Find What You Want with Google

Most people who search on the internet have a favorite search engine. In fact, the majority of internet users choose Google.

Do you fall into this category? If so, are you taking advantage of everything Google offers?

If an internet search means you go to www.google.com and simply type 2 or 3 words into the search box, hoping to find what you're looking for, you aren't even scratching the surface.

How Can You Get Better Results?

Google is the number one search engine for good reason - their results are generally the most accurate. Even so, there are ways to pinpoint what you're looking for even more effectively.

You have two options when it comes to fine-tuning your searches - you can use the Google Advanced Search screen or you can use "modifiers" in the main Google search.

Option 1: Google Advanced Search

When you go to www.google.com, there is a little "Advanced Search" link to the right of the main search box. If you click on that, you'll get the much more detailed Google search, where you can make very specific requests.

The first four sections, highlighted in blue, are some of the most important. Here you can specify any of the following:

1. All of the words - this will give you results with all of your search words, but not in any particular order. They can also be anywhere on the page.

2. The exact phrase - this will give you results with exactly the phrase you enter. The phrase must appear on the page exactly the way you enter it.

3. At least one of the words - this will show results with any one or more of your search words on the page.

4. Without the words - this will give you results that don't include your search terms at all.

These four sections can be used independently or combined to work together.

For example, you could search for the exact phrase 'free virus software' without the words 'trial' or 'tryout' if you're looking for free virus software but don't want trial versions that will expire after a short time.

As another example, you could use option #3 (at least one of the words) if you're looking for something but don't know exactly how to spell it. Put a few possible spellings in and it will find pages with any one or more of those spellings.

The rest of the sections on the Advanced Search page are pretty self-explanatory. One that I will point out is the Domain option. You can specify a website and either search for something only on that site, or anywhere but that site.

If you've found an interesting website that doesn't have a search function of its own, you can use this to limit Google to searching that site for whatever you're looking for. In fact, the Google search is often better even if the site does have its own search function.

You can also use it to find other references to something you might have read on a particular website. If you search for it and exclude the site you saw it on, you'll find other references to it that you can cross-check.

Option 2: Using Modifiers

Modifiers will let you use all the advanced features without having to go to the Advanced Search page every time. These modifiers can just be entered in the standard Google search box to get the same results as the advanced options.

There are quite a few different modifiers that can be used, but some of the most useful are as follows:

Putting "" around a phrase will search for the exact phrase. Searching for free antivirus software will show you pages with those three words anywhere on the page. Searching for "free antivirus software" shows you pages that contain that exact phrase.

Putting a - before a word is the same as the advanced option "without the words." So, to use the example used earlier, searching for "free virus software" -trial -tryout will show pages with that exact phrase, not including the other two words.

Using site: followed by the domain name of the website you want to search will only return results from that particular website. For example, searching for "virus protection" site:computer-help-squad.com will only return results from the www.computer-help-squad.com website.

Again, these can be combined so -site: will return results from any site except the one you specify.

How to Figure Out the Modifiers

The easiest way to see how to use modifiers in your searches is to try some searches with the Advanced Search page and see how Google formats them.

Using our example again, if you enter 'free antivirus software' in the "with the exact phrase" box and the words 'trial' and 'tryout' in the "without the words" box, the search that Google runs looks like this:

"free virus software" -trial -tryout

If you play around a bit with the advanced searches, you'll see how Google formats them for you. Next time, you can just enter them yourself in the standard search box instead of going to the Advanced Search page.

Once you get the hang of these options in Google, you'll find that your searches get even more accurate because you can filter out the stuff you don't want.

Crouching Trojan, Hidden Malware

Trojans are not just more dangerous than computer viruses, they're stealthier, too. Find out where they hide.

Minions of an evil master lurk in your hard drive, crouching in your system registry, ready to pounce.

What Is a Trojan?

The word "Trojan" is a mystery to most people, even many who think they know its true meaning. If more people really understood what Trojans are and the risk they pose, there would be fewer Trojans, since fewer people would ever leave their machines vulnerable to them.

A Trojan is malware. Malware is a special kind of software, like spyware, adware, and viruses that no one wants. Yet a Trojan is more dangerous than any other kind of malware. Unlike those other types of malware, Trojans are not mindless flunkies hurled at your computer by their masters. A Trojan is a master that first craftily infiltrates your PC, then unleashes its malware henchman.

