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Protecting your computer on the internet is very important!

"Spyware"

"Firewall"

"Phishing"

 
 
 
 
      This information is provided merely as a reference tool in protecting your computer. Rebeltec does not provide tech support for any of these programs.

 


Anti-Virus Programs

      There are many different anti-virus program available on the market today. Any and every computer on the internet should have a current up-to-date anti-virus subscription on it. For the health of your computer and your important documents (this can lead to stolen identities), you need to have an updated anti-virus program. Remember: you are not protected from viruses just because you have an antivirus program. You must keep your updates (protections/patches against new viruses) current and run a complete system scan on your computer at least twice a week.
Here are a few that we recommend:
Microsoft Security Essentials
This is a FREE anti-virus and spyware program that is available for both residential and commercial use. We use this at our office and have had great success in keeping our computer protected. Click here to download it.
 
Avast Antivirus
Avast is another FREE Antivirus program that we recommend. Small program and easy to use. Click here to download it.
 
AVG Anti-Virus
This anti-virus program is FREE for all single home users (download only). This is an excellent solution for your virus protection. This program is fairly small and really easy to use. It also auto-updates and scans and did we mention that it's FREE which means you don't have to worry about your subscription expiring and not being protected. It is fast becoming one of the most widely used Anti-virus programs. Visit their website to download your free copy. You can also buy a copy of AVG Anti-virus online that provides technical support.
 
eTrust EZ Antivirus
Not only is it easy to use, Computer Associates, a Colorado Company, made it. It's more affordable then the more popular anti-virus programs, but offers the same results. Can be purchased at many retails stores or online. They also offer great online tech support.
Norton AntiVirus
This is probably the most popular of anti-virus programs on the market and comes as the standard anti-virus program on most new computers. It's fairly easy to run. Norton also does an online tech support that is really helpful. Can be purchased at Walmart or online through Norton's Website.. When purchasing the program, we recommend you buy the disk with it, just in case you ever need to reinstall it on your computer.
 
McAfee AntiVirus
Probably the second most popular program because it comes standard on many new computers. Kind of complicated to operate. Can be purchased at Walmart or online through McAfee's Website. Price is pretty reasonable.

Online Virus Scan
      If you do not currently have an up-to-date subscription to an anti-virus program and have a virus on your computer, you cannot install a new anti-virus program until your computer is completely free of all viruses. It's basically like building a bomb shelter (trying to install the antivirus program) after the bomb (virus) already hit you. Luckily you can find out if your computer is infected by running an online virus scan provided by TrendMicro. This virus scan will determine which viruses and spyware your computer is infected with. It may not be able to remove all your viruses and spyware! After you find out what infections you have, and which ones were not able to be removed you can manually remove them with removals tools found on Symantec's website. Symantec provides an awesome online tech support! Once you have your computer virus and spyware free, get an antivirus and anti-spyware program and keep them up to date.

 
 

Web Filtering Software
      Web Filtering Software are programs that limit what you or your family view on the internet. Web Filtering Software is something you might want to consider if you have small children and don't want them to visit certain sites. Rebeltec does not do any content filtering, we provide the "raw" internet. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions Agreement. There are many filtering software on the internet today. Below is a small list of them. Click on their logos to visit their websites.


Phishing Filters
      So what exactly is phishing? Phishing is the term used when online crooks pretend to be financial institutions or legitimate companies and send spam or pop-up messages to try to get you to reveal your personal information (Taken from the Dateline article). They also make "fake" websites to look like the real thing. You may have even received e-mails from @rebeltec.net addresses (that are not real in our system - ones have come from admin, info, support, etc.). All the e-mails look very important with information regarding your account, spam, passwords, etc. These e-mails are NOT from us, but rather from somewhere else, trying to gain your personal information (called phishing). Just delete these e-mails. ANY and ALL e-mails that come from our office will say "Rebeltec Technical Support" and use the e-mail address tech@rebeltec.net.
      Internet Explorer 7.0 has a phishing filter built into it. It is designed to check the certificate of each website to make sure that it is authenic. For example, if you type in www.paypal.com in your web browser address bar and hit enter, you will see how the http:// changes to https:// to show that it is a secure site. When clicking on links in your e-mail address to direct you to a "secure" site, double check the address in the address bar when you arrive at the site. The website may look legit, but may still be a fake. Click here for an example of a bogus ebay login page. Notice the address at the top is www.sing-in-sec.com, not www.ebay.com. When in doubt, just do not put in your personal information - that includes your username and password.
Dateline NBC Article about phishing
Example of Phishing E-mail

Firewalls
      A firewall is basically an extra added feature in protecting your computer from outside networks/computers. For the protection and security of your computer, you MUST have a firewall in place. All Windows XP and newer computers have a firewall built into your operating system that are enabled by default. All computers older than that must install a firewall for protection. Here are a few that are available.
Norton Internet Securities
It includes an anti-virus, personal firewall, privacy control, antispam, and parental control. Can be purchased from Norton's website or at Walmart or at Amazon.com.
 
AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall
It includes an anti-virus and personal firewall protection. AVG provides free tech support for all it's registered users, which is a huge bonus. Visit their website for more information.
 
AVG Internet Security
For a little bit more money, you can upgrade to AVG's Internet Security Program. Complete security protection against all of the most serious Internet threats, including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, hackers and spam. Just visit their website to see what they have to offer.
 
Zone Labs
This is a FREE download from their website. It's pretty easy to configure and to run.

Spyware/Adware Removal Programs
     Spyware is Internet jargon for Advertising Supported software (Adware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a product, other than by selling it to the users. You can get spyware from downloading music, games, etc. Spyware is not a good thing. Some spyware programs can take the personal information you have on your computer and send it out over the internet, so it's very important to keep your computer free of spyware. One obvious way to detect spyware or any computer problem is your computer acting strange or running slow. Many spyware programs will flood your internet browser with popup ads and change your homepage. They can even be disguised as a Spyware Removal Ad. Below are a few free spyware removal programs that you can download from www.download.com. Just type in the program name in the search form or try the links below.
Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.3 (Free Scan)
Ad-aware 6.0 (Free Scan)
Trend Micro - Free Online Scan
Yahoo Toolbar (built in Anti-Spyware Program)

Windows Defender (works with IE 7 - brought to you by Microsoft)

 

Pop-up Blocker
      One way to stop those annoying pop-up ads is to put a pop up block on your computer. Probably the easiest to use is the popup blocker provided by Google. It installs on your Internet Explorer browser as an extra toolbar. In the Options on the Google toolbar, you can select Popup Blocker. Every time you block a popup on a webpage, a little star will show by your mouse. Internet Explorer 7.0 also has a pop-up blocker built into it and virtually does the exact same thing. To enable the pop-up blocker on IE 7, go to Tools on the menu bar and down to Pop-up Blocker.
 

      To help prevent SPAM we recommend getting a free e-mail service like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, msn, etc. and use those accounts when subscribing to online stores, newsletters, etc and just use your @rebeltec.net e-mail account strictly for personal use with friends and family. This helps keep your e-mail address more "private" from Spammers. From what we've concluded, Spammers don't seem to SPAM the free e-mails accounts as much because those accounts can be created and deleted so easily. Most online free e-mail services will delete your account is there has been no activity for 30 days.