Security Bench

by: www.SemSim.com

Candidates can register for the CCNA exam (640-801 exam or 640-821 INTRO or 640-811 ICND ) at Pearson VUE or Prometric testing centers.

In order to do their best, candidates should know what to expect at the testing center for the Cisco CCNA certification exam. Since testing center guidelines may vary from one center to another, we recommend that the candidates call the local testing center to check about the guidelines. Here are some points providing information on what you can expect at the exam center:

Re-certification: If you have taken a Cisco CCNA certification exam before, find out your Cisco ID and specify it before you start with your registration. This will ensure that you get proper credit for the exam and will help avoid any duplicate records.

Reach before time: We strongly suggest reaching the test center before time. Failure to do so may result in cancellation of the appointment.

Sign the logbook: You may be asked to sign-in the logbook upon arrival as well as upon departure. Do check on this.

You must carry your identification: You will be required to show a valid identification (ID), perhaps including a recent, recognizable photograph. If the supervisor questions your ID, you may be required to show another ID. You should check the testing center guidelines on identification and take all supplemental identification documents with you.

Generally Accepted Identification:

Passport

Photobearing driver’s license with signature

National/Military identification card

The following MAY not be accepted as valid ID:

Credit Cards (Please check with test center)

Private identification cards

Any expired ID

Read the testing center regulation form carefully: You will be provided with a Testing Center Regulation form by the supervisor. Read the regulations carefully and comply with them during the test.

Sign the confidentiality statement: The supervisor is responsible for asking you to sign the confidentially statement at the test center indicating that you will not reveal exam questions to other students after the test.

Supervisor sets up your test computer: The supervisor will ensure that the Cisco certification test displays on screen before handing over the machine to you.

Ask for sheets for scratch work: Scratch papers will be provided to you at the testing center. These are sometimes only available on request. Ask for some blank scratch sheets to do calculations and rough work. Jot down important points and tables (such as powers of 2, binary representation tables etc) before exam starts. This can be a big time saver. Do not take the scratch paper out of the testing room on completion of exam.

Items not allowed in the testing room: The candidate is not allowed to bring in the testing room personal items such as:

Books, revision sheets or notes: The exam is closed book

Cellular phones & alarms

Food or drinks may not be allowed

Calculators

Your session may be audio and video taped: Do not attempt to talk or communicate in any form to anybody in the testing room. Your session may be taped and can lead to immediate disqualification .

On exam completion: You will be explained by the supervisor what to do when you complete the exam. If not, or if you are unclear about what you should do, ask it yourself before beginning the exam.

Do not take with you the the testing material from the testing room: Return all of your testing materials, including the scrap paper, on the completion of your exam to the supervisor.

Certified copy of the exam result: Your supervisor will give you a certified copy of the exam report on completion of the test. This will list your score indicating strengths and weaknesses in the various test areas. Ask the supervisor for the certified copy, if you do not get it.

About The Author

SemSim.com provides training resources for Cisco certification exams: CCIE, CCNP, CCNA, CCDP, CCDA. It offers FREE learning resources to students such as study guides and router simulation labs at it’s online learning center located at: http://www.semsim.com/ccna/learn.html

http://www.SemSim.com: Making Cisco cetification easy!

support@semsim.com

by: www.SemSim.com

Here are some tips to follow for the CCNA test:

Relax before exam: In order to avoid last minute stress, make sure that you arrive 10 to 15 minutes early and relax before exam.

Familiarize yourself with exam: Before taking the CCNA exam, you are given an option of to familiarize yourself with the way the exam is carried out (the exam interface). You must make sure to take advantage of this.

Time Management Tips:

Manage Time Spent On Each Question: The duration for the exam is 90 minutes. You must determine how much time you will spend on each question. While determining this take into consideration that simulations take more time to answer. Also keep in mind that some other questions are weighed more heavily and may take more time to answer (e.g. difficult subnetting problems).

Be Sure Of Exam Interface: Clear your doubts, in case if you have any, regarding the rules for the CCNA exam or using the testing computer/software with the supervisor after he sets up your machine and before you start the exam. Remember that the exam is timed and you may loose your valuable test time for such questions, which you could have asked earlier.