What Trojans Do

• Some Trojans may install worms, which are programs that use your computer and internet connection to send out armies of server requests in the hope of shutting a particular website down, or to spread viruses or worms to other computers.

• Other Trojans are thieves, out to steal your computer's processing power and turn it over to their hacker masters, often by setting up a backdoor, a hidden internet connection that allows for outside manipulation of your machine.

• Some thieving Trojans are fraudsters that may go after your financial information by installing keyloggers that record what you type--especially passwords and important banking numbers.

How Do Trojans Hide?

No one thinks they have a Trojan on their computer until it is too late. That's because they do such a good job of blending in.

• Trojans come disguised in innocuous file names, often pretending to be a helper application to software or an essential operating system component.

• Trojans try to avoid calling attention to themselves, and so will often only interfere a little, if at all, with your computer's performance, choosing instead to do their dirty work while your machine is idle. Computers left on and connected to the internet while their owners are asleep or at work or school are favorite targets.

How Do You Remove Trojans?

Removing Trojans can be a can of worms. Here's why you need to proceed with caution:

• Since Trojans can disguise themselves as software your computer actually needs, you could accidentally delete a vital program or system registry entry. In the worst case scenario, you won't be able to restart your computer.

• Many Trojans are trained for survival. When you try to removal them manually, they may simply copy themselves to another directory.

Intimidated? You don't have to be. Rather than trying to defuse a Trojan yourself, why not call in the bomb squad? Good anti-spyware and antivirus software will fight Trojans, too. Just make sure to look for a program that specifically says it fights Trojans. After all, this is no job for amateurs.

Could Your Email Compromise Your Safety?

Hackers, phishers, viruses, worms…simply having your computer online can expose your data and personal information to all kinds of malicious and worrisome problems. If you’re somewhat new to the 'net' or to computers in general, these four tips could help protect you from identity theft, credit card fraud, or a complete computer takeover – all of which can happen without you even knowing about it!

1. What’s in Your Inbox? – If your e-mail program allows you to preview the entire message before or while it is being downloaded, turn this setting off. Some e-mails can contain dangerous code that could unknowingly compromise your computer and leave you vulnerable to viruses, worms or worse! Check the options in your e-mail program for a way to disable the message preview pane.

2. Scrutinize Your Messages – Don’t ever respond to messages claiming to be from your bank, credit card company, or other financial institution, which ask for personally identifiable information such as card or account numbers, passwords, or other private information – even if the e-mail looks to have come from the actual company. It may be a hoax designed to get you to unknowingly part with crucial financial or private contact information, leaving you vulnerable to credit card fraud, identity theft or credit card theft. Contact the institution or company that claims to be sending the e-mail and verify the contents of the message with them. Chances are – they never sent it. Only use the number on your statement though, and not the number that appears in the e-mail message. It may direct you right to the scammer, who will do everything they can to assure you that nothing is wrong!

3. If it’s From a Friend, it must be Safe, Right? – It’s logical to assume that a message from your friend or colleague is safe, but that isn’t always the case! If you receive an email from a friend or colleague which contains an attachment (could be a media clip, a screensaver, a picture or anything else), call them up to check and see if they really did send it. Many viruses and worms can hijack your computer and blast out a virus-ridden email to everyone in your address book, making it appear that it came from you and therefore, making it appear trustworthy.

4. Read Your Messages in Plain Text – Some e-mails written in HTML (the coding language that makes up many web pages) can be harmless. Others can contain malicious code that can hijack your e-mail program, browser, or your entire computer – and send your personal and financial information out to a hacker or scammer without you even knowing about it! Stay safe by setting your e-mail program to only show messages in plain text format (often in the options or settings section of the software). This will prevent threatening code from installing itself and compromising your system and private information.

Possibly one of the best ways to protect your e-mail is simply by exercising common sense. The Internet is a lot like a crowded plaza. Would your banker or credit card lender walk out into the middle of the throng of people and shout out to you to ask for your account information? Would you tell him where everyone could hear? Definitely not! The same caution should be exercised when checking your e-mail. These tips can help you stop scammers dead in their tracks while keeping you from becoming another victim of fraud or theft.

Alien Intruders..!!!

You probably didn't casually invite, or extend a formal attendance request to, these undesirables known as viruses.

