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This information
is provided merely as a reference
tool in protecting your computer.
Rebeltec does not provide tech
support for any of these programs.
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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: |
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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. |
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Avast
Antivirus
Avast is another FREE Antivirus
program that we recommend. Small
program and easy to use. Click
here to download it. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Zone
Labs
This is a FREE
download from their website.
It's pretty easy to configure
and to run. |
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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.
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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) |
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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.
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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. |
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