Jot Down Important Points Before Exam: Before you start the exam, ask for scratch paper and jot down points that you may require to recall when taking your exam. This is always allowed and proves to be very helpful while taking the exam. These may include:

• OSI Model layers
• Access lists
• Important tables such as powers of 2 (2^1 = 2; 2^2 = 4…2^8 = 256)
• Class A,B,C address range and properties e.g.
• Class A: Denoted by network.host.host.host; first octet is between 1 to 126;
• Important formulae such as 2^x-2 gives the number of hosts per subnet where x is the number of “off” bits in the subnet mask
• Binary to decimal conversion table & tips

All Answers Are Final: Remember that you cannot return to a question once you have answered it. So, be very careful while answering to the questions and don’t rush as it might cost you valuable marks.

Don’t Panic. There Is No Negative Marking: Although the exam software does not allow you to review questions you’ve answered, there is no negative marks for a wrong answer. The CCNA exam does not penalize you for wrong answer, so never leave any question unanswered. If you are not able to find out the correct answers to some questions, eliminate the possible answers that cannot be correct and narrow down your guess.

About The Author

SemSim.com provides training resources for Cisco certification exams: CCIE, CCNP, CCNA, CCDP, CCDA. It offers FREE learning resources to students such as study guides and router simulation labs at it’s online learning center located at: http://www.semsim.com/ccna/learn.html

http://www.SemSim.com: Making Cisco cetification easy!

support@semsim.com

by: Seema Kannan

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification is meant for career enhancement as well as gaining knowledge of the LAN/WAN technologies currently available for implementation. Hence, CCNA Certification can be obtained by IT professionals who have been a part of the industry for a considerable time and are interested in furthering their career in terms of role enhancement and salary. Individuals who are beginning their career and want to move towards LAN/WAN management may also pursue the certification, as it is a basic level certification and there are no prerequisites.

Details About CCNA Certification

The CCNA Certification is an ideal foundation in the field of networking. CCNA Certification equips professionals with skills to select, install, configure, troubleshoot, and operate LAN/WAN, and dial access services for small networks. CCNA Certification also equips professionals with the knowledge to employ access lists and use of protocols such as IP, IGRP, Serial, Frame Relay, IP RIP, VLANs, RIP, and basics of the Ethernet Technology, purpose and use of Access Lists.

Pre Requisites: Nil

The CCNA exam has no pre requisites. The aspirant should be comfortable with basic concepts of LAN for his/her own convenient approach to the exam.

CCNA Exams

CCNA Exam Options

Single Exam Option

640-801 CCNA: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies and Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices

OR

Multiple Exams option

1. 641-821 INTRO Beta: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies (INTRO)
2. 640-811 ICND: Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices

The recommended course(s)/training From Cisco are:

Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices (ICND 2.0 or ICND 2.1 )

Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies ( INTRO )

CCNA Recertification

With the retirement of 640-607 in September 2003, the available options to recertify are 640-801 or any other Professional or Cisco qualified specialist track.

Validity

CCNA certifications are valid for three years.

Cisco Agreement

Accepting the terms of Cisco Career Certification and Confidentiality Agreement is a very important part of obtaining Cisco Certification, failing which the application processing of certification may be halted.

Exam Description

The 640-801 is the exam available for aspirants pursuing Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification. Since 640-607 has retired, the article solely concentrates on the 640-801. The CCNA (640-801) exam focuses on the Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices (ICND) course as well as the new Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies (INTRO) course. The courses and the exam ensure that the successful candidate has the important knowledge and skills necessary to select, connect, configure, and troubleshoot the various Cisco networking devices. The exam also includes topics on Extending Switched Networks with VLANS, Determining IP Routes, Managing IP traffic with Access Lists, Establishing Point-to-Point connections, and Establishing Frame Relay Connections.

Objectives

The following topics listed are the most likely ones on which the testing will focus during the exam. Topics related to this may probably be tested further in detail too.

