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| | SURVIVAL! |
 | SURVIVAL! | |
DANGEROUS CREATURESDangerous viruses, worms, and other evil creatures lurk on Island Internet. It is important to understand how to identify them, how to protect against them, and how to avoid them. EMAIL * SPAM FLIES * MAKE EMAIL LESS ATTRACTIVE TO PREDATORS * MAKE YOUR COMPUTER SAFE FROM VIRUSES * PROTECTING AGAINST VIRUSES * GUARD DOGS * SCRUMPTIOUS FILES CREATURES LIKE * HOAXES, URBAN LEGENDS, and other MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES * PERSONAL FIREWALLS * WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING * FRAME MONSTERS * SCAVENGERWARE * GUINEA PIG SOFTWARE
Since you are there all alone on the Internet, of course your computer is the easiest way to communicate. Email is not only popular but it is also the most dangerous area. Spam is an annoying factor on the Island. Spam is email advertising. It doesn't often hurt you, (unless you foolishly order a product) so it is rather like an attack by pesky flies.... Shoo one bunch away but others will arrive. Once your email address is obtained by spammers (those who send out spam) your email address may be sold over and over again to other mailing lists. |
There are a few ways to fight spam, but most are like swatting at flies. Most aren't very effective. a. The best way to avoid Spam Flies is to guard your email address carefully and keep it as secret as possible. Be careful where you type in your email address online and who you give it to. Many internet sites ask you to "register" to look at their website, for prizes, newsletters, or free software, then they sell your email address. It comes in handy to have a second email address for those places. Free email addresses are available from places like hotmail.com. Using this second email address for places that might not be perfectly legitimate might save a little annoyance. b. When you receive spam, do NOT write back and demand to be taken off their list. I know there is often a little box that you can reply to that promises to remove your name from their list. But, hey!! once you respond they know that your email address is real. They may, possibly, really honor their promise to remove you from their mailing list, but what is to stop them from selling your email address to another list? c. "Block sender" is a function in most email programs and even at hotmail.com. Some Spam Creatures send the same junk over and over again. Blocking a particularly obnoxious sender might help for awhile. The problem is that professional spammers usually mutate and change their email addresses quickly, (before they get booted off their ISP), so you may block one email address, but the same message may arrive from other sources, over and over again. d. Outlook Express has a function under TOOLS called "Create rule from message". If you keep getting messages with the subject line, " Buy Viagra Now" you can configure your email program to delete messages with the subject line, " Buy Viagra Now" or any other subject, automatically. Again, Spam Flies often mutate and change their subject line, so it isn't the greatest solution. e. Since this was originally written one of the email addresses used by solsticepoint.com was placed on a CD and SOLD to spammers. We receive a never ending pile of junk mail. So, since that particular email address was much loved, we installed MailWasher. It allows a preview of email and the bad stuff doesn't get downloaded to the PC. It is hooked into some lists of known offenders as well. Know thee that just downloading some email can let the sender know you are really there. This program hasn't stopped the flow of garbage, but it has saved this computer from some dangerous email. f. Most Newsgroups have suggestions for posting on their lists so you don't get "hit" by spammers. You will see participants using email addresses such as Joe@no.spam.com. Then they may write their real address within the letter they post. This avoids web robots that search the internet for email addresses. Web robots also search web sites for email addresses, so if you have to put up a "home page" remember that cute link with your email link can be seen by automated search programs and you will attract Spam Flies. g. Here are some links: stopspam, spam.abuse, cauce, combat mail-abuse if you want to combat spam. h. If you have a website it might be wise to camouflage your email address using a script or other device so internet robots do not "harvest" your email address right off the page. i. When you visit websites make sure you are in a "safe zone" as some sites actually collect your email address if they can. Have you ever noticed that after you visited a certain site, that a few hours later you received email about the very subject that website was promoting? h. In the spirit of humor, Laze.net reminds us that for all the annoyance of receiving and deleting spam, there is a funny side. Anyway... Who in the world would buy anything from people who can't spell, have never heard of target marketing and don't even use a real email address like a legitimate business? There is legitimate email advertising from honest businesses. However, unsolicited commercial email of any type is usually considered impolite on the Island and smart people just ignore it. If hosted with OUR Web Hosting Service, your site will be removed for sending SPAM. (Just in case you thought of opening up a shop here and buying a list of 200,000 email addresses. Don't waste your money.) MAKE EMAIL LESS ATTRACTIVE TO PREDATORS Set your email to Plain Text Only Yes, Virginia, HTML email can be scripted with dangerous scripts that can cause damage to your computer. Pretty
stationery with roses and ivy crawling up the side might look pretty, but other
people may think the resulting attachment is a virus and delete your epistle. MAKE YOUR COMPUTER SAFE FROM VIRUSES It is wise to make your computer less vulnerable to malicious viruses and worms. Because you may not always recognize these dangerous creatures, allow your computer to alert you by setting your computer to safer modes. Hopefully, you read the first page of Solstice Point's survival tips, Care of Your Computer, and installed windows critical updates. Here's a link to a concise page on how to change your settings and protect your computer in other ways. Security Issues ATTACHMENTS Sure, attachments are real handy. Friends can send documents, pictures, programs and other goodies. Most viruses and worms arrive by way of an email attachment. This brings us to Internet Island Myth 1 circulated over and over again: "Don't open attachments unless they come from someone you know." This is a MYTH and VERY poor advice. First of all, there are some viruses that send email to every address (or certain addresses) in a person's email address book. In this case, you will only receive that particular virus from people you know!! One virus even went further and
