At the time of writing it is apparently the hottest day of the year outside and personally I wouldn’t mind going down the beach for a little while since I’m having a fairly quiet day. This article therefore will be taken up mainly by an interesting letter that was sent [...]]]>

At the time of writing it is apparently the hottest day of the year outside and personally I wouldn’t mind going down the beach for a little while since I’m having a fairly quiet day. This article therefore will be taken up mainly by an interesting letter that was sent to me which touches on a number of subjects that I have discussed recently.

Today I notice that after quite rightly plugging Spybot and AVG in previous weeks, you are now writing about Kazaa. Quite apart from the ethics of giving this piracy site free publicity, are you aware that Kazaa has a reputation for generating more viruses etc than probably any other site?

I can’t remember if you’ve already done it, but the least you should do now, is to remind your readers to install a personal firewall, particularly if they are on broadband and hence “always on”. My particular favourite (if you’re interested) is Zone Alarm available free on various magazine CDs but readers of your column will no doubt soon find out that the Pro version complete with registration key can be downloaded for free from Kazaa although I myself of course would never dream of doing such a thing.

Interestingly the BBC website has an article today about prosecution of file sharers, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3022170.stm

Thanks for the help you gave me some months back on setting up Mals e commerce. I am using it very successfully on my website www.hometreasures.co.uk for accepting Credit Card details from customers in Europe & USA as well as the UK.

Once again, best wishes for the column, it can’t be easy finding the time to write on fresh subjects each week and you might notice I have ordered some more cartridges from you as I am more then happy with the products and your service.

Tony Hare, Torquay

Many thanks for your letter and kind words Tony and let me respond to the points you raised one by one:

For those of you not in the know, a firewall is a piece of software which prevents unauthorised access to your computer when you are on the Internet. I have touched in the past on the free firewall software that you mention, Zone Alarm (www.zonelabs.com) although personally I am not a big fan of home users having firewalls unless they are continuously using Broadband as more problems seem to be created than solved and of course there is the obligatorily customer that I encounter every couple of months who has three installed simultaneously; being precautious or paranoid – I’ll let you decide. Certainly check out the site as at the end of the day it is free but Windows XP users please remember that there is a free firewall built into Windows XP which can be activated from your dial up connection properties.

Unfortunately I do not see your point however Tony when you state that since downloading files of Kazaa makes you more prone to receiving viruses you should install firewall software as surely in such an instance you would need a good anti-virus scanner, not a firewall. Also, I’ve read through the BBC article that you quote and ignoring the fact that the law only applies to US citizens, even if it was current UK legislation then I think that the chance of the average home user being prosecuted would be very, very slim indeed. I’m not condoning piracy, just discussing current trends and opinions in the computing world.

Mals E-commerce is a tool that I have a great deal of experience in and that would be invaluable for local small businesses wanting to start their own online store on the Internet as it allows you to take secure credit card transactions online for free but is it too niche for my general readership? Please, let me know.

This week we’ll be discussion Firewall software after I recently received this letter from one of my readers from the Midlands.

You talked in one of your articles about Anti Virus software, and mentioned in particular the free product from Grisoft called AVG. Can you recommend a free [...]]]>

This week we’ll be discussion Firewall software after I recently received this letter from one of my readers from the Midlands.

You talked in one of your articles about Anti Virus software, and mentioned in particular the free product from Grisoft called AVG. Can you recommend a free Firewall product? Just for your information, my dad thinks so highly of your articles that he regularly sends them to me here in Hereford!

Mike Coleman, via E-mail.

For those of you who are not entirely sure what a firewall is, let me just briefly explain. When you’re connected to the Internet you essentially become a part of this worldwide network, which also has millions of others connected to it at any one time. The majority of these people using these computers will go about their own business quite happily but there are also those connected who have their own hidden agenda and who may try to invade your privacy or damage your machine. By using a number of different software tools, these people may try to fine your computer on the Internet and then exploit security weaknesses found in many operating systems or view information stored on your computer by the way of a Trojan Horse program that you may have inadvertently installed from an infected files downloaded off of the Internet.

If you are unaware as to what a Trojan Horse program is then think of the Greek legend which tells of how the Greeks won the Trojan War by hiding in a wooden horse in order to get into the heavily fortified city of Troy – You install the Trojan Horse from a mundane file such as an infected screensaver and this program in turn gives a hacker on the Internet access to your computer. The Trojan horse may give him the ability to remote control your machine, damage it or steal passwords and credit card details which you may have stored on your hard drive.

