To stand a chance in the fight against viruses and spyware, here are a few tips you can follow to minimize the risk of attack on your personal computer. They are in no particular order.

(1) Keep your antivirus or anti-spyware software up to date. Just click on the “update” button on your program to get the latest virus definitions and updates.

(2) Install a real time antivirus software, if you haven’t already done so. It is important that you enable your anti-virus program to run at real-time so that it can immediately quarantine anything that might have gotten through to your system — like when you download something online or through an email attachment.

(3) Use caution when clicking on email links or attachments — even if it’s from family or friends. Sometimes, they can inadvertently forward you an attachment with a trojan virus in it.

(4) Disable autorun on your computer. Doing this can also speed up your computer.

(5) Disable image previews from Outlook.

(6) Scan your computer on a daily basis. After getting the latest updates, scan your computer immediately. If you want, you can setup your antivirus software to update automatically and scan your system at a scheduled time each day, or whatever time you prefer.

If you find that your computer has considerably slowed down for no reason, perhaps you’ve already been infected. If you live locally, contact me and I’ll rid your system of those annoying spywares and viruses. Hurry, before it gets any worse!

Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business.  The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information.  At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail.  The clickable link even appears to take you to the company’s website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals.  They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic.  Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully.  When reviewing your email remember that the “From Field” can be easily changed by the sender.  While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving.  Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible.  They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails.  Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.

A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer.  The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view.  It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

Finally, follow the golden rule.  Never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser.  At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.

Well, here’s an alternative solution that you might like! You no longer need to convert your html site into PHP — thus, eliminating the hassle. You can now use your regular html site as it is and make it behave as if it was a PHP-based website so that you can embed PHP codes on your pages. For example, you can finally add RSS feeds on your html page so that you can have new and fresh content everyday on your website.

How is this possible? This method only works if your server supports .htaccess. If you are unsure if htaccess is supported on your server, contact your web hosting provider.

(1) First, open notepad and create a new text file.

(2) Enter the following on the document:

RemoveHandler .html .htm
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html .htm

(3) Save the file as “htaccess.txt” (txt is the default extension of a file made by Notepad program on your PC).

(4) Upload this file unto your server.

(5) Rename the file as “.htaccess”

(6) Insert the PHP code into the html page that you want it on

(7) Enjoy better features on your site!

Hope this information helped you.

If you need any other type of assistance with your online projects, contact me with your requirements. If it’s within my scope, I’ll respond with a price quote accordingly.

Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.

In 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail.

One major point that needs to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.

So what do you do about this? Here are 5 things you can do to protect yourself from spam.

Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet “spambots” and “spam spiders”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses

A couple suggestions for you: a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address.

Number 2: Get spam blocking software. There are many programs out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.

Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach. There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.

Number 4: Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD. A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.

Number 5: Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new provider. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.

Hope these tips help you combat spam!

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Need a spam filter for Windows Mail, Outlook, or Outlook Express? [Click here]

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I had my credit card details stolen once. They charged over $500 worth of merchandise from a popular department store chain. Interestingly though, it was not through the web that my credit card details were stolen. It was stolen by a cashier from a drive-thru fast-food chain who snapped a photo of my credit card with his/her camera phone.

The truth is, there are risks wherever you go or whatever you do. It reminds me of people who are scared to fly because of the “many” plane crashes they see on the news — forgetting that more people die DAILY from automobile accidents and cigarette smoking than do airplane crashes.

I’ve been shopping online for several years now. I consider it relatively safe. You just have to know how and when to give out your credit card information when paying online, or any other private info, for that matter.

Here’s a simple way of knowing that a web page is secure before giving out your credit card details on that payment page:

If you’re using FIREFOX as your browser -

• Look at the web address of the payment form where you input your details. If it starts with “https” (note the letter “s” at the end), then the site is secure.
• Look on the right side of the browser where the web address is located. There should be a small image of a grey-colored padlock there. In addition, the padlock should be locked (the hooks connect). The page is secure.
• On your browser window, look at the bottom right corner. There should be another picture of a padlock if the page is secure.

If you’re using INTERNET EXPLORER as your browser -

• Look at the web address of the payment form where you input your details. If it starts with “https” (note the letter “s” at the end), then the site is secure.
• Look on the right side of the browser where the web address is located. There should be a small image of a gold or orange padlock there. In addition, the padlock should be locked (the hooks connect). The page is secure.

There you go, you can feel safe shopping online now. As mentioned earlier, those are just the quick ways of determining whether a page is secure and encrypted, in which case, your data is safe.

Is it 100% fool-proof? Does that mean you will never have your details stolen online by looking at the signs above? Well, remember when I mentioned that everything in life is about risks? Nothing is ever 100% safe, as long as we live in this world! Whether you are online, or shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, you are surrounded with risks. That doesn’t mean you have to stop living, does it? Of course not!

Tweak Appearance Settings
By default, your computer comes with visual effects to keep your machine appealing. Some of these visual effects are unnecessary. For example, do you really need shadows under menus, icons, or your mouse pointer? You can live without those features! Unless you have a powerful machine, don’t bother with those extra visual effects.

• Go to Start >> Settings >> Control Panel
• Find and click on “System” icon
• Click on the tab labeled “Advanced“
• On the top is the “Performance” section. Click on “Settings“
• Under “Visual Effects” tab, choose “Adjust for best performance” option

Make Windows Explorer Start Faster
There are ways to tweak Windows Explorer so that it loads faster. The reason it’s a little slow is because by default, Windows Explorer automatically searches for network drives, network files and folders, and other devices in your network. You can turn off this feature and gain some speed.

• Open Windows Explorer
• Click on Tools menu
• Click on Folder Options
• Click on the View tab
• Find Automatically search for network folders and printers check box. Uncheck that field.
• Click Apply, then click OK

Remove Unused Device Drivers
When you install a device in your computer, drivers for that device are also installed with it so that it will work in your PC. When your PC boots, it loads those drivers — making your computer ready for those devices. If you no longer use certain devices in your computer, then what’s the point of keeping the device drivers in there? They use valuable resources that could be allocated elsewhere. What a waste! The solution? Remove the unwanted device drivers from your PC.

Delete Unnecessary Software
Did you install software in your PC that you no longer use? Maybe you installed that software 5 years ago, and have not used it since. Perhaps there are several softwares on your computer that you don’t use anymore. They’re taking up space for nothing! Uninstalling those programs will free up your hard disk space and speed up your computer.

• Go to Start >> Settings >> Control Panel
• Click on “Add or Remove Programs” icon
• Select the program or software from the list and click “Remove“

There you go! You’ve just gained some speed for your computer machine! It may not be the fastest in the world, but it’s not as slow as how it used to, that’s for sure!

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Do you need my services? If so, don’t hesitate to visit my main site (After5PC.net) and contact me with your requests. I’ll respond with a quote accordingly.