How do I delete my cookies in my browser?
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What? my computer has cookies in it? How do I get them out? I’m hungry!
Not exactly those kind of cookies. Cookies in computer terms are little files on your computer (harddrive) that stores some information about you. They can store your preferences for certain websites, your authentication information if you need to login etc.
Have you ever been told you should delete your cookies? Well, generally this is a good practice as it will remove these text files from your computer and in the process clean away your personal information as well. There are some drawbacks when doing this, as it will *forget* all your stored authenication information for sites.
If your browser is set to remember your passwords, it will still know them when you login, but setting this option is not a recommended practice
To remove your cookies in IE follow these steps:
Tools \ Internet Options \ Browsing History \ Delete button
on the popup remove the check marks from all options but Cookies
To remove your cookies in FireFox follow these steps:
Tools \ Options \ Privacy Tab \ remove individual cookies
from here, you can remove individual sites cookies, or all.
To remove your cookies in Chrome follow these steps:
Wrench \ Options \ Personal Stuff \ Clear Browsing Data… \ Delete Cookies \ Clear browsing Data
As you can see on those pages, there is other options for passwords, browsing history and some other options. I also recommend that you periodically update / remove these bits of your personal information as well.
Clearing your Cookies is something that you should do time to time just to make sure that you have removed the settings, and personal data for websites from your computer.
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What Malware removal tool do you use?
I get asked this question a lot. People are always being infected with a virus, or some piece of software that is just plain ol’ bad for your PC.
What software do I use to get rid of those nasty programs? The ones that are trying to get your information, or destroy your PC. I use a couple of programs depending on how bad the infection is, but as my start I always use Malware Bytes.
Once you have installed this program, its really easy to use it, and keep your machine clean.
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Just click on “Perform Full Scan” and “Scan”.
Once you have run this atleast twice then you can run quick scans after that. If the program find anything it will prompt you to remove it, or clean it automatically.
Here are the settings that I use
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and I recommend that you click on the update tab and check for updates every time that you go to run the software after your first download.
You don’t need to purchase the software to get the functionality, but if you like the software, why not give the developers something
I get asked this question a lot. People are always being infected with a virus, or some piece of software that is just plain ol’ bad for your PC.
What software do I use to get rid of those nasty programs? You know the ones that are trying to get your information, or destroy your PC. I use a couple of programs depending on how bad the infection is, but as my start I always use Malware Bytes.
Once you have installed this program, its really easy to use it, and keep your machine clean.
Just click on “Perform Full Scan” and “Scan”.
Once you have run this atleast twice then you can run quick scans after that. If the program find anything it will prompt you to remove it, or clean it automatically.
Here are the settings that I use
and I recommend that you click on the update tab and check for updates every time that you go to run the software after your first download.
You don’t need to purchase the software to get the functionality, but if you like the software, why not give the developers something for their time.
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Categories: Computers, Security, Software, Tips and Tricks Tags: Anti Virus, Security, Virus Scanner
What are System Restore points?
Have you ever wondered just what a system restore point was, and just why you need them?
Your not alone. A lot of people don’t know how to effectively use them, and they can be a great tool for backup. However; that being said, it should never be your ONLY form of backup of your system. System Restore points should be considered the front line of your backup solution.
System Restore points can be made in Vista or Windows 7 by opening the Control Panel and choosing System.
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Select on System Protection
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Here we are able to choose the specific settings of our backup. Choose configure, and Select the following options:
Restore system settings and previous versions of files.
The amount of Disk Space that is used is up to you. I would normally recommend about 10% of your total Hard Disk.
Once these options are enabled, then your system should be backing up the data. The default for the task in Windows is to run at midnight each day.
I do not consider this to be a full backup of your system, however if used correctly, this can be used as one component of a full backup routine for your data.
Have you ever wondered just what a system restore point was, and just why you need them?
Your not alone. A lot of people don’t know how to effectively use them, and they can be a great tool for backup. However; that being said, it should never be your ONLY form of backup of your system. System Restore points should be considered the front line of your backup solution.
System Restore points can be made in Vista or Windows 7 by opening the Control Panel and choosing System.
Select on System Protection
Here we are able to choose the specific settings of our backup. Choose configure, and Select the following options:
Restore system settings and previous versions of files.