Planning & Designing

• Design a simple LAN using Cisco Technology
• Design an IP addressing scheme to meet design requirements
• Select an appropriate routing protocol based on user requirements
• Design a simple internetwork using Cisco technology
• Develop an access list to meet user specifications
• Choose WAN services to meet customer requirements
• Implementation & Operation
• Configure routing protocols, given user requirements
• Configure IP addresses, subnet masks, and gateway addresses on routers and hosts
• Configure a router for additional administrative functionality
• Configure a switch with VLANS and inter-switch communication
• Implement a LAN
• Customize a switch configuration to meet specified network requirements
• Manage system image and device configuration files
• Perform an initial configuration on a router
• Perform an initial configuration on a switch
• Implement access lists
• Implement simple WAN protocols

Troubleshooting

• Utilize the OSI model as a guide for systematic network troubleshooting
• Perform LAN and VLAN troubleshooting
• Troubleshoot routing protocols
• Troubleshoot IP addressing and host configuration
• Troubleshoot a device as part of a working network
• Troubleshoot an access list
• Perform simple WAN troubleshooting

Technology

• Describe network communications using layered models
• Describe the Spanning Tree process
• Compare and contrast key characteristics of LAN environments
• Evaluate the characteristics of routing protocols
• Evaluate TCP/IP communication process and its associated protocols
• Describe the components of network devices
• Evaluate rules for packet control
• Evaluate key characteristics of WANs

Since troubleshooting is very simplified and methodic when the OSI layered model concepts are clear, the extensive focus on the OSI model still remains in 640-801 exam along with the rest of the basic content. The enhancement is in the Dial on Demand Routing (DDR) and the Config-register and some switching concepts.

Exam specifics

The CCNA exam I took had 58 questions to be answered in 90 minutes with a passing score of 849. The exam may have question numbers ranging from 55 to 65. The time allotted will be 90 minutes and the pattern of questions may vary from exam to exam, i.e., depending on the number of questions against the time given, the number of multiple-choice response, drag-and-drop and simulators may vary.

Exam Pattern

There will be router/switch simulator questions, many multiple choice questions and a few drag-and-drop questions along with a few multiple choice single response and fill in the blank type of questions.

When switching between the simulator-based questions and the rest of the exam, the simulator engine may seem a little slow. For some simulator-based questions, you will be presented with scenarios. You need to remember configuration commands and listing commands to grasp the scenarios and troubleshoot them. Remember to have a blank sheet on which you can mark important points and remember to save any changes you make on the simulator relating to the configuration. The simulator is very much like the real one on the routers and switches except that abbreviated editing and help commands may not be available. Ensure that you do not try these abbreviated commands and waste time, it is always better to use the entire syntax of any command you may be required to use.

Some concepts like the OSI model, the Access lists, the Subnetting etc, are the type of questions that may be time consuming, as they require single-minded concentration, very clear basics and some amount of calculation. The scenario type of questions needs an eye for detailed and clear analytical abilities. Be clear with the command line configuration commands and their switches and have an insight to the kind of testing the vendor may employ. That should help you have a CCNA certificate under your belt.

The various testing methods a vendor (Prometric in this case) may employ are as follows (pertaining to the CCNA exam):

Single-Response Multiple Choices

The simplest one of the lot, usually comes in between many complicated questions to relax your brains and prepare you for the worst to come, sometimes may not fetch much score. If you are not aware of the answer, do not waste time guessing it. Skip the question and move to the next. It is the most common question type used in most exams, the response choices will be adjacent to radio buttons, this indicates there can be only one correct answer to the question.

Multiple-Response Multiple Choice

Checkboxes will replace radio buttons to indicate that there can be more than one choice to the correct answer, and it may range from two up to four at times. The questions may at times, state the number of correct choices. But the tricky part is when the question states, choose all that apply. Here, even if one choice is skipped the answer may not be complete and may not fetch the desired score.

Another hint here is, more number of choices presented to the candidate to choose from, more may be the choices, when compared with usual. If there are 5 or 6 choices presented, it means there will be at least 3 correct choices out of the available choices.

Fill in the Blank

The standard fill in the blank may have a single choice answer. It may also have 3 blanks to be filled and all three in a single choice, making it a single response or may have the three blanks mentioned as three individual choices too, making it a multiple response type of a question. In other words the fill in the blanks question may be a single response or a multiple response with definitely multiple choice to choose from.

