquainted with on your computer is the System Tools, located under the Start Menu, then Programs, and Accessories. The System Tools houses basic maintenance tools like Disk Defragmenter, Disk Cleanup, Backup, Scheduled Tasks, and System Information and ScanDisk on some Microsoft Windows computers. Strange that these files are located in Accessories because they really are the key to keeping your system running correctly and helping to improve performance as the computer ages.
On a regular basis you want to go to My Computer and then right click on the Local Disk (C Drive) and open up the Properties. This allows you to see how much space you are using and how much you have left to use on your computer. Under Tools in this area you can usually perform a scan of the disk. If you cannot run a disk scan from here, your Microsoft should have a disk scan available under the System Tools. It is important to run this disk scan to determine if there are any errors or problems running on your computer and the disk scan will repair those potential problems. Some experts recommend doing a thorough disk scan the first time and then a basic disk scan up to once a week to keep your computer performing at top conditions.
After this it is important to regularly perform a disk cleanup, which is located either under Properties under the C Drive, or under System Tools. Be aware that both the disk scan and the disk cleanup can take quite a bit of time and it is best to before these maintenance tools when you will not be using the computer. Set a routine with yourself like performing the disk clean up and disk scan on Saturday night while you are watching movies with your family. After a disk cleanup, it also helps to regularly perform a disk defragmentation. A computer hard drive will begin to fragment over time, which means that programs that once worked in conjunction have become separated over time and may not be in the proper place to work well on your computer. This can slow down processes or make using certain programs difficult. Using the disk defragmenter can pull together those pieces again and return things to working order.
Basic maintenance routines that will ensure your computer runs at peak performance start with simply getting rid of files you do not use. If you have old word documents, software programs you have not used in a long time, or pictures and music you are not using, delete them from your computer. Remember that once you delete them, they do not automatically disappear, but instead go to the recycle bin and it is just as important to empty the recycle bin as it is to delete old files.
Old internet files can also cause your computer to slow down. Often with a Disk Cleanup there will be an opportunity for you to get rid of temporary internet files, but you can also get rid of them on your own by going to your Temporary Internet files in Microsoft Explorer. Click on Tools then Internet Options, General Tab, Temporary Internet Files, and Delete Files. As well, take time to clean out any other temporary files you may have acquired, like downloads from the internet. Depending on the model of your computer, the temporary files could be in different locations, but most often when you go to Disk Cleanup and scan there will be an option to get rid of temporary files as well.
One of the other helpful and easy ways to maintain your computer’s performance is to always run your protection programs, use a personal firewall when accessing the computer, and always install software updates available for Microsoft and protection programs. Keeping up on regular maintenance and setting a routine for updates on the computer will ensure that your computer performs the way it was intended to when you first brought it home.
About the author:
Shawn Shellenbarger
Maximum Software
http://www.PCPowerSuite.com
http://www.SpywareSnooper.com
http://www.PCBugDoctor.com
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