Oh Password, are you Strong?

Having a good password for an account is very important so people can not hack it. There are a lot of articles about this and what you can just by searching Google. The main thing that all sites recommend is your password should be something that you can easily remember like a phrase, and it should be badly misspelled. An example would be the phrase "Mary had a little lamb" and the password would be {"Mh@1l"}. This will make password cracking software have a hard time trying to hack it so it should safe for the most part. Another thing they recommend you do is change it often to increase your chances of being safe.

I personally do feel that although having a strong password is important, the reality is that it can still be hacked by someone dedicated enough. Like I have mentioned before with viruses, I feel password hacks that may or may not happen and if they do then it will do you no good if you don't know how to take action. Instead you should report to the people who host your account that it has been hacked and lock down any similar password accounts that may or may not be compromised. Check each account to make sure everything is okay and check all financial services to see if something has happened. Then I recommend you change your password and be more cautious with it. It can happen to anyone but how you handle such a event is most important if you want to get through it okay.

StealthKnight

Defend Your Email

We all email everyday for various reasons whether it is to sign up for a website, send things to coworkers or send personal messages. These days, however, it can be dangerous because of receiving viruses, not being able to read an important email because it was buried under spam, or even your boss snooping in your account to see what you are saying or doing. All of these are real and you need to protect your self against such threats as they can cost you your job, your computer, or losing out of something important.

There are ways to protect yourself protect your self from such threats like being careful who you talk to at work or not signing up for fishy things but they can attack that one location. It's why I suggest you have multiple email account's, preferably five. One for potential spam or fishy websites you sing up for, one for work to keep the bad boss away, one for communications between friends and family, one for your online "friends", and one for things for important stuff. This way nobody can directly attack you and the only thing they may find is a Nintendo news letter in your email. It's also important to make sure your email accounts are aliases that do not relate to each other and have false info. This is important so you don't have weirdo's coming to your house. Never give personal info away unless you can trust the source with it so do not allow any personal info to be viewable. In other words, say your are from Mexico city and your name is Hugh Heffner. Hopefully you will be more cautious about your email and protect your self better.

StealthKnight

Fighting off a bad virtual flu

The Internet can be a very dangerous place if you don't know what you are doing or if you are an explore and windows default firewall is not the most reliable. So you should get some virus protection but it cost a lot of money to spend every year if you are not sure you will get a virus and viruses change constantly. Nobody wants to have another insurance to spend so go with free ware. There are reliable open source virus protection out there that function just as good as a payed one. So stop wasting money for things that might or might not happen. Besides EVERYONE GETS A VIRUS ONE TIME OR ANOTHER.

Anti-virus:

AVG: Great virus protection. Though you do miss out on some features, you get the core features of protection and it gets updated. I recommend it. AVG

Bitdefender: Don't know much about it other then there is a free edition. Can't update however.
Bitdefender

Avira: Same as above. Avira

Comodo Firewall: free firewall. Anythings better then the windows default. Comodo

StealthKnight

Any web browser besides Internet Explorer

Everyone has probably used Internet Explorer if they have a Windows OS. However, it is not the safest thing to be using when exploring dangerous sites and it is the weak point of Windows that can bring it down. Most people do not know about Windows or have been feed lies by Microsoft themselves that Internet Explorer is the safest. All us tech geeks know is anything other then Internet Explorer is better. Your probably apprehensive about switching other to a different browser but all browser have a similar interface to Internet explorer yet they have more functions and safer.

The browsers that are listed here are different browsers with different idea's in mind. Some of them are made for special purposes, some of them are for general purposes. What ever you decide, It will be better then Internet Explorer.

General purpose:

Firefox: A great browser that is easy to use and can be modified to your own needs. You can change the theme, add plug ins like website analyzer that can tell you if the site is trustworthy or not, or a music player, or a forecast panel to see what the weather is like at home. It's the browser that I use. Firefox

IceWeasel: Same as Firefox except it does not use proprietary software. The difference between them is ethics. IceWeasel

Shiira: A web browser made to be better then Safari. No add-ons but some alternative themes available. Only for Mac. Shiira

Caminio: A Mac web browser made to blend in with the Mac interface. Can import bookmarks, cookies, and blocked site information from Firefox and it's faster then Firefox. Caminio

Opera: As web browser available for all platforms, it has been stated in research that Opera is the fastest of all web browser. Though that report was 3 years, it might still be true today. Like Firefox, it is a reliable browser that has add-ons, and themes to customize Opera to your liking. It supports mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and voice command which makes this browser very handy for those who are handicapped. Opera

SeaMonkey: This is an Internet suite that offers a web browser, email, HTML editor, basically everything you can think of. This would probably be more suitable for those who use the Internet to the fullest. SeaMonkey

Specialty browsers.

Minimo: A web browser for mobile devices. Based on Firefox. Minimo

Flock: A web browser with a lot of social capabilities. It also has plenty of add-ons and media sharing capabilities. Now you can play Internet tag with your friends. Flock

Arachne: A browser that runs on DOS. Handy if your are in a third world country or a place with no Internet connection. Arachne

Amaya: A web browser/editor that allows you to edit your websites while online at the same time. Handy to see the changes happen before your eyes. Only recommended for those who run or actively work on the web. Amaya

SuperBot: A web browser that saves websites and pages from the Internet and allows you to view those sites as they are at the moment you saved them. Handy if you are at places without Internet connections. Cost a one time payment that is less then 50 dollars. There is a free trial with minimum features though. SuperBot

Buddy Browser: To be more precise, it is at the core a search engine database with a ton of family friendly websites and features. This is great for the young kids but make sure it is hard for them to access the your default browser. I recommend you make a account for your kid and make it kid friendly for your younger children. Buddy Browser

3B: A 3d web browser. Imagine a 3d room with pictures that look like web pages. You click on it an enter the normal 2d web page. The point of it is to have communities be able to interact with one another on different web sites. You can even make your own 3d web space of all of your favorites and allow people to view them if you want. It does however take a lot to run it so view the requirements carefully before downloading it. 3D browser


StealthKnight