Drag-and-Drop Questions

With this type, a number of elements may be presented and you may be required to drag the element from its current placeholder to the appropriate location on the screen to arrive at the correct choice of answer. You will usually be presented with more items than required to complete the picture, to confuse the correct choice. This type of a question may appear as a graphical match the following or a logical diagram of a particular process or theory slightly out of place, which you may have to re arrange.

Simulator Questions

These types of questions simulate the administrative environment and are very similar to the real one and expect you to carry out an administrative task to complete the question task. For example, you may be presented with a hyper terminal screen and asked to remotely configure a switch or a router as you would in real environment using the relevant commands. The final result will be graded, versus the path or the process you took to arrive at the result; therefore if the question says use the easiest method to achieve the task when there is more than one way of doing it and you choose the less easier one you will not receive the expected scoring at all.

You’ve learned the details about the Exam, its pattern, objectives, etc. Now it’s time to learn how to master the course and prepare scientifically. You can do that with the help of CCNA Exam Preparation Guide.

Well, with all this information you are well armed to take up the CCNA 640-801 exam and score well too!!! Best of Luck!!!

Useful Reference Resources

• Books
• CCNA Official Cisco Course Ware
• Cisco Press books
• Sybex Series

Discussion Forums and Groups

Even though you have access to all the resources listed above, you may want to hear about the experiences of other people. There are places for these too:

• Exam notes
• Whizlabs CCNA Certification Forum

Exam Simulators

There are many ways to prepare for certification exams, one of them being through the use of exam simulators.

Check out Whizlabs CCNA 640-801 Exam Simulator

Besides identifying your weak areas, and giving you a feel of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your career too.

About The Author

Seema Kannan is a certified professional having 10 years of experience in the IT industry, currently running her independent IT Consultancy Company in India. She is certified in Novell and Cisco Certifications and has been contributing in different areas of implementation, maintenance, and training on networks of Microsoft, Novell, and Cisco. She has gained a vast experience in the domains of corporate training, network administration, and content authoring and development. You can reach her at authors@whizlabs.com.

About Whizlabs

Whizlabs (http://www.whizlabs.com), an ISO Certified company, is a leading provider of IT skill assessment and certification exam preparation tools. Whizlabs’ suite of offerings include “IT Certification Exam simulators and Instructor-led, Online Trainings” for various exams by Sun, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, BEA, Cisco, and other leading IT vendors and “IT skill Assessment Management Solution” for Corporations, Training Institutes, and Universities.

In its first 3 years of inception Whizlabs has helped 300,000 software professionals in realizing their dream of acquiring IT Certifications of their interest.

Whizlabs offerings have fuelled the career growth of IT professionals working in 321 Fortune 500 companies spread in 118 countries across the globe.

* First Published at Whizlabs Site

authors@whizlabs.com

by: Grant Rogers

The US House of Representatives has recently passed the “Spy Act” – or to give it its full title – the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act. This aims to prevent software companies from installing spyware on users PCs without their knowledge, and anyone found guilty of breaching the act faces a fine of up to $3 million.

Does this mean the end of spyware as we know it? Unfortunately the answer is no, not really. The problem is that most spyware can continue to operate in exactly the same way as it does now, by asking the computer user to agree to a licence before it installs itself. The majority of people who are faced with a lengthy legal-looking page of text when installing a new program, automatically click the “I Agree” option without reading the terms. Therefore spyware programs can quite legally continue to piggy-back their way onto PCs.

Add to this the fact that a large percentage of spyware originates from outside the US, and it quickly becomes clear that the Spy Act realistically has about as much chance of success as the Can-Spam act did in attempting to stop the deluge of junk email that arrives in our mailboxes every day.

Spyware can be a lucrative business for advertisers and software vendors, and with the average home PC already carrying around 26 spyware and adware programs, it’s a problem that looks set to become worse before it gets better. In time, additional international laws may reduce the problem, but for the present at least, every PC user should keep up-to-date anti-spyware software running on their machine.

About The Author

Grant Rogers is an independent computer security consultant. You can find more information on anti-spyware and adware software at http://www.spyware-adware.info

by: Dean Phillips

Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without the user’s knowledge which gathers information about that user for later retrieval by whomever controls the spyware.

