Protect your home computer from

1. Spills: Make it a rule never to eat or drink near the computer. Buy a plastic keyboard "seel" skin from Viziflex – much cheaper than a new keyboard.
2. Electrical surges: Buy a good surge protector, plug it into the grounded 3-hole wall switch, and plug into it your computer, monitor, printer, etc. Mine is a SpikeMaster with its own on/off switch, so after closing Windows and shutting down the computer, I turn off the surge protector as well, for almost complete security. If your house has wires above ground, you may need to unplug the surge protector from the wall during thunderstorms. Also, make it a rule never to plug in or unplug a peripheral while the system is on – not even a mouse.
3. Viruses: You must have protection, especially if you read files on a floppy disk that someone else gave you, or if you receive files by e-mail or download them from the Internet. Even commercial software sometimes has a virus, and big companies such as Microsoft or AOL are frequently attacked by hackers so your e-mail may be vulnerable if you use MS Outlook or AOL. Many new computers come with anti-virus software but you may need to install it yourself. You must also register it and then update it regularly, to keep it enabled for the detection of a new virus; after a while, you must pay for this privilege. Take this seriously: Computer viruses are as contagious and as deadly as human viruses – they may mess up your files, your software, or even the system BIOS itself at which point you can no longer use your computer at all. If you own no anti-virus software, buy it. Currently, the two most popular packages are McAfee VirusScan 5.0 (about $28) and Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2001: about $40 -- or for about $45 buy Norton Internet Security 2001 Personal Edition which includes both Norton AntiVirus and Norton Personal Firewall, see below. Please note that this software may interfere with the installation of some software packages -- in that case, disable it, install the new software, then re-enable the anti-virus software and run it to check your hard disk, to make sure the newly installed software is healthy.
4. Intruders: If you have a broadband connection through a cable or DSL modem, you are always connected while your computer is on, and any hacker looking for a connection can “visit” your computer to snoop around, find your password or credit card number, or put you on a SPAM list or send a virus. You need to get a “firewall.” Unless you have the new Mac OS X or the (coming) MS XP which have built-in software firewalls, decide to purchase either a software or hardware firewall. Note that your broadband provider, such as Earthlink DSL, may provide firewall software as a free download.
1. Software Firewall: Consider, e.g., Symantec’s Norton Personal Firewall 2001 (about $28), Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm 2.1 (free), or Network Ice’s BlackIce Defender, McAfee Personal Firewall, Biodata’s Sphinx PC Firewall. Each package requires careful customizing.
2. Hardware Firewall: This is recommended especially when you have more than one computer in your home, locally networked or wireless, to extend to a portable notebook computer, and to link all to a single connection to the Internet. Investigate D-Link’s DI-701 and DI-713 cards, as well as similar products made by 3Com, Kingston Technologies, Linksys, Netgear.
3. To test your firewall after installation and customization: use the site of your firewall vendor (e.g., Symantec’s www.symantec.com/securitycheck/ ) or go to www.dslreports.com/tools/ or to www.grc.com/ .