It’s been a while since we’ve posted on the CEVO blogs. We’ve all been busy working hard on getting new features for the site. However, I need to get something off my chest as a developer, as a college student, and as an intelligent human being.
I’ll leave out what school I’m attending, and what class number it is (I’d hate to have my professor stumble on this blog entry.) But the class is about basic computer skills. The only time I could fit this class in was 7:00 AM early morning. What a joy, because there is nothing better than sitting in a class still tired from waking up early learning how to make “folders.”
But, no, I can’t skip this class, even though I am a website designer and a programmer. Oh no, I am required to be taught what the start button is. There is a test I can take to test out of the class, but I only get the requirement and not the 3 credit hours that I need to stay on track for graduation. Also, I wasn’t able to take the test before this semester, and I have a class that requires me to either pass this class or be enrolled in it.
So now I have the joy of 1 hour of idiot-proof computer lessons. I’ll save you the details on how I learned how to make a folder on my desktop, and then another folder inside my first folder. Whew, I didn’t know it could be so complicated!
But today what really irked me was their explination about viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware. Not only were my teacher’s semi-inaccurate and so watered down that it really didn’t explain how you get viruses (the power point slide used examples with floppy disks, even though new computers, including my campus’s, don’t have floppy drives). We watched a nice little video from Microsoft on how to protect ourselves, and they listed a few ways to protect yourselves from viruses:
- Use a Firewall
- Use Microsoft Updates
- Install an Anti-Virus program like Norton or McAffe
First of all, these are not the top 3 best ways to prevent viruses in my opinion! Second of all there are better programs than Norton or McAffe (especially Norton). So, I’d like to revise and release a new list of a more effective ways of keeping your computer safe, because if you do these things then you’ll be much less likely to get a virus.
1) Don’t use Peer 2 Peer Networks if you’re an idiot and don’t know what you’re doing. - 90% of all viruses I’ve seen on computers come from people trying to download songs, videos, games, etc. and download a 13.6kb movie (Wow! Such Great Compression!) that ends with .exe and for some reason when you click on it, nothing happens. For crying out loud people, the #1 way for people to spread viruses is through illegal content from the internet! I haven’t received an email attachment that was infected for years, but tons of Torrents, Kazaa, and LimeWire downloads.
2) Don’t download / watch porn - This is probably the second most common way people get spyware and viruses is trying to find free pornography online. Next thing you know your computer is trying to make a long distance call to some weird number thats $5.00 a minute to download “stuff” at 2 kb/s a second. Or worse, you can’t do homework for more than 5 minutes without pop-ups all over showing way more than your group project members want to see.
3) Don’t use downloaded cheats! - Even if you’re just pubbing, tons of cheat coders have slipped viruses and torjans/backdoors into their cheats. So many times when people submit “cheats” to us so we can check them against CMN3, my AVG Anti-Virus will alert me that some backdoor program is installed.
4) Use AVG (not McAffe/Norton) - While McAffe is alright (I still like AVG a lot better), Norton in my experience has done a terrible job at detecting viruses and so forth. Not only that, but its very intrusive. AVG has a free version that you can download. Its what we recommend here at CEVO.
5) Don’t download cool little “free” stuff off the internet, especially if you clicked an Ad to download it. - #1 way to get spyware is to download “Free Smilies!” or “Free Wallpapers!” or “Free Screensavers!” Especially if you saw an ad and clicked on it. It costs people money to put up those ads, and if you think they are just giving you those smilies for free, think again. They’re going to install spyware and bombard you with ads and turn you into a marketing statistic by watching what you do so quickly it isn’t funny.
6) If steps 1-5 fail, turn in your PC and get a bloody Mac.
