Last Post

Well at long last this is my last blogg on this subject. I hope that I have taken everything in and remember at least some of it. Some of the subjects that I did not know about have proved valuable to learn and to know but I might never use them again. I already knew quite a lot about safety but with this course I have learned a bit more. (I hope). The internt is a great place to go when you need something or a bit of information but it can also be quite a scary place if you don't watch what you are doing. Bye for now.

Spam ( not the edible version).

As with all the rest of this course we have been looking at Internet abuse. This week we studied SPAM and what it is,how to stop or control it and how to delete it. Many email clients have a down loadable spam filter and can be used to control any spam that is sent to your email address. Spam is a waste of space and although it is virtually impossible to stop, using a filter can really cut down the amount of spam that comes your way. You can regulate and block senders and you can hold the mail in a folder where you can view it if you wish. By using a spam filter you can cut down the amount of unsolicited mail that comes your way via your email address.

Legal Music (Free) Dowloads

Just back from Oz and am knackered. Today we looked at the difficulties in finding 'Legal Free Music Downloads'. When looking for music to download there are thousands of sites offering the means for you to download what you want. It may not cost you a penny but this is where hte 'Legal' part comes into it. You might download music free on the internet for years and never encounter any difficulties but then you might download one peice of music and find yourself prosecuted because it was not legal for you to download it free. It was found to be extremely difficult to find any site that told you that it was Legally Free to download anything. It seems to come down to either taking the chance and downloading what you want or going to a Pay for Download site such as ITUNES and buying your music.

Proxy Servers and Content filtering

Today we talked about Proxy Servers and their uses. Most home computers will not have a proxy server due the cost factor. When using a proxy server the initial user may have to wait a few moments until the server finds the requested page and uploads it to the computer that has made the request. It will then put a copy of the page into it's memory and all subsequent requests for that page will load much quicker due to it being in the memory.

There are many different types of proxy's and the cost of having one run can be prohibitive.

We also talked about Content Filters and their uses.
Content filtering is the technique whereby content is blocked or allowed based on analysis of its content, rather than its source or other criteria. It is most widely used on the Internet to filter email and web access. When surfing the Web a content filter can be employed to filter out any information deemed unsuitable for the people using the computers.

Firewalls

Today we looked at 2 types of firewall. We looked at Comodo Firewall and Windows own firewall. I have a bit more understanding in the operation of a firewall and will when time allows have a go at a project I thought of. Opening and closing ports are also a good thing to know about if you wish to download something at a much faster pace. By opening and closing ports we can allow faster access or we can restrict access. We also found out that if we create a Virtual PC in our main one, we can run various different types of programmes without interfering with our main PC. (Does that make sense?). I will have a try at creating a Virtual PC when I get the time and see what else I can do.

Another Day and Firewall systems

Continued with our studying of Internet Safety and completed Assessment1 and Assessment 2. Both passes which I have attained 96% for assessment 1 and 84% for assessment 2. This shows that I have still some little way to go until I can be certain that I am proficient enough to say that I am 100% sure of Internet Safety. On a personal scale I know that I am doing all that I can to ensure (I hope) that I am safe and secure when surfing. The class has started to look at Firewalls and this will be our study next week. Again here there seems to be a large amount of information that I personally don't know and I am looking forwards to learning it all. It will be interesting to see and find out what a firewall actually does and what can be done to keep it up to date and secure.

Phishing/Antivirus Software.

Covered Phishing and it's hazards today and I have encountered it with one of my accounts. I have a bit of knowledge where this is concerned (not much) and I know first hand what it can do. It is worthwhile checking up on any type of suspicious emails before following their suggestions. We carried out a mock test on Internet safety and again it was quite interesting. It tested us on Viruses and spyware, also on copyright and various other things. we also did a comparison on a couple of Antivirus Software's that are available to download. We looked at AVG which is available at WWW.Grisoft.com and also looked at Avast which is available for download at WWW.Avast.com. It is quite hard to do a comparison of this type due to the fact that we cannot see it actually work without it coming into contact with a virus. The only way we can check them out is to see what others think about them and to look for feedback from different users. This has been a more interesting week and I think there is still more to come. See you next week (if you are there).

Internet Safety

More about internet safety today and I have been experiencing it myself at home. I have been told to use Hotmanpro2 and this worked. I found 124 different spyware and adware items which I didn't know I had on my PC. Why people send these things I do not know because it puts me off whatever they are trying to sell. My PC should be spyware free now as I have it running all the time, but touch wood, I will keep an eye on it. Spyware can really slow down or interfere with your PC on the internet and it can be very off putting. Keeping your virus checker running and up to date is a real must and after seeing the different types of viruses that there are running I am glad that I am (Hopefully) protected. Back next week and I hope still virus and spyware free.

Spyware and Adware

Back again with some input on what I have tried to take in today. It can be frightening when you see how easy it can be for people to maliciously interfere with your computer if you give them the chance. It makes you more inclined to be very safety concious when you log onto the internet. Spammers can also be quite annoying and thankfully I do not seem to be targeted by them yet. The various ways that your use of the internet can give others access to your computer is frightening and it makes us all the more safety concious. I know that sometimes running my anti virus software can seem to slow me down but after learning what I have it makes sense to run these programs. I'm off now but will be back next week (I hope!).

Malware

Week 2 and even more studying about Internet Safety. Doing research on Spyware and adware and it can get quite interesting when you go into it in depth. It is obvious that there will always be a market for some form of advertising and this definitely seems to be the easiest for many firms to use. I can see how your computer system can start to clog up with all the rubbish that can be accumulated when using the internet without being safety concious.

Hello boys I'm back

Hi,
During this session we have had to look at some of the virus's that can affect our computers if we are not security concious enough. It can be quite scary when you see what they can do and it makes you wonder why people do these things. We have only covered a small part of this section and it is interesting to see the many different types of virus that there are. It would not be interesting ,let me hasten to add, to be subjected to having to deal with an infected computer. We have looked at Worm viruses, boot sector viruses and a couple more. If this part of the course doesn't make everyone more security concious then nothing will. Running anti -virus software I think is definitely a must and keeping it updated is another must do. I will eventually(I hope) get round to posting a picture (Gasp) on this blog but I am not promising anything. I will attempt to get back and do some more posting if and when I am able.
So until then,
Bye
George

First post

Hi,
This being my first attempt at posting a blog I don't expect it to create a stir in the blogging community. I am at present doing a NQ course with Forthvalley College Falkirk in Business Computing. I will try to keep this up to date but I cannot promise anyone that I will be able to. I will be coming back to this later on today to update it but feel free to comment on my attempt.

George