Spyware can be broken down into two different categories, surveillance spyware and advertising spyware.

Surveillance software includes key loggers, screen capture devices, and trojans. These would be used by corporations, private detectives, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, suspicious spouses, etc.

Advertising spyware is software that is installed alongside other software or via activex controls on the internet, often without the user’s knowledge, or without full disclosure that it will be used for gathering personal information and/or showing the user ads. Advertising spyware logs information about the user, possibly including passwords, email addresses, web browsing history, online buying habits, the computer’s hardware and software configuration, the name, age, sex, etc of the user.

As with spam, advertising spyware uses the CPU, RAM, and resources of the user’s computer, making the user pay for the costs associated with operating it. It then makes use of the user’s bandwidth to connect to the internet and upload whatever personal information it has gathered, and to download advertisements which it will present to the user, either by way of pop up windows, or with the ad banners of ad-supported software. All of this can be considered theft in the cases of advertising spyware that installs without disclosure.

And while anti-virus software like Symantec’s Norton Anti- Virus or McAfee’s ViruScan can offer some protection, one of the best ways to combat spyware is with anti-spy software. Two of the best are Lavasoft’s Ad-aware and Spybot’s Search & Destroy, which are available as free downloads.

http://www.lavasoft.de/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

The free version of Ad-aware does not proactively protect against spyware infestation. You have to start the Ad-aware application and initiate a scan to detect spyware. But the paid version, Ad-aware Plus does remain alert in the background, like Spybot, to deflect any attempts at infestation. In recent tests, Ad-aware Plus and Spybot both protected systems extremely well.

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend installing Microsoft’s Service Pack 2. SP2 tightens your PC’s security with a new Windows Firewall, an improved Automatic Updates feature, and a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer. Plus, the newly minted Security Center gives you one easy-to-use interface for keeping tabs on your PC’s security apps.

There are also other steps you can take to protect against spyware. One simple step is to switch from Microsoft’s browsers, which have security holes for spyware programs to exploit. A good alternative is Mozilla Firefox. Another not- so-simple step is switching to the Mac or Linux operating systems, which don’t have spyware problems.

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Double your income! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will teach you how to double your income, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.

Website: http://www.lets-make-money.net

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Double your income! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will teach you how to double your income, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.

Website: http://www.lets-make-money.net

dean@lets-make-money.net

by: Gina Marie Capatar

Spies, spyware, internet parasites are among what they are usually called. These are scouts that monitor your web activities. The work undercover to check on your surfing patterns, spending habits, items bought, they extract email addresses, hijack browsers, steal credit card information. These are just some of the things a spyware is capable of.

A spyware is mainly an information hungry parasite determined to gather data from a user or surfer without him knowing it.

The information gathered by these parasites are then sent to the originator without the users consent. Most often, the information gathered by the spyware are used to generate ads and pop-ups on the user’s PC.

Spywares and Adwares aside from being a nuisance and an invasion of privacy can also jeopardize the optimal performance of your PC. They can eat up unused disk spaces and position themselves in an inconspicuous location in your hard drive. They can also eat the bandwidth, crash your system and oftentimes inflict themselves in the Registry or in the memory of your computer.

Spyware and Adwares have become very rampant nowadays. Prevent yourself from being a victim of these by:

Being careful of Freeware and Shareware Downloads

- Some of these downloads are tagged with spywares which may be unknown to the user. Refrain from downloading sharewares and freewares from unknown sources.

Installing a good spyware/adware scanner and removal software

- There are a number of spyware scanner and/or removal softwares in the market today. A good spyware scanner can effectively locate all spywares installed on your PC and a good spyware removal tool can effectively remove all the spywares detected.

Spy Scanners are programs designed to detect spies in your PC. A good spy scanner can effectively search through the most unnoticeable embedded files that spy on you.

Most Spy scanners include a spyware removal function. Other spy scanners do not entail spyware removal features but display the logs of the spyware detected in your PC. The information in the logs contains the location and nature of the spywares.

For spy scanners with no built-in spyware removal functions, a manual deletion of the spyware files could also be done since the location and the file type is specified in the logs. Some Spy scanner products on the market today have spyware scan available for non-paying users and the removal tool available only for paying users.

