Internet Q and A

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Q. How does Spyware affect me? How do I detect and remove Spyware?

A. Obviously you do not want a computer that:

spies on your surfing habits
gathers personal data about you and sends it to marketing companies
takes up your bandwidth
crashes your browser
bombards you with more advertising
secretly installs unknown software
opens up secret backdoors

Therefore, it is important to keep your machine free of such malicious software. Some spyware can be removed via the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Windows Control Panel, provided you know it is there and what its name is. Some of it can be removed manually. Some of it is difficult to remove due to hidden files and registry keys. In order to effectively check and clean up your system you need to be more aggressive. Right now one of the most complete and thorough spyware detection and removal tools is a freeware program called Ad-Aware offered by the German company Lavasoft. You can download it at no charge from their web site atwww.lavasoft.de.

Download and install Ad-Aware on your machine. Before you use it, you will need to download the latest signature file from the same page and extract it into the Ad-Aware program directory, overwriting an earlier version of the signature file. Once installed, run Ad-Aware by clicking the icon in the start menu. The program is self-explanatory and walks you through the process of scanning your hard drives and registry, identifying spyware components, and removing them. If you have questions about the software or need help, Ad-Aware comes with a good manual, which is accessible from the Start menu.

Q. Is the danger of someone hacking into your computer equal with a direct connection vs. a dial-up?

A. No, the dangers are higher with a broadband connection, but only because the exposure is higher. Think about it this way: If you are in your car driving around 24/7, then your chances of being hit by someone else are much higher than if you just get in your car and drive to work, to the store, to pick up the kids, etc. But put in a decent firewall, either hardware that is built-in to router, or software such as Zone Alarm, Black Ice, McAfee, etc. Protect yourself from the outside world. Hackers are really overrated anyway. Virus protection is much more important than a firewall. Viruses these days do not destroy your computer, they get in to it and leave ports open and distribute your information. Without good anti-virus software, a firewall will do you no good.

Q.I have a D-Link DI-624 router for my home PC. Is a router the same thing as a firewall? Do I need to enable this feature under the Advanced, Firewall tab to turn the router into a firewall? Once I do this, do I still need personal firewall software like Zone Alarm?

A. A router and a firewall are different things, although their functions overlap. A router is used to route connections between two or more logical networks. Those logical networks may also be physical networks. But they don't have to be. An example of where a router might be used is between a home network and the Internet. In this case the router usually provides Network Address Translation, or NAT, so that routable IP addresses are not wasted on home and small business networks.

A firewall acts as a gatekeeper. Its purpose is to allow or not allow packets of information to flow between two or more logical networks, or into/out of a computer or other device.

Where their functions overlap is in that many routers include a firewall. In addition, the basic functions of a router mirror some of those of a firewall.

In today's world, you need both a router and a firewall. Whether you need separate devices to handle these functions or not depends on your setup. If you have one computer and you connect to the Internet through a cable modem, a DSL modem, or a plain old-fashioned telephone modem, you probably don't need a separate router. Your computer and the equipment your ISP has do all the routing. However, you still need a firewall. In this case, a software firewall on your PC is usually sufficient.

If you have a home or small business network, then you need a hardware router. Along with your hardware router, you should also have a firewall. It does not hurt to also have a software firewall at each point of use as well.

Q. Instead of pictures on incoming, I get a box with a red "X". How can I rectify this?

A. Generally, this means that the pictures are not available from the source. If you have a slow connection, the browser may time out waiting for the photos to load. Right click on the space where the picture should be and select view image. If the image presents itself, then check your settings to see if you have anything blocked. Check to see if under Tools, Internet Options Content, if the Content Advisor is enabled. If so, they may be blocked through it.

Q. I am facing this problem of Spyware and Adaware infection in my computer. Whenever I visit some sites, they disappear and pop-ups about these infections appear. Are there any free programs to remove these infections?

A. Are you just getting a popup saying something like: "Warning, your computer might have Spyware"? If that is it, it's just a popup ad trying to scare you into buying some program. Are you running any anti Spyware programs, like Ad-aware or Spybot? They are both free.

Q. We are looking to upgrade our home wireless router (netgear 802.11B) in order to get better range, which is currently spotty. We were planning to get a "G", but I started reading about the "N" - or "pre N". Apart from cost, (about $25 for a G vs. $125 for a pre-N) will it gain me much by way of range? We just use it for the laptop by the pool for office applicationss, email, and Photoshop. We are not into downloading music or videos, so huge bandwidth is not a big concern. Should I get a G now and wait until the N standard solidifies?

