Technology Consulting Company Worldwide

	Tips
1.	Always keep your machine up to date with the microsoft Operating System Updates. About 90% of these updates are security related. These updates will help prevent a hacker from taking control of your machine and stealing private information. There are three sections to the updates (Critical, Windows and Drivers) only Critical gets downloaded with the automatic tool.
2.	Always keep your Microsoft Office products up to date. These updates require a valid Office installation cd, but are still easy to install. These updates generally are security related with some functionality fixes.
3.	Keep your Antivirus software up to date becuase it will help minimumize the attacks after they happen. Antivirus software only detects and cleans up attacks. Antivirus software does not prevent attackers from attacking your computer.
4.	Purchase, install and maintain a firewall. There are two types of firewalls: hardware and software. Hardware firewalls generally are used on office situations with more than 10 computers and software firewalls are generally used in offices with 10 or less computer and in residential situations. Firewalls prevent attackers from accessing your machine. Most good firewalls come with Intrusion detection which is basically an alarm for your computer. It tells you when there someone/program is trying to gain access to your machine and blocks it.
5.	Routers are not firewalls because they do not control port access. Routers only direct traffic. Routers can open certain ports for software but in general do not include firewalls. They ONLY Route internet and network traffic.
6.	Microsoft XP comes with a firewall but you cannot control the settings. This Firewall is just a basic firewall and you will not be able to access anything on your LAN with this feature enabled. Service pack 2 give you more control over this firewall and it will help keep traffic to minumum.
7.	Peroidically clear out your temporary files by clicking the start button, clicking "Run" and typing %temp% and hitting enter. This will show all of the files temporary files on the computer/account. Highlight everything and press delete. Alot of virus files hide here.
8.	DSL service doesn't have more viruses than dialup. Virus will attack both types of connections. DSL is a much faster access method and therefore files get downloaded much faster and total internet file volume greatly increases. Therefore larger chance of getting a virus infected file.