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Backing Up Your Stuff Part 1: The Problem
I don't know about your, but I depend upon my computer system daily to help me survive and prosper. I keep everything there: - My daily journals - My writing - Letters and memos - Documents for personal and work issues - FAXes - My photo album...

Bypass your School and Work Filters with an Anonymous Proxy Server:
With the proliferation of the Internet, many websites promote themselves by sending you spam junk mails, advertisings and even embed spyware that is difficult to remove onto your computer. These things not only keep track of your personal...

How Safe Are You Online?
What do the following five online activities have in common? 1. I download and swap music files 2. I visit chat rooms 3. I play online games 4. I buy and sell on eBay 5. I'm researching my family tree They are not only five of the most...

Software Downloads
Many web sites are devoted to provide software downloads. Some of them will offer freeware (software that you can use without paying), shareware (software that are free to share and tryout, but require registration after some time), and others...

WHAT IS SPYWARE AND HOW DO I REMOVE IT FROM MY COMPUTER?
Spyware is a menace to any computer, but there are many free Spyware removal products online to help out. It sounds rather sinister, doesn't it? In a way, it really is. Spyware (another name for Malware or Adware, which is Internet-speak for...

 
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Protecting Your Computer from Adware and Spyware

Recently, while checking our company web site statistics, we noticed a number of referrals from gambling and pornography sites. Since we are certain these types of sites would not house links to us, we investigated further and determined that some of our faithful visitors may be the victims of adware or spyware.

What is adware?

Adware, in it's most sinister incarnation, is a program that runs on your computer (like a virus) and occassionally pops up ads or redirects your browser to websites you had not chosen to visit.

What is spyware?

Spyware is software that collects personal information from you without your knowledge or permission. The information spyware collects can range from all the web sites you visit to sensitive information including user names and passwords.

How can I make sure I don't get these on my computer?

* Never download programs or files from a website you don't know and trust.
* Never open email


attachments unless you know what they are. If you receive an email from a friend, but the text is strange and you don't know what the attachment is do not open it. Write to your friend and make sure they sent the email.
* Keep an antivirus program running on your computer at all times. You may also want to download Microsoft's Spyware program which can be found free here: http://www.microsoft.com/
More comprehensive articles on adware and spyware may be found here:

http://cexx.org/problem.htm
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/malware.ars?72460
http://www.adware.info/


About the Author

An authority on integrated web databases, Amanda Huber is co-owner of Vulcan Creative Labs, LLC (www.vulcancreative.com) and DeadFred.com, an online genealogy photo archive. She occasionally contributes articles for Dead Fred's e-newsletter Relatively Speaking which help genealogy researchers with more technical aspects of their online tasks.