Downloading files - Use caution in downloading files or opening email !

Protect yourself from downloading SPAM and viruses onto your computer.

E-mail, software, application software updates, e-books, music, pictures, movies, news. No matter what it is that drew us to the wonderful world of the internet sooner or later all of us realize that the web has the potential to make our lives easier (which is after all what we want!) and more entertaining. Some of us have even gone so far as to rely on the internet to do most of their news-reading, shopping and even banking.

Unfortunately the internet isn't the beautiful flower-filled garden we all hope it to be. In fact the internet can easily be categorized as the world's biggest war-zone. Bullets in the form of viruses, trojans, spyware, scumware, spam, spim (for the purpose of simplicity called 'viruses') and many others are constantly heading towards us from all directions.

With hundreds of new viruses a month being created dodging these virtual bullets often becomes a nearly impossible task, especially for those of us who have just discovered the Internet (or the PC) and even the best and the most internet savvy don't always come out of battle unscathed.

But the internet community is growing constantly and is still primarily by the people, for the people. There is at least a glimmer of hope indicating to us that there must be at least a few ways of protecting our precious PCs from virtual breakdown.

At this point we could delve deep into the technical advantages and possibilities of internet firewalls, virus scanners, pop-up killers and spyware removers which all are undoubtedly excellent tools to protect ourselves. But, instead of relying on other people's software to do the job for us, we will focus on creating a little bit of what we will call 'internet common sense'.

It doesn't come as any surprise that crossing the road while the traffic light is red could be detrimental to your health, nor will anyone deny the fact that jumping out of an airplane without a parachute may not be the smartest thing to do. These were things we had to figure out by ourselves (hopefully not all through personal experience) or learn from other people.

As silly as it may seem to have to go through this whole learning process all over again, just to survive on the internet it is a proven fact that a little bit of 'internet common sense' will always be a much better defense than any piece of software ever could be (after all the software is intended to 'help' you, not replace you).

It is true that firewalls and anti-virus software are a crucial part of our defense against the new generation of insidious viruses that can attack any computer that is connected to the internet. But since we decided not to deal with protection software at this point we will take a look at the three main activities of the average internet user and the threats they pose.

A list of do's and don'ts will then follow to make your stay in the internet as safe as possible.:

Browsing E-mailing
Downloading

Browsing

Browsing is our day to day activity online. Whether it consists of visiting www.google.com, www.highway61.com or any other webpage we could possibly think of browsing consists of 90% of all internet activity. And despite the fact that it doesn't sound like such a risky process you need to remember that any site can contain something that can potentially damage your PC.

How so?

Every time you visit a page your computer needs to retrieve information from the web site you're visiting in order to display it.

This information can contain viruses (which is just another form of information) that can do anything from resetting your browser's homepage to giving other people access to your PC.

E-mailing

Day to day email consists of two parts. Sending email, which is 100% safe (for you anyway) and receiving email, which generally isn't. There is a very persistent myth in the world of emailing that says opening an email can give your computer a virus. This myth is (in most cases) just that, a myth. Unless your email program or email provider automatically downloads attachments and opens them there is no reason for you not to open any email you would like (not that it is recommended). The real danger of emails lies in any files that are attached to it, opening these attachments is the number one cause for 'contracting' a virus online.

At this point it is important to note that all emails with attachments whether they are from unknown people or friends (some viruses can email themselves making it seem like a friend sent you the email) are a potential risk.

Downloading Files

Downloading in general is a risky idea. Most types of files can potentially contain a virus, but most commonly so-called 'executable' files are carriers for viruses. To recognize if a file is or has an 'executable' component one should take a closer look at the last characters after the '.' in the filename. Good examples of 'executables' that may contain a virus are .exe, .vbs, .htm, .html and .com.

Examples of non-executable files (that will generally not contain a virus) are:
.gif (a graphic file)
.jpg (another graphic format)
.mp3 (music file)
.wav (music file)
.txt (text file)

Don't worry about remembering all these 'file extensions', as time goes by you will learn to recognize the differences between executable and non-executable files. And no, you won't have to get a virus each time to figure it out. (grin)

With our three daily activities covered we will now take a look at a few do's and don'ts when it comes to browsing, emailing and downloading in the safest way possible.

Do

Install a firewall
Install a virus scanner

The firewall and virus scanner and are the two most critical components of defending yourself against viruses. It is advisable to read up on these if you haven't done so already and these tools themselves are part of 'internet common sense'.

Don'ts for browsing

Do not visit web pages you've never heard about or no one you know has gone to before. In general the longer the actual 'url' (the name of the page such as www.microsoft.com) the higher the risk. If you really want to visit a site you may want to go to the 'top level' of the page. The 'top level' of a page is generally the first part of the 'url' before the first '/'. E.g. The top level of the url: www.microsoft.com/home/downloads/security.html would be 'www.microsoft.com'. This allows you to see who is responsible for the site, what kind of site it is and who you can complain to if you end up having problems with the web site you wanted to go to. If the top level of a site is in any way strange (you will recognize strange when you see it) consider very well if you want to go any further.

Do not answer 'yes' to anything unless you absolutely must. No matter where you go or what web site you visit if something asks you a question in the typical pop-up box your answer should be strongly considered. Answering yes will probably result in you downloading things onto your pc you might not want there and then even a firewall or virus scanner will not always help. Unless you specifically asked for something from that web site the answer to any and all questions is either 'no' or 'cancel' (pressing alt-F4 to get rid of it will also work in most cases). If the question is: 'This web site has voted you to be our most intelligent visitor, do you agree?' Your answer will be 'no' proving that you actually are the most intelligent visitor.

Don'ts for emailing

Do not open emails from unknown sources. This is without a doubt the best defense against most problems.

Do not open attachments unless you know that the source is trustworthy. If you do, make sure to scan them with a virus scanner before opening them.

Do not answer or forward chain-emails or emails that ask you to forward the email to other people. This is always unsolicited spam (internet garbage). No accounts or lives or money was ever lost by not forwarding this type of garbage to other people. Simply don't give in to strange threats or heart-warming stories. The little girl dying from cancer who can be saved by signing a petition probably doesn't exist and will only result in you receiving more spam.

Don'ts for downloading

The simple rule here is: Don't download anything you don't know, don't trust or don't want. Unless you specifically asked for that particular file and are 100% sure it is what you wanted, don't download it. If you have some strange urge to download all sorts of things (like me) make sure that you scan them with an up-to-date virus scanner. Additionally avoid files with double extensions like filename.jpg.exe since these are often used to carry viruses.

Keep all this in mind and you have made a big step towards achieving 'internet common sense' and you will definitely stand a much better chance in the war-zone that is the internet.