Firewalls and Antiviruses a must

With the way the Internet is, you really don’t know at times what you will get yourself into when visiting a web site. In 2004, I was discussing a real problem with a friend of mine who was searching on the Internet and was going from one site to another and the last site he visited, automatically sent him to another web site that downloaded software to his hard drive without his permission and in the process used his PC to download files all the time whenever he was connected to the Internet. He tried everything he could think of to delete this stuff — System Restore, delete files, you name it. He admitted not having his Anti Virus running at the time which was why his PC was not protected. I’m not even sure his firewall was on either. I was on the phone for a few hours trying to help him get through this and even with my experience, I only got him part of the way out of this. I think he ended up having his whole hard drive dumped and reformatted if I remember correctly. The moral of the story, is, “don’t have a protected PC, expect problems”.

I have Anti Virus software, Firewall, & Spyware protection on my PC. All I can ask is “what is next?”

My first computer

In 1985, I purchased my very first computer, it was a Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack. For what it was, it was a good PC at that time. By todays standards, you would be greatly disadvantage. One thing I do remember is that I hardly ever had any problems or trouble with it. It was a PC with 5 1/4 floppy disk drives. It also had a 20 megabyte hard drive. Wow, and I thought I had a cool system at that time. he he he. Well, while my computer today seems like it’s far ahead by leaps and bounds from that Tandy computer, it’s not perfect. But, it gets the job done. Recently, I realized, wow, my computer is now 5 years old. Yikes, I may have to upgrade soon. So far, getting on the net, installing programs, and doing all the things I need to do can still be done with no disadvantage. The question is, how long can I go until I have to upgrade???

I’ve considered getting a laptop to replace my PC. They have been coming down in price, thus making it more affordable to buy. Well time will tell. Upgrade or buy, that is the question.

Buying a new computer?

When I bought my XP Home Edition PC by Dell in August of 2002, I got all my software disks with my computer when it arrived at the house. I special ordered my PC direct from Dell. After getting a new PC for my wife, we discovered that companies are starting to have all the software in the computer, thus making the user create backup disks of the software. So, if you are used to having those nice and convenient disks with your PC, well that is probably a thing of the past. Guess, it’s getting too costly for the companies to provide that convenience. I should also mention that when you create those backups, you usually are only allowed one copy. So, if you have any problems along the way, well, that’s the way it goes. I can’t guarantee that my wife’s backup is any good, I had a little trouble with it.

What ever happened to the days that the Customer always came first. Sure, the companies will continue to say that, but, it’s like it is changing as time goes on.