A Firewall basically sits between your computer and the Internet and tries to keep all hackers out of your machine by only letting the data in and out that it feels should be allowed, whilst ideally making your machine invisible to everybody else on the Internet. I won’t go into details of how the firewall software achieves this, as it isn’t important, although as requested I will tell you of a number of free software packages that will do this job. On the following sites, you may have to have a look around for a little while as the companies quoted also produce paid for versions, which offer extra support and features, and so they are obviously going to try and flog these versions first whilst making the free ones harder to find. The addresses you need are those of OutPost Firewall (www.agnitum.com), Zone Alarm (www.zonelabs.com) and Kerio (www.kerio.com), and although I haven’t comprehensively tested out these packages they all seem to include the features that any small business or home user is likely to need.

Once your Firewall is up and running head along to www.symantec.com and click on ‘Symantec Security Check for Home Users’ and then on ‘Scan for Security Risks’ which will make the website emulate a hacker trying to break into your computer so you know if you’re secure or not.

Windows XP users should also bear in mind that a simple but effective Firewall comes included with their Operating System and that this should be sufficient for most users – Simply go to your connection properties to check that this has been turned on.

I’ll finish by saying that sometimes precaution verges on the side of paranoia – If you use the Internet for just a couple of hours a week and have a low speed connection then I personally believe that a firewall isn’t actually necessary; I’ve seen examples of people who don’t even have their computer connected to their Internet EVER with Firewall software installed. Firewall software can sometimes have undesired effects as it may block legitimate items that you are trying to view from entering your computer and they obviously take up a small amount of system resources as it will always be running in the background; Assess your need for the product before installing.

Finally, always keep Windows up to date by running a Windows Update every couple of weeks and installing the latest critical updates that are released as these often correct security vulnerabilities recently found in the Operating System or its components. I would say that for the majority of home users, running Windows Update and having an up to date Anti-Virus package (such as the free AVG) installed should be enough.

]]> http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/free-firewall-software/feed/ 0 http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/online-auctioning/ http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/online-auctioning/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2001 14:05:38 +0000 admin http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/?p=78

I remember back when Click was making it’s first steps in the Herald around 3 months ago that I covered the subject of safe shopping on the Internet using sites such as www.lastminute.com that employed high amounts of encryption to keep your credit card details safe from prying eyes.

I remember back when Click was making it’s first steps in the Herald around 3 months ago that I covered the subject of safe shopping on the Internet using sites such as www.lastminute.com that employed high amounts of encryption to keep your credit card details safe from prying eyes.

Hopefully many readers took on the message that all essentially 100% secure and discovered that Internet shopping was indeed a safe and sensible way to buy certain items.

This week we will explore a more adventurous way to shop online, rather than using huge online superstores you might be more tempted now to try your hand at something a little different, for example an online auction centre.

Initially, your ideas of buying online from private buyers who could be working from anywhere in the world might be quite negative, after all, what would happen if the buyer took your money and never shipped you the goods? Who would be responsible for chasing them up? Luckily, many of the larger auction sites such as eBay (www.ebay.co.uk) have ways of ensuring that your experience auctioning online should be as trouble free as possible of which I will explain this week.

First off, all people who bid or sell on this system have to register with eBay. Registration includes giving such details as telephone number, address and a permanent e-mail address (i.e. NOT Hotmail). It is important to bear in mind that all bids are legally binding, much as you would expect to find in any auction house either off or on-line – if you win the bid, you can’t back out of it, therefore you would be wise to ensure that your children do not have access to this service. Once you are registered, your profile is continually stored and updated, allowing buyers and sellers to see how reliable you have been in the past. If you are selling a number of items, for example, the buyer may wish to check your profile to make sure that previous buyers haven’t experienced any problems with you and, likewise, if you are selling, you might want to check that the person who is proposing buying off you hasn’t been troublesome in the past.

Now that we’ve got the basics of the system sorted out it’s time for us to look for something online. To start, point your Internet browser towards www.ebay.co.uk and before too long, the front page should load up, presenting a choice to either search for items by a specific keyword, or look by category. For a trail run, click on the category Jewellery and you will find that a new page pops up separating this category into various sub-categories – Gemstones, watches, beads etc. If you choose one of these sub-categories then you will be able to view all items that are currently for sale in the area that you specified, with their respective prices and the bid end date. Clicking on any item you are interested in brings up a more detailed description, as well as links so you can view the profile of the seller, the bid history and at the end of the page there is a box for you to make your own bid (requires you to register with the service). Assuming you win the auction, you would e-mail the seller giving your name and address and he would write back to you by giving you his, you could then pay by whatever the agreed payment method was; cheque, cash or credit card.

