Messages
Virtualpath.com has been publishing in-depth science articles for
quite a few years. Research and contributions have always produced definitive
writings on each subject, and they have been enjoyable projects, until now.
Our first, new-science section article,
The WorldWide Threat: TSE Disease, was
intended to be an article on the technical side of the subject, but we did not
wish to neglect our readers who were not familiar with TSE's background. The
whole objective was bring anyone up to speed with the subject of TSE disease
and its implications for the future without leaving our readers with the
distasteful, infantile descriptions this subject has been presented with by
American news media.
Now in
rewrite #6, this article has been the most difficult piece we've ever done. On
January 19th, the last re-write has been posted to close confusing
abstractions, clarify the issues, and complete unsatisfied questions from our
readers. Links to the heavy genetic workups are included, if you crave that
sort of thing. Additional updates will be added as
necessary.
Thanks for letting
me know what you want from these articles. -Tag Bunny,
Webmaster |
Virtualpath's Personal Computer Survival
Guide
Programs you must have for data protection on your computer,
and where to get them...
| FOR Microsoft Windows
(T.M.) |
- 95-98SE
- NT 3.51, 4.0
- Millennium Edition (ME)
- 2000
- XP
|
PROGRAM
ZoneAlarm by ZoneLabs
PcCillin by Trend
Micro
AdAware by LavaSoft.de
RegCleaner by Jouni
Vuorio |
APPLICATION TYPE
Firewall
(bi-directional)
Anti-Virus
Protection
Spyware
Checker
Registry & Program
Cleaner |
FOR
O.S.
1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3,
4
1, 2, 3, 5 |
Note: XP Service Pack 2 includes firewall and
spyware protection. Don't use more than one firewall for a single computer or
your may really have a fight on your hands to fix it.
DID YOU KNOW: Even if you religiously
delete HISTORY from your browser, a complete record of EVERY univeral resource
locator (URL) your browser has ever accessed is still stored in your computer?
To defeat spyware, you should use a cookie manager program, run Ad Aware and
maintain your firewall and antivirus programs by adequate updates. For further
information on privacy protection, we recommend that you visit Steve Gibson's
website at GRC.COM. A new program called
Spider has recent appeared to ferret out and eliminate the URL record that
spyware programs can access in your computer, but it's not yet available for
public use. If and when that changes, we'll supply a link to the program
here.
FIREWALL: The best
we've found is ZoneAlarm. This is your first line of defense against hackers.
ZoneAlarm has an excellent free version for private use, but we like the power
of ZoneAlarm Pro on our LANs. The Pro is well worth the reasonable cost for
each of our machines. A discussion of firewalls is available at GRC.COM (see
the link above), but avoid Symantec's 200x firewall at this time. Most
firewalls are junk. While BlackIce Defender is excellent protection for
incoming attacks, it does nothing to prevent trojans and spyware in your
computer from sneaking out to an outside server.
ANTIVIRUS:
If you've got an old copy of Norton AV 4.0, keep it and upgrade it for as long
as Symantec supports it. Avoid their new 200x programs until they get the bugs
out and take the spyware out of it. McAfee is still working OK and is still
solid for Win NT 4.0 in particular, but PcCillin is really a great product for
the newer Windows O.S. like CE and 2000.
SPYWARE: Probably
more than 90% of all computers that are Internet connected are already infected
with Comet Cursor. Other spyware includes RealPlayer, Netscape 6 and a hundred
other programs, commonly used, that collect user information and send it to
server databases. AdAware finds spyware programs, cookies (like doubleclick),
Comet Cursor and other programs that send your computer's information to
someone else, identifies these programs, and can selectively clean them from
your system.
REGISTRY: Have you
had AOL before and now it's like an infection you can't get rid of? This great
little program, unlike Microsoft's RegClean, is the only utility we've ever
found that will edit hidden registry entries. It effectively removes AOL
residue from previous ISP activity, or AOL/Netscape installations. Be careful -
this is a powerful tool.
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