Remember when you unboxed your last, new computer, whether it was a desktop or a laptop?  You had just spent hard-earned money to get the latest processor, a flat-panel screen and much more memory than your last unit.  Now, two-years later, it’s running much, much slower, pop-up ads are hammering you, and you think no one e-mails you anymore (or is it because you get so much spam, you don’t notice the odd e-mail from a friend?).

I get a literal ton of questions from friends and coworkers about their problems, and their seeming complete ignorance about basic issues.  Is that the way it is out there?  I know that when I received my first computer, as part of my new job, I didn’t know anything and made some major mistakes and was continually having problems.  I think the difference between my coworkers and me was that I sought out answers about why something went wrong and how to avoid the problem in the future.  I do not think that I have made many of the same mistakes twice.

Also, computers have become affordable and very prevalent.  Couple that with the availability of high-speed, always on, connections and a whole set of new problems has arisen.  It is becoming necessary to become a good net citizen as it is now well possible to have a problem on your computer that creates problem for others on your network or across the net. Although you may not even know this, but there are easily-gotten viruses out there that do not do anything to your hard drive but are installed so that Your Computer is used to send out spam or to launch Denial of Service attacks on other web sites. And all, without you ever knowing it.

In these pages, I am going to try and share some of my knowledge about how to clean your computer out from spyware and mal-ware. Putting a stop to incessant pop-up ads, begin filtering spam and to keep your “personal confuser” from becoming a spam zombie for someone else.  I will also point you to places to refer to in order to secure your home network and your high-speed router from the outside world.  In short, how to take control back of your computer!  The nice part about the whole deal is that you can do this, for the most part, free of charge. And we just love free, don't we?

The information is basic and not nearly comprehensive. I caution you to use the Internet to do more research. That being said, if you do just the minimum, where you didn't do anything before, you will take great strides in making your computer much safer for you, and the Internet community at large.  

Click here to go to the first step Router Setup