Marshall's 3 points of computer security:
Well this is mostly Marshall's scheme but I'm writing it out for him. We were talking a bit about security and programs we loath like Gator that are bundled with software or in some instances seem to appear miraculously on your computer and eat system resources. So with that in mind there are three easy things you can do to make your websurfing and computer a whole lot less vulnerable to third-party ad software, probes, and viruses. Two of these things are really simple. The first is to download a good firewall which regulates the amount of access the outside has to your computer. A good firewall that both Marshall and I like is
ZoneAlarm, which is free for personal and non-profit use. Second on the list is a nifty little program called
Ad-ware which scans your registry and hard drives for nefariously installed components like Gator, Doubleclick and more. Ted himself found out the advantages of cleaning up his system with Ad-aware, it made his computer run smoothly for the first time in months. The last little tip is a bit more complicated. It has to do with the security setting for Internet Explorer 6. There is a fine line between smooth web surfing and security. You don't necessarily want to be prompted before loading every webpage because your security settings are so high that you are required to authorize every cookie. So we set our privacy settings under tools > internet options > privacy tab to custom, allowing first party cookies and blocking third party cookies with session cookies always enabled. This will prevent third party cookies from places like Doubleclick but still allowing forums and some websites to remember your member settings etc. Hope this helps and again feedback and questions or comments via email are always welcome.
current science news posted by Greg at 2/19/2002 10:56:00 AM
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