O.k. I once had a coworker, who told me that she bought a new computer. She told me when she hooked it up to the Internet, she got a whole bunch of viruses and the computer became inoperable. She blamed the Internet Service Provider for the problem and cancelled her subscription for good. When I asked her if had installed any anti-virus or anti-spyware programs prior to connecting to the Internet, she told me no and she could not be bothered. For others who are willing to be bothered to save yourselves a major headache, this is what you need to do to prevent any problems when you connect your brand new computer to the Internet.

(1)Puchase a Anti-virus program or make sure your computer comes with one. If your computer, does not have a anti-virus and you cannot afford to buy one, get a friend to download one of several freely available anti-virus programs and burn them onto a CD for you. I recommend Avast or AVG, but other freeones include Antivir and Bitdefender standard. Never install more than one anti-virus program at once or your computer could crash. Also remember that most anti-virus programs that come preinstalled on a new computer are only trial copies that may be good for 1 or 2 months. That means that if you don't buy it after the expiry period or don't uninstall and replace it with another, you will become vulnerable to the latest viruses and trojans.

(2)Install Windows Worms Doors Cleaner on your computer before hooking to the internet. You can downnload Windows Worms Doors Cleaner from here. This tool will shut down all worm holes that are open by default and some of which cannot be closed by a firewall. You can download it from here: http://www.firewallleaktester.com/wwdc.htm

(3)Windows XP does hava a firewall built in but firewall tests have proven it provides minimal if any protection, so you should install zonealarm's free firewall before you connect to the Internet. You can download ZoneAlarm's free firewall from here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za....

(4)Once you have all the above installed and are connected to the internet, run the update function on the Anti-Virus program that you are using to make sure that it is updated to fight and prevent the latest viruses and trojans. Then Click on the bottom left "start" button in Windows Xp, then click on all programs, then click on WIndows Update and go through the update process, restarting and repeating the process as many times as possible until all the required updates are completed. This is mandatory as it will ensure that you have the latest Microsoft patches to protect you from the latest hacker exploits.

(5)Download, install, update, and run Anti-spyware programs. Although this is not as important as the above steps in your initial connection to the Internet, it is equally important to follow up as frequent browsing of Internet sites will put you at risk of spyware if you neglect this step. Some of these spyware programs will slow your computer to a crawl and some of them may cause your computer to crash and loose important data. Some spyware programs are just as dangerous if not more dangerous than the latest most dangerous viruses, trojans, and worms. I would recommend that you download, install, update, and run at a minimum Adaware Personal, SpyBot Search and Destroy, and Spyware Blaster. Here is a good link re:where to download them, plus additional measures that you can take to keep your computer running optimally.

http://wiki.castlecops.com/Roll_your_own_Free_Security_Suite

Note: If you will be connecting to the Internet wireless through a laptop, you need to take the extra steps outlined here to be fully secure.
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Now should your computer ever crash, before you take it to a computer shop and pay the shop hundreds of dollars to fix a simple problem, try the following. In my experience, this quick fix helped restore my and other people's computers in 95% of all cases.

Start Windows XP in Safe Mode By Doing the following:

If Windows XP is the only operating system installed on your computer, booting into Safe Mode with these instructions.

* If the computer is running, shut down Windows, and then turn off the power
* Wait 30 seconds, and then turn the computer on.
* Start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
* Ensure that the Safe mode option is selected.
* Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode.
* Click on Bottom left "Start" button.
* Click on "All Programs."
* Click on "Accessories"
* Click on "System Tools"
* The Dot Before "Restore my computer to an earlier time" should be shaded by default.
*Click on "Next" button(on the bottom left)
*A calender should display with the date that you did this highlighted. With your mouse cursor pointed to the day before click on that(this is usually far back enough)
*Click on "Next" button and following the instructions. Now your computer should be restored to the time before you had any problems and all should begin to function the way it was. If not, repeat the system restore process, but when the calendar comes up, try restoring to an earlier time than the day before, perhaps as week or two before.
*Make sure you update your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. You may have to reinstall any programs that were not installed at the time of the restore date, but be careful here as sometimes installation of new programs will cause computers to crash due to software conflicts or incompatibilites(making system restore necessary), so you don't want to end up reinstalling a program that was responsible for causing your computer to crash in the first place.

While this seems like a lot of work, it really is not and is worth it considering that a computer shop would likely do the same 10-15 minute process but charge you a minimum of $35-75 or more. They also could careless if you have antispyware or antivirus programs installed. They won't tell you about where you can download and install these from for free, but they will try to sell you software that costs $100's of dollars and is not necessary if you ask them. I am not bashing or flaming computer shops, I know this for a fact as I had several friends who had computer problems because the computer got infected with viruses, Trojans, and spyware. They did not have protection software installed. They took their computers to a computer shop and were charged $100-300 to fix the problem. The problem was fixed but they were never advised on how to prevent a future occurence of the problem through installation of antivirus and antispyware progams. I found out about this because they contacted me to help fix their computers when the problem reoccured. In one of my friend's daughter's computers, there were about 75 Combined Trojans, Viruses, and Worms, and at 35 Spyware Progams. It took me 3 days to totally disinfect the computer of all of this. I then installed antivirus and antispyware programs and instructed the daughter on how to update and run these weekly. That was 1 year ago. As she followed up with what I told her, she has not had a recurrence of any computer viruses or spyware and her computer is working perfectly. I know that there are many others out there like my friend's daughter who end up paying major cash to computer shops repeatedly to fix issues that can be prevented in the first place. That is why I decided to freely share this information with people on curezone as I felt it would really benefit them and especially the less fortunate who cannot afford to pay big bucks to have their computers fixed.