Wireless all- In-One for Dummies- P9 doc

In Figure 3-7, the line corresponding to automatic updates has been pulled down to show some more details.. Click on the Change settings button to bring up the automatic updates con-figu

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The dialog box shown in Figure 3-6 is light on details You’re being asked

to decide whether or not an application should accept connections If you

allow it, the Windows firewall will allow incoming connections into this

application

To be clear, the application has requested the privilege of accepting

con-nections The first question you should ask is “Did I just launch that

applica-tion?” If the query came while you were in the middle of browsing the Web,

then you should be extra cautious However, in this case, I ran the program

If you’re not sure which program generated the alert, then check the dialog

box because it’s listed there

After you determine that the alert was as a result of a program you chose

to run, you should ask “Is this the type of program that accepts network connections?”

On the Internet, a client (your computer) connects to a server to get some information The connection is always made from one side to the other, and having a connection come in to you if you’re a client is rare

Therefore, if you see an alert asking you if you’d like to accept connections, you should qualify the last question by asking yourself why someone would want to connect to me

You want incoming connections on the following scenarios:

✦ When you’re running some server software such as an FTP server

✦ When you’re running a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program that shares out parts of the file as you download the rest

✦ When you’re running some remote control software and want people to

be able to control your computer

It’s also important to note that if you’re behind a router, then people from the Internet can’t make direct connections to you and wouldn’t be able to connect to the application anyway There are exceptions to this, such as if you’ve enabled port forwarding (see Book IV, Chapter 2)

If you want to allow the application to receive connections, then click Unblock If not, click Keep Blocking

Using automatic updates

Software isn’t perfect Actually, if you spent some time as a software oper, you’d be continually surprised when it works at all A popular quote among developers is “If we built buildings the same way we built software, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.”

devel-Despite Microsoft’s biggest efforts, bugs exist in Windows Some of them are pretty tame such as “screen doesn’t redraw properly.” But some of them are pretty bad like one that surfaced in late 2008 that allowed anyone that could connect to your machine to take it over Oops

Patches are pieces of software that fix bugs Think of using patches as

patch-ing up a hole in a wall, or in a bike tire Microsoft releases these patches every month, and you can download them to make sure your computer’s software is up to date

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The problem is that Microsoft software often has bugs and, therefore, it tends

to release a lot of patches Chances are you won’t remember to download every

single patch every month Figuring out which patches are necessary is also a

problem So Microsoft introduced Windows Update some time ago, and more

recently, made it install patches automatically, should you allow it

In Figure 3-7, the line corresponding to automatic updates has been pulled

down to show some more details

Click on the Change settings button to bring up the automatic updates

con-figuration, which is shown in Figure 3-8

From here, you have two options:

✦ Install updates automatically: In this mode, Windows checks for

updates periodically and installs them

✦ Let me choose: Gives you more flexibility on how you apply your

updates

If you choose the Let Me Choose option, the screen in Figure 3-9 appears

You can select one of the following options:

✦ Install automatically: This option is almost the same as the one in the

previous menu Updates are downloaded and installed without your intervention The difference between this and the previous menu is that you get to choose the time the updates happen

✦ Download updates but let me choose whether to install them: If you’re

not comfortable with updates happening without your knowledge, choose this option When new updates are released your computer downloads them and then prompts you to download them

✦ Check for updates, but let me choose whether to download and install them: This option is similar to the last option, except that the updates

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✦ Never check for updates: If you want to do it by hand, choose this

option

I recommend setting your system up for automatic updates, so you won’t

miss an update

Checking for updates manually

The automatic updates only download the patches that Microsoft deems

critical Every so often, check for updates manually; doing so lets you

down-load all the optional updates

Going through the process manually after you first install your computer is

a good idea Usually, you have some updates that require the presence of

earlier updates, so even after going through the updates once, you may find

that you’re not fully patched Only the manual process gives you the

confi-dence that you’re up to date To do so, follow these steps:

1 From the Control Panel, select Check for Updates from the Security

In Figure 3-10, you can see that the system has 57 important updates to download If you are curious about what they are, you can click the View available updates link.

