When it comes to online protection, there are 4 things to consider.

Protect yourself online.

When it comes to online protection, there are 4 things to consider.

- A strong password is on your system.

- Firewall protection and make sure it’s enabled.

- Operating system and installed software patches

- Choose a good antivirus and keep that patched

FireWall Protection.

Make sure the firewall is on and protecting you.  In windows XP the way to check this would be to click on start -> and right click my network places, you will come up with your network adapters list.  Choose the network adapter that is providing your internet connection and right click it and go to it’s properties.

You will see a button for setting the options for your windows firewall.  Click on that settings button.

Once you have done that make sure that you click on the radio button that selects the firewall to be on.  Setting up your firewall is one starting point in protecting your machine from intruders trying to connect to your machine with malicious intent from the internet.

 
The Windows Security Centre.

The next thing to do to keep your machine protected is just to make sure that your windows patches are updated regularly.  To do this,  Click on start and go to the control panel.

You may have to click on classic view to see the full list of options that you get from control panel.  What you are looking for is the Security Centre.  Clicking on the security centre gives you a view of the level of protection that you are receiving in terms of firewall, automatic updates and virus protection.

The machine is protected in all three categories. However if for example the automatic updates feature was off it would also change the color alert to red.  To turn this on, click on Automatic Updates in the lower section of the window. 

Another window would pop up and the best recommendation I could give and what is also recommended by Microsoft would be to click on the automatic option:  Automatically download recommended updates for my computer and install them.   And from here choose an appropriate time when the usage of your computer is low.  In the screenshot below I’ve chosen everyday at 3 am.  If my computer is not on at 3 am it will download all available recommended updates and install them the next time I turn on my pc.

Antivirus.

Antivirus protection doesn’t come pre-installed with the operating system.  It’s really a personal choice of which of the big vendors you choose to go with.  For sake of argument the system that we have is installed with Norton antivirus.  The following screens will show you how to update this flavor of antivirus but the options and the premise of keeping your antivirus software up to date is the same.

Always keep your antivirus updated.  Usually there is an option to automatically update the antivirus when an update is available, make sure that option is checked.  The next thing you want to make sure of is that your antivirus is up to date.  Every decent anti-virus itself up to date either manually or automatically.  Make sure you have the latest definitions to keep your machine protected.

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