Spy Scanners when installed can be chosen to run on demand or periodically.

About The Author

Gina Marie Capatar is the main writer for http://www.isnare.com and currently accepting technical writing jobs. You may see her works at http://www.isnare.com and reach her through her mail.
gcapatar@gmail.com

by: BB Lee

New computer viruses threaten the unwary user everyday. Hackers jeopardize your online security with invasive computer techniques to steal your passwords, personal information, even identity.

Unscrupulous marketers bait you with free software that unleashes spyware, trojans, or worms, on your system.

While other marketers bombard you with popups at every turn. And others send unsolicited spy emails asking you to click links to unsafe websites that install threating software on your computer, or try to download your private information.

These are only a few of the security issues involved while online.

Read through the following list to arm your computer and protect yourself against these vicious and often malicious online attacks.

1. Install a good anti-virus software.

Here’s a good free anti-virus software… Fr** AVG Anti-Virus…… New – AVG Fr** Edition is now available for all single home users worldwide! More detailed information can be found in the AVG Free Edition License Agreement. Click Here To Download: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

2. Install a personal firewall.

This personal firewall is one of the best online…. http://www.zonealarm.com

3. Install a good pop up blocker.

Google has a free pop up blocker so does Yahoo. The only drawback is you will have to download and install their toolbar.

4. Know Privacy Policy.

Read the websites privacy policy before releasing personal information. Note do they share or sell your information with third parties. If they do you might reconsider releasing your personal information.

5. Passwords.

Never use easy to guess passwords like your favorite color, your social security number, your birthdate, words less than six characters. Mix up passwords with combinations of numbers and symbols.

6. Virus Warnings.

Don’t forward virus warnings you receive in emails. It’s not your job to warn others. And you might be circulating a fake warning designed to scare receivers into downloading trojans or removing important files on their computer.

7. Keep It Secret.

Don’t give your password to anyone. Be wary of emails asking you to give out your personal passwords for accounts online. Or emails asking you to click a link and enter your password on the site. This site might be a fake sent by hackers “phishing” for victims.

8. Primary Email Address.

Don’t divulge your primary email address on unfamiliar sites. You might be bombarded with unsolicited emails by marketers who sell your address to third parties online.

9. Free Accounts.

Set up several free email accounts with a psuedo name to handle spam, when you register with unfamiliar sites, or to use on chat and message boards.

10. Chat Line And Message Board Warnings.

Don’t release personal information on chat lines or message boards. This is one way many identity thefts occur.

by BB Lee (C)2004

BB Lee is Editor of SmallBizBits News.
Visit: http://www.smallbizbitsnews.com
Subscribe Now! Receive A Free Ad in newsletter!
mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com

About The Author

BB Lee is Editor of SmallBizBits News.Visit:

http://www.smallbizbitsnews.com

Subscribe Now! Receive A Free Ad in newsletter!

mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com
smallbizbits@yahoo.com

by: Maya Pinion

OK, so you caught a computer virus and your system is all screwed up and you’re frustrated and angry and upset. Bad luck.

Here’s something that might make you feel better …

The universe has true balance. And if a computer virus causes bad luck for the user it can also cause bad luck for the person who launched it.

Computer virus creators are usually very young and do not realize, or care, that they are causing harm to others. They just think it’s cool. What they don’t realize is that when a virus is launched it also unleashes a mystical power into the world, a malevolent thing that does bad things and makes victims of other people.

What these teen and pre-teen computer terrorists also don’t realize is what goes around comes around. The universe will get them. Sooner or later. Payback time. They cause you bad luck, bad luck will befall them. What goes around comes around.

If they launch a virus, causing bad luck for millions of people, in return, that can unleash and focus millions of bad vibes, BIG bad luck, back at them.

That could mean serious bad luck for the launcher of a virus. Perhaps their mother will finally become totally disgusted with their attitude and behavior and cease to love them. Maybe they’ll end up in a foster home, too old for adoption.

Or maybe they’ll have to run away and live on the streets, with no place to hook up their computer. Or maybe they won’t run away but will get a weird but temporary brain disease that prevents them from using a computer until they’re old enough to use it responsibly. Bad luck for them.

