Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
April 6, 2008

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 3, Number 43 — Sunday, April 6, 2008

IN THIS WEEK'S ON-LINE ISSUE:
   1.   Creating a Home Computer Network
   2.   Updates Last Week
   3.   My Computer Security Software Recommendations
   4.   Sharing Files and Printers
   5.   Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.

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1.  Creating a Home Computer Network

If you don't already have a home computer network and want to set up one, it's easy. In fact, it's so easy that I recommend that ANYONE using a high-speed Internet connection should use a router for the added security that it gives their computer.

A wired or wireless router (wireless routers normally have 4 wired Ethernet ports, also, in addition to being able to communicate wirelesly) is pretty much a plug-and-play device.

Most of the time, you don't really need the directions provided with the cable/dsl wired or wireless router, except for configuring wireless security settings — or if you have a DSL connection.

If you have a cable Internet connection (at home) or an Ethernet connection (at home in some areas, but more often, in a college dormitory), you can plug the router into the power, plug the Ethernet cable from the cable modem or the other high-speed connection into the router, and then plug another Ethernet cable from the computer to the router. Then, you start the computer and get the IP address and other configuration information.

Since Windows, the routers, and the Internet Service Providers use DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) to dynamically assign changeable IP addresses to computers, it works easily, at least if you have a wired connection.

Once you have connected the computer to the router, the router to the cable modem, you should have a working Internet connection so that you can surf the web and do email.

The advantage with the router, if you only have one computer, is that the router is the piece of equipment that gets a real Internet IP address, while your computer gets a local area network (LAN) IP address. This means that no computer on the Internet side of your router can initiate a connection to your computer.

Your computer asks the router for a web page, the router asks the web server, the web server sends the response to the router, and the router sends the response to your computer. But, a connection attempt initiated from the Internet simply stops at the router!

A DSL connection is not quite as simple as a direct Ethernet connection or a cable modem connection. DSL often uses a protocol called PPPOE (Point-to-Point-Protocol-Over-Ethernet), which is a derivative of the older Point-to-Point-Protocol that dialup ISP's use.

If you have a DSL connection, you will have to configure the cable/dsl router according to the instructions that come with the router. Most (or all) of the routers are able to do PPPOE, but the default to the more common TCP/IP.

To add another computer, just plug it in to the router using another wired connection. Or, if you like, you can set up the additional computer using a wireless connection. If you do, be sure to read your manual for the router — most do a good job of explaining why you should secure your wireless network and how to do it.

If you want to share files and/or a printer (or printers) among the computers on your home network, you'll have to enable those functions. You will also have to set your computers' firewall programs not to block Windows File and Printer Sharing for computers on your home network.

Of course, you should also be running the usual anti-malware products — the anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs. My choices are NOD32 Anti-virus, Sunbelt's CounterSpy (CNET's March'08 Editors Choice) and Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

3.  My Computer Security Software Recommendations

Anti-Virus

I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."

My personal choice is the ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 to be the cream of the crop in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of the others, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, including updates to the program in the multiple-year license.

Many antivirus programs will offer you an anti-virus signature subscription renewal when your subscription renews. I strongly recommend against this option — buy the full program or make sure you get program updates with the subscription renewal (like NOD32 does). Vendors routinely improve the capabilities and speed of the programs, too.

If you update only the signatures, you miss any program improvements. Fortunately, NOD32's subscriptions include both program updates and signature updates.

Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.

Related articles:

• Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
• Free Online Antivirus Scan
• NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32

Firewall Software

While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.

The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.

Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?

I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.

I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.

Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.

Related articles:

• The Internet Versus You
• Do I Need a Firewall Program?
• Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software

CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It is also my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.

Sunbelt released their CounterSpy v2 in February 2007 and I promptly updated my computers to it. Version 2 greatly improved CounterSpy's performance and reduced its load on the computer when it was scanning.

In July, 2007, Sunbelt released v2.5 of CounterSpy, which again both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.

Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed!

Related articles:

• Fighting Against Spyware & Malware
• CounterSpy Review

Anti-spam Software

In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"

I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.

POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.

Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.

Mailwasher Pro is my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists.

Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.

Related articles:

• Spam Filtering
• Keeping spam out of your Inbox
• Getting Control of Your Inbox
• How Can I Prevent spam?

Cable/DSL Router

If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.

Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.

A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.

For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.

If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..

See these related articles:

• Wireless Security
• Wi-Fi Hotspots and Computer Security
• Wireless Networking Problems & Wireless Networking Security