I am putting the web page development theme on hold for a week, partially because I need to do some research and partly because I have a topic that I feel needs some exposure.
As most of you know, I am pretty upset about the growing commercialism of the Internet. I have nothing against someone trying to sell me products in general, but the methods they are using have become increasingly intrusive. If the problem were just some loss of personal "space", I wouldn't be that upset. But now many websites plant software into your computer without your knowledge or acceptance, and a lot of this software is, frankly, junk. The junk then causes your computer to not work properly or become unstable. Many of the service calls that I have made in the past few weeks were to fix computers that had just "gone bad" for their owners. Very frequently, just cleaning out this trash causes the computer to perform well again.
This has caused me to re-think a decision I made a while ago - that is: not to recommend personal software firewalls for people without significant computer knowledge. Personal firewalls work very well, but they will constantly ask you to make decisions about whether or not to allow certain actions. The problem is that, first of all, you need to know what the correct answer is, and secondly all the popup messages from the firewall can themselves be annoying. But I think the decision has been made for us - I now recommend the use of a personal firewall in all cases.
So, here is my list of software you need to protect yourself.
First of all, you need an excellent virus checker, and you need to update its virus definitions DAILY. My recommendation is Norton Anti-Virus. Its installation works very well, causes few problems, and I think its "Live Update" feature is the best of the lot. You can get it at WalMart.
Next, you need a program to check if any spy or harmful software has been installed on your computer. These are not viruses, and hence not caught by the virus checker. These are programs that just spy on your computer or perhaps pop up their own ads. I use "Ad Aware". You can get it at www.lavasoftusa.com. Ad Aware will scan your computer for known bad software and eliminate it. You should also get the RefUpdate program, which updates Ad Aware's list of known rogue software.
Third, you need a program to block those horrible popup or popunder ads that appear when you access many of today's web pages. I use Popup Killer, available from http://software.xfx.net. It also has an update feature, but it is contained in the program (see the Synchronize tab). Whenever Popup Killer detects a popup or popunder ad, it automatically closes that window. The sounds effects it makes (a big explosion) are a lot of fun - I smile every time I hear Popup Killer blast another unwanted window.
Finally, you need a good Personal Firewall program. My recommendation is Norton Personal Firewall. You can get it combined with Norton Anti-Virus as the Norton Internet Security package.
If you are a Road Runner or DSL user, I also recommend that you install a hardware firewall. Hardware firewalls and software firewalls do different things and I think you should have both.
Now, having said all that, your world has just become a LOT more complicated. You need to learn how to use all these programs, and you need to learn what things such as cookies, ActiveX controls, and Javascript are. I will try to cover some of this in future columns, but as I said at the top of this column, I think now its necessary.
Fortunately, we can all be active in the fight to keep our privacy. As they say, vote with your feet. Do not patronize any webpage or service that violates your personal privacy, and email them to let your feelings be known.
My vote: nationalize the Internet; regulate commercialism and only allow ads and intrusive software that follow approved guidelines. I would normally NEVER advocate such tight government control, but I think we have passed the point of tolerance now.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).