The computer virus. Bad luck for you, worse luck for the one who launches it.

About The Author

Maya Pinion is a New Age writer, contributing editor at News4Net and, for those who wish to discover their true destiny, highly recommends DestinyFinders.com

by: Jerry Yu

Recently one of my friends asked me to check out if his computer was infected by virus. He suspected because occasionally the computer was shut down automatically when connected to internet. My first thought was the Sasser worm 60 seconds auto count-down. As he uses Windows 98 second edition with IE5, the virus must be a Sasser variant.

I’m not network security expert but I know some basic things he must do to protect his home PC. It was a shock when he told me that his 4 years old PC had no protection except McAfee anti-virus.

• Bought in 2000 and no Windows service packs had been applied since then.
• McAfee anti-virus software came with the PC when bought and no updates since then.
• No firewall installed.
• No anti spyware installed.

This is what I did to beef up his PC to the best of my knowledge.

Step #1: Patch the operating system.

The first thing I did was update his Windows 98 to the latest available Windows updates for Windows 98.

• Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
• Scan the PC to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.
• Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.
• Restart the PC after finished.

When you open the Microsoft Windows Update page, click the “Scan for updates” link. The page will suggest what updates are needed based on your Windows version. You should install all Critical Updates suggested by Microsoft.

It took me about one and half hour to complete the above steps.

Step #2: Download, install, and run Spybot to get rid of all spyware.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Spybot-S&D is a free anti-spyware software to detect any spyware installed on your PC.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

• Track what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.
• Track and record your computer activities such as what keys you hit. This is generally called Trojans.
• Change your web browser’s home page.
• And more…

After installed Spybot, I immediately scanned my friend’s computer and found 166 problems. The first run killed nearly all of them except some memory residents that had to be killed after a reboot.

Step #3: Download and install Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF).
http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html

Kerio Personal Firewall limited free edition is for home users. After installation, KPF works as the full edition for 30 days, after which it becomes the limited free edition.

You may also try the free ZoneAlarm firewall. Be aware that ZoneAlarm free edition uses a lot of computer memory.

The following is the free ZoneAlarm firewall download link. You hardly can find this download link on ZoneAlarm site because they want you to buy the Pro version which is a much better choice.
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Step #4: Download AVG anti-virus software
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Because my friend has McAfee antivirus installed but has not been updated for about 4 years. I downloaded AVG Free Edition antivirus software and let him to consider if he wanted to pay and update his McAfee or use the freebie. Running two antivirus software on the same computer can cause conflicts.

Step #5: Install password management software – RoboForm free edition.
http://www.roboform.com/?affid=siter

RoboForm is a password management software with Artificial Intelligence built in that can automatically fill online forms for you. It has been featured on The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Financial Times, PC Magazine, etc.

Nowadays we all have many usernames and passwords to use on the internet. Some spywares record your keystrokes and send them to the hackers. It has been reported many times that people lost all their money in online bank account or internet payment system account.

One of RoboForm key features is designed to combat this kind of key logger hacking. RoboForm can

• AutoSave passwords in browser.
• AutoFill passwords to login form.
• Click Login button for you.
• Fill personal info into online forms.
• Save offline passwords & notes.
• Generate Secure Random Passwords.
• Encrypt passwords and personal info using 3-DES.
• All personal info is stored on your computer only.
• Put passwords on USB KeyChain for extra security.
• Sync your passwords and safenotes to a Palm.
• Backup & Restore, Print your passwords.
• More features: drill down for more.

RoboForm works best with IE 5.0 and above. IE6 is the recommended browser to use with Artificial Intelligence RoboForm.

Note: free eidition comes with some limitations.

Step #6: Apply additional security measures.

More security measures and resources:

• Read Web Security tutorial from W3Schools, especially the paragraphs for home users. http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_security.asp
• Use Audit My PC to do three Penetration Testing. http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/prefcan.asp
• Use Gibson Research’s ShiedsUP to do port scan and get useful advice. https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
• Download Gibson Research’s LeakTest and check if personal firewall can be fooled. If the firewall is good, the LeadTest will not be able to reach the internet. http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm
• Browse Microsoft security home page to learn more about Windows security. http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

Mission completed. It took me nearly 4 hours that night and the result is so far so good.