At the end of the day, Internet auctioning allows anybody to gain potentially difficult to find items at the cheapest possible prices. Further positive aspects of eBay include free insurance for all purchases up to the value of £120, therefore if you are led in to buying a faulty or mis-advertised product or the seller never sends you the item purchased then you are covered up to this amount at no extra cost.

This, in a nutshell is the basis for browsing for an item online, by all means have a look around their site with this article in front of you for guidance, but remember to bid wisely; as I said above, any bid you do make is legally binding.

Once again I find myself answering the many issues that readers have regarding Internet security, or more accurately the apparent lack of it. To recap, so far we have covered the topics of children accessing inappropriate material over the Internet and the possibility of virus infection though the means of [...]]]>

Once again I find myself answering the many issues that readers have regarding Internet security, or more accurately the apparent lack of it. To recap, so far we have covered the topics of children accessing inappropriate material over the Internet and the possibility of virus infection though the means of file downloads and e-mail attachments. This week we will be looking at the questions surrounding using your credit or debit card to order goods and services online.

When you consider the fact that there are an estimated 350 million people on the Internet all able to order goods by credit card it makes you wonder how we can be sure that the credit card number that we send will reach the right person at the end of the line and also, even if it does reach the person intended, will they deliver the goods?

The former part of this concern is the easiest to address, all transactions you conduct over the Internet should be encrypted as therefore no one can view them asides from yourself and the other party you are dealing with. To check to see if the site you are ordering from is encrypted, look in the bottom right hand corner of your browser and you should see either a small key or padlock icon if the page is encrypted. If you don’t see this icon then I would be tempted to avoid ordering from that particular site because although the chance is remote, somebody may be able to grab your credit card details in transit.

Without going into great detail, when active, the encryption technology used in today’s browsers is extremely secure and the possibility of anybody cracking the code is so remote that it isn’t worth considering in a practical environment, having said that, some of the older encryption technology is fairly simple to crack and so it is best to ensure that you always have the most up to date encryption available for your Internet browser. This is done by checking the site relevant to the program that you use, most probably either Netscape Navigator (www.netscape.com) or Internet Explorer (www.microsoft.com/ie)

The other side of the argument, will the recipient of your credit card information actually deliver the goods is the most tricky one to answer. The turnover of Internet based companies coming and going tends to be very high, especially in the present day of dot-com failures and there is a limited amount that you can do to recall your money if the company you order off is to be liquidated. One thing that you can do to protect yourself is to pay by credit card rather than debit card and so any money that may be taken off your card before the company liquidates could possibly be compensated by the issuing bank in a number of circumstances.

Even though we’ve established that fundamentally ordering over the Internet is safe, what actually are the advantages of buying online as opposed to ordering over the phone or going to a shop? Obviously the answer to this question varies from company to company, but a great many companies provide a number of additional services to online customers, for example free delivery, current stock level checking and extremely good order tracking information.

In addition, when buying specialist material such as music CD’s, it is often possible to listen to a sample of the album you are about to buy or follow a link so that you can read a review from an independent site. Certain items also have pictures or 3D models of the product that you can view, in the case of clothing for example. Buying holidays online is another good use of the Internet over the traditional travel agent; you can check ferry, train and flight times for either the home trip or when you arrive at your destination. All this can be done for the price of a local call or alternatively book a holiday at the last minute to make a possible saving of hundreds; a popular site for late bookings is lastminute.com (www.lastminute.com).

The main deciding factor however is the sheer convenience of shopping online; you don’t have to worry about parking, doing your hair or the weather outside, there is no salesman and no queues and so when you browse an Internet shopping area you are completely free to browse at your leisure and when you are ready to buy you simply checkout and log off. Your goods will arrive a couple of days later, the only inconvenience comes if the courier happens to damage the product which results in a trip to the post office to return said item.

At the end of the day, as illustrated above shopping online is secure, fast, easy and as long as a couple of guidelines are followed you should have no problems. Whether you have the know how to place an order online or are still not convinced by the technology that is available to protect you is a matter of personal ability and viewpoint.

Whatever your views, the ability to order products online is a revolution that started in the 1990’s and I firmly believe that over the forthcoming years it will continue to improve and make our shopping experience easier and therefore it is a technology that I urge you to investigate and learn how to use for any of those rainy days ahead.