The first part of this section contains information on preventative
measures you can take so that pc repair wont be required. Once
your computer is infected with a trojan, it is at the mercy of someone
you don't know. Any information on your computer now belongs to
them (bank details, personal pictures, home address). I don't want
to worry you but it worries me just how little informed people are
before they connect to the world wide web.
Make sure you have anti-virus software and your windows
firewall up and running before browsing the internet.
Please don't use Norton or McAfee products as they are no where
near as good as most free alternatives, slow your pc down &
don't protect from virus' anyway.
Ok, first job is to ensure your Windows firewall is active.
Thankfully this can be done with a few clicks of your
mouse:
Windows XP users -
- Click [start] [run] and type control panel, click
[ok]
- Click [Network and Internet Connections], click [Network
Connections]
- Right click [Local Area Connection], click [Properties]
- Click the tab [Advanced], click [Settings]
- Ensure that the checkbox [On] is checked.
Windows 7 users -
- Click [start] [control panel] [Windows Firewall]
- You should see green ticks in here and no red crosses,
if you see red crosses follow the below:
- In the left pane click "Turn windows firewall on or off"
- Here you can turn on the firewall for both home and
public networks.
Antivirus
I recommend you use Avast Antivirus software (http://www.avast.com).
It's free and as I mentioned above, much better than the paid
software out there, make sure you register the software once
installed. It will monitor your pc in realtime and deal
with any malicious files it finds without you needing to get
involved. Also, it will update it definitions each day
automatically. If you have any questions about other antivirus
programs you would like to use, just drop me an email using the
contact form.
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