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What's an easy and effective way to protect yourself from viruses?  Connecting your cable modem or DSL modem to a router instead of directly to your computer.  The reason is simple, when you connect your computer directly to your modem, attackers have access to and can interface directly with your computer.  By default, unless you are running a good firewall, all ports are exposed.  Theoretically this shouldn't be a problem since the operating system should be secure and won't allow unauthorized access.  Unfortunately, virus writers are quite good at circumventing security. 

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tags: applications, backup, encryption, flash, free, free antivirus, freeware, ftp, media players, productivity, software, usb memory, utilities, windows xp

Over the years, one of my biggest complaints about Microsoft operating systems since Windows 3.1 is that every time I install a new piece of software, I'm putting my entire system in jeopardy.  Most of the times things work fine, but every so often,  I install something and from that point on, the computer just starts doing something weird.  It might be something minor like increasing startup times (although after a while this becomes a major problem as the system becomes slower and slower), or it might completely render the system inoperable.  The truth of the matter is that every time you run a new installer for some software that looks promising, you run the risk of doing some damage to your computer - at least on a software level.  You're not going to physically damage the computer but it's a problem nonetheless.  How can you avoid these hassles?
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tags: applications, backup, encryption, flash, free, free antivirus, freeware, ftp, media players, productivity, software, usb memory, utilities, windows xp