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Enhance Your Web Knowledge

August 15, 2011 Leave a Comment
Endpoint antivirus software

Image via Wikipedia

Even those resistant to advances in technology eventually get on board with computers and the internet. It’s difficult to pay your bills or keep in touch with loved ones without internet accounts and access to e-mail. These are just a couple of reasons why it’s important to enhance your web knowledge.

This isn’t to suggest you start your own website, where late payments are just one reason why websites get suspended. Instead, enhance your web knowledge for practical uses. A savvy web user has the leg up on the competition when it comes to job hunting, shopping, and improving their life with their computer. Below are two ways those with web knowledge can protect their computers from intrusive spyware and viruses, and extend the life of a computer.

1. Download free anti-virus software: a quick Google search for “free anti-virus” software will return a number of options. Make sure the download and installation are free and that you are not just being offered a free sweep of your computer instead of a program. These sweeps always find viruses in order to entice you to buy the product.

2. Download free malware and spyware protection: if you go to any remote websites there is a good chance you will meet some form of malicious spyware that could be harmful to your computer. Once on your computer, this spyware follows your internet movements and even intercepts the passwords you use on your banking and bill paying sites. Ccleaner is one program you may download for free that catches most forms of spyware.

Enhancing your web knowledge will not only help you to get around the internet easier, but it can extend the life of your computer as well.

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Keeping Young Children Off Networking Internet Sites

June 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

Federal law forbids anyone under 13 from having a Facebook account without verifiable permission from his or her parents. It is pretty easy for tech-savvy kids to circumvent that law with fraudulent birth dates and email accounts. In a world dominated by Facebook and Twitter, how is anyone supposed to stop children from creating accounts illegally?

Monitoring Children’s Online Activities

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Parents are the primary defense. More parents need to take responsibility for what their children access online. You can keep a closer eye on your children by only allowing them to access the Internet from a computer that is located in a shared room of your house. If kids have Internet access in their rooms, then you never know what they are going.

Of course, smart phones also allow children to access the Internet and sign up for social networking sites. That means that you might have to keep these devices away from your children until they reach an appropriate age. If your child has a device that allows him to sign up for an account, then he will eventually do it. The only to prevent that is to forbid smart phones before a certain age.

Block Websites on Your Computer

You can also use software that will block children from certain sites. Choose a password that the kids will never guess. It you use something simple, then they’ll break through in no time. In addition to blocking Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, consider blocking Web-based email sites that could help your child establish an older identity for himself.

What methods have you use to keep kids off of social networking sites?

Filed Under: Internet, Parental Control Tagged With: , ,

3 Reasons to Keep Kids on the Computer Within Your View

March 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

There are a a lot of benefits of having your kids work on the computer out in the open. Whether they are playing a game with friends or working on an assignment for school, it is important to have some idea of what they are doing and how much time they spend doing it. Don’t look at is as a way for you to check up on them and keep an eye on what they are doing. Look at is something that you can do as a parent that is in their best interest.

Always know what they are doing on the computer. Even if they are just playing a video game, find out a little more about it. It can’t hurt to have specific information about how they are spending their time. This also gives you a way to connect with them. If you are making dinner and they are playing a game online at the bar beside you, ask them how it is going. You can talk to them about the level they are playing or any recent accomplishments. Most kids will enjoy knowing that you care about what they are doing.

Keeping kids within your view means that if something questionable come up, especially when on the Internet, you aren’t very far away. You can walk right up to computer and close out the window or switch to a different site. This is especially the case with younger children that may not realize just how far reaching the Internet is. It isn’t that you have to be constantly looking over their shoulder; just be close by.

Being out in the open removes some of the temptation. When they are in their room with the door closed they can easily search and find things that they shouldn’t. They may avoid engaging in conversations or emails they shouldn’t write.

