There's more to this than your web browser, but that's certainly a big part of it. There were some other good suggestions before about what you grab from the internet. Personally, I use Firefox unless I run across a site that requires IE, then I open up IE and look at it. You can also get a Firefox extension (from the Mozilla site, look at the "Extensions" options in the tools menu) that will allow you to switch back and forth between IE and Firefox inside of a Firefox tab. It's called IE tab, and if you're using Firefox and come across a site that requires IE (or looks bad in Firefox), you can just switch it to IE mode and everything will work. Exploits that affect IE will also work in that tab though, so you still need to be careful about what sites you look at. IE tab is under the developer tools category of extensions, but it might be elsewhere as well. -Dan -----Original Message----- From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Tish Grier Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 4:26 PM To: Seth Seeger; A - Z International Cc: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] who knows about botnets? Well, I can't necessarily go with the "never use IE" advice, since Microsoft can make using Firefox a bit difficult... If you use IE, keep all the Service Paks and patches updated. My computer's stuck with SP1 (can't be updated to SP2), but I have super-terrific security and keep the patches updated. I have Trend Micro on both my HP PCs. I use Webroot's Spysweeper on my laptop, and both AdAware SE and Spybot S/D on my desktop in addition to my Trend Micro security stuff. Also, if you're online alot, you should do sweeps for adware and virus scans at least once a week And I never click on any sort of "offer" or other thing that might pop up on my screen out of nowhere. That's usually an indication it's a piece of spyware or some other nasty thing. As the article suggested, don't let your kid (or kids) use the same computer that you might use for home business. I can see why the two should be separate for alot of reasons beyond just 'bots. Tish Seth Seeger <seth at seeger.ws> wrote: ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee. ** You too can help the group ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. ** If you did, we all thank you. There are three very easy things you can do: 1. Never connect your computer directly to the internet. Always have a hardware firewall in between. (Any of the Linksys/D-Link/etc router/firewall products. They're rather inexpensive.) 2. Never use IE. There are other very good browsers out there. My two favorites are Firefox and Opera (both free). 3. Do not download games or pirated software off the internet. Legit applications from reputable sources are great. But never download games advertised as "free". And never download pirated software. Both are good sources of viruses, adware, spyware, etc. -Seth On Jan 8, 2007, at 10:01 AM, A - Z International wrote: > ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee. > ** You too can help the group > ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. > ** If you did, we all thank you. > > > Hi all, > > The NY Times ran a very scary story on the front page yesterday about > botnets and their potential for destroying computers and gathering > financial information. They did have a box that offered advice, most > of which I knew about and was doing, thanks (in a funny way) to that > identity theft incident of mine a year ago. > > Anyone know about Noscript and other utilities that will help these > predators stay clear of our systems -- primarily us Windows users? > > best, > > Amy Zuckerman > Hidden-Tech Founder > > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion > list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members _______________________________________________ Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members page on the Hidden Tech Web site. http://www.hidden-tech.net/members __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20070108/4bd4dda3/attachment-0005.html