Regardless of your opinions, such cyber-nomads may call on you, complete and active, with their destructive payloads.

So what is a virus?

A virus is a program that can self replicate or reproduce itself.

These programmable pirates have a special talent for attaching themselves to executable programmes. When such programmes are executed (often by you, but not always), so is the virus.

They don't necessarily have an ".exe" file extension and are relative masters of disguise. Extensions can be doubled-up to create an optical illusion or optically misleading appearance.

A boot sector virus is probably the worst in so far as it will upset the normal loading of your operating system and therefore, disable your computer. Pointers to your 0.S., can be overwritten, effectively, rendering it to be non-existant. That's never a good thing but not the end of the world, however it seems.

Following, is an example of how devilishly deceptive these vindictive vermon are, in their presentation

A friend of mine rang me last week in a distressed state, with news that her I.S.P. was threatening to shut down her e-mail account because her computer contained viruses affecting her outgoing mail This message seemed to come from her provider but in fact was created by a worm (type of virus). The e-mail was complete with the providers U.R.L., instructions to open its attachment (which it claimed that it contained a free virus cleaner) and even a password to access the attachment. This password could "swing" some cautious people to believe that the attachment was legitimate. Indeed there was only one mistake and it was that the e-mail in question was addressed to "Dear account holder" and not her specific e-mail address.

What is often helpful in determining legitimatacy, is to simply check the properties of the particular mail or e-letter. Where the "from" field can be set to display any name(as spammers demonstrate), more info. via the properties option, may help you to decide.

Attachments are potentially dangerous. You should train yourself to look for such things, and not exclusively this. If you have a suspicion, ignore them. If it seems an awful lot more important than account closure warnings (family matters), then simply ring the addressee in question. Surely most other matters can wait until office opening hours in cases where 24-hour telephone support is not an option. Incidentally, the described worm is a BAGLE variant and is currently in circulation and though it can be cleaned, can also be disruptive.

Smallish text files can be copied and pasted into your e-mail client, eliminating an unnecessary attachment. Doing this will increase the chances of your friends recieving your mail as account providers can have automated software that block mail outside certain perameters, and often legitimate ones are blocked. The limitation when pasted directly into your client is file size.

Incidentally, free and other accounts, in a bid to obliterate spam, can make sucessful mail delivery a nightmare. An option is to put your info./file/picture on some free webspace and simply e-mail the link to it.

Another virus infects your macros( a program,within a program that is similar in delivery to predictive text), and is known as a macro virus and affects the usability of associated files, which are usually files produced using text editors or word processing programs.

Saving such files in R.T.F. or rich text format where you have an otpion, is helpful. Turning your macros "off" could be considered, but their benefits are lost and the virus has won, even before entry.

These are harmless enough and there is no need to freak out. A free cleaning option is mentioned below.

If your great grandmother, untypically sends you software as an attachment, and typically sends you a woolen sweater, then alarm bells should sound.

Anyone who depends on their P.C. as a tool and not a toy, needless to say, should discourage forwarded jokes.These jokes can be time-consuming to read, can be colossal in number, are often habitually forwarded, and not really worth the threat. Believe me when I say that I'm opposite to a "killjoy" and mean this, for semi-serious users who rely on their respective and respected machines.

Consciously or unconsciously, forwarding is "viral", and a perfect vechicle to that end. While it is a very useful and functional tool, perhaps its' use could be limited to its' initial purpose. Human interaction can contribute to the propagation of "troublesome transients". There are other ways to communicate with your friends.

Of course, if you can afford it, you should get an anti-virus program. Corporations, companies and anyone without financial restraint have such programs updated continuously as no-one can predict when (in real time) that some virus creator will decide to unleash his newest version. Previous virus definitions are of little use in protecting against future viruses. Such definitions describe the nature (how and where infection occurs) and an engine is used to scan or locate and clean the infected files. Given the reproductive properties of viruses, the amount of such infected files can be enormous and sometimes they are files with particular extensions.

Regular domestic P.C. users should probably update their definitions weekly and there are anti -virus software manufacturers that will scan your machine for free (use your search engine) but it should be remembered that the virus could already be in your machine at this stage. The program that you pay for can block them at all entry points and is the nearest thing to protection.

Definitive protection requires you to connect to nothing, insert or install nothing, network with no one, and perhaps swabbing your machine with an industrial disinfectant. However, I would consider such measures to be excessive and no way to live your productive life.

