PC security and the WWW

There are volumes of information on the WWW about securing your PC from the evil doers that lurk around the internet. There are many sites that hope they can scare you into buying their product by telling you how vulnerable your PC is.

I am not going to try to explain in detail what security measures you should take but simply touch on the areas that may be of real concern.

Every PC user that receives Email, Plays games on the internet, or downloads tools and programs from the WWW is at risk. The good news is that you can buy a good anti virus and spam package for less that $50 per year and get just about all the protection you need. Just remember that you are your own worst enemy when you open an email that you have not solicited in some way. Even your friends may accidentally and of course unknowingly send you a virus or worm.

Your anti virus software is always looking at your mail when it comes to your computer for any signs of badness but if you do not listen to what it is telling you about an email, then you are on your own. You should always let your anti virus software update it self when ever it wants to so that you do not become the unlucky one to receive a brand new variation of a virus before the virus software is aware that one exists.

Everywhere you look you will see info about firewalls and how important they are. Windows XP actually included one in the operating system. They are important! Firewalls are different than anti virus software. While anti virus software is looking at programs that can run on your computer and make a mess of things, Firewalls are looking for some person on the internet trying to access your computer and do things to it. These are the people who are called Hackers.

There are basically two types of firewalls. One is a program running in the background on your computer and the other is a hardware firewall. Hardware firewalls are not part of your computer. The go in between your computer and your connection to the internet. The most common form of hardware firewalls are in "Routers".

Lets look at three typical ways home internet users get to the WWW.

If you are either a dial-up user or are the only PC in the house connected to a broadband modem then you do not normally have a hardware firewall. In this case you should consider turning on windows XP's firewall or buying a software firewall. Most anti virus software comes with a firewall program.

Many of the providers that allow you to connect the WWW like Roadrunner, AOL, and Earthlink (to name a few) offer you firewall and anti virus software for free.

The second way you might access the WWW from your home is when you might have 2 PCs wanting to share the WWW and one of them actually connects to the the WWW while the other gets to the WWW through a connection to the first PC. This is called Client/Server. In this configuration the Server is the PC holding the physical connection to the WWW and would typically have the  software firewall running in the background protecting both PCs The server is typically also refered to as the "gateway". There are a few limitations and advantages to this configuration. On the down sided the Server must always be running for the second PC to get to the WWW. There is also a fair amount of computer overhead on the server to support the gateway and firewall. On the up side the Server can allow the parent to configure the firewall and gateway to limit the areas of the WWW that the client can access.

The third method and perhaps the most common now adays is when there are 2 or more PCs that want to share the WWW and they connect to the WWW via a router. The router is actually the Gateway and firewall now. It connects directly to the broadband modem and the PCs in the house connect to it either by cable or wireless. This is called Peer to Peer. A responsible member of the household can set a userid and password on the router and then make changes within the router to control content or accessibility for any given PC on the network.

In a peer to peer configuration each PC is independent and can connect to the WWW even if all other PCs in the house are shut down.

REMEMBER that the gateway and firewall can keep hackers out but it can not stop one user on the network from downloading something that can infect all the PCs on the network. Each PC should have good anti virus software running at all times!

Please note that I mentioned a moment ago about how the responsible member of the network can create a userid and password for the router. When all routers are first installed they have simple little default userids and passwords already set up. Anyone that has been around home style routers knows what these default values are. In a wired network any member of the network could perhaps go into the router and make changes until a secret and unique password has been created.

Wireless networks introduce a new problem concerning the security of a pc and the network it lives on. The problem is 2 fold. First is the fact that until you setup a unique id and password for the router, Someone could actually pull up in front of your home with a wireless enabled laptop and hack into your router with perhaps just a few tries. Once you have used your creativity to generate a secret password, it might take them a very long time to figure it out.

The second problem with wireless networks is simply that that the data being sent back and forth between the laptop and router is easily intercepted by a rouge laptop and even worse the rouge laptop can join your network. This can be avoided by setting an encryption key on the router and each legitimate laptop that is allowed to join your network. This is called securing your network.

Of course in summary it is unlikely anyone would even care to take the time to attempt to breach a home network unless of course you had the plans on how to make cars run on water, or the way to turn lead into gold stored on the network, BUT there are people that just love the feeling they get by besting something and they are the ones everyone needs to worry about just a bit.

Please always remember that the settings you have on your laptop when you are at home on your network may NOT be the settings that you want on when you travel with your laptop. Things like file sharing are great when you are on a trusted network but when you walk into a starbucks for a cup and to use their wireless network to check your mail you better not have file sharing active...

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