The amount of Disk Space that is used, is up to you. I would normally recommend about 10% of your total Hard Disk. Once these options are enabled, then your system should be backing up the data. The default for the task in Windows is to run at midnight each day.
***NOTE***
I do not consider this to be a full backup of your system, however; if used correctly this can be used as one component of a full backup routine for your data.
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Which type of Wireless Security is best?
If you remember a little while back I wrote an article on wireless security and I briefly mentioned that you should make sure that its turned on, and I mentioned that at a minimum you need to have WPA.
Now is the time to explain the differences between the different types so you can understand why I make the recomendations that I do.
There are 3 main types of Wireless security for your router. They are WEP, WPA and WPA2.
WEP Encryption – (Wired Equivalent Privacy) 1997
This form of security has a few flaws. The most noticeable being that the encryption is done in plain text. It can be set to handle 64 bit encryption and 128 bit as well. This format uses RC4 for its traffic key. This is a very short key, and requires less packets to determine the network password.
Tests have been done on secured WEP Networks, and the key was determined in about 1 minute. There are software packages that are readily available for people to download in order to hack into this type of network. The latest ports have even been setup for the iPhone. The info I saw showed an iPhone hacking a network in less than 2 minutes.
WPA – (WiFi Protected Access) 1999
This is still using the RC4 stream, but the key type was changed to TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol). This was designed to replace the older, failing WEP format. This format was designed to fix some of the flaws from WEP, but still needed to communicate with the older hardware. This meant that a flaw was available for hacking in order to find the key. This flaw is only able to decrypt short packets that were known to contain data.
WPA2 – 2006
This is a newer protocol, and might not work with all the older equipment that is still in some networks. Some hardware will need to be replaced, or if you are lucky just have the firmware updated.
Based on the WPA format, WPA2 uses a much stronger advanced encryption standard, rather than RC4.
With WPA2 being the stronger format available, this is the best option for your network. While nothing can ever be truly secure, there are steps that you can take to make it harder for hackers to retrieve your personal data.
1. SSID (Service Set IDentifier) – try not to use common words or names for your network. Use random letters B2BIR or pick an acronym that you can remember. ROY G BIV, JJASONDJFMAM, or SOHCAHTOA works for me.
2. Once you have the network setup there should be an option to disable broadcast of your SSID. This is why having a random acronym that you can remember makes it easier for you to enter your credentials
3. Turn on the MAC (Media Access Control) Filter. This means that only approved MAC addresses are allowed to connect to your network.
*note – While 99% of network cards have this information hard coded onto the hardware, there are some network cards allow you to type in your own MAC Address for the card. This is primarily used to hack networks and to bypass licensing restrictions for software. I own one of these cards, and they are extremely handy for those situations*
4. Change your Network Key in intervals, ie every 3 – 7 days. This is a manual process and requires all clients to update as well.
5. Use a NetBEUI protocol for file sharing (Advanced users only). As most people do not have this option enabled, and rather than using the IP address of the machine it uses the computer name to authenticate.
6. While setting up the DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) on the router, set the available amount of licenses that it delivers to the exact number of machines on your network.
7. Don’t use 192.168.0.1 as your default address for your router.
8. Change the admin login and password on your router.
While some of these are basic and should be done, others are more advanced, and unless you feel comfortable, should be avoided, or you might need a professionals help you to set these options in place. I am not able to post screen shots for setup as there are hundreds of manufacturers, and each one does things just a little bit differently.
I am happy to help you as much as I can through the comments, or I can do some consulting for you to assist with your setup.
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Going Incognito
Have you ever been asked to disable your firewall or antivirus by tech support people for testing and they want you to surf on the net without protection just to test something.
If you are using google chrome or FireFox there is a way that you can surf an let your browser protect you a little. There is an option called private browsing or surf incognito that will stop the sites that you surf from saving cookies onto your computer. This will help when you are unsure if a site will try to put something on your PC. It will be removed as soon as you close the browser.
This protection can also be used to keep sites that you visit from being recorded into the history of the browser. Let’s say you want to surf some sites that you don’t want other people that might use the computer to know that you went to. Like at a internet cafe or library or school. You can start a private browsing session and surf to your online mail site or your banking site. All information will not be stored in the history so it adds another level of security for you.
Hope this helps you at some point.
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