Wishing you the best of luck for the future, and may your connection with these "malicious modem and medium migrants" be in the singular, as most of us learn more diligently(not faster), through experience.

Are You A Spam Zombie?

Over the past few years you've all become familiar with the terms spam, spam filter, whitelists, blacklists and a whole myriad of other terminology associated with the problem of spam. You now have to add a new and extremely worrying phrase to that list - spam zombie.

With the net closing in around them spammers are looking for new and more inventive ways to send out their junk email. Spam filters and challenge response systems are becoming progressively more intelligent and blocking more spam each day. What was a spammer to do? The spammers took the next step - infiltrating your PC and using it as a spamming tool.

When most of you think of the word zombie you're reminded of old B movies with groaning zombies chasing the terrified actress through a castle, swamp or whatever low cost setting the movie revolved around. Spam zombies are, however, far more real and far more dangerous.

A spam zombie is when your computer is taken over by a type of virus called a Trojan. Once this Trojan virus is on your computer it sets up an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) application which allows it to begin sending email directly from your PC to tens of thousands of victims. This all happens invisibly in the background and can be difficult to detect for even the experienced computer user.

How do these Trojans get onto your computer? As in most cases they come from porn, warez or similar sites. One of the first spam zombie trojans to appear became available via a link on sites promising viewers free access to a porno webcam. One click later and the Trojan is installed on your computer ready to send out spam. Phatbot and Proxy-Guzu are two of the more common Trojans used for the purpose of turning your computer into a spam zombie.

How can you check if your computer has become a spam zombie? Make absolutely certain that both your anti-virus and firewall software have current detection signatures and have been completely patched and updated. Working online without taking these necessary security precautions is simply asking for trouble.

Internet Service Providers are under huge pressure to quarantine the IP address of any computer which has been turned into a spam zombie. This is done on the basis that the ISP risks their entire IP range being blacklisted or banned by some spam filtering services or companies.

The very least you owe yourself is to run a full virus and spyware scan on your computer today. You might be unpleasantly surprised at what you'll find lurking there.

Tips For Safer Computing Online

New computer viruses threaten the unwary user everyday. Hackers
jeopardize your online security with invasive computer techniques to
steal your passwords, personal information, even identity.

Unscrupulous marketers bait you with free software that unleashes
spyware, trojans, or worms, on your system.

While other marketers bombard you with popups at every turn. And
others send unsolicited spy emails asking you to click links to unsafe websites that install threating software on your computer, or try to download your private information.

These are only a few of the security issues involved while online.

Read through the following list to arm your computer and protect yourself against these vicious and often malicious online attacks.


1. Install a good anti-virus software.
Here's a good free anti-virus software...
Fr** AVG Anti-Virus......
New - AVG Fr** Edition is now available for all single home users
worldwide! More detailed information can be found in the AVG Free
Edition License Agreement.
Click Here To Download:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


2. Install a personal firewall.
This personal firewall is one of the best online....
http://www.zonealarm.com

3. Install a good pop up blocker.
Google has a free pop up blocker so does Yahoo. The only drawback
is you will have to download and install their toolbar.

4. Know Privacy Policy.
Read the websites privacy policy before releasing personal information.
Note do they share or sell your information with third parties. If they do you might reconsider releasing your personal information.

5. Passwords.
Never use easy to guess passwords like your favorite color, your social security number, your birthdate, words less than six characters. Mix up passwords with combinations of numbers and symbols.

6.Virus Warnings.
Don't forward virus warnings you receive in emails. It's not your
job to warn others. And you might be circulating a fake warning
designed to scare receivers into downloading trojans or removing
important files on their computer.

7. Keep It Secret.
Don't give your password to anyone. Be wary of emails asking you to give out your personal passwords for accounts online. Or emails asking you to click a link and enter your password on the site. This site might be a fake sent by hackers "phishing" for victims.

8. Primary Email Address.
Don't divulge your primary email address on unfamiliar sites. You
might be bombarded with unsolicited emails by marketers who
sell your address to third parties online.

9. Free Accounts
Set up several free email accounts with a psuedo name to handle
spam, when you register with unfamiliar sites, or to use on chat and message boards.

10. Chat Line And Message Board Warnings.
Don't release personal information on chat lines or
message boards. This is one way many identity thefts occur.