About The Author

The author, Jerry Yu, is an experienced internet marketer and web developer. Visit his site http://www.WebActionGuide.com for FREE “how-to” step-by-step action guide, tips, knowledge base articles, and more.

by: Eric Koshinsky

This is a really simple question to answer – you need to use antivirus software to protect your own computer, and to prevent your computer from being used to pass on infections to other machines without your knowledge. If you use the internet and you don’t take precautions, you’re going to get infected. And you’ll infect others, including those you care about most like your friends, family, and business contacts because their information is in your email address book and other files on your computer.

If you don’t care about infecting others, let’s look at the economic argument for a moment. You have a computer that must have cost at least $600, and perhaps as much as $4,000. On top of that you’ll have a monitor for which you paid between $250 and $1000, and you’re running software costing at least $500 dollars. If you have business or specialist packages installed then I’m guessing you may have invested $5000 in software alone. You will probably pay upwards of 25 dollars a month for your internet connection. And if you store personal data on your PC, it is probably worth more than money to you.

So you’ve got equipment worth something like $1400 if you’re computing on the cheap, right up to (and beyond) $10,000 if you flex your wallet a little. Think of this as being the same in price as an acceptable older used car right up to the pretty good used car you could buy for ten thousand dollars.

Now imagine that the car had all the locks removed and could be started without a key – and of course you could paint “STEAL ME” on it for good measure. That makes a lot of sense..yea right!

Having a computer that does not have up-to-date antivirus and firewall protection is pretty much exactly the same. You are simply asking for trouble!

This kind of trouble doesn’t need to be invited twice, because viruses, worms, Trojans and all the rest, are designed to find unprotected computers and attack them. They don’t seek out protected computers! If they find one, they simply move on.

NOTE: Firewalls are one good way to keep the net-nasties moving on, you can learn more about them at: http://www.antivirus-report.com/freeware-firewall.html

Remember, computer viruses are designed, they don’t just happen by accident. Because human intelligence is behind the viruses they develop quickly, use surprising and unexpected tactics, and they hit us where we are weakest.

So if you can afford over $1500 on a computer and $300 a year on internet connections, you can definitely afford another $50 to make your computer safe (and prevent it from being used to spread viruses and Trojan horses behind your back).

If you’re not convinced about the cost argument, consider the case of David L. Smith – the self-confessed author of the infamous Melissa worm. When he was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment and a fine of $5,000 in New Jersey, the court adjudged Smith’s worm to have caused more than £55 million pounds worth of damage!

Against the cost we stand to lose, the risk of losing our priceless personal files, and being blamed by friends and relatives for infecting their machines, the top antivirus software programs cost as little as 2 months internet connection. They all include constant and unlimited automatic updates that keep your system safe and clean.

And if you weren’t convinced by the good citizen argument that you should protect your computer to stop others getting infected, then it might be worth mentioning that there is a movement to make people not using antivirus software legally responsible should their machine be used as part of an attack (even if they did not know about it). (Note: I’m not personally a part of such a movement, but it does have its merits!)

So, be a good citizen whilst protecting your wallet and your sanity by installing good antivirus software and keeping it up to date.

To learn more about effective, easy to afford and use PC protection tools, visit http://www.antivirus-report.com

By: Eric Koshinsky

http://www.antivirus-report.com

An HTML version of this articles is available by auto-responder at: whyuseAVsoftware@antivirus-report.com

+++++++

Note:

If you manage a website with similar content to http://www.antivirus-report.com, we are interested in exchanging links with you. Please visit http://www.antivirus-report.com/link-to-us.html for more details.

+++++++

Note II:

We have a 100% brandable version of the antivirus report available to anyone who wants to add an effective broad appeal revenue source to their portfolio. It is available at no expense ( F.R.E.E. ) here:

http://www.antivirus-report.com/aa-brand.html

********

About The Author

Eric Koshinsky created the layman’s guide to antivirus and PC protection after helping too many people deal with simple PC problems. Find out exactly how to protect your computer from harmful internet attacks at http://www.antivirus-report.com. The comprehensive antivirus report is available at no cost. Find out how to block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software quickly and easily in one place.