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The Castellini Approach to Internet Security – Updated 2020

The Castellini Approach to Internet Security

This past week I saw way too many people who aren’t taking advantage of the free information we give out on the show and the web site. Their computers were suffocating from a preventable disease…viruses and spyware. Yes, preventable, almost 100%. And fighting the war on our home computer security front does not have to be costly or time consuming.

We talk about this subject quite a bit on the program and the web site because of its rapid growth worldwide. In today’s tip, I am providing you with links to information that we have on this site that has been up for months to years that contain the essential information about protecting your computer.

1-click access to your favorite websites – Video Tip

Please DO NOT use the address bar as a repository to return to sites you use all the time…eventually they will get lost. The address bar history maintains a small amount of your recently visited site and can easily be wiped out via an update or disk cleaning and maintenance tools.

Instead, use the Favorites (Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Firefox and every other browser). Favorites/Bookmarks are designed to save and give you quick access to your most used sites and sites you just want to keep track of for later use. Also, you can back them up easily.

If you are like me, you visit a handful of web sites every single day and sometimes multiple times per day. Having bookmarks to these sites works fine, but that requires a minimum of three clicks to reach your favorite sites.

In this video, I describe how to get 1-click access to your favorites using the extremely underutilized Links toolbar (Internet Explorer) and the Bookmarks toolbar (Mozilla Firefox).

This tip requires no downloading and no installation of extra software. Everything is built-in to the browser and available to you right now. So watch the video and learn how to take charge of these extremely useful tools you never knew how to use!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwE__e7oYq4&hl=en]

Windows Update? Yes, you should…

When Windows XP was released nearly two years ago, it was hailed as a ‘self-healing’ operating system (via the Windows Update system). Two years later, it has, in my humble opinion, held its own as a stable, fast operating system. However, Microsoft remains a large target for the tech degenerates of the world to launch assaults upon. And when these ingrates go after Microsoft, they unfortunately take many of us along for the ride.

That’s my soap box for the week. Where this all relates to this week’s tip of the week lies in the updates that are made available for Windows that help thwart these attacks. These updates arrive on our computers through the Windows Update program. You should see a little globe pop up near your system clock when updates are available. Don’t just ignore the little globe, click on it and install the updates that have been presented.

Setting up a new computer

new computer boxPrevention is the best medicine when it comes to avoiding illness in ourselves. Prevention in the computer world is no different. And like a newborn baby, a newly purchased computer is subject to many terrible diseases and problems if not properly cared from the moment it is taken from its cardboard box. I follow these steps when setting up a new computer system for my clients, and recommend this methodology for all new computer setups:

Why use free security software?

free 'sweet' hugs
photo credit: kalandrakas

A customer asked me a question that I get asked quite often on the radio show and when I’m making my daily house or office visits. “Why do you use free products versus the larger commercial pay products for keeping a computer secure?”

My answer can be summed up in word: effectiveness.

Time and time again, the products I recommend prove themselves in the field as being thorough, effective, and unobtrusive programs. Unobtrusive is a big one for me these days as the leaders in security software (Norton, McAfee, etc) bloat their software beyond recognition and slow down even the fastest, newest machines. Norton claims that their newest versions areRead More »Why use free security software?

System Engineer fed up with Windows vulnerabilities

Interesting article from a ZDNet author, Christopher Dawson,  who also works full-time as a school district computer engineer. Despite locking down Windows computers with security software, tweaking firewalls, and making sure all Windows updates are up to snuff, threats still sneak into their computers. I understand the frustration he exhibits in the article regarding the time and effort spent fighting… Read More »System Engineer fed up with Windows vulnerabilities

Cleaning and removing Antivirus 2009, PAV and others from your computer,

Cleaning
Photo by Jim Grandy

Preventing your computer from becoming infected is infinitely easier and less stressful than cleaning up after an infection.

Search my site for tons of information on setting up your computer for security and techniques to avoid scams. However, if you are already bit by one of the most recent nasty forms of software, Antivirus 2008, Antivirus 2009, Personal Antivirus, Internet Security 2009 among others (software I call extortionware that installs itself on your computer and then poses asRead More »Cleaning and removing Antivirus 2009, PAV and others from your computer,

Important Newsletter Information!

If you are a weekly newsletter subscriber, please read this information. After two weeks of soul searching, research, and web browsing, I decided to move the email newsletter subscribers to my FeedBlitz service. Feedblitz picks out my newest articles and delivers them to you in an email. The service works great and I will be moving the address list into… Read More »Important Newsletter Information!