A. Most routers allow you to choose between G, B or both, just in case you have a B adapter and want to use it with the G router. However, if you have a G router and a B adapter, then your router will only give you a B connection. In order to use specifically G, which is faster and has more range than B, you need a G adapter. The same thing with G and N; you'll need an N adapter to use the specific N setting on the router. The N router and adapter will get you a larger range providing there is nothing interfering.

Q. Which would I be better off with, DSL or Cable? I know I can run some diagnostics to tell how fast it is downloading, but it doesn't make much sense to me and doesn't give me a comparison. I can't tell what speed it is running, but I can tell when it gets annoyingly slow.

A. Cable generally slows when many computers in one area are using it. Its resiliency depends upon the equipment installed. You might have the cable folks come by and check the signal strength and quality. Noise on the line won't affect the television, but will slow the internet service. DSL is supposed to be as fast as cable is. It may well be more consistent because the equipment deployment is different from cable.

You can Google for speed test and try some of the sites to test the speed of your connection. Recall that isolated tests may show anything depending upon the speed of the overall connection and load on the Internet links in your area. Test feeds of small files are not particularly helpful, moving at least a megabyte should show you something. You could try this several times at different times of the day to get a feel.

If your computer is four years old, it may be that it cannot keep up with the heavy flow of graphics from the Internet and appears to be slow when it is not. It also depends on how far you are from the phone company "switch." If you are 2-3 miles away, you won't get the speeds DSL advertises.

Part of the slowness could be your computer. Do you regularly clean up files and defrag? That helps a lot. Part of it is websites you visit. This forum, for example, can be terribly slow at times, even on a T-1 line. If traffic at the server is heavy, it matters little what you have at your house.

Some cable companies are better than others. Time Warner does a good job. Before we moved, my cable modem was usually fast. But, we had fiber to the box in front of my house. The only copper was from that box to my computer. I've read tales of other companies that are not as diligent. The differences are so great, you'd think it was entirely different technologies.

Q. All of a sudden, if I try to click on a link in an e-mail in Outlook Express, it will not take me to that site and I have to go and end the program as I am frozen at that point. I never had that problem before. Any suggestions?

A. Outlook, although not a wonderful product, is no better or worse than some others. The real issue with Outlook is that it has been the source of attack by virus writers. These attacks are aimed at Outlook due to the huge number of people using that program, allowing the virus bunch to have the largest impact on the most people.

There are options out there if you want to install another email program, not because Outlook is such a terrible program, but to protect you from a virus. Your symptoms might be due to a virus from opening an infected attachment. Some options you can look into (and I have tried all of these and they are capable programs) are:
Pocomail
The Bat
Eudora (free light version)
Mozilla Thunderbird (free)

There are others but these are ones I have tried and they all worked fine and some are free. Most will import your Outlook mail and address books so the change over is painless. The advantage is a reduced risk of viruses.

Remember, make sure you have antivirus and current updates installed and running all the time even with these alternative programs, and do not open attachments. You can try to rebuild Outlook, but from your symptoms, it might be difficult, especially if you have a virus. Sometimes a total system reload is necessary to fix those problems. Search the Microsoft knowledge base and perhaps find a way to repair your Outlook.

Q. I use Google for searching. I noticed that when I enter a character in the subject line, sometimes a list of previously entered searches shows up. Sometimes this list is quite long. Can I delete these old subjects? How?

A. Go to options on the toolbar, uncheck drop down history, hit apply, and close it. Re-open it and recheck it for the drop down. With Firefox, it is under tools/ options/ privacy. On Internet Explorer, you go to tools> Internet options> content> personal info> auto complete> clear forms. Go to Google. When you left-click once or twice in the empty search box, a list of previous searches appears, complete with scroll bar. Now, you can highlight the very first entry with your cursor. If you want to delete only that entry, or any other entry you highlight, just click on the Shift and Delete keys on your keyboard (not the backspace key, which you might use to delete a letter or two in a word, but the Delete key). If you want to delete all the entries quickly, you can just highlight the very first one, and then hold the Shift and Delete key down, instead of releasing it after it deletes one entry. This will rapidly scroll down through the entire list, deleting as it goes.

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