Exercising the Upper Hand on Internet Annoyances

The thought of viruses, spyware and spam when it comes to the Internet, is an annoying thought to say the least. People have heard about all of this so many times, that we think we know what we need to do to avoid damaging our computers. So, we take for granted what we do on the Internet, and loosen up our safety precautions online because we get lazy when that is the last thing we should be doing.

Now, more than ever, is the time to take extra precautions and always exercise control over your actions. People automatically assume that just because they have McAffee or some other sort of virus-scanning software, then they are good to go. They forget that other actions they may commit online can sometimes lead to other problems later on down the road.

So, get with the program. Get informed and get almost paranoid-like when it comes to your actions, transactions and other doings on the Internet.

Obviously, and most important, you want to look into software that recognizes and destroys viruses in your system. Something like the software from Zone Labs for $30 may be of some help to you. There are plenty of other software programs to choose from though. So, do your research.

Incidentally, most of us already know that we are not supposed to download attachments from senders we do not know. It's the same thing as not taking candy from strangers. A lot of people don't realize that by downloading songs on something like LimeWire or downloading screensavers, you may also be downloading a virus onto your computer. So, just because you think you're in an environment of music lovers who would never try to inject a virus into your PC, think again and be a little smarter.

Most of us get a lot of e-mails in our inbox - most of it junkmail. Let's say you subscribed to a magazine several months ago. All of a sudden, you're seeing a huge influx of newsletters, advertisements and other annoying items that waste your time. So, you click open the e-mails and follow the link that says "unsubscribe." Refrain from doing this!

By clicking "unsubscribe" you are allowing the annoying person or organization sending you this junkmail to know that your e-mail account is active. Thus, by clicking "unsubscribe" you may be setting yourself up for more junk e-mail from the organization and it's sister organizations later on down the line. The best thing to do is just to delete through the mail. This at least saves you the time of having to open it and read through it.

As far as spyware, those annoying software programs that tracks our actions and even our keystrokes, also realize that anything you download, may have spyware in it.

If you go to www.spybot.com, you can download the free Search and Destroy program which does just that to spyware programs. Remember, that if you suspect a computer has spyware on it, don't go making online purchases because your credit card number, address, or whatever other information could be recorded by this software - and that's a scary thought to think about.

Oftentimes we take for granted that a computer will automatically have all the security software we need, loaded onto it. In reality, your actions are the greatest security you can have over Internet spam, viruses and spyware.