wrote a line into the body of the email that said something along the lines:
"here is something I thought
you would enjoy," a deliberate attempt by the virus creator to get you to open
an infected email attachment from someone YOU knew! One other virus sent
replies to
email that had not been replied to, so it looked legitimate. If you are going to visit this Island, then get a Guard Dog. |
 GUARD DOGSGuard Dogs are Virus Protection programs that sniff out, alert, and kill nasty creatures, viruses, and worms. There are many Virus Protection Programs (VPP) available. One may have come
pre-installed on your computer. Names such as Norton, McAfee.com, Inc., None of these programs do a bit of good unless they are CONFIGURED to run every time you start up your computer and programmed to check your system, your floppy drive, and your email. These programs need to be configured to "clean" as well as detect
viruses. A Virus Protection Program (VPP) MUST be configured to "run in the
background" while you are on the Internet, while you open other programs from
the hard drive (that you downloaded) or from the floppy drive (something that
perhaps a friend sent you? see Myth 1 above).
If you've read this far then you deserve to have at least a few links to reliable software. The free online Virus Scan we offer here is easy to use, but remember, every
time you wish to scan your computer you will need to get online and remember to
run it. My-Etrust has an inexpensive and effective Virus Protection Program for the Home User. These are the same folks (Computer Associates) who created InoculateIT and they don't pay this site to advertise their products. Oddly enough we noticed that this company seemed to have updates for new viruses faster than the big name competitors, which is a BIG plus as far as we are concerned. | McAfee.com, Inc
FREE ONLINE VIRUS SCAN |
MYTH 2 states that only files ending in .EXE (for executable) can cause a problem or spread a virus. Wrong. Files for word processors (files ending in .doc or .rtf, for instance) can
carry something called a "macro" that may perform strange antics when a certain
key
is pressed while running your word processing program. A Virus Protection Program MUST be updated regularly and must scan ALL files. New viruses appear every week. If your Virus Protection Program does not UPDATE, either get a different program or pay for the updates. Most VPP's have a setting you can configure to download automatic updates periodically. |
Don't believe everything you read. In the tradition of the Easter Bunny and Big Bad Wolf, hoaxes often come under the guise of helpful alerts, stories and messages passed on by well-meaning friends. It is almost a rite of passage of the Internet to be suckered in by these chain-letter-emails and be tempted to pass them on. Some Hoaxes start out by stating: "Do not open or read email that has a subject line of Love Letter (or some other subject) or your hard drive will crash." One hoax said that if someorother file was on your computer delete it immediately. The problem was that someorother file was a standard operating file in the Windows System and many people DID delete it without question. In this particular instance, someorother file wasn't an important file and did little harm by being deleted, (and was easily replaced) but this story bears telling because it points out how important it is to VERIFY information on the Internet Island you now reside on. It isn't that people LIE, it is more that they perpetuate MYTHS and pass on rumors as though they were truth. Another type of hoax may do corporate or financial damage by spreading false rumors such as certain bananas carry a deadly disease or a popular carpet cleaner kills pets. A certain charity was bombarded by a flood of emails caused by a hoax. Pranks can be expensive and time consuming for the victim. Say after me, three times, and memorize this creed, "I will VERIFY the facts concerning all information read in email before passing it on." Best place to verify the existence of real viruses or hoaxes is on Internet
sites that specialize in Virus Protection programs. Notice that there is a HOAX
link
above? Please use it. Or the hoax list at ANY reputable Virus Protection
Software site. Just search for a keyword in the email you have received. |
| PERSONAL FIREWALLS Blocking Hacker Creatures, Spiders and Bots
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| These are programs that are set up on your computer to thwart hackers, spiders and bots that look for unsuspecting individuals connected to the Internet whose computer can be accessed or used in some way. Nasty. Your system, depending on how it is configured, can be used by spammers to send email, by hackers to transmit illegal programs, and by thieves who want to break in and steal programs and information. Zone Alarm does a nice job of stopping entries from outside. If set up properly it actually hides you from the bad guys, and you may be surprised to see how many bots, spiders and sneaky natives are trying to break into your private space. There are other Personal Firewalls available. This one can be set to quarantine any suspicious email attachment so you don't even think about opening it. (however, if a friend sends a link to a website via attachment by using the function in MSIE, instead of copying and pasting it into the email by hand, this program assumes that you have been sent an .EXE file and so the attachment is quarantined. Just warning you not to terrify your friends who send attached link files). You can get a very good limited version FREE or purchase a full version with added goodies. NOTE: The Free Version is no longer as full of extras as it once was, as the latest update had fewer email attachments checked. If you don't think you need a personal firewall, think again. Better yet, visit this site, GRC.COM and run the two buttons that say TEST MY SHIELDS and PROBE MY PORTS. You may be in for a surprise. |
| WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING Nasty creatures in disguise |  |
Thse are mistakenly called "dangerous" and they are only nasty if YOU have a
website and someone else links to your site and uses YOUR information. The
culprit isn't actually passing it off as his or her own, but the visitor can't
always find the way to your main page or your URL (the net address, such as
http://www.solsticepoint.com) and if said visitor tries to save the page in his
Favorites
folder, he gets the linker's page saved, not the one wanted.
