Things you shouldn't do with a computer.

I wrote this as a Facebook note in Feb 2011 and lots of it is still true.  It deserves a reprint and a few updates.

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ACK! I work with computer all day long and I see people doing A LOT of things with their computer that they wouldn't do in person with ANYONE.

Things you SHOULDN'T do with a computer:

1. answer, click, reply, read an email from someone you don't know.

     Sometimes SPAM has code in the email that will tell the person that sent the SPAM to KNOW you have opened this SPAM even if you DON"T answer the email in question.

2. Incredimail/Rich Text Email might look nice BUT it is a large source of malware on computers. Email was not designed with pretty pictures in mind.  Plain text email is MUCH SAFER.  A plain text email can't run any underlying code on that email.

3. ANY (read that again) ANY post in facebook from ANYONE that claims to allow you to see who is visiting your profile are all BUNK. These type of post are against the Facebook terms of service. DO NOT CLICK ON THEM.

4. Even if you get an email from a long lost friend or son or daughter that is filled with dozens of misspelled words and/or a link that says something like "you look FUUNNY in this f!lm" and you haven't seen your friend, son or daughter in a very long time and there is NO WAY IN HELL they have a film of you, DON'T CLICK ON IT.  I once got an email like this from my daughter that has a Masters Degree and I KNEW there was no WAY it was really from her. She spells better than that on a bad day!

Do NOT pass on any email about a virus that is SO new that you need to contact all on your contact list.  Those email's just make your Internet Service Provider GO NUTS. Trust me on this...Anti-virus companies NEVER contact users by email and encourage you to contact your friends about this new virus. 

REMEMBER!

If you didn't play the lottery in England etc..., there is no way you can WIN the lottery in England etc.....

Someone in Nigeria didn't just pick your name out of the millions of people on the Internet to share millions of dollars with.

If your grandson calls you and he doesn't sound like himself and he claims to be in Spain and has been in a car wreck, make sure you call his parents to check if it is the truth before sending him one thin dime. A couple in SC got taken for $10K by this scam.....

THINGS TO DO:

1. get some kind of anti-virus on your computer and keep it updated (this is very important). Norton and Mcafee BOTH are quite bloated and will slow your computer WAY DOWN and both of those anti-virus program are targets for viruses that disable anti-virus programs. Norton and Mcafee are on most computers that are purchased new.  There are free Anti-virus that can be downloaded from download.com or cnet.com.  I myself use AVG antivirus free edition and or Microsoft Security Essentials on most all of my computers here at the nuthouse. I do believe I have 8 or 9 different computer running around here right at this moment. (To update this, I now use avast anti-virus.  AVG is still a good choice but they have added items to their program that causes your computer to use more bandwidth [it phones home without you knowing about it] It is better than NO Anti-virus at all..I just think Avast is a better program)

2. Go download FIREFOX web browser and USE IT. Or Google Chrome Browser. Both of these browsers are MILES better and safer than Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE).  Be aware you can't uninstall IE and some websites will only allow you to use IE on them.  Because of the way IE is tied to the Operating system, it is tied to system calls using permissions that other browsers can't use.  Many viruses infect Windows computer through security holes in the browser.

3. Go to http://browsercheck.qualys.com and check your browser plug-ins. Be aware, IE version 8.0 won't check good and there isn't a fix for it yet from Microsoft. Yet another reason to use another browser other than IE.  (IE is now up to version 11 and I still don't trust it or like it but 11 is better than IE 8 is.  I now use Google Chrome because it allows me to have the same bookmarks on my phone and computer.  )

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm preaching. Forgive me.

ANY COMPUTER CAN BE INFECTED WITH A VIRUS, be it Macintosh, Windows, or Linux. Some might be attacked less but all can be infected

*stepping off my soap box*

J.