Internet and Computer Security

Are you concerned about your security on the Internet? If not you should be! With today's technology some sites can track your surfing habits obtain your IP number and even your network addy. You may be revealing more then you know or could be susceptible to being hacked and not ever be aware of it until its too late. Following are some tools and utilities that will help button down the hatches on your PC and surfing habits.

Diagnostics for your PC.
Check out your PC vulnerabilities at Shields UP! it quickly checks the SECURITY of YOUR computer's connection to the Internet. Letting you know if you have file and/or print sharing enabled what ports you have open or closed. It is one of the most comprehensive security sites on the Internet and the gentlemen (Steve Gibson)who does this site and writes the programs available is very reputable and highly respected in his field. Probe your ports and test your shields then have a look around for many interesting readings. Be sure to check out his Bio its pretty impressive.

Surf the web anonymously:
Want to surf the Internet anonymously check out This will allow you to block profiling cookies, profile the profilers, disable pop-up windows. Encrypts and protects content, sanitizes dangerous scripts and flash, and masks your computer's address. Its totally free and really works.

Manage those cookies:
One of the best programs I have found and use every time I open a browser window to surf the web is called Cookie Pal its shareware free to try and $15.00 US dollars to keep it and more then worth it. Very easy to use and kind of cute to boot.It will manage all your cookies keeping the ones you want and not letting the ones you don't want on your hard drive from cluttering it up. You can down load it at Cookie Pal It won PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award September 1999 and September 1997.

Personal Firewalls:
There are allot of firewalls out there following are some of the more popular ones. Of course ringing in at #1 is ZoneAlarm then there is Sygate Personal Firewall 4.1 both of these are free. The following are either demos or shareware. ConSeal PC Firewall a 15 day trial and a really kewl one is called Hack Tracer which allows you 30 days.

Sneaky Software/Spyware:
This next one comes from aspiring fellow PC-Geek Bill the Billster whom brought this to my attention one Saturday afternoon while we were geeking out.
Scan your system for ad-supported software components (spyware) and remove them with Ad-aware Ad-aware scans your memory, Registry, and hard drives for software components from Adware, Alexa (through 5.0), Aureate (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0), Comet Cursor (through 3.0), Cydoor, Doubleclick, DSSAgent, EverAd, Flyswat, Gator, Gratisware, HotBar, NewDotNet, OnFlow, TimeSink (through 5.0), Web3000, and Webhancer. Ad-aware then displays a list of detected spyware modules, Registry keys, files, and folders, and allows you to remove them from your system selectively. Best part is its free!

Clean up your Tracks:
Most people do not realize that Internet Explorer stores information about where the user has been on the Internet. Internet Explorer allows web sites to store cookies, which are files that may contain personal information about the user. As a result, anyone can see what you have been doing on the Internet with IE, which raises several privacy issues. It also stores a history and toolbar information of url's visited by typing them in. If you don't want people to know where you've been here are some useful tools. Disk Cleaner With Disk Cleaner you can easily clean up disk space that is now used up by temporary files like those in the system temporary folder, the Internet Explorer Cache and Cookies folder and the Recycle Bin. This one if Free. Cache & Cookie Washer v4.0 cleans your cache, cookies, history, and other Internet tracks. A "must-have" tool for anyone who uses the Internet. There are three versions available for different browsers: Cache * Cookie Washer for AOL, for IE, and for Netscape. Purge Cache, Cookies and Tracks for IE helps you to eliminate unwanted Internet files

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