This is my personal name for scavenging software that either sends back information to big corporations..(in essence it spies on you)..or alters your web surfing experience. If you install and run the Zone Alarm Personal Firewall mentioned above you may catch factory preinstalled software sending info back to the company that built your computer. BackWeb is one of those software packages. It phones home if you allow it. Others exist. Do you really care if Hewlett Packard knows you dial up the web 6 times a day? Is this really harmful to your well being?
Some people maintain a second computer that they deliberately never connect to the internet. This is where they store sensitive information. This is not a bad idea. But, for most of the residents of Island Internet who don't have the luxury of owning extra computers, awareness of the real dangers is probably adequate to prevent access to private files. Think about it--- what is to prevent BackWeb or some other similar program installed by the manufacturer of a computer or software YOU paid forfrom phoning home something less innocent than how often we dial up? Be watchful. The unseen guy behind the cart, offering the carrot, usually makes the money at your expense. There is some FREE software that is exactly that, with no strings attached, but then there is free ScavengerWare that does some bad things to your browser. Some attracts SPAM, some loads ads, some alters what you see. Some just simply messes up other programs because it isn't written well. Surprised?? You shouldn't be. You might see something FREE on the Island of the Internet that looks cute, or
useful, or hear about something from a friend (remember friends can sometimes
pass on misinformation innocently) and decide to try it. SCUMWARE website checks your computer for the presence of two of the worst offenders who provide software that alters the contents of web sites without the owner's permission. SCAMWARE is another website that fights the good fight against what we at SolsticePoint call SCAVENGERWARE. You may even wish to visit THIEFWARE and educate yourself about the numerous programs that arrive on your computer under the guise of a free and handy tool, only to steal information and a website owner's hard work. These sites can explain the problem in detail and update the information to reflect the latest ploys. (Just a note...one of the links listed on one of the sites above was whirlywiryweb. The reason that website is NOT listed here is that the Zone Alarm Personal Firewall installed on this computer recorded a probe of its ports during a visit. In other words, there is a script on that site that tries to access the visitor's computer. Maybe it was completely innocent. You have been warned.) It is a public service to warn all members of the Internet community about the facts. (I downloaded something called "skins" to beautify my MSIE browser once, and since I disabled its ability to send info back to the skins site, I thought I could enjoy the pretty graphics on my browser without annoyance. However, I began to be bombarded by pop-up ad windows at certain sites. These guys know the meaning of a target market . Comet Cursor is another pretty thing that phones home. Top Text and Gator are two other programs listed as ScavengerWare for different reasons. ) If you are worried you have already downloaded SPYWARE (natives have many names for this junk, don't they?) download a free copy of Ad Aware and clean up your computer. Sadly, it removed all my pretty skins, but all the sneaky stuff free downloads placed on my system went bye bye as well. ....it is a far, far better thing to have a plain browser than be spied upon and have pop up ads. There is no way to really know if free software or programs on the Internet will conflict with one of your other programs or damage your computer. Almost all software carries a disclaimer against liability in the event of a malfunction. If a downloadable program says it is a BETA copy this means that it is a test version. If you aren't prepared to have problems or issues, or do not have the ability to restore your computer, then don't try these. It is wise to stick with commercial programs and software from known companies. Other scripts and software on the Internet may be home grown and unreliable. If unsure, check sites such as NoNags, Tucows, or ZDnet for ratings on new software before downloading or purchasing. |
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Graphics from public domain or from free
to use collections. Thanks Microsoft! |
| SOLSTICE POINT. COM SURVIVAL DOMAIN HOSTING |
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SCAVENGERWARE