Filed Under: Computer, Parental Control Tagged With: ,

Monitoring Children’s Computer Time

February 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

As parents are well aware children will do anything that they enjoy for extended amounts of time, forsaking all other things going on. While the interest in hobbies, sports, or computers are all great there is a level of moderation that should be achieved. Because of all of the different uses for the computer, it can be difficult to regulate the amount of time that a child spends on it. He might be working on homework for the first hour, playing a game online for the second hour and chatting or emailing friends during the next hour.

Limiting computer time and providing clear boundaries can help a child work on time management, setting priorities and even improve their efficiency. Just like any other activity, setting time limits can make the situation easier for parents and children. The easiest way to do this is to set a timer. Nothing fancy. You can even download a special timer to the computer or set the one located on the stove. Make sure that everyone is aware of the time that is being set aside. You want to let the child know that they only have so many minutes to use the computer, so they should use the time wisely.

Computer time can also be motivating when you can’t seem to get the kids to do some of those pesky chores or when you look into their room and how a tornado made it into your home without you hearing a sound. Let them know that they are more than welcome to spend some time making sure that they take care of the Pet Shop, Coffee Shop, and Fair games on Facebook provided that they have cleaned that room first. In the beginning it may not seem like they care; but eventually, when they begin to go through withdraws from their daily dose of friends and games, things will begin to turn around.

Filed Under: Computer, Parental Control Tagged With: , , ,

Internet? Privacy?

January 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

The right to privacy is very important to our culture. But at the same time, we now live in a culture where we feel the need to broadcast every little incident of our lives in 140 characters or less, or to post every blurry photo of our most recent debauchery-filled night for all of our friends to see.

What people forget is that not only our friends have access to the Internet. When we are posting our photos and inane comments to the Internet, we are posting them for the whole world to see. Internet privacy is an oxymoron.

Sure, it is natural to expect privacy when you are doing things like online banking. These types of sites are innovating every day in the field of online security. But, when you are putting content on the Web for the purpose of others seeing it, you have to remember that there is very little you can do to control who those others are. And different forms of communication are more private than others. An e-mail, for example, is more private than posting something to a friend’s Facebook wall.

Every time Facebook unveils a new feature or makes a change to its policies, the public is up in arms. It is true that Facebook has some level of responsibility to its users. But in the end people must remember that it is their choice to post their information on Facebook and if their friends post incriminating information about them it is not Facebook’s fault.

Mark Zuckerberg himself has fallen victim to Internet lack-of-privacy, to the tune of millions of dollars. The now-famous court cases brought against him hinged on evidence found in e-mails and instant messages sent by Zuckerberg. He no doubt considered these to be private communications, but nowadays even the most ephemeral of conversations are recorded and archived.

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Don’t Travel the Computer Security Road Alone

January 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
Trend Micro Internet Security
Image via Wikipedia

While Norton became a well known program fairly rapidly, success has spawned a host of competing offerings by other software manufacturers interested in joining in on the fight against malware. With names like Intego VirusBarrier X6 or Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security, they may be more than just a mouthful that sounds like something you might shave with in the morning! They may be a complicated handful, which doesn’t lend itself to a successful install, or a successful first line of defense against the myriad malware programs trying hourly to gain access to your machine. Make that by the minute.

If installing a program is foreign to you, you might do more harm than good to try it on your own. Thinking you’ve got the latest line of defense against the latest round of malicious programs when you don’t actually have it working properly, opens you up to serious trouble. Thinking you’re protected, you might well ignore operating system warnings, which could lead to a fried machine. Other problems rear their heads with an improper install job as well. Windows operating systems have their own built in firewalls as a first line of defense against attacking programs. When another piece of security software is installed in addition, steps must be taken to disable one of these. Otherwise, both programs tend, much like attention seeking children, to fight for dominance. This can lead to serious performance degradation, in which your machine takes half an hour to boot up!

To avoid these issues, it’s a good idea to stick with a program that isn’t more complicated to set up than a 1,000 piece puzzle. PC Tools offers internet security without the need for an advanced programming degree to get it running just how you need it. With labs available, you can get the software running as smoothly as the people who wrote the code, even if you’re a novice to the digital world.

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