This screen also lets you confirm your automatic update settings Here you can see that the system is configured to update nightly at 3 a.m., and that it’s never been updated

2 Ignore the optional updates for now and click the Install Updates button to begin the update process.

Sometimes the updates come with a license that you must accept to use In Figure 3-11, the license is for the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which is the built in anti-spyware product I look at this later, but for now, you have to accept the license terms and click Finish

Figure 3-11:

Accept

the license

terms

3 Wait while your system downloads and installs updates.

The time it takes to do this depends on the speed of your computer and how many updates you have

Your computer will be usable during the update process, but don’t expect peak performance There’s a lot going on during the update process, and at times your computer might feel sluggish

After the updates are installed, you get confirmation, as shown in Figure 3-12

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If you read the message on the screen, you can see that you’re being

prompted to reboot to finish the updates You can do so now, or close the

window to reboot later

If you choose to reboot later, then you are periodically reminded to reboot

by means of a dialog box that pops up from the system tray, shown in

You can continue to postpone the reboot as long as you want

When you finally reboot, the process takes longer than normal because

updates are being processed

Some updates depend on other updates already having been applied The

first time you apply updates you should go back and check to make sure all

updates were applied correctly

1 After the reboot, go back to the updates window by going to the Control Panel and selecting Check for Updates from the Security menu.

Figure 3-14 shows that there is one important update and 20 optional updates

2 Click on View available updates to get details of these 21 updates.

Figure 3-15 shows the available updates The important update is a security update, and most of the rest are regular system updates If you are curious, you can enter the identification next to the update, such as KB931099, into the search engine at Microsoft.com to find out the details

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3 Choose the updates you want to install by checking the box next to

the name If you want to select them all, you can check the button at the top of the dialog.

4 Finally, click on Install to begin the update process.

You might have to go through this a couple more times before you’re all up to date However, after you’re done, you are told that there are no new updates available, as in Figure 3-16

Figure 3-16:

No new

updates are

available

After all of that, your automatic updates take care of you, and all you have to

worry about is performing the odd reboot

Protecting against malware

Microsoft Windows spawned an industry of malware authors eager to make

a buck off of computer users The malware authors were fairly successful,

which itself was the drive behind the good guys to come out with

anti-malware products

Anti-virus products have been available long before the Internet was

com-monplace and have managed to keep pace with the virus authors

Anti-malware software has not been as successful as its anti-virus brethren

Finally, with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft bundled its own

anti-malware software with the operating system

Microsoft calls this software Windows Defender It is bundled with Vista and

also downloadable from Microsoft.com for Windows XP and 2003

Sadly, Windows Defender doesn’t do anything for viruses You’re on your own there, so I’ve got a free alternative for you later on in this chapter.

Looking at Windows Defender

1 From the Control Panel choose Security and then click on Windows Defender to open Windows Defender, shown in Figure 3-17.

In the figure you can see that everything is just fine according to Defender

2 If you want to scan your computer right away, click the Scan button at the top If anything pops up, you can deal with it right there.

Bundled security software

If you’ve bought a computer recently,

espe-cially from a retail outlet, you might find that it

comes with anti-virus and anti-malware

soft-ware If so, great! But, please check carefully,

because many of these are time-limited trials

and will stop working after 30, 60, or 90 days

If, after the trial, you’re happy with the

soft-ware, then by all means buy it Windows Vista

was designed to work with third-party virus and anti-malware products Make sure that you understand what you’re signing up for, such as recurring billing

anti-If you don’t want to keep the software, make sure to uninstall it to avoid being nagged about buying it

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Other than that, Windows Defender doesn’t provide a whole lot of options

