It has come to my attention that most people do not know what these things are, what dangers they cause, and what to use, or where to get them. So, I must start by expressing that I intend this as an "at home use" article.
ADWARE
Ad ons to software to display ads one way or another to your computer screen. Although not as dangerous as spyware, these ads are potential start points for spyware programs. I recommend using the latest adaware program to detect and remove adware programs. Be careful with this software you may damage some programs you are using that have adware in them that you want to keep. I suggest more research if you are an avid freeware downloader. Otherwise just follow the program through to remove your adware.
SPYWARE
Spyware are programs installed on your computer from randomly surfing upon certian sites and allowing them to install. Most of the time you don't even have to click anything. Just having certian security settings allows the site to automatically download and install them.
Most spyware programs are bad because they are running at all times and slow down your computer. They tend to take up space on your hard drive, even log events like what time your online, and what internet sites you visit, they even log ip address' by area. Sometimes they are a virus, by which they start doing what's called keylogging. They keep track of every letter you pressed on the keyboard and send them back to a source. Usually it is someone you'd rather not have this information.
You can prevent spyware by installing programs that monitor for and extract spyware programs. It is always suggested to run two spyware programs, what one doesn't find the other will. Yes, now you have 2 running in the background, but you no longer have 20 other malicious programs running . Another problem to watch out for if you do run 2 spyware removal programs, they tend to have adware. Programs take a lot of time an energy to create, thus bringing along with them a way to potentially acquire revenue.
ANTIVIRUS
A virus is a program sent to you activated by you opening an e-mail selecting yes on a file or even putting a disk, or flash drive into your computer. Most virus items intend to hinder your computers performance for the sake of hindering it. Trojans, a virus type, tend to go the spyware route but worsening the effect by opening up huge wholes into your system so that the user can take over, get information and screw up your computer live. For home use I personally recomend Avast. Be careful though, there are Phishing sites for Avast. Phishing sites are sites that are made to look like a website you normally go to. These sites log your information in a database so later they can try to hack into your other active accounts on the internet. This is one of the down falls of using 1 or 2 passwords for everything.
FIREWALL
Windows has a firewall setup now in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Window's Vista's Firewall is, in my opinion, superior to Windows XP, that's about all the credit I have given the Vista System though. Firewalls are only needed for broadband connections (DSL or CABLE mostly). I recommend Comodo Firewall for home use. You know you have a decent firewall when it asks if itself can connect to the internet for updates or should be blocked.
You may want to re-read the above information after this. A firewall is a program designed to monitor your computer for incoming attacks, odd activity, and prevent unwanted connections to be made to the internet. Think of the internet as hose between your computer and the outside world. The firewall asks as a valve to adjust the amount of water, or in this case information that is allowed through.
COOKIES?
Cookies, we have all heard of them, but what are they and what do they do? How are they dangerous? I do not want them on my computer, I don't want crumbs all over my computer. Alright so in reality us cheesy programmers do use the terms cookies and crumbs in programming. Cookies are text like files stored on your computer to save us the trouble of logging everything server side (some day I may write something about the difference between server side and client side so check back I guess) What this does is allow us to store information on your computer when you visit our website. Yes, we some use this information to do all of the above, but most use it for useful things like saving the fact that you logged in. Would you like to have to enter your username and password on every single screen you were on? I didn't think so. What it does is allow us to store information and when you come back we know you are you, and we know exactly every link you clicked. Think of it as a marketing study, but you don't have to see the guy with the pencil and paper standing in front of the store when you walk in. He stands behind you watching everything you do, so next time he can make things better for you. (most of the time anyhow) Well there are dangers. For example I remember hearing about how once upon a time amazon was logging exactly what people liked and making everything cheap and then the things you were, or they thought you would be interested in would be slightly more expensive. Not sure if this is true, but this is a small example of what can be done. So what do I do about it? Well Adaware should eliminate them too, but you can also do what most of us do once in a while.
Firefox:
Tools --> Clear Recent History --> Check Cookies and all other data types you wish to delete --> Click Clear Now!
Internet Explorer:
Tools --> Delete Browsing History --> Click Delete cookies and all other types of data you wish to delete
NOTE: Temporary Internet Files will have to be deleted to ensure your cookies are gone. Also, your cookies will be back the moment you return to a site. Unfortunately it may get all the data back because a lot of companies are starting to keep track of things server side too. (on their computers)
Greek?
My friend is currently studying greek for himself. I was working with him on it, but school is starting to get the best of me. If things are still greek to you, feel free to ask questions. I will do my best to answer them.
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