It’s nowhere near as interesting as anti-virus

Installing anti-virus software

Many companies are selling anti-virus software You can expect to pay

around $30–$60 for the software, depending on the features, and to pay that

every year for upgrades and updates to the virus signatures Packages at the

upper end (and higher) include more than just anti-virus and anti-spyware;

they help you with spam, identity theft, and a whole host of other problems

There is, however, a free anti-virus package out there AVG is a company

that produces anti-virus and anti-spyware software with various features

They offer their base package free for noncommercial use If you don’t

already have anything else, I highly recommend AVG

If you scroll to the bottom, you can see the download link, which is shown in

Figure 3-18

Upon clicking the download link, you are redirected to another site for the

download If you are using Internet Explorer, you might get the warning shown

in Figure 3-19 If so, click on the warning bar and then click Download File

Grab a coffee, because the download takes a couple of minutes If you want

to grab one for me, I take mine black, please, and thank you

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The AVG toolbar provides some enhancements to Internet Explorer that can

help keep you safe, so it is worth installing the toolbar

Be careful about which toolbars you install because you don’t know if they

contain malware The AVG toolbar is a helpful toolbar and alerts you if you

try to install a toolbar containing malware

Continue following the prompts until the software reports that installation is

complete

Configuring the first run

After you install the AVG anti-virus software, you are prompted to configure

it through the first run wizard For the most part, you can accept all the

defaults, though there are a couple of screens where you might choose to

select an alternate option to the default

The first screen is shown in Figure 3-23 Click Next to continue.

Follow the instructions on the screens to complete the installation You may

or may not want to choose the following options:

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✦ Agree to provide information about detected threats to AVG: This

option is disabled by default, and you may want to consider enabling it

Turning on this option sends information about what the software finds back to AVG for product improvements and virus research Any informa-tion that could identify you is stripped before it is sent

✦ Change my default search engine to Yahoo!: If you installed the

tool-bar, this option changes your default search engine to Yahoo! By default this is selected; if you prefer a different search engine, then deselect it

You go through a few screens, the software updates itself with the latest

virus definitions, and then you are protected

Verifying that you’re protected

You know you’re protected from viruses two ways, as shown in Figure 3-25

The first indication is that the Windows Security Center isn’t complaining

about the anti-virus (go to the Control Panel and then find Check this

com-puter’s security status, or see the earlier section called Visiting the Windows

Security Center) In fact, if you look at the Malware protection section, you

see the following:

✦ Virus Protection: AVG Antivirus Free reports that it is up to date and

virus scanning is on

✦ Spyware and other malware protection: Windows Defender and AVG

Anti-Virus both report that they are turned on

Finally, look in the system tray to see the new AVG icon (the four colored boxes).

You’ve got virus protection You’ve got spyware protection Let’s move on

Other security settings

By now you’ve set up some pretty good defenses Your computer updates itself regularly It has a firewall, and its anti-virus and anti-spyware sensors are busy looking for any signs of malware

You could stop right here and be fairly worry free when browsing the

Internet But being safe on the Internet is much more than the software you run; it’s also the decisions you make

I’m pretty sure you’re going to approach the Internet with a cautious eye and make good decisions, but even the best of us clicks the odd dialog box with-out reading it too closely So, I’m going to show you a couple of safeguards that you can use to further protect yourself against the bad things out there

Creating separate accounts for administrators and users

Windows Vista is a multiuser operating system This means that the system recognizes that you are different from someone else based on a username

that you provide Vista recognizes you by your account, which has a name

and a password

Using separate accounts means that you can keep your files separate from other people that use your computer Maybe you want to protect stuff from being deleted; maybe you want your nosey sister to stay out of your stuff Either way, one user can’t touch another user’s stuff

Accounts also have privilege levels — either a standard user or administrator —

in Vista The account you’re using now is probably the one you created when you set up the system and is an administrator In this section, you create a stan-dard user account for day-to-day use which limits your exposure if something gets by your malware filters Follow these steps:

1 Go to Control Panel and select Add or Remove user accounts.

The list of user accounts appears, as shown in Figure 3-26

In the figure you see that there is a user called Sean, who is an trator and has a password You can also see a disabled guest account that you will not use

adminis-2 Select Create a new account to start creating the new account.

The